The World Online

”Guys, where do you all think the key to the Battle of Zhaoqing lies?”

Hefu looked around and asked solemnly.

”Surprise?”

”No.” Hefu shook his head, “The Shanhai City Army isn’t composed of amateurs. Even if we launch a sneak attack, we would fail to gain victory with a single battle alone. You guys have probably heard of the battle of Tanmu County?”

”How would we not?” a Lord replied, ”Shanhai City had a division trapped. Even then, the attacking army couldn’t do anything to them.”

At this point, all the other Lords probably understood.

That was right, under such terrible conditions, the alliance army still failed to do anything to the Shanhai City Army. It was just wishful thinking to try and replicate such a situation.

After such a lesson, the Shanhai City Army would unlikely fall for the same trick.

Winning stably and safely was their strategy.

Amongst the uproar, Yuan Ping suddenly stood up and loudly proclaimed, “I feel that the key to the battle is how to prevent reinforcements!”

When the other Lords heard that, they fell into deep in thought.

Only Hefu could not help but frown. Before the meeting, Hefu had a short conversation with Yuan Ping and a few other Lords.

At that time, the few of them had already arrived at a consensus.

If not, Hefu would not have confidence to push such an agenda during the meeting.

What made Hefu unhappy was that Yuan Ping actually did not stick to the agreement. He just directly spoke the conclusion to their meeting. Originally, Hefu was supposed to speak those words.

Hen, you want to increase your influence in the alliance?

The idea was right, but it was such a selfish decision. In his heart, he was already unhappy.

When Yuan Ping noticed the expression on his face, he did not care much.

In such a huge alliance, Hefu alone was not enough. He could not hold such great power, as he did not have the charm. To be able to obtain power, one needed to fight for it. Who cares about going through some despicable means?

Hefu was too old school.

Seeing that his words had shocked all the other Lords, Yuan Ping decided to strike while the iron was hot; he continued, “With the current three division strength of Shanhai City, we aren’t afraid. What we fear is the situation where they send more troops. Think about it, if Shanhai City wants to send reinforcements, what is the fastest way?”

”Tianshuang County!”

At this point, some of the Lords reacted.

”That’s right.” Yuan Ping nodded. He did not seem to notice that Hefu’s face had slowly turned black, as he continued, “The fastest way would be to teleport to Tianshuang County. Hence, the main goal is to strike down Tianshuang County.”

The moment his words sounded out, applause broke out.

Some of the Lords were looking at Yuan Ping with awe and worship.

Of course, some old foxes smelled the gunpowder in the air, so they did not make a sound.

Luckily, Yuan Ping knew what was enough and returned to his seat. He also knew that he could not successfully challenge Hefu in just a day.

Hefu looked coldly at Yuan Ping. However, he wore a large warm smile on his face, “Yuan Ping’s words make sense, and I agree.”

”Now, the key is how to take down Tianshuang County without alerting Shanhai City?”

The teleportation formation had not been destroyed before, so the moment a territory was occupied, the teleportation formation would disappear. This was the way it would normally work.

No one had heard of any teleportation formation being destroyed.

Hence, the moment they attacked Tianshuang County, Shanhai City’s Army could teleport over to assist. If that happened, wouldn’t everything go to waste?

The only way was to prevent Tianshuang County from contacting Shanhai City.

After the system update, during wartime, Gaia had already prevented all communication channels. If one wanted to spread information, they had to go through relays.

Apart from that, Tianshuang City could also directly teleport to Shanhai City to report to them.

Hence, to achieve a situation where both sides did not notice, one had to block up both sides.

This was too hard.

Song Wen was not a fool. During wartime, Tianshuang County was heavily guarded.

You want to send someone in to sabotage?

Difficult!

Even if you infiltrated Tianshuang County and blocked up the teleportation formation and relay, the moment the army arrived, it was over.

Hence, this mission was impossible to complete.

Even Hefu did not have the confidence.

Prior to this meeting, the results of the few Lord’s discussion were: they needed to infiltrate first. Then, would see how long they could cause sustained damage to the structures.

The main goal was to gather up the troops and crush Tianshuang County. Even if the Shanhai City Army teleported over, they would also be finished.

Hefu’s confidence came from two sources.

Firstly, the expensive teleportation costs meant that Shanhai City could not teleport over too many at once; thirty to forty thousand troops was the max.

These troops could not face off against a two hundred thousand men army.

Secondly, Shanhai City could not gather enough troops in such a short amount of time. Shanhai City was not a town but a prefecture, so their main forces would not all be in their main city.

Hence, they could at most send the troops housed in Shanhai City. Those elsewhere, even if they rushed back, South Alliance would have already crushed Tianshuang County at that point.

Based on these two points, Hefu was confident.

Of course, there was an element of risk. After all, the number of troops in Shanhai City was a mystery. No outsider could be certain how many there were.

Apart from that, there would be the possibility of interference from the other Shanhai Alliance members.

The moment Qiyue Wuyi asked for help, they would have a problem at their hands. A hundred thousand men could teleport over at any moment.

Thinking about it, one already had goosebumps.

After all, could they move allies to disturb the other Shanhai Alliance members?

Could they do that? No.

In the end, they were just a regional alliance, without connections and power.

Ask for help, work together?

That was not reliable.

Such a shark, the moment one made contact with them, they would be hard to shake off.

An olden phrase was great here, ‘Inviting a god was easy, sending them away was hard.’

This was only a battle of reinforcements, not one of survival. Hefu definitely would not be willing to associate himself with those wolves.

Hefu was also from an aristocratic family, so he understood the ways of Di Chen and the others.

Too risky.

Hefu was also one with ambition; he would not allow others to take control of him.

So, what should he do?

As the alliance leader, he faced the greatest pressure.

The moment he failed, not only would his alliance leader position be lost, the entire Lingnan Province would be affected. Then, it would merely be a matter of time before they fell into the hands of Shanhai City.

Hence, any battle strategy needed to be carefully thought out to the extreme.

In serious terms, they needed to do everything perfectly. However, the current situation did not allow them to be so careful.

As they all thought about this, the hall fell totally silent. All the Lords seated were not fools. This was a life or death battle; all sides wanted to win.

Attacking Tianshuang County was still risky.

However, they had to do so and quickly at that.

Everyone knew that Tianshuang County was a huge nail in their sights on Zhaoqing. If they did not remove it, they could not go all out against the Shanhai City Army.

If not, when both sides went head-to-head and a huge army suddenly rushed out of Tianshuang County, their plans would be spoilt.

”Why don’t we surround them but not attack?” someone suggested.

”What do you mean?”

Hefu was stunned and asked.

”I mean that we should arrange sixty to seventy thousand troops to surround Tianshuang County. However, we won’t attack them, just surround them. How about that?”

”That’s interesting.”

”However, in that case, we would have to reduce the number of alliance army troops.”

”That’s right, taking out sixty to seventy thousand troops all of a sudden, do we still have the confidence to destroy their main army? You must know that apart from the three divisions, they still have a Garrison Division in Leizhou Prefecture. Along with the Tianshuang County city protection division, their numbers would already reach sixty to seventy thousand.”

”There’s a risk, but it’s better than sieging!”

”If no one has any other ideas for the battle, then that is our only way.”

Hefu sighed and looked around, ‘Any of you have any ideas? This is really important, so please chip in your thoughts.”

The moment his words sounded out, the hall burst with various voices.

The Lords spoke incessantly; they said out their ideas one by one, which were all rejected.

Half an hour later, the voices grew weaker and weaker.

It was obvious that no one had a good idea.

Only Yuan Ping sat calmly at a corner, his mouth slowly turned into a gleeful smile, and his chest pumped up with confidence.

The most crucial person was naturally left last.

”Guys.”

Yuan Ping suddenly stood up. His voice was not loud, but he had become the focal point of the entire hall.

When Hefu saw Yuan Ping’s actions, he felt a growing annoyance. This a**hole, he only knew how to snatch the limelight. However, Hefu did not express his thoughts because of his good upbringing.

Yuan Ping did not care about Hefu’s feelings. For this battle, Yuan Ping was highly confident. He wanted to use this chance to expand his influence in the alliance.

Yuan Ping walked to the middle of the hall and looked around. He smiled, as he said, “Guys, I’ve an item that can break Tianshuang County’s teleportation formation.”

Earth-shattering, truly earth shattering!

”Yuan Ping this matter is huge; you can’t sprout nonsense. The teleportation formation is system-built, so how can you break it?” Hefu could not take it anymore and scolded out.

When Yuan Ping heard this response, a flash of coldness appeared in his eyes, as the corner of his mouth revealed a slight mocking expression.

Hen, I was waiting for these words.

Watch how I’ll deliver a slap to your face.

As expected from a scheming prince, Yuan Ping had really planned it all out. What item was he going to take out that made him feel so confident?