Chapter 485- World in Smoke
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
The Lingnan City-State was not the only factor slowly changing the situation in China.
As they entered the winter season of the Gaia second year, the flames of war rose up.
After the Battle of Julu ended, all the territories entered a power transition. The winners of the battle were enjoying their spoils, as the employed the benefits they had gained. As for those who had lost, they were just hoping that they could survive.
While the fires of war blazed, blood dripped on the battlefield.
The blood-red clouds covered the China skies, not scattering for a long time.
During this period of time, Caiyun City, Fallen Leaf City, and Black Lion City, as well as Swordsman City all became grade 1 prefectures.
The China region now had twelve prefectures.
The next stage, Wufu's Stone County and Sha Pojun's Asura County would also upgrade. The China region was one step away from the fifteen prefecture requirement to trigger the fifth war.
The strong Lords in their region were naturally trying to grind their blades to grab that last spot. After all, when the war began, those that had upgraded to prefecture would reap immense benefits.
No one wanted to lag behind.
The entire wilderness had an impatient atmosphere.
Especially the north of China, as they did not have much time left. In just about two months, an icy air would sweep up the entire region.
At that time, let us not talk about fighting wars, even letting soldiers perform their normal training would pose difficulties. Snow and ice would cover everywhere, bringing freezing temperatures. The entire north region would fall quiet as it went through the winter.
Hence, the Lords had to reach their targets before that happened.
In truth, those feeling impatient and acting up in the wilderness were not only the Lords.
Apart from Huangjin, which was already exterminated, the remaining three uprising armies were planning something.
10th month, 1st day, after Chensheng led his troops to attack the territories in Zhongyuan Prefecture. Afterward, he announced the establishment of his country, officially setting up the Zhangchu Regime in Chen County.
The moment he established it, it became a considerable force in the region. Even Shanhai City, which covered four prefectures, did not match it in terms of size of territory.
The day he established the regime, the Lords in the region hollered in unison, "The wolves are here!"
After Chensheng established his country, he did not foolishly attack Luoyang. He did not even have the intentions of attacking other provinces. His main goal was to calm the people and rest and solidify his rule.
Chensheng, who was living a second life, was not the farmer that others used as a spear. The first peasant uprising leader in China’s history was now walking onto the path to kingship.
The land size of the Zhangchu Regime was simply too great, so they faced enemies on all sides. On the north, there was Fallen Phoenix City, west there was Fallen Leaf City, and on the south, there was Pill Sun City.
East, there was the West Chu Regime of Xiang Yu.
The day that he established the Zhangchu Regime was the day when the wolves started to split the cake.
Almost simultaneously, Fallen Phoenix City, Fallen Leaf City, and Pill Sun City started to gather the territories around them, forming three huge armies and gathering at the border.
A huge war was about to begin in the middle region of China.
Amusingly, the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had actually become allies for this one time.
Chensheng obviously did not want to surrender. In order to break the situation, he acted in a decisive manner. The same day, he announced that they had officially formed an alliance with the West Chu Regime on the east.
Xiang Yu led the West Chu Regime. After entering the wilderness, they had turned their blades to Ludong Province, north of Peng City. As for the Zhongyuan Province right next to it, they did not move for it.
Probably, at that time, the two powers had already come to a tacit understanding.
After all, Xiang Yu was under Chensheng during the early days, so they had a level of relationship. When they were tossed into such a dangerous position, the two regimes decided to trust one another.
The alliance of the two regimes had made the region more and more complicated.
With that, not only did Chensheng get rid of the threat to the east, he could even obtain help from Xiang Yu.
This alliance had immediately solved the problem of Chensheng lacking able generals. Be it Xiang Yu himself, his grandfather, father, or Xiang Zhuang, they were all generals that one yearned for.
As expected, the day that they allied, Xiang Yan traveled to Chen County to help Chensheng in his military and his establishment of defense lines.
Chensheng even boldly named Xiang Yan as the Zhangchu Great General. With that, it showed that the relationship between the two Chu Regimes were exceedingly close.
Zhangchu was facing off against three player alliance armies.
On the north, the Shanhai Alliance-Phoenix Alliance that Feng Qiuhuang built up had gathered 150 thousand troops. On the west, Piao Linghuan had gathered up one hundred thousand soldiers. On the south, Chun Shenjun had formed a 180 thousand strong army.
Of course, Zhangchu was not a soft egg. After taking over an entire province, their overall soldier strength hit close to six hundred thousand.
Adding up the number of soldiers on both sides, it was close to a million troops.
Undeniably, this war was going to be the largest scale war so far on the main map. It would also cover the largest land area since the start of the game.
The Zhongyuan Region covered a total of five provinces, and they were all embroiled in this battle.
There were even rumors that Di Chen, located in Jingdou, had the intentions of forming another alliance army to come down south to attack.
The Zhongyuan Province was going to face a situation where the powers all wanted a piece of it.
Of course, there was also a chance that all of these powers would face defeat. After all, they were not allies. Not to mention Feng Qiuhuang and Chun Shenjun, who were not even in the same camp.
Even within the Yanhuang Alliance, many did not see eye to eye.
Chun Shenjun and Di Chen, Chun Shenjun and Piao Linghuan; they were enemies.
The three sides were all just fighting for themselves.
It seemed like endless flames of war would envelop the entire Zhongyuan region. Moreover, you might think that all of this had nothing to do with Ouyang Shuo and Shanhai City.
You could not be more wrong.
The entire China region was like a chessboard. Any small movement would radiate out and affect every area.
Furthermore, the Zhongyuan Region was a place where dynasties were started. If there was chaos there, there would be chaos in the entire China region.
The four uprising armies that Gaia had planned were hardly useless.
Furthermore, a pillar of the Shanhai Alliance, Feng Qiuhuang, was entangled in this matter. Ouyang Shuo was not worried about how she did in the main battlefield, but what if Yanhuang Alliance was plotting something?
Hence, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Black Snake Guards to monitor the region closely. At the same time, they would share the intel they obtained with Feng Qiuhuang.
Members of the Shanhai Alliance also gave priority to Fallen Phoenix City. With Ouyang Shuo as an example, even though Shanhai City was expanding their army and needed equipment, he still sold ten thousand god arm crossbows to her.
Ouyang Shuo even promised that if things went south, he would send reinforcements.
One could foresee that the Yanhuang Alliance would naturally do something similar. At the very least, Xiang Ba would care for Piao Linghuan and support him.
With that, it was the same as saying that this huge war had brought in the two most significant alliances. Just with that, it affected the entire China region.
Maybe they thought the world was not chaotic enough. Huangchao, who had kept a low profile for a time, once again appeared. In these few months, they had regained a footing in the south of Wannan Province.
Huangchao followed after Chensheng. He also announced that he had established a country, forming the Daqi Regime in Anqing.
At this point, the three remaining uprising armies had all established their countries and named their kings.
After they established their regime, their ambitions grew once more, and they immediately announced that they were going north to reclaim their lost land.
The Daqi Regime acting meant that the neighboring provinces were wrapped up in this battle. Jiangchuan Province in the south, Jiangnan Province in the southeast, Jianye Region in the northeast, and even the West Chu Regime in the north made moves.
All of a sudden, the southeast region of China started to grow chaotic.
To prevent Daqi from growing, the three provinces started to move their soldiers.
On the south, Gong Chengshi started to form up the Jiangchuan Province alliance army. On the east, Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang were preparing a colossal alliance army.
For this battle, Zhan Lang was hell-bent on destroying Daqi. If not, this kind of peasant uprising would continue to rekindle if they escaped.
From this, one could see that Di Chen leading the alliance army to take out Huangjin was a smart decision. Amongst all the chaos, only Jingdou remained peaceful.
Apart from the Huangchao Uprising Army, the Taiping Country was also making moves.
After swallowing Guilin and Zhen An Prefecture, Hong Xiuquan was going to expand once more. The Chuanbei Province and Yunnan Province were both in the area of attack.
All of a sudden, with the three uprising armies as the core, the entire China region entered a time of chaos.
The peasant uprisings that had built up for ten months finally reached its peak.
The year of the uprising had finally exploded two months before the end of the 2nd year.
These last two months would decide the future fate of the China region.
If they could destroy the three uprising armies, the strength of the Lords would take a step up. On the contrary, if they failed, the future would be a huge mess.
All of this was a test Gaia gave to the Lords.
Who could stand out from this test? Gaia would pay extra attention to those who managed to do so.