Chapter 43 Complex Situation (1/2)

Chapter 43 – Complex Situation

October 1st.

Tong sat in the main tent in his camp, listening to the intelligence reports that his father's men and Yuan family had gathered for him.

Tong's face was distorted. He didn't like how the situation developed one bit.

Han Fu was preparing 8,000 men to attack An Ping County from the South!

And Guo Dian increased his troop funding and conscripted more men, he now had over 9,000 men! They would depart from Julu County and attack Tong's camp from the West.

And one more depressing news, Liu Yan from the Ji County on the North would send 3,000 men to aid Guo Dian!

'What a fudging honor for having you 20,000 sister****ers coming for my 2,000 soldiers. Why don't all of you just simply march along with your grandparents so you can increase it to 200,000!'

Tong retorted in his mind in a bad mood. This was the first time that Tong had tasted despair in this world.

But at the same times, he had heard a good news and another bad news. Feng Ji was considerate enough to send him two platoons of reinforcements leading by Yan Liang and Gao Lan.

Yan Liang would intercept Han Fu Army while Gao Lan troops would detach from Yan Liang forces and come to help Tong and his family.

The dispatch of the Yuan family was ordered by Yuan Shao himself. He was still in Luo Yang with his entire main family living there. But he already had heard about Zhang Jiao and Tong's business and cooperation between them and his branch family.

Yuan Shao also knew that the main purpose of Han Fu's mobilization was to humiliate him. So he didn't hesitate to answer Han Fu in kind.

A total of 15,000 Yuan family elites were coming from Nan Pi!

From a simple quarrel between Guo Dian and Tong had turned into a complex situation of the entanglement between five factions. It escalated into a scale that Tong didn't want to see.

Once the battle started, all eyes in China would be gazing and evaluating every participants of this battle. Then every otherworlders would know about his existence and his general location.

Tong had no choice but to raise more number of his soldiers for this larger scale of battlefield.

”Second uncle, third uncle. I need you to conscript the men in the nearby villages. I'll pay the soldier one gold per person if they agree to come and help us.”

Zhang Liang gazed at Tong in solemn. This was a crisis that they would face together so his personal feeling for Tong didn't matter anymore.

Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao nodded and left, leaving Tong alone in the main tent.

Another bad news that Tong had learnt, Zhang Jiao still hadn't come back from the beer business dealing. His father sent him a letter, telling him that Feng Ji intentionally held him back from returning. They wanted the Zhang family to quell the situation at hands first before they continued our business dealing, so they kept his father there for his safety.

It made sense at the first glance. But in Tong's opinion, Feng Ji held his father as a hostage. If Tong lost this fight, Zhang family would be forced to join the Yuan family. If Tong won, then the Yuan family could still take advantage from Tong by having Zhang Jiao there.

Tong could only blame himself for the development of this situation as the consequences of his greed. He shouldn't trust that old fox Feng Ji from the very beginning. Tong swore that he would remember this grudge and would pay it back 10 folds if anything were to happen to his father.

Tong glanced at one of the letter. It was from Ju Shou. It described the number of troops and the general that was dispatched in this campaign.

Tong was gratified by his action. He knew about this person.

In the history, Han Fu would abandoned his post and surrendered Ye City to Yuan Shao. Ju Shou would switch side and became one of the top advisors of Yuan Shao later.

Tong wished that he could have someone like Ju Shou as his strategist or a domestic minister. Tong couldn't continue handling everything by himself.

…

Tong went to see his camp and his fortress. No one was working around the fortress anymore. It had been finished last month and all tools and weapons were in places.

In front of the fortress, there were pill boxes made by bricks, woods and clay. Inside the pill boxes lied a human-size repeated crossbows.

On top of the fortress, arrow ballistae and more repeated crossbows were settled. Patrol soldiers also stood there, performing their duties.

The trenches had been finished and was hidden under piles of straw, leaves and mud. Wooden stakes and barricades were placed in between the trenches.

Inside the fortress, there were plenty of spaces for soldiers and for the villager sanctuaries. Once the war broke out and if the villagers couldn't escape in time, they could remain in the fortress until the fight was over.

Then Tong saw Wen Chou. At usual, he was inspecting the fortress layout and mumbled to himself.

”Sir Wen Chou, do you understand the meaning of this arrangement?”

Tong teased Wen Chou.

”Haiz, I'm a cavalry general for life. I've never handled a defensive strategy. But from the looks of it, even I can't think of a plan to siege and take down these things.”

Tong was happy to hear Wen Chou's praise. If one of the monster general like him acknowledged this, then Tong would have more confident in this battle.