Chapter 770 – Blanket-style Search
The three intel heads felt ashamed when Baiqi looked at them like that.
The 200 thousand Alliance Army troops of the Yanhuang Alliance were like ghosts, disappearing in the Yunnan Mountains. No matter how they searched, they could not find a single clue.
If they had not confirmed that the Alliance Army had teleported to Yunnan, they would have suspected it was fake news.
Yanhuang Alliance had done an extremely good job of keeping their movements secret. Difeng, Chun Xiao, War Song, and their other intel organizations all showed Black Snake Guards level counter-intelligence.
When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could not understand it, “200 thousand troops should definitely have some grain consumption, right? You did not manage to find any relevant intel from this?”
Shen Buhai shook his head, “With all the intel organizations staring at them, the Lords of Yunnan City-State would not dare to make any large-scale movements of grain. I suspect that the City-State prepared the grain before the Alliance Army had arrived.”
They truly were careful.
From the lesson of Lingnan City-State, Yanhuang Alliance had become even more careful this time, and they had considered all possibilities. Even within Yunnan City-State, there were few who knew where the Alliance Army went.
Ouyang Shuo nodded before looking at Baiqi, “Then we will send the Flying Squad to engage in a blanket-style search in the mountains.” Ouyang Shuo was ready to use his killing strike.
Only Ouyang Shuo could command the Flying Squad. After the Battle of Guiping Pass, they had returned to the Shanhai City air force base to resupply.
Ouyang Shuo did not believe that the enemy would be able to avoid the scouting of the ‘air force’.
“That’s great.” Baiqi also had no other choice. After all, the war was about to start, yet he did not even know where the enemy was located. This was the first time that Baiqi had met such a tough task.
Ouyang Shuo jumped across this topic and asked, “Commander Bai, how are you going to arrange the six legions? If you need anything from the territory, speak.”
The Military Affairs Bureau was only in charge of the overall strategy but not the specific tactics. As for the West Conquering Army, it was all up to Baiqi as a matter of course.
Even Ouyang Shuo would not interfere with the arrangements of the West Conquering Army. He asked to understand the situation and to show his support to Baiqi.
A seismic war not only involved the front lines but also the back.
Ouyang Shuo came to Consonance City this time to take charge of the backlines. Consonance City had just merged into their system, so Ouyang Shuo was worried that there might be some lacking points between the cooperation of Bai Hua and the West Conquering Army.
With him present, the situation would naturally be different.
When Baiqi heard that, he naturally understood what the Lord meant and introduced his plans in detail.
As of the current moment, Yunnan City-State has control over three-and-a-half prefectures. Apart from Mengding Prefecture in the south, Tengyue Prefecture in the west, and Dongchuan in the east, the remaining half would be Dali, where the imperial city was located.
The four prefectures were all connected to Kunming Prefecture, meaning that Kunming Prefecture was the middle, facing enemies from all four sides.
The West Conquering Army would split into three forces, entering Mengding, Tengyue, and Dongchuan Prefectures.
Based on the strategy, Dali would not be a part of their plans for the Battle of Yunnan. Ouyang Shuo temporarily did not want to provoke the imperial city. If he did, it might turn back to bite him instead.
The million guards in the imperial cities were not just there for show.
Apart from the army, when one attacked the imperial city, one had to consider the player element. The moment a native player attacked an imperial city, it would send out war missions to recruit imperial city players to fight against the enemy.
Even if only half of the eight million players accepted the quest, it was terrifying enough. Even in the 4th year of Gaia, imperial cities were absolute prohibited zones for Lord gamemode players.
No matter how arrogant he was, Ouyang Shuo did not think about stepping on such a land mine.
The 200 thousand Alliance Army of Yunnan City-State was still housed in Mengding Prefecture. Hence, it was destined to be the main battlefield. If nothing too surprising happened, it would be an extremely tough battle.
As for the 200 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops, although they were not sure about their exact location, from how they were covering and hiding their tracks, they obviously wanted to launch a sneak attack.
If one used teleportation well, it was a truly exceptional sneak attack tactic.
From how they successfully hid their army, Yanhuang Alliance was obviously exceedingly confident about this matter; they would not repeat the same mistakes as Lingnan City-State.
Compared to Lingnan, the Yunnan landscape was far more complicated. Each prefecture could not allow too many troops. The West Conquering Army was forced to split into three.
The paths of the three prefectures were hard to tread, and the moment one of them was ambushed, the other two would not be able to rush over to help.
Hence, this gave an advantage to the Alliance Army. For the West Conquering Army to repeat what they did at Lingnan and perform a counter encirclement was impossible.
Hence, Baiqi had arranged for a legion to stay back in Consonance City. The one chosen was the newly built 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps, the famous Tiger Leopard Cavalry.
The Tiger Leopard Cavalry was the first pure cavalry legion of Shanhai City, and they had the highest mobility.
Based on the newest intel, they had already passed Zhen An Prefecture and would reach Consonance City soon. On the other hand, the 4th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps would take four to five days to reach the Zhen An Prefecture border.
“Based on the commander’s opinion, where would the Alliance Army choose to ambush us?” Ouyang Shuo asked.
Baiqi shook his head, “Everywhere is possible, but I think they might choose three ambush spots in particular. Based on how the battle proceeds and how we arrange things, they would then settle in one.”
“So it means we can misdirect them?” A light lit up in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes.
“That’s right. As the uncertainty regarding the exact ambush point is too great, the only way would be to bait them out. Only then we can take back the initiative of the battle.”
Uncertainty was a fatal threat in battle, but any famous general would try to wipe out all these uncertain factors. Even if one paid some sacrifices, if would be worth it.
Ouyang Shuo nodded. Since Baiqi had a plan, that was great.
Shanhai City was not weak, and Yunnan City-State also had many of their moles. However, they were unlucky; those who knew the insider news were not friends of Shanhai City.
“I predict that at the start of the war, the enemy would take a defensive approach and even give up some cities to lead us deep in and challenge our grain supply.”
The roads in Yunnan were mountainous and narrow. Maintaining the long grain transport line was a tough task. Such a line could be easily attacked by enemy troops at every moment.
Any elite troops charging out from the mountains could easily deal fatal damage.
This weakness was one that the enemy would definitely not let go of. In contrast to the Battle of Lingnan, the West Conquering Army was not sneak attacking, and the various cities had enough time to move their grain.
If things went sour, the enemy could easily burn all the grain.
Hence, the biggest test in the Battle of Yunnan would be grain, so Ouyang Shuo had rushed over to Consonance City.
More recently, Kunming had moved 200 thousand laborers to help the army transport grain. The Kunming Prefecture Garrison Division and the Independent Guards Division would be in charge of guarding the grain.
The 200 thousand laborers were basically all the available labor in Kunming, causing all economic activity to stop. The effects of war to the territory were not limited to the frontlines.
Luckily, it was still the winter season and various agriculture industry activities had come to an end. If it was at the start of the farming season, the effect on the economy would be fatal and unimaginable.
Apart from that, Zhen An Prefecture also sent laborers, around 120 thousand of them. The next day, the Zhen An Prefecture Garrison Division protected them all the way to Consonance City as the 2nd grain transport squad.
Not mentioning Shanhai City, Yunnan City-State was probably suffering huge problems due to this war.
…
Baiqi continued, “As the war pushes in, and we get too deep into enemy land, the enemy might use their elite forces to sneak attack our tired army. If they also use teleportation tactics, the results would be highly detrimental to us.”
Ouyang Shuo’s expression was extremely solemn, “General, you’re saying that we have to play it safe?”
Baiqi said, “I predict this battle will last for a long time, so I need Monarch to give me permission for that.”
Every day the war dragged on, a massive quantity of resources would be consumed. To fight a battle of attrition would test the foundations of both sides.
Such a matter was not something Baiqi had the power to decide on. As such, he could only seek permission.
When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he did not hesitate and said resolutely, “Do as you have planned. I’ll support you all the way. I’ll personally take charge of Consonance City to monitor the backline resources.”
“Thank you Monarch.”
When Baiqi heard that, he gave a deep bow as his thoughts drifted away.
He recalled the Battle of Changping when the Qin King personally monitored the grain for him.
Hence, Baiqi knew the deep meaning behind Ouyang Shuo’s words. Behind all of this, they were betting the foundations and reserves that the territory had spent so much to amass.
The atmosphere in the tent instantly became solemn and stirring.
Ouyang Shuo looked around with eagles eyes, saying slowly but resolutely, “To the territory, this battle is one we cannot afford to lose. We must go all out. No matter the price we have to pay, we need to take down Yunnan to create an unshakeable base for establishing our country.”
As he said these words, he stood up and cupped his fists, “Generals, thank you all!”
When they heard him, they instantly felt hot blood rushing to their heads, and their blood boiled up inside of them. All of them knelt on the ground and solemnly said, “We will protect the honor of the territory!”
Along with the resounding proclamations, the war machine was up and running.
