Chapter 136: Prelude to War

It was already nighttime when Li Zhan and his party returned to Ejia Village.

The elderly village chief, E Teng, stood anxiously at the entrance of the village, constantly peering out into the distance. The NPCs standing beside him—Murong Yan, Wan Huai, Zhao Ming, Zhang Feng, and others—were doing the same. Everyone knew that Li Zhan and his group had gone out to scout the enemy's situation; since they had not returned this late, could something unexpected have happened?

When Li Zhan and the others spurred their horses to the village entrance, the heavy stones in the hearts of the NPCs finally dropped. They hurriedly stepped forward to surround the group, inquiring with concern about the findings of the reconnaissance mission. Li Zhan and his companions handed their horses over to the villagers nearby while giving a general account of the overall situation.

Only the plan of using fire was kept strictly confidential. There were quite a few idlers in the village and town, consisting of both NPCs and players, so maintaining a certain level of caution was still very necessary.

Entering the village hall and going up to the second floor, Li Zhan made sure there were no miscellaneous people around before he revealed the next deployment plan of Captain Shen to E Teng: the military situation had temporarily changed; before midnight tomorrow, all law-abiding villages, towns, and tribes must dispatch a force of ten to fifteen soldiers to the temporary encampment of the official government's army. Wandering players were also allowed to participate, and rewards would be given after the battle. The specific deployment would be subject to orders when the time came. Before then, they should use the entire day tomorrow to prepare their respective troops for each village, town, and tribe.

E Teng nodded repeatedly in agreement, arranged for Li Zhan and the others to rest in the village hall and the inn respectively, and hurriedly woke up the village's craftsmen to work through the night to produce military equipment and supplies. That same night, Shen Kuo dispatched another dozen cavalrymen carrying his handwritten letters to deliver orders to all law-abiding villages, towns, and tribes. Just like Ejia Village, all the villages, towns, and tribes that received the orders worked through the night to forge and manufacture various weapons and equipment in preparation for replacement during wartime.

During the daytime of the second day, Li Zhan allowed Zhao Ming, Zhang Feng, and the accompanying soldiers to rest well, along with the twenty players who had traveled with the army. Maintaining ample energy was essential to welcome the fierce battle in the evening.

After dinner, E Teng brought out a portion of the wooden shields and feathered arrows that had been urgently crafted and handed them to Li Zhan's soldiers.

The defense of the wooden shield was very low, providing only 1 point (belonging to shield defense), and the parry chance was even lower at just 1%, with very poor durability (ranging between 5 and 7). Li Zhan's soldiers had never equipped such chicken-rib items. However, since it was the kind intention of the elderly village chief E Teng, Li Zhan certainly would not refuse it. He had all six swordsmen equip wooden shields, and both he and the twenty-plus players took one for themselves as well.

Zhang Feng and his five foot archers had always been using standard quivers, which could hold 20 arrows. In the Central Plains region, due to frequent warfare, military equipment was clearly taken quite seriously; even an NPC village like Ejia Village provided its foot archers with improved quivers that could hold 27 feathered arrows or 32 featherless arrows. They were only slightly heavier, but fortunately, archers did not participate in close-quarters combat and did not have very high requirements for their own agility.

What pleased Li Zhan the most was that E Teng had also instructed his craftsmen to mount iron-plate armor onto the four ballistae. The iron-smelting industry in the Jiangnan region fell short of the Central Plains, and the iron-smelting technology of Yanhuang Village and Town was already relatively advanced around Danyang; currently, the craftsmen in the village and town had only mastered the "forging" technique. As for this kind of extension built upon forging, Wang Hui and the others could barely manage it, but they certainly could not do it with such proficiency.

After the iron-plate armor was added, the armor defense of the ballistae immediately increased by 10 to 15 points (the technique was still not fully refined, and the performance was insufficiently stable), greatly enhancing their survivability. Of course, this kind of armor was only suitable for mounting on bulky military machinery like ballistae, differing by a vast margin from the iron armor that soldiers could wear.

After being meticulously outfitted by E Teng, the equipment of Li Zhan's soldiers showed a slight improvement: each swordsman now had a wooden shield in addition to their leather armor and iron sword. The archers were also clad in leather armor and now carried improved quivers on their backs, loaded with 27 feathered arrows. The four ballistae, draped in iron-plate armor, looked quite imposing.

Li Zhan stood before everyone, took a look, and smiled. Not bad. Quite a commanding presence.

E Teng mustered fifteen soldiers, consisting of 5 spearmen, 7 swordsmen, and 3 foot archers. The weapons and equipment of these soldiers were similar to those of the government troops; the swordsmen all wielded uniform standard iron swords without any high-grade iron swords. In terms of defense, they likewise only possessed their own base defense, lacking the supplementation of external clothing and leather armor, making their survivability a cause for concern.

Li Zhan had not brought extra leather armor and clothing beforehand, so although he was worried, there was nothing he could do.

Once the soldiers had assembled, the players also arrived swiftly. Ejia Village had over a hundred players participating in this operation, and their strength already greatly surpassed that of the soldiers. After considering the matter, E Teng decided to lead the players himself and hand over command of his soldiers to Li Zhan, to which Li Zhan nodded in agreement.

By this time, the sky had grown dusky. Li Zhan and E Teng led the formation of soldiers and players as they began marching toward the government army's encampment over sixty miles away. The four ballistae clearly enjoyed E Teng's "favor"; not only were they fitted with armor, but four specialized carts were also produced for them (costing: 25 wood, 1 gold, and 1 civilian horse), driven by villagers trailing behind the procession.

The journey passed without incident. At 23:00 game time, Li Zhan and E Teng led the crowd to arrive at the government army's camp.

All the law-abiding town mayors and tribal chieftains had already arrived, leading their respective soldiers and players to line up in order. The interior of the encampment was brightly lit with blazing fires and filled with the clamor of voices. When Li Zhan and E Teng's contingent walked through the camp gates, the players, who had been making a great ruckus just moments before, instantly fell silent.

They saw that Li Zhan was actually wearing leather armor! Where on earth did this come from?!

Before they could recover from their astonishment, Zhao Ming, Zhang Feng, and the soldiers under their command followed Li Zhan through the camp gates with neat, synchronized strides. Every single one of these twelve soldiers was dressed in neat leather armor, their sky-blue military attire making them look exceptionally heroic and valiant. Even the government's cavalry and mounted archers, who had originally been quite complacent, could not help but widen their eyes in disbelief.

When the four ballistae, draped in iron-plate armor, were also pushed into the military camp by the players, the entire encampment finally boiled over—

"Oh gods, am I seeing things? Those are ballistae!"

"That's right, they're ballistae! Where on earth did they get those?!"

"What the heck, there's more than one! Let me count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... wait, no, I think I counted one too many, there are actually four ballistae! Four ballistae!!"

"I want to report this to the system! There are players cheating here!"

"Tch! A typical case of hating to see others do well! So petty!"

As soon as this party made their appearance, it inevitably sparked shock and suspicion among the players. However, what they did not expect was that even the standard historical hero, Shen Kuo, could not help but walk over with a look of astonishment at that moment, asking Li Zhan:

"Town Mayor Li, what are these odd-looking military machines called? Where did you acquire them?"

Yang'an County was in the feudal era and naturally could not manufacture ballistae. Even though Shen Kuo was a historical hero, he could not understand late-stage weapons and equipment as thoroughly as the players did. For him to be able to tell at that moment that these were military machines was already quite commendable; as for the term "ballista," such a definition did not yet exist in his train of thought.

Li Zhan smiled and said:

"This thing is called a ballista. It was obtained purely by coincidence and is not worth mentioning."

It was indeed rather difficult to explain. He certainly could not tell Shen Kuo that he had looted them from the Black Fiend Tribe. Doing so in front of so many people would seemingly not do his image any favors.

After all, Shen Kuo was an NPC and did not harbor burning jealousy over new equipment the way players did. Receiving Li Zhan's vague reply, he nodded and asked no further questions. Walking up to the four ballistae, Shen Kuo reached out to touch them and smiled with satisfaction.

Subsequently, Shen Kuo turned around, quelling the uproar among the players, and declared:

"Tonight, we shall officially launch an offensive against the bandits entrenched on Niutou Mountain. According to the strategy provided by Town Mayor Li of Yanhuang Village and Town in Danyang County, this official has decided to execute a fire attack against the bandit stronghold! All town mayors and tribal chieftains, hear my orders..."

Following a round of troop deployment...

Although the town mayors and chieftains had brought a relatively large number of personnel—adding up to over a thousand people—their combat effectiveness was uneven and their discipline lax. Therefore, this operation would still be spearheaded by the government troops, occupying the center position, while the forces of the villages, towns, and tribes would serve as auxiliary support on the flanks. Players below level 15 were arranged behind the main center force.

With the formation arrayed outside the military camp, the time had already reached 0:00. Shen Kuo mounted his warhorse, waved his hand, and shouted, "Advance!" An army of nearly two thousand men set off in a grandiose march toward Niutou Mountain.

Because Li Zhan and his party were clad in leather armor and possessed higher defense, Shen Kuo specially arranged them in the backbone of the center force, surrounded entirely by solemn-faced NPCs and players.

Walking within the procession, Li Zhan was enveloped in the center by Bouncing Fish, Ocean Girl, the four player leaders, and their subordinate players. Zhao Ming and Zhang Feng led the twelve soldiers of Yanhuang Village and Town at the front, while Ejia Village's fifteen soldiers brought up the rear. The four ballistae were pushed by eight swordsmen from the government troops, bringing up the very end of the center force.

When they had marched to within a dozen miles of Niutou Mountain, the game time had already reached past 2:00 AM. Shen Kuo dispatched ten cavalrymen to scout ahead, tasked with carrying fire-starting materials to designated locations to set fires in accordance with the daytime deployment, while the remaining troops continued their steady advance.

As Li Zhan walked within the formation for a while, he pondered that once the bandit stronghold suffered a fire attack, they would undoubtedly send people back to fetch water from the small river behind the mountain to extinguish the flames. He had already considered this issue during the daytime; if they could dispatch a detachment of troops to ambush the bandits near the small river, it would undoubtedly plunge the bandits into even greater chaos, leaving them unable to cope with crises on multiple fronts.

The problem was that his thirty or so subordinates were clearly not enough. An ambush might succeed once, but once the bandits dispatched reinforcements, his people would only have the option of fleeing.

Unless some government troops could be borrowed.