Chapter 380- Zhao Kuo’s Plan
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
4th month 25th day, Shanhai City.
Military Intelligence Secretary Cobra reported the latest military intelligence to Ouyang Shuo.
When Ouyang Shuo appointed Cobra, the Lianzhou Basin had just been unified. At that time, Cobra had helped to reorganize the Military Intelligence Division.
Team one was in charge of intel gathering around the hundred thousand mountains and Chiyou City. Team two was in charge of Xunzhou, where Tianping Country was located.
The special operations team was in charge of the highest level of intel gathering work. For example, they would enter Chiyou City and Taiping Country.
With this, the position of the special operations team was higher than teams one and two.
The spies and members of the divisions exited Lianzhou Prefecture and focused on their intel gathering missions.
Within the prefecture, the Black Snake Guards were in charge of the remaining player territories, mountain barbarians tribes, and grassland tribes.
Ouyang Shuo could only use the Black Snake Guards for this purpose before he established the Safety Division.
With Cobra’s appointment and a large number of the original Rattlesnake Mercenary Group members joining, the strength of the division grew. Moreover, their intel collecting ability rose by several levels.
Cobra met Ouyang Shuo mainly to report about Taiping Country and Chiyou City.
In these four months, Taiping Country had acted like locusts—unstoppable as they swept past Xunzhou.
Taiping Country had taken over all the territories in Xunzhou.
After taking over, the uprising army started to build their capital, and they named it Tianjing.
In history, the Taiping Country rose quickly but fell quickly too, especially due to the corrupted nature of their king, Hong Xiuquan.
After the Taiping Army entered Tianjing, they immediately expanded the Yamen into the Tianwang House. They destroyed many houses and used millions of labor force. In 1854, they rebuilt the area. The entire area within a five kilometer radius of the palace was grand and glistening.
If one set a bad example, the rest would follow.
The construction of the East King House also used up large amounts of wealth and resources. For example, the dresses, coronation attires, horses, and the like were all very extravagant. Apart from that, the king also continued to choose pretty ladies to enter the palace.
According to history, his palace had close to thousands of beauties.
Based on the arrangements of Gaia, the core members of the uprising army would not have any memories of this kind of affair. Only their leader would have a perfect and intact memory.
This basically meant that Gaia helped revive the leaders of the uprising armies.
Hence, after learning from his past mistakes, he would not do the same things when leading the Taiping Country. Instead, he would strive to rule and build his ideal country.
After building their capital, the uprising army started to expand.
After learning from his past mistakes, he did not randomly crown kings and lords. Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai, and Xiao Chaogui all appeared as generals.
Hong Xiuquan would stay in Tianjing and command and lead from there. The uprising army had twenty thousand troops in each direction. They called themselves the Hundred Thousand Army because their goal was to expand their territory in one swoop.
In the east, Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan led the troops to Attack Zhen An.
On the north, Shi Dakai and Li Kaifang led troops to attack Guiling.
On the east, Yang Xiuqing and Li Fengxiang attacked Wuzhou.
On the south, the two young generals Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng attacked Lianzhou.
Out of the four directions, the Hundred Thousand Army on the west and the north were unstoppable. The players there either surrendered or got destroyed.
The uprising army was like a snowball, growing larger and larger.
The lords in Guangxi had even formed an alliance; their name was really sad. They were known as Dare to Die Alliance. Unfortunately, they stood no chance against the uprising army.
The fall of Zhen An and Guilin was something that would happen sooner or later.
On the east, they faced the strong Chiyou army.
Ever since building Chiyou City, Chiyou had led troops and taken over the entire Wuzhou. For the uprising army to attempt to invade Wuzhou, they would naturally face resistance.
The Chiyou army was entirely composed of elite mountain barbarian warriors.
The uprising army that Yang Xiuqing led naturally took down the player armies easily. However, it was too great a task to fight against the elite mountain barbarians.
The hurriedly formed uprising army was just like a peasant army. Apart from their morale and their general’s ability, they were especially lacking in terms of weaponry.
Yang Xiuqing did not feel demoralized about the east troops being forced back. Instead, he set up the east camp on the border of Xunzhou and Wuzhou. They took this chance to start training their army and establishing discipline.
As Chiyou City’s population restricted them, they did not take the initiative to strike.
The east side entered a stalemate just like this.
On the south, there was also another stalemate.
In the middle of the 4th month, Li Xiucheng and Li Yucheng led their twenty thousand strong army to strike against Lianzhou. When they rushed to the canyon and saw the giant stronghold, they were stunned.
The current Mulan Stronghold was one and a half months away from completion. However, the outer walls were already built. Only the internal structures and defensive constructs were left.
The uprising army that had not even brought basic siege weaponry had no methods at all when faced with such a huge stronghold. Helplessly, they could only set up the south camp five kilometers away from the stronghold.
Because of the situation at hand, Baiqi personally took control of Mulan Stronghold. The 3rd and 4th divisions of the Dragon Legion also entered the stronghold and camped there.
It was okay if they did not come, but if they really did come, they would be in for some trouble.
Once he heard the report, Ouyang Shuo kept silent and did not say anything.
With the strength of the Dragon Legion, they could destroy the enemy south troops and take down Tianjing if they attacked and used this opportunity. They could destroy the whole uprising army right now.
The crux of the problem was whether this was really the best time?
With the settings of the wilderness, to lords, land was not important. Population and other resources were the most precious.
This was the difference between territory wars and real-life wars.
If purely based on a fighting for land perspective, Ouyang Shuo could just use the Dragon Legion to attack not only Guangxi; he could even sweep up Lingnan easily.
But the problem was what would happened next.
Accepting an area with a lot of land but little people was detrimental instead of beneficial.
Hence, the battle over territories was a huge test of the ability of a lord to grasp the correct timing.
If the war started early and the fruits were not ripe, it would not be worth it. If it was too late and the enemies were ready, taking them down would not be easy.
The appearance of Tianping Country was a huge opportunity for Ouyang Shuo.
If he could let them attack Guangxi and make it strong, then attack them and claim the fruits of their labor, it would be the best conclusion.
This was also another huge strategic plan since his poisonous insects in Lianzhou Basin. He termed this plan as raising wolves.
Compared to poisonous insects, the hard part about raising wolves would be to avoid them eating you.
With the rate they were expanding, they would definitely take down Zhen An and Guilin, even maybe further toward Yunnan and Guizhou.
At that point, would the Dragon Legion really be able to stop them?
It would be difficult.
However, if he attacked now, Ouyang Shuo did not feel that it was right. If he took them down now, Dare to Die Alliance and Chiyou City would benefit.
To take down the Dare to Die Alliance would also be a difficult matter.
Undoubtedly, if they saw the chance, Dare to Die Alliance would be like Broken Blade County. They would ask for help from Yanhuang Alliance.
Ouyang Shuo did not want every fight to be so tough.
He wanted to easily take over the entire Guangxi Region.
Hence, to fulfil this strategic objective, the difficult part would be to allow Tianping Country to expand, while also ensuring that they remained under control. At the same time, he needed to defend against Chiyou City.
Do not underestimate Chiyou City.
Based on Cobra’s report, they had around thirty thousand troops. If needed, they could get twenty to thirty thousand more from the tribes.
All the mountain barbarian tribes on a hundred thousand mountain had already moved to Wuzhou.
Not only that, the other region’s scattered mountain barbarians, including the river barbarians, had all gathered in Wuzhou. Wuzhou had become the main base and home for the barbarian race.
If they did not solve this problem, Chiyou City would similarly become a cancer.
There was news that Chiyou was preparing to build Jiuli Country in Wuzhou.
The moment this country was built, the ambitions of the mountain barbarians would be strengthened.
When that time came, even if they could attack Jiuli Country, it would be unknown whether he could recruit people like the times with the mountain barbarian tribes.
The situation that faced Shanhai City was not optimistic.
Ouyang Shuo did not forget that he was the number one enemy in Chiyou’s eyes.
He had to deal with the problem of how to face Tianping Country and Chiyou City.
Luckily, he was not fighting alone.
After Cobra left, Ouyang Shuo sent a message to Mulan Yue. He asked her to tell Baiqi to come over the next day for a meeting.
4th month 26th day.
9 AM, Baiqi returned back to Shanhai City through the Mulan House teleportation formation.
Ouyang Shuo gathered Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo, along with Commander in Chief Baiqi to discuss about the situation in the north. Cobra was also authorised to join in.
Under the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, he reported the intel from yesterday.
After that, Cobra directly left.
The following meeting was highly classified, so Ouyang Shuo could only allow the four of them to sit in.
Ever since Zhao Kuo became the secretary of the War Division, he had not shown any of his ability. After listening to the report, his eyes brightened.
He knew that his time to shine was here.
