Chapter 729-Misdirection
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
"What exactly does Shanhai City want?"
In the command center of the Yunnan City-State, the main Lords had gathered. Everyone was discussing the weird actions of the enemy. Shanhai City not attacking left them feeling rather awkward.
"Is the enemy trying to make us numb? When we put down our guard, they will attack us then?"
"That is a possibility, our enemy is really cunning." Qin Feng nodded in agreement, "I have already ordered the frontlines to maintain their alertness and get ready for war at any moment.
When they heard this, one of the local Mengding Prefecture Lords explained, "I do not think it's that simple. Mengding Prefecture is mainly mountains and hills, so it is not suited for the large-scale strikes of cavalry forces. Even if they try to sneak attack, it would not be of great effect. To make such a weird formation just for a little gain, it does not seem like the style of Shanhai City. I'm guessing that there are other reasons within."
"Then what would be the reason?" Their brains were about to explode, "They cannot be just playing with us, right?"
"Who cares what their goal is, why don't we just attack!" someone suggested.
"No!"
At basically the same time, five to six Lords stepped out to reject this suggestion.
Qin Feng was one of them, "If we defend against Shanhai City's attack, not only can we gain the help of the other City-States, Handan City will also send us troops per the agreement. However, if we initiate the attack, everything changes."
At the very least, the other City-States would not help us contain the Shanhai City Army.
"This cannot work that cannot work, so what should we do?"
"Wait in silence."
"That's right, what we need to do now is to keep calm and not be rash."
"I think Shanhai City will not continue to drag matters on like this. In a few days, they will definitely make big moves." Qin Feng concluded.
The entire meeting hall was silent.
This silence was the last calm before the storm.
9th month, 17th day, Consonance City.
The stars in the sky were covered by clouds, dull with no light.
As it was already passed the curfew time, the city was absolutely silent. Apart from a few bailiffs patrolling the night, there were no other living people.
Occasionally, there were stray cats that jumped across the roofs, stepping on the tiles and making Da Da! sounds, causing dogs to bark. All of a sudden, the wild cat would jump into some house and disappear from sight.
The silence resumed.
On the roads outside the city, an iron armored army appeared at some point. Looking out, the army stretched out for 10 odd miles, their armor shone, and they had knives and spears in hand.
The army sneakily lined up to enter the city, going along the streets that were specially 'cleaned out.' Quietly but swiftly, they moved to the teleportation formation outside of the city.
To prevent spies, based on the agreement, the outer city teleportation formation would stop operation after the curfew time.
Hence, when it reached the curfew time, the most busy teleportation formation in the day would be empty. No one would brave the wind at night to come here to look at the scenery.
Tonight was different. The teleportation formation that was previously stopped now gave out a mysterious blue light. The army did not stop, directly entering the teleportation formation and disappearing.
As there were too many of them, this entire process lasted two hours before coming to an end.
Following which, the city east gate was once again closed, and the bridge was raised up. As darkness covered Consonance City, it was like nothing had actually happened, and things returned to normal as they quietly waited for the arrival of the next day.
As all the planning was top secret, all of this happened sneakily. No one knew how this mysterious operation would affect the situation in the Battle of Nanjiang.
The night sky became darker and darker.
Even the last star was buried in the clouds, disappearing from view. The entire Nanjiang was covered by the clouds of war, destined to not be peaceful.
Under the clouds, who was the chess master and who was the chess piece?
Night, Lingnan Province, Zhenhai City.
Zhenhai City was a lone city outside the territory and was a chess piece that Ouyang Shuo had nailed into the hearts of the Lingnan City-State. Yuan Ping wanted to remove this nail several times but had returned without success.
After all the training, City Magistrate Song Wen had swiftly grown up, becoming really stable and calm when dealing with matters. The Administration Bureau Director Xiao He had a rather high opinion of him and even recommended him to become a governor.
Ouyang Shuo supported Xiao He's opinion. As long as the time was right, his promotion was around the corner.
Obviously, the acts of the Song Family children previously did not affect Ouyang Shuo's trust in Song Wen and Song Wu.
On the other hand, it was Song Jia's father that was uneasy and strengthened his control of the descendants of the family. When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, he even personally went to apologize.
Toward him knowing his place, Ouyang Shuo was very happy. He did not wish that before Shanhai City even established a country to have people messing around in the name of being the Lord's relative.
Such things needed to be killed off before they sprouted.
However, all of this was a little too troublesome for Song Jia. Ahe was stuck in the middle in an awkward situation.
...
On this night, the Zhenhai City that was thousands of miles away from Consonance City was similarly not peaceful.
The Consonance City Army that disappeared into the night walked out one by one from the teleportation formation. Under the leadership of the officer, they quietly entered the barracks that had already been prepared.
The entire process was similarly quiet without noise.
They too were waiting for the sun to rise once more.
If one looked closely, one would find out that the army that appeared here was larger than the one that left Consonance City. This meant that there were other troops that teleported from other cities.
Evidently, this was a large-scale deployment and was not something that was sudden.
Even the barracks that housed the troops had been built in advance, and the granary in Zhenhai City had amassed tens of millions of units of grain, pretty much waiting for their arrival.
Housed in Zhenhai City was the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps. All of the members were taken from the Garrison Divisions of the various prefectures and its Legion General was Fan Lihua.
In the tent, an oil lamp was lit bright.
Fan Lihua did not sit at the main seat but at the first seat on the left. Below her sat City Protection Legion General Er'Lai, opposite was the General of the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps Shi Wanshui.
At the Lord seat sat a young general, the genius general Huo Qubing.
Hence, this time, the Guards Legion, the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps, and the City Protection Legion had all discreetly teleported over.
Every one of them were littered with war contributions.
Speaking of which, the City Protection Legion and the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps were built before Ouyang Shuo went out to sea. When he was building them, the goal was to expand the military and also to prepare for this battle.
There was a reason why the Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion chose Zhenhai City.
A small city along the ocean housed a full legion; if this news was spread, probably no one would believe it.
Shanhai City gave the reason of defending against a sudden attack from Lingnan City-State. In truth, without the legion, they really would not be able to take the few attacks.
When Yuan Ping and the others found out that a full legion was housed inside Zhenhai City, only then did they put aside the thought of taking it down.
"He's such a maniac!" Yuan Ping said.
Even so, Yuan Ping and the others did not make any moves. After all, Shanhai City had always shown the outside that it was going to attack west and the east line was mainly defense.
As for the City Protection Legion being sent to Stone City for training, the meaning within became more obvious.
Hence, for this battle, Shanhai City had prepared for more than half a year. Troops, resources, Intel, and more; every aspect was considered and planned out.
If not, Ouyang Shuo would not be so confident.
After the Guards Legion and the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps reached the border and set up camp, they left in the dead of night, going into Kunming Prefecture and quietly entering Consonance City.
Ouyang Shuo's high profile visit to Consonance City followed by the high profile review of the 3rd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps was all to attract attention, to allow the Guards Legion and the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps to break away.
The merger and the news conference were also for that purpose.
Of course, another reason was to confuse the Lingnan City-State.
With that, all the attention was gathered onto Ouyang Shuo, and no one would have noticed that two-thirds of the Baiqi Army had disappeared.
Even till now, Qin Feng probably still thought that the Baiqi Army housed at the border of Mengding Prefecture was three legions and not just the 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps.
Ouyang Shuo's strategy or performance for a better word was really successful and baited the enemy. Apart from Qin Feng who fell for it, the most pitiful one should be the Lingnan City-State.
Since the start of the Battle of Red Cliff, Ouyang Shuo had pointed his troops at Yunnan City-State. His most elite Guards Legion did not even join in the Battle of Red Cliff and made a high profile advance to the Mengding Prefecture border.
After the Battle of Red Cliff ended, the clouds of war kept hanging over Yunnan City-State. Anyone in China would know that Shanhai City was determined to take it down.
Who knew that since the start, the plan of the Military Affairs Bureau was to destroy Lingnan City-State before going back for Yunnan City-State?
The reason was simple.
Looking at the map of the China region, it was easy to see that Yunnan City-State was just a lone land without any strategic advantages. To take it down was something he could do any time he wanted.
In comparison, the situation in Lingnan City-State was more complicated.