The World Online

Guilin Prefecture, Bushan City.

Bushan City was located in the central region of Guilin Prefecture, and it was the largest city inside the prefecture. Outside of the city flowed the famous Lijiang River in a downward stream. The sights and scenery of Guilin were completely beautiful.

The command center of the alliance army was set in Bushan City.

Along with the sweeping operation of Guilin Prefecture coming to an end, the various Lords shifted their troops over to the city.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, members of the South Alliance traveled along with their troops. In the end, they all had to commit suicide to return to their territories. Since that incident, Lords were really careful about following their troops to battle.

Among the Lords of the Xiangnan City-State, only Caiyun Zinan and another Lord called Gu Henxiao followed the troops.

Gu Henxiao was the Lord of Li Mu.

As for the Chuanbei Province, as they temporarily had not formed a city-state, the ten Lords had to follow their troops out. Their representative figure was a person known as West Gate Big Official.

The reason he named himself that was because he was a famous playboy in reality. When he entered the game, he relied on his family’s support to grow powerful.

In the Chuanbei Province, West Gate Big Official could be considered the number one figure.

The Lords had gathered at Bushan City to command the troops, but most importantly, they were here to discuss how to split the spoils of war. The huge Guilin Prefecture was a piece of fatty meat no matter how one looked at it.

After taking it down, they needed plenty of discussion to decide on how to divide this cake.

Apart from that, how to arrange the troops to defend the prefecture was another topic. Since they took it down, no matter who it was, they would want to keep it.

Moreover, to run Guilin Prefecture, one naturally needed to house a large number of troops.

Although the alliance army had caught Shanhai City off guard, their worry and fear of them did not decrease in the slightest. Instead, they became even more wary of this tiger.

Based on their sources, the Chuanbei Province had already started to build a city-state to effectively counter Shanhai City.

As such, the alliance army wanted to immediately take down both passes.

As long as one defended both of these passes, they would not lose Guilin Prefecture. On the contrary, if they lost the passes, defending Guilin Prefecture would be a task of the highest difficulty.

24th day, morning, the battle reports for the two passes were passed on to the command center.

Xuanwu Pass was smoothly taken down. However, Shanhai City successfully defended Guiping Pass.

When the various Lord received this news, their breath got stuck in their throats. It could not go up or down, making them feel extremely uncomfortable.

The loss at Guiping Pass terrified all of them. They were worried that when they woke up, the huge Shanhai City Army would bear down on them in an all out confrontation.

The only person that remained calm and composed was the Lord of Caiyun City - Caiyun Zinan.

Lord’s Manor, West Cross Courtyard.

This courtyard was the place where Caiyun Zinan stayed. Both the inside and the outside of this courtyard were heavily guarded.

Caiyun Zinan sat in the middle of the main hall.

Below him sat a middle-aged scribe, his face white without a beard, and his features exceedingly distinct. This scribe was the advisor that Li Mu had mentioned, and he was similarly another amazing person.

He was none other than the person who was given the title of Strategy Saint, Zhang Liang.

Zhang Liang, also known as Zi Fang. He was an exceptional military advisor that appeared at the end of Qin. Along with Han Xin and Xiao He, they were termed as the three greats of Han. He was born in an aristocratic family, and his grandfather, father, and previous generations were all ministers of the Han King.

As the Han Country was destroyed by the Qin Country, Zhang Liang decided to go against the Qin.

He convinced Liu Bang to act humble during the Hongmen Feast and not show off his power. He also worked together with Xiang Yu’s father, Xiang Bo, to ensure that Liu Bang was able to escape. After which, he came up with a plan to help Liu Bang obtain the world during the Chu Han War. He helped Liu Yi become the prince and was given a title of Lord.

Zhang Liang was an olden thinking type of person, and he did not care about power. In his later years, he followed Chi Songzi out to travel.

Liu Bang once evaluated him with these words, ”Zhang Liang’s plans in the tent helps to decide battles thousands of miles away.”

Descendants respected his strategies and plans, terming him as the Strategy Saint.

As a result of this title, his evaluation grade was higher than Baiqi, Han Xin, and Xiao He. He was an actual Saint rank historical person.

To be able to gain the support of Zhang Liang, this alone showed that Caiyun Zinan was special.

One must know that although many Saint rank figures like Jiang Shang, Sun Wu, and Meng Zi lived in Shanhai City, they did not truly work for Shanhai City, different from Zhang Liang and Caiyun Zinan.

Caiyun Zinan was probably the first Lord to have a saint grade figure work for him.

One had to say, this person had great ability, and he had kept the matter really close to the chest. No wonder he could shine during the Battle of Julu and become the brightest dark horse.

In truth, during the Battle of Julu, Caiyun Zinan had activated the recruitment quest of Zhang Liang. After the Battle of Julu ended, Caiyun Zinan went through a tough and arduous test in the wilderness before finally gaining his trust and allegiance.

This arduous journey was not something that Lords like Ouyang Shuo, who recruited historical talents so easily, could understand. After all, be it on the battle map or in the wilderness, Ouyang Shuo had smoothly recruited people without much difficulty.

The only exception was probably Jiang Shang.

That old man only agreed to become the principal of Xinan University after Ouyang Shuo tried so much.

Apart from that would be Fan Li.

Who knows whether the Black Snake Guards had managed to find him yet.

……

”Zi Fang, this time, Guiping Pass was not taken down. What plans do you have to salvage the situation?” As it was hard for him to recruit Zhang Liang, Caiyun Zinan had the utmost faith and trust in him.

When Zhang Liang heard that, he smiled, ”Lord does not need to worry, even though it was much of a surprise that we did not take it down. But after all, our opponent is not a simple person.”

”Since that’s the case, Zi Fang, do you have a plan?” Caiyun Zinan asked.

”That’s right. We did not take down Guiping Pass, but that is not much of a problem. We just need to build a large-sized pass at the entrance to Guilin Prefecture. With that, we can similarly defend against the enemy.”

”Brilliant plan!” Caiyun Zinan was delighted.

”Lord must take the matter of defending the Xuanwu Pass seriously.” Zhang Liang changed the topic, ”The Xuanwu Pass is not considered a dangerously steep area, so we were able to take it down easily. This also means that they could naturally take it back easily. Hence, the important matter would be to fortify the pass with more troops.”

”That makes sense; I’ll make arrangements.” Caiyun Zinan nodded, ”The troops in charge of sweeping Guilin Prefecture have finished their mission, so they can move into Xuanwu Pass.”

”Adding troops only solves the problem on the surface. To solve the core issue, we need to build a stronghold,” Zhang Liang added.

”Building two strongholds at once will use up a lot of resources.”

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, he knew that he was in a tough situation, and his expression showed it.

Zhang Liang was intelligent, and he could guess the situation from that slight change in expression, ”What thoughts do the other Lords have on the post war plans of Guilin Prefecture?”

Based on the plan that Zhang Liang had made before the war, the cooperation to take down Guilin Prefecture was not to occupy the land. Rather, it was to create a buffer zone between them and Shanhai City.

After all, to the Lords of the two provinces, apart from Caiyun City, the rest were still at the county grade. They did not need to worry about a lack of land.

Just the land within the prefecture itself was enough to give them a headache.

Hence, if it was solely to occupy the land, there was no need for them to do so much.

At its roots, attacking Guilin Prefecture was a strategic plan. After all, if Shanhai City took it down, the territory would be connected to the two provinces.

With an enemy sleeping beside you, how could you be able to fall asleep?

As such, they started the war.

Taking down Guilin Prefecture meant that the situation had changed.

If Shanhai City wanted to go up north to attack the two provinces, they had to go past Guilin Prefecture. With that, the two provinces would have time to react and adapt.

Apart from that, fighting in Guilin Prefecture would allow them to accomplish their goal of defending their own territory, not allowing the flames of war to spread to their own province.

This act was killing two birds with one stone.

Hence, before the battle, the alliance army had a clear internal plan for Guilin Prefecture. They would turn it into a military region that was under shared control. All the income from the prefecture would be poured into the alliance army troops housed there.

With that, they would be able to maintain a huge alliance army, and it would not cause a burden on their territory’s finances. It was the same as spending others money to develop your own army.

Be it the plan before the war or the arrangements post war, the entire plan was closely linked, and it had a high developmental potential.

And the person who came up with this plan was the Strategy Saint Zhang Liang.

It was this plan that attracted the Lords of the Wannan City-State and the Lords of Chuanbei Province, with West Gate Big Official as their representative.

However, Zhang Liang did not expect that once they succeeded, under the huge temptations of the rewards, some of the Lords could not sit still.

Which was to say that on this matter, some of the Lords had started to become selfish.

Actually, before Caiyun Zinan came to meet Zhang Liang, he had met up with the other Lords. Their intentions were to directly split up the rewards before having further discussions.

As such, when he heard Zhang Liang’s suggestion to build two passes at once, he was placed in a tough spot.