Chapter 541 – Zhuge Liang and Jia Xu's Insight
<<Ding>>
Zhang He: "Mission accomplished. What's the next job?"
Zhuge Liang: "Well done. Leave Huang Zu's camp and return to Jiangxia and take over the city with your men. When Huang Zu's remnants return home, don't harm them. They're mostly commoners and non-military personal."
Zhang He: "I know. They're just innocent peasants."
The infiltration and the assassination was one of Zhuge Liang's scheme.
…
While Dong Bai, Guo Jia, and others attacked Sun Ce Army, Zhuge Liang wasn't idle. He had so many good chess pieces in his arsenal.
Zhang Liao
Zhang He
Zhao Yun
These great generals had boosted their cultivation to 7 wings regardless of their physical preparation since the other forces also rush-cultivated their generals. It might harm their future development, but they had no luxury to take their time enhancing their bodies.
Aside from these great generals, several elite officers, such as Gao Shun, Han Hao, Gao Lan, and Qu Yi, increased their strength to 6 wings to match up with Cao Cao's elites.
As for Huang Zhong, his power remained at 4 wings since he was new to the group. It was a direct order from Diaochan that Huang Zhong shouldn't rush like the others as she didn't want to ruin this old veteran's future.
With so many exceptional generals, Zhuge Liang had rooms to send a couple of officers out in a covert operation.
Since Zhang He had Tong's HUD map system skill, Zhuge Liang came up with a scheme. Instead of using him to command his troops at Wulin Port, he sent Zhang He and a few hundred men to infiltrate Jiangxia.
Zhang He entered the city and purposely got himself drafted into Huang Zu's troops. It wasn't hard for a cultivator with great strength to rise up in ranks and got closer to Huang Zu. Moreover, Zhang He still had his HUD map system skill that Tong had given him. Sneaking in as Huang Zu's bodyguard was a simple task.
Meanwhile, the rest of Zhang He's covert unit secretly assassinated Huang Zu's supporters. Now, with Huang Zu's death, they had no problem stealing the city from the local officials.
"As expected of his majesty's [Ghost]. Kekeke!"
Zhuge Liang snickered as he operated his system menu to send more private messages.
<<Ding>>
Zhuge Liang: "General Xu, we have assassinated Huang Zu. You begin the mop-up operation."
Xu Huang: "I haven't heard anything about this assassination and this operation. I thought I am to eliminate Huang Zu myself."
Zhuge Liang: "I'm sorry about the abrupt change, general. Huang Zu's unit can flank us from the north, so I sent someone to take him out while he was focusing on you."
Xu Huang: "I assume that you used me as bait while you finish off Huang Zu on your own? What about the higher-ups? Do they know about this?"
Zhuge Liang: "Yes. I'll talk to her majesty and Strategist Guo after this. I just want to inform you first since you're currently fighting with Huang Zu."
Xu Huang: "Alright. I'll wrap this up. I'll report to Guo Jia and you when I'm done with the work. What about Jiangxia City, though?"
Zhuge Liang: "Zhang He's units should be taking the city from the inside. He is the assassin, by the way."
Xu Huang: "You used a great general as an assassin?"
Zhuge Liang: "Why not? His majesty named him "Ghost" for a reason."
Xu Huang: "…"
…
Settled with Xu Huang and Jiangxia's matters, Zhuge Liang proceeded to the next phase of his plan.
So far, he played a cold war game with Cao Cao Army.
All Zhuge Liang's forces, the Ghost Legion, the Red Hare Legion, and Zhao Yun, were blockading Wulin Port. 150,000 Elites and 50,000 Huang Zhong's soldiers built 1,000 mengchong cannon warsh.i.p.s and 10 fortress sh.i.p.s to protect their defensive line.
On the opposite side of Wulin Port, the Red Cliff, aka Chibi Port City, stopped Zhuge Liang's advance toward the east. Within this port city, Cao Cao's 200,000 soldiers gathered here. All of his officers, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Xu Chu, Dian Wei, Cao Ren, and many others were here as well.
Unlike Sun Ce's weak subordinates, most of these officers increased their cultivation base to 6 wings. Dian Wei and Xu Chu were stronger than the rest as they had 7 wings.
Also, Cao Cao had learned a lot from his defeat in the other timeline. He didn't use warsh.i.p.s, but he barricaded Chibi Port with traps, trenches, bunkers, and fortification instead.
Cannons, trebuchets, and ballistae were everywhere on the east bank of the Yangtze River. Cao Cao also stocked many barrels of crude oil, arrows, and buckshot cannonballs to contest against Zhuge Liang Army.
Also, Diaochan warned Zhuge Liang that Cao Cao and Cheng Yu had gathered animal corpses, human feces, and rotten mushrooms within one of their warehouse. They were mixing some sort of chemical weapon or a poison.
Zhuge Liang was concerned about Cao Cao and Cheng Yu's scheme, so he stopped his advance and avoided a direct confrontation for now. Once Xu Huang and Dong Bai finished their battles, they could flank Cao Cao Army from the north and the east. Then, Cao Cao Army would be overwhelmed by all Tong's elite officers and almost a million cultivators.
"I just hope that they aren't doing something immoral."
Zhuge Liang wasn't sure if Cheng Yu might try to poison the water source or the Yangtze River to cripple his armies. Still, physical bodies of ordinary cultivators could repel mild poison or virus with ease. Zhuge Liang didn't think that Cheng Yu overlooked this fact and went on with the poison plan.
"I should ask Jia Xu for this. He's a master of vile tactics."
…
<<Ding>>
Zhuge Liang: "Senior Jia. I would like to consult with you regarding this battle."
Jia Xu: "That's rare. What in the world can trouble a hot-shot like you? Ask away."
Zhuge Liang: "If you were to defend against my armies at Chibi and you have the possession of deadly poison, what would you do with it?"
Jia Xu: "I'll assume that those sons of bitches Cao Cao and Cheng Yu are brewing some sort of poison, yes? If I were them, I would have added demon curses into the poison, then I would have enhanced them with angel blessings. I'll mix that poison with projectile weapons and shoot them at you. While I'm at it, I'll order my men to bath in this poison liquid and send them to suicide-bomb at your granaries or water sources, such as public wells, Yangtze River, or the ally wells. I can also use the scorch-earth tactic by spilling this poison all over the crops, ally granaries, and commoners' food sources before I retreat to the south. Even if you win, your army will suffer a lot of casualties from spreading epidemic or some sort of diseases."
Jia Xu: "Want me to continue?"
Zhuge Liang was glad that he asked the right person for his advice. This scary venomous strategist could come up with many ways to exploit Zhuge Liang Army with little information.
If Cheng Yu planned to do the same as Jia Xu had thought, then, Cheng Yu and Cao Cao might be planning to abandon this battlefield and retreat to a foreign country while harming their armies at the same time – A nasty hitting-two-birds-in-one-stone type of stratagem.
Zhuge Liang: "Thank you, senior. I'm glad you're not my enemy."
Jia Xu: "Bah! I lost to you and Zhou Yu at Chibi. I merely thought of the similar tactic that you used to destroy my armies."
Zhuge Liang: "But I didn't use poison against you."
Jia Xu: "My troops got sick by the local diseases at that time, so it's the same. Well, good luck on your part. I'm still helping the doofus Xu Huang. If you encounter anything funny, tell me or Guo Jia, okay?"
Zhuge Liang: "Sure."
…
= South of Chibi Port City =
Cheng Yu was administrating a concoction of a chemical weapon within a warehouse, located far south of Chibi City.
As Jia Xu had predicted, Cheng Yu and Cao Cao schemed to poison the entire Yangtze River to damage Tong's soldiers. This poison was enhanced by Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, and various demonic cultivators that recently awoke their souls.
Gan Ji's former 2,000 sect members also followed after Cao Cao and his troops after their migration from Sun Ce's frontline. These disciples were all demons with 2 wings, and they were responsible for casting every curse they could to all chemical fluid within a hundred giant cauldrons.
As for Cao Cao, he was reading the country map, searching for a sweet spot to pour the content of those cauldrons into the Yangtze River.
"We're evil, aren't we?"
Cao Cao felt bitter. He never dreamt that he had to kill innocent civilians to harass Tong's subordinates.
Cheng Yu scoffed, "We're working for the sake of true immortality and freedom. This world is nothing but a ranch, and humans are livestock. We're the chosen one with the awareness of this universe."
Both Cao Cao and Cheng Yu abandoned their humanity and embraced the genocidal mindset. For the sake of obtaining Lilim's skills and absolute authority over the world, they chose to be as selfish as Dong Zhuo in the other timeline.
Of course, this sinister scheme was without Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, or other officers' approval. None of them knew of this warehouse and the poison.
"By the way, Zhuge Liang seems to take too much time on his preparation. Why aren't they attacking us?"
Cheng Yu pondered after hearing Cao Cao's question, "They have many eyes, so they probably are cautious about our fortification and cannons. From our latest intel, Sun Ce and Gan Ji should be already dead, so Zhuge Liang is likely waiting for other units to flank us from the east."
"What about Huang Zu and Liu Biao? What are they doing?"
"I think Liu Biao isn't decisive enough to bet his life for Lilim. He should be cowering in fear in Xiangyang and refuse to utter a word about Lilim or the war. As for Huang Zu… I think he's dead as well."
Cao Cao had a headache. His allies were unreliable.
"It doesn't matter. Let's begin our migration before winter."
