Translator: Legge
“Another trap? Why do you say that?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
In the past, whenever there was something that he did not understand, he would turn to books to search for the answers. However, the knowledge found in books might not be able to clearly explain everything in the world.
When he went to ask those who understood these principles, they might not be willing to tell him either.
Now that he had such an expert military commander beside him, Ren Xiaosu felt like he could finally catch up on some of the lessons in this field.
P5092 replied to his question, “I received news last night that all of the barbarians at the Wang Consortium’s Mt. Daniu front line have disappeared. The Wang Consortium also found out about it a day ago. However, they did not share this information with the Pyro Company. Otherwise, the Pyro Company would definitely have been prepared and wouldn’t have suffered a defeat.”
Ren Xiaosu remained silent. He realized the Wang Consortium was already starting to resort to unscrupulous means now that they were in a hurry to complete the unification of the Alliance of Strongholds.
Once the barbarians pinned the Pyro Company, the Wang Consortium could just sit back in safety and watch the tigers fight before coming out to clean up the mess.
P5092 drew a simple map on the loess soil with a tree branch. “This is the outline of the Pyro Company and Wang Consortium’s battlefield on the northern front. The two parties are around 200 kilometers apart and have the ability to keep watch for each other. Although it was not discussed prior, the front lines at Mt. Daniu and the Great Wall are like coordinate points in a defensive deployment.”
“Look, this is Erjin River. Once the expeditionary army sends all their troops to the Pyro Company’s side, the Wang Consortium troops can immediately flank the expeditionary army from the direction of Erjin River. At that time, the barbarians would be caught in a dilemma where they can neither fight nor retreat,” P5092 continued explaining. “So as you can see, the current situation is actually very disadvantageous for the expeditionary army.”
“Yeah,” Ren Xiaosu said.
“But you’ve also fought the expeditionary army before. Do you think they’re really such ignorant people?” P5092 asked. “They were willing to sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of their elderly by using them as bait to score a victory in battle, so would such people place themselves in such a dangerous situation? So they must have a backup plan. I suspect the expeditionary army still has a large number of soldiers in the North and is waiting for the Wang Consortium to reinforce the Pyro Company. That’s the most logical explanation I have!”
Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought “If that’s really the case, there’ll still be several tough battles to fight in the future. But doesn’t everyone say that the environment in the North is really harsh? Why would they still have so many people?”
“The expeditionary army is different from us. They are moving south en masse. If we include the Qing Consortium, Fortress 178, the Wang Consortium, the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, and the Zhou Consortium, our military strength will naturally be much greater than theirs. In fact, it might even be several times larger than them. But we aren’t united as a nation.” P5092 sighed and said, “This gives them a chance to take advantage of us.”
Based on P5092’s deduction, the number of people in the Far North was probably only about one-fifth of that of the Central Plains, or even less.
But as all of their adult males had become soldiers, and with the Central Plains still not united, it was difficult to say who would win this war.
“We have to inform the Wang Consortium about this.” P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “If their defensive line gets subverted and collapses, it’ll definitely make things worse on the Great Wall front line.”
“But the Wang Consortium did not inform you about the situation in time. Don’t you hate them?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“I do.” P5092 said, “But hating them won’t solve the problem. Everything is based on winning this war, so we have to inform them about this.”
“Then you’re really quite a broad-minded person.” Ren Xiaosu sighed.
P5092 shook his head. “I’m not as broad-minded as you think. Otherwise, I wouldn’t detest all the scheming that people do to jockey for power. It’s just that my ideals have always been to protect the survival of mankind in the Central Plains. If I don’t let the Wang Consortium know about this information, it’ll be equivalent to betraying my ideals.”
“Alright.” Ren Xiaosu took out a satellite phone from his storage space and made a call.
P5092 was stunned. “Where did you get that phone? And who are you calling?”
Ren Xiaosu ignored him. After the call went through, a calm voice rang out at the other end of the line. “This is Wang Shengzhi.”
The expression on P5092’s face gradually changed. Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m just calling you to tell you that everything has been handled at Stronghold 31 and to add something. We suspect that there’s still more of the expeditionary army north of Mt. Daniu waiting for y’all to reinforce the Pyro Company, so we want to remind you to be careful.”
“OK.” Wang Shengzhi answered with a laugh, “Thank you for the reminder, but we’ve already discovered that group, so we won’t fall for their tricks.”
“How did y’all find out?” Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.
However, Wang Shengzhi did not answer the question. Instead, he started asking Ren Xiaosu about his well-being. After the two of them exchanged some pleasantries, Ren Xiaosu said, “Also, I hope that there won’t be another situation where information is not shared now that the enemy is knocking on our front door. I think that everyone in the Central Plains should unite for this war, don’t you agree?”
After a long silence, Wang Shengzhi said, “Alright, I’ll promise you that. After this call, I’ll have someone share our Wang Consortium’s intelligence on the expeditionary army with the Pyro Company.”
With that, the call ended.
Ren Xiaosu glanced at P5092 and saw a surprised expression on his face.
P5092 could not understand why Ren Xiaosu and Wang Shengzhi seemed to be on such good terms. Wang Shengzhi even agreed to Ren Xiaosu’s request for any intelligence to be shared!
As a matter of fact, this was no small matter. Getting the expeditionary army to wear out the Pyro Company was probably a very important part of the Wang Consortium’s plan to unify the Central Plains. How could they be willing to change it all for one person?
However, Ren Xiaosu did not explain much. There was no need to ask. If you asked, the answer could only be the influence of the Northwest’s future commander!
P5092 suddenly said, “I keep getting the feeling that the Wang Consortium has actually gained the initiative on many occasions in this war. The expeditionary army’s main forces should’ve hidden themselves very well, so I wonder how the Wang Consortium discovered them. Where are we going to next?”
Ren Xiaosu took out a map. “I read from Hope Media’s newspaper that an infantry brigade from the Northwest has come to reinforce the Central Plains. They’re stationed near Mt. Youyu, which is west of Mt. Daniu. It looks like they’ll be working with the Wang Consortium to fight the war. Let’s go and join up with that infantry brigade.”
P5092 thought for a moment. “Although there’s a lot of soldiers in an infantry brigade, the scale of this war is so large that it’s no longer something that an infantry brigade can affect.”
His response was clear. With just one infantry brigade, there was nothing they could do.
However, Ren Xiaosu did not give any further explanation. They would only know what the infantry brigade was capable of after fighting a battle.
“Besides, if we’re going to join up with them at Mt. Youyu, the route we’ll have to take seems like it’ll pass through Mt. Daniu where the front is. Why don’t we go around it? It’ll be safer that way.”
“It’s fine. We can just slaughter our way through,” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly.
