The World Online

Shanhai City, Military Affairs Bureau.

The command center was set at the yamen of the Military Affairs Bureau. Du Ruhui, Zhao Kuo, and the newly appointed Xiahou Dun were all present. Apart from them, the Military Intelligence Division, the War Division, and Combat Logistics Department all sent their elite members to join in.

When Ouyang Shuo walked into the command center, he saw a busy sight.

On the north wall of the hall was a nine meter long, five meter wide giant map of Nanjiang. From east to west the map included Yunnan Province, Chuanbei Province, Chuannan Province, Xiangnan Province, Lingnan Province, Jiangchuan Province, and Minnan Province.

Amongst these locations, Yunnan, Chuanbei, and Lingnan Province were the most detailed and located at the middle of the map.

In the middle of the hall was similarly a nine meter by five meter giant sand boar. They most crucial Battle of Lingnan wsa being played out on the board; the three prefectures of land of the Lingnan City-State could be seen clearly on it.

Especially White Stone City in Jiaozhou Prefecture; it was marked with a red flag.

Intel was sent periodically to the command center. The War Division strategist would refresh the details on the board based on the intel for Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo to make decisions.

”Monarch!” Du Ruhui rushed over.

Ouyang Shuo’s arrival caused the command center to instantly quieten down.

”Keming, what’s the situation?”

Du Ruhui pointed to White Stone City in the center of the sand board and reported, ”Monarch, as expected, the enemy chose the teleport ambush tactic and the first location they chose was White Stone City.”

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the land around the city and smiled, ”They chose a great place.”

”That’s right. This time, they are going all out, gathering 250 thousand troops. I just got news that Fan Lihua’s legion has already reached outside White Stone City and are setting up camp.”

Fan Lihua knew that White Stone City was a trap but still acted like nothing was wrong and arrived outside the city. They made their final preparations before sieging like usual; their goal was to not alert the enemy.

Without mentioning Fan Lihua’s legion, even Shi Wanshui and Er’Lai’s legions did not show any signs of moving toward Fan Lihua’s legion.

Only the Tiger Legion Corps 1st legion led by Sun Bin was proceeding toward White Stone City.

All of this was to confuse the enemy.

In truth, this was a risky move that required Fan Lihua’s legion to hold off the attacks of 250 thousand soldiers before any reinforcements arrived.

Going one against three, one really had to sweat for her.

Such a scenario was only because the chess pieces that the Shanhai Guards placed down in the Alliance Army had not succeeded.

The Black Snake Guards and Shanhai Guards had different roles. The Black Snake Guards spies were mainly players while Shanhai Guards were mainly NPCs. Hence, it was easier for the Shanhai Guards to infiltrate the enemy.

Around three months prior, the Shanhai Guards had buried more than 10 chess pieces in the Alliance Army. The three legions were waiting for the key piece to do his work.

”Has Number 32 sent any news?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Number 32, the most outstanding spy of the Shanhai Guards, occupied the position of colonel in the Alliance Army. Ouyang Shuo even participated in the workings for Number 32. He had a formation breaking talisman that was the key to this battle.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, Yuan Ping used a formation breaking talisman to take down Tianshuang County. Ouyang Shuo wanted to use Yuan Ping’s own poison against him to break the teleportation formation of White Stone City and lock the Alliance Army in.

With that, the Battle of Lingnan would become an encirclement.

If they win this battle, Lingnan Province would be in the bag.

The China region was complicated and had too many uncertain factors. Ouyang Shuo did not want to play any cat and mouse games with the Alliance Army. The moment he locked onto his target, he was going to kill them all.

Their weakness this time was naturally the teleportation formation.

However, breaking the teleportation formation when they enemy was prepared against it was highly difficult.

Now, they could only hope that Number 32 could work his magic.

”Number 32 has sent news that with the workings of the other spies, it’s his regiment turn to defend the formation tonight. The chance to break the formation is tonight.” Du Ruhui smiled as he reported.

”Great, then let’s wait for it.” Ouyang Shuo was prepared to just camp in the command center. Without a confirmation, he was not even going to sleep.

The huge command center went into overdrive once more.

Lingnan Province, Jiaozhou Prefecture, White Stone City.

The enemy troops coming as expected made Yuan Ping and the others delighted. Now they just needed to wait for Fan Lihua’s legion to siege, and the 250 thousand troops lying in wait would give them a huge surprise.

Everything went smoothly; the only exception was that they were taking too long to get prepared.

Fan Lihua’s legion reached the surroundings at noon. An entire afternoon has passed, but they still had not taken action. Based on what the spies reported, the enemy was building a camp.

As the sun set, a huge camp started to rise up from the plains.

”They are being too careful, right?” Some of the Lords did not understand.

Based on the fighting-style of the Shanhai City Army, not mentioning noon, even in the afternoon after they reached the city they would siege.

”White Stone City has a different geography so playing it safe is also pretty normal.”

”That’s right, no matter, what she’s an Emperor Rank general. It’s in her nature to think that there’s a scheme going on, so she did not want to siege.”

The Lords all tried to give various logical explanations.

In the afternoon, they were starting to hesitate, thinking about whether they should sneak attack before their legion settled down.

In the end, they gave up on that tempting idea.

If they attacked, they would be exposing their target. In the end, they would not be able to kill all of them.

If they only crushed them and did not annihilate them, it would be a failure for the Alliance Army. That was because Shanhai City would not give them so many chances to set up an ambush.

Secondly, the enemy was the Shanhai City Army.

Their soldiers were extremely strong, and their abilities were recognized by the world. Even when they were setting up camp, Yuan Ping and the others did not think that they would not be wary.

Thinking about that, the chances of succeeding became even slimmer.

Hence, the most stable way would be to wait for the enemy to siege before surrounding them.

In the City-States, there were some conservative Lords and some excited ones. Everyone gathered to discuss strategies. In the end, they chose the safer option.

This was the pros of discussing ideas but it was also a con.

There would never be a case where they settled on a bold and risky decision.

With that, they had wasted a golden opportunity for the Alliance Army to fight back. If they chose to strike out, Fan Lihua’s legion could only try their best to hold on.

With or without the fortress, moat, and other defenses, whether or not they could hold on or not was a mystery.

...

As night fell, it was total silence.

Fan Lihua’s legion camp was still busy; the high camp walls blocked the eyes of the Alliance Army spies. Within it, various defense works were being built up.

Along the wooden walls of the camp fortress, a large number of soldiers were digging out moats. Within the moats, numerous arrow turrets and barricades were being placed up.

Weirdly, at the center of the fortress, the army was repairing the area, similar to an inner city. If the Alliance Army spies saw this scene, they would immediately see through the intentions of Fan Lihua’s legion.

How was this fortress preparing for a siege? They were obviously getting ready to defend.

...

6 PM, White Stone City.

The soldiers guarding the teleportation formation had a change of guard. After checking their identity tokens, they passed by one another.

The officer was a young general called Song Gui. He came from Huadong County in Jiaozhou Prefecture and joined the County three months ago. He used his skills to be promoted to colonel.

His family background was clean.

How would Yuan Ping and the others, including the Lord of Huadong County, know that Song Gui was a spy nurtured by the Shanhai Guards? He mixed into the refugees and entered Huadong County like nothing had happened.

More than half of the Shanhai Guard spies used such a method to enter their target areas.

Three hours had passed and everything went about as usual.

The night sky got darker and darker. At this point, there was only moonlight left. Under the light, the faces of the soldiers became blur and hard to see.

The sentry that stood for a full three hours without moving and on full focus felt their attention start to wane, and their body started to reject it.

Just at this moment, on the streets that were listed as a prohibited area, the sound of pushcarts could suddenly be heard. ’Gulu gulu!’ During the quiet night, this sound pierced the ear.

”Who is it? This is a prohibited area, you cannot enter!”

As expected, the small pushcart was quickly intercepted.

”Sir, I’m here to bring supper.” The person pushing the cart was an old man with a hunched back. He had a wide smile on his face.

He opened one of the wooden barrels and instantly a wonderful scent spread out.

”Sir, take a look; it is barbecued chicken!”

’Gulp!’

The soldier could not help but swallow his saliva.

”Who asked you to send supper, don’t you know this is a prohibited area?” The soldier’s attitude became gentler.

”I’m the one!”

Just at this moment, noises sounded out from behind their backs.

The soldier was stunned; he turned around and bowed, ”Colonel!”

The one who came was Song Gui; he exchanged glances with the old man before turning to the soldier that was still standing at his sentry post. He smiled, ”Boys, you have all worked hard. Today, I’ll treat all of you to supper, so fill your stomachs up.”

”Yay!”

Since it was the words of the colonel, the soldiers who were famished were naturally delighted.

”Come, come, come, fresh from the oven!”

The old man pushed the cart and walked through the middle of the military formation.Like he was performing magic, he took out chicken after chicken.

”Sir, there’s also some wine here; would you like some?”

”Sure!”

The soldiers smiled in delight, giving the old man the thumbs up.

Great wine with chicken, what in the world could be compared to that? Under the temptation of good food, the soldier formation instantly slackened and the place became chaotic.