Chapter 452 – Power of 6-Wing Angel
The months passed by peacefully as Cao Cao and Tong stopped all military activities, hiding their movements inside their cities.
Cao Cao managed to salvage arquebus technology by exchanging information with Tong and others in Tong's clan, such as Jia Xu, Xun You, Xun Yu, Te Langpu, and even Li Feihong. With Xun Yu as their medium, their cooperation gave birth to a new development in Xuchang.
It was a Taoist Institution, founded for the sake of researching in alchemy.
Their goal was to produce as many gunpowders as they could since this powder was in high demand. Cannons and bombs that Tong and Cao Cao made required a high amount of crude gunpowder, so Cao Cao built this institution to attract more Taoist priests into the industry instead of preaching nonsense.
Also, with Tong's help, Cao Cao acquired what Pu Jing was trying to make, a musket rifle blueprint.
Although the months were stress-free, Cao Cao always complained that he was lonely at night, and he wanted to see his wives, which made all generals laughed, including Xun Yu.
"Wenruo, can you tell Zhang Tong to give me back one or two of my wives?"
"You can just visit the red light district if you need it."
"They have no class, Wenruo. Disease is everywhere! I don't want to share a hole with anyone!"
"But, you always steal somebody's wife…"
"Protecting a lonely widow is the duty of a nobleman! That's completely different!"
Xun Yu rolled his eyes, "Go patrol the city and steal someone's wife, then. If you can't help it, just visit Ye for a week or two and let your wives milk you dry."
"Eh? You're cruel, Wenruo. In the previous life, you were not this bold. What has happened to you after you joined forces with Zhang Tong?"
"You have no idea…" Xun Yu shed a manly tear, traumatized by the random sultry sound from the inner palace. Sometimes, he wanted to kill Tong for having too much sexual drive.
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While Tong and Cao Cao's forces were relaxing, manipulating the other powerhouses in secret, Liu Bei and his men had it rough as their cities were underdeveloped.
It was a nightmare trying to clean up what the Xiongnu and Dong Zhuo had done to Liang Province and the surrounding regions. Even though Liu Bei practiced populism policies, trying to earn favors from the citizens, most townies migrated from the areas to either Ye City or Cao Cao's central plain.
This sabotaged their growth in both economy and military power, including their gun development as talented blacksmiths and craftsmen left Liu Bei's cities.
Liu Bei had to summon Pang Tong, Xu Shu, Guan Yu, and all his subordinates for consulting.
"Our finance and war fund is dwindling, and we won't be able to maintain our armies at this rate! What can we do?"
Pang Tong nodded, "True. But don't worry, my lord. It's just temporary."
"Temporary?"
"Yes. Our economic crisis is due to our military size. If we want to increase our fund, we can just pillage our neighbors."
Liu Bei flinched. All his life, he had never stolen anything from townsmen or civilians directly. The only thing he robbed in his past life was the authority of other lords because the situations demanded it.
Guan Yu, the one who managed to contact Lilim and imparted the cultivation technique to Liu Bei, was also disturbed by the advice. He glanced at Liu Bei with worries.
At this moment, Liu Bei already acquired his past life experience. However, his thoughts and intelligence did not seem to improve.
Liu Bei shook his head, "I can steal territories from other lords, but I can't rob civilians."
Guan Yu and Xu Shu were relieved. As long as Liu Bei had not stooped that low, they would continue to serve him.
Pang Tong laughed, "I didn't mean that our lord should steal from our people," he glanced at Guan Yu, "Please deploy sir Guan Yu and send him to kill Liu Biao."
"WHAT!?"
"As you know, Liu Biao has allied himself with Zhang Tong, but Liu Biao's sons are all cowards and naïve. As long as the stubborn Liu Biao is out of the picture, you can just march to Xiangyang and adopt Liu Cong and Liu Feng. Then, you can coax both stupid sons of Liu Biao to hand over their authority to you, and you will obtain Yi Province and Jing Province by killing only one person!"
Everyone was shocked. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who had the memory of their other life, were astonished as well since this strategy was similar to what Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang proposed in that world.
Last time, Liu Bei refused to steal Liu Biao's land. When Liu Biao died, Liu Cong immediately surrendered the Jing Province to Cao Cao.
It was one of Liu Bei's regret that he did not seize the chance and throw away his façade of a benevolent man. Had he been shameless, he could have obtained Jing Province without Sun Quan's help, and Guan Yu would not have died by their secret coalition later.
Remembered the mistakes, Liu Bei's eyes revealed determination.
"Yunchang…"
"Brother…"
"Go and kill Liu Biao. Use your six-wing power to fly there and assassinate him."
Guan Yu frowned, "The plan has many flaws. Liu Biao's subordinates won't surrender to us if they know that we killed their lord."
Pang Tong clicked his tongue, "Just don't let them know it. You are an immortal for a reason, right? Can't you use your power properly?"
Guan Yu glared at Pang Tong, "You don't even have the cultivation technique and the memory. What do you know? You even died by the ambush in Yi Province."
Pang Tong glared back at Guan Yu, "I don't understand what you're talking about, but my stratagem is always perfect. I know how to judge people, Sir Guan."
Guan Yu scoffed, "Do you? Judging people? Ha! What a joke. You're all talk but no action!"
The insult was getting out of hand. Liu Bei, Xu Shu, and others looked at the two with concern.
"All talk? What're the flaws then? Name one!"
"A brat like you is too narrow-minded. First, you even forgot that Zhang Tong has placed Lu Bu and Zhang He there to assist Liu Biao for a reason! Do you know how many wings Lu Bu has? Fucking 8!"
Pang Tong closed his mouth.
Guan Yu continued yelling at Pang Tong, "Second, you didn't even know what power we, the cultivators of wings, have! We can fly, yes. We can detach our souls to attack people, yes. Can we assassinate people undetected? Yes. But, can we also detect someone with similar power from a distance away? YES!"
Pang Tong understood Guan Yu's point now. Had Guan Yu gone there, Lu Bu would have detected him, and their assassination plan would have failed.
"And lastly, you underestimated me," Guan Yu walked away and picked a nearest potted plant.
The plant was a decorative Feng Shui fern, which was believed to bring prosperity to the residents of this building.
Guan Yu spread his wings. One of them touched the fern as he injected his lifespan into the plant.
The fern grew at a speed that everyone in the room could see the changes. Within a minute, the fern grew as if it had lived for a decade.
Everyone dropped their jaws as they could not believe what they had witnessed.
Guan Yu turned to Liu Bei to explain, "When angels reach the 6th wing threshold, we can share our lifespans with any living being, including plants. I just gave 10 years of lifespan to it, and this happens."
Pang Tong walked over and touched the fern to check if his eyes did not play a trick on him. Upon verified that they were real, he looked at Guan Yu, "This…"
"I haven't answered another of your questions yet. You want to know a better solution, right?"
"O-Of course. If you have a better alternative way, I shall apologize for being short-sighted."
"As you can see, I can accelerate the growth of trees. What will happen if I do the same with crops and farmlands?"
"!!!"
"I've been cultivated a lot, and I have collected about 150,000 years of lifespan at the moment. I can sacrifice 100,000 years to accelerate 100,000 plants for a year worth of harvest. It will take a bit of time to gather all the crops, but it can serve as an emergency fund. After this, I will continue to cultivate and gather more lifespans, so I can use this again next year or the year after that!"
Xu Shu was impressed by Guan Yu's selflessness and sacrifice. Although Guan Yu sounded like he could regain his lifespan back in no time, the action was praiseworthy.
The quiet strategist interrupted Pang Tong and bowed to Liu Bei, "I think we should concentrate on developing our home bases first. Without a good foundation, our territories will not prosper. We can steal our neighbors or take over Liu Biao's provinces, but we will eventually come back here and talk about the same problem again because our foundation is lacking. Let's use Sir Guan's power to create an image that our land yields a good harvest this year, so people can stop migrating to our rival territories."
Guan Yu nodded, "That's a good plan. I'll do that."
Looking at how Guan Yu and Xu Shu got along, Liu Bei withheld his desire.
"We'll follow after Guan Yu and Xu Shu's suggestion. Please concentrate on developing Chang'An first since it's our capital city."
At that moment, Zhang Fei raised his hand, "What about the war? We've prepared our troops, right?"
Everyone paused and looked at Liu Bei.
The latter sighed as he was reminded of the indecisiveness of Cao Cao.
In the previous meeting, Cao Cao said that he would move whenever both Sun Ce and Liu Bei's forces mobilized. Therefore, had Liu Bei not invaded Henei within this year, nobody would deploy their troops.
In reality, everyone was intimidated by Lu Bu's [8-Wing] news. They decided that their generals were not strong enough to take down this monster yet, so they withdrew their forces to cultivate all of their generals and develop their new weapon, arquebus.
Liu Bei sighed, "We are not ready. Yide, I want you to focus on cultivating and get as many wings as possible before the next year's spring. Don't let Yunchang do all the work."
"… Fine," Zhang Fei sulked.
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At Chang'An, Guan Yu's plan bore fruits, literally.
By giving one year of his lifespan, a plant could grow further by a year.
However, giving them to a rice stalk was too wasteful, so Guan Yu picked fruit trees, such as peaches and oranges.
100,000 Lifespans translated into 100,000 trees with abundant yields, which produced expensive food that they could sell to the local merchants. After harvested, each tree produced at least 200 fruits.
Xu Shu was not stupid enough to distribute these fruits to the people. Instead, he traded these harvested goods with rice or gold, which attracted the greedy merchants to buy rice from Tong or Cao Cao's lands to get these goodies for reselling.
Slowly, the economic power in Chang'An grew as more people flocked into the city. More words about these fruits also enticed many wandering farmers to migrate there, hoping to grow these fruits as well.
