541 Zhuge Liang and Jia Xus Insigh (1/2)
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Zhang He: ”Mission accomplished. What's the next job?”
Zhuge Liang: ”Well done. Leave Huang Zu's camp and return to Jiangxia and take over the city with your men. When Huang Zu's remnants return home, don't harm them. They're mostly commoners and non-military personal.”
Zhang He: ”I know. They're just innocent peasants.”
The infiltration and the assassination was one of Zhuge Liang's scheme.
…
While Dong Bai, Guo Jia, and others attacked Sun Ce Army, Zhuge Liang wasn't idle. He had so many good chess pieces in his arsenal.
Zhang Liao
Zhang He
Zhao Yun
These great generals had boosted their cultivation to 7 wings regardless of their physical preparation since the other forces also rush-cultivated their generals. It might harm their future development, but they had no luxury to take their time enhancing their bodies.
Aside from these great generals, several elite officers, such as Gao Shun, Han Hao, Gao Lan, and Qu Yi, increased their strength to 6 wings to match up with Cao Cao's elites.
As for Huang Zhong, his power remained at 4 wings since he was new to the group. It was a direct order from Diaochan that Huang Zhong shouldn't rush like the others as she didn't want to ruin this old veteran's future.
With so many exceptional generals, Zhuge Liang had rooms to send a couple of officers out in a covert operation.
Since Zhang He had Tong's HUD map system skill, Zhuge Liang came up with a scheme. Instead of using him to command his troops at Wulin Port, he sent Zhang He and a few hundred men to infiltrate Jiangxia.
Zhang He entered the city and purposely got himself drafted into Huang Zu's troops. It wasn't hard for a cultivator with great strength to rise up in ranks and got closer to Huang Zu. Moreover, Zhang He still had his HUD map system skill that Tong had given him. Sneaking in as Huang Zu's bodyguard was a simple task.
Meanwhile, the rest of Zhang He's covert unit secretly assassinated Huang Zu's supporters. Now, with Huang Zu's death, they had no problem stealing the city from the local officials.
”As expected of his majesty's [Ghost]. Kekeke!”
Zhuge Liang snickered as he operated his system menu to send more private messages.
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Zhuge Liang: ”General Xu, we have assassinated Huang Zu. You begin the mop-up operation.”
Xu Huang: ”I haven't heard anything about this assassination and this operation. I thought I am to eliminate Huang Zu myself.”
Zhuge Liang: ”I'm sorry about the abrupt change, general. Huang Zu's unit can flank us from the north, so I sent someone to take him out while he was focusing on you.”
Zhuge Liang: ”Yes. I'll talk to her majesty and Strategist Guo after this. I just want to inform you first since you're currently fighting with Huang Zu.”
Xu Huang: ”Alright. I'll wrap this up. I'll report to Guo Jia and you when I'm done with the work. What about Jiangxia City, though?”
Zhuge Liang: ”Zhang He's units should be taking the city from the inside. He is the assassin, by the way.”
Xu Huang: ”You used a great general as an assassin?”
Zhuge Liang: ”Why not? His majesty named him ”Ghost” for a reason.”
Xu Huang: ”…”
…
Settled with Xu Huang and Jiangxia's matters, Zhuge Liang proceeded to the next phase of his plan.
So far, he played a cold war game with Cao Cao Army.
All Zhuge Liang's forces, the Ghost Legion, the Red Hare Legion, and Zhao Yun, were blockading Wulin Port. 150,000 Elites and 50,000 Huang Zhong's soldiers built 1,000 mengchong cannon warships and 10 fortress ships to protect their defensive line.
On the opposite side of Wulin Port, the Red Cliff, aka Chibi Port City, stopped Zhuge Liang's advance toward the east. Within this port city, Cao Cao's 200,000 soldiers gathered here. All of his officers, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Xu Chu, Dian Wei, Cao Ren, and many others were here as well.
Unlike Sun Ce's weak subordinates, most of these officers increased their cultivation base to 6 wings. Dian Wei and Xu Chu were stronger than the rest as they had 7 wings.
Also, Cao Cao had learned a lot from his defeat in the other timeline. He didn't use warships, but he barricaded Chibi Port with traps, trenches, bunkers, and fortification instead.
Cannons, trebuchets, and ballistae were everywhere on the east bank of the Yangtze River. Cao Cao also stocked many barrels of crude oil, arrows, and buckshot cannonballs to contest against Zhuge Liang Army.