Chapter 280- The Final Battle
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
The news of the Zhao army being trapped by the Qin army had spread to all the countries. All their kings felt numb and could only look on with respect toward the Qin to the west.
Handan was in a deathly silence as the various ministers engaged in a debate.
Some suggested Handan to copy the Qin, enlist all 15 and above young men to form an army, and let Lianpo lead them to attack Hukou Pass. Some suggested to negotiate with the Qin, and with the price of letting off the trapped forces, they would give them Shangdou Prefecture.
Whichever one it was, it was really difficult.
Firstly, acquiring a huge army wasn't something that could be done in a day. Even before they got the army prepared, the Zhao army trapped in Gu Pass would have starved to death.
Even if they could form up an army, they had totally no experience and could never break down Hukou Pass defended by 60 thousand Qin soldiers. Although they were also rookies, they had the experience of one battle; secondly, they had the geological advantage, defensive weapons, and tools.
Hence, that plan would definitely not work; the various countries were scared of the Qin, so they wouldn't send anyone to help the Zhao.
Hence, they could only helplessly send their ambassador to Xianyang.
Be in the Qing king Fanju or Baiqi, their goal was to destroy the Zhao, so how would they let them off when they had the absolute advantage? Based on Fanju's word, Shangdou was already theirs so why should the Zhao give it to them?
Taking out the nail that was the Zhao, they would have a smooth route east and could work toward ruling the land.
Although they had decided to refuse to settle matters with the Zhao, when the ambassador came, Fanju acted like he was very warm and faked sincerity toward him.
Baiqi sent a letter and hoped that they could delay the ambassador and leave some hope for those in Gu Pass to prevent them from fighting with them all.
Fanju loved such as scheme and happily played along.
Hence, the Qing king was hiding away from the Zhao ambassador. While Fanju acted as a prime minister who was trying his best to calm the whole situation, delaying the ambassador and making him stuck in Xianyang.
Just as the ambassador was doing all he could to run around Xianyang, the Changping war zone experienced a moment of peace as both sides stopped fighting.
Everyone knew that this was just temporary, and once the negotiations broke down, the fighting would start once again.
Making use of the chance, Baiqi did a huge reorganization of the army, sending the 100 thousand new troops into the main force and also strengthened the Hukou Pass defense.
At this point, the soldiers defending the Hukou Pass included both old and new soldiers. Even if Handan sent a new army, it was near impossible for them to take down the pass.
After reorganizing the military, Baiqi heaved a sigh of relief. He knew that he had an 80% chance of winning this battle.
His master plan had dazzled Ouyang Shuo and taught him a lot. During the free time, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to talk to Baiqi and talk about territorial matters, and also to bring both of them closer.
Ever since he broke the chariot circle formation, Baiqi's attitude toward Ouyang Shuo had became very positive, and both of them grew much closer. Sometimes, he would discuss with Ouyang Shuo about how to take down Gu Pass.
Baiqi knew that this time, them surrounding the enemy was very different to the first time. The Zhao army now had a camp that they could defend, and they had a reason to go all out and attack before their grain ran out.
To be able to take down the Zhao army without spilling any blood was a near impossible matter.
Hence, no matter how Baiqi theorized and planned, it was still going to be an intense battle.
No matter how the Zhao army tried to breach and escape, they had to face the Qin army. As for how to take down Gu Pass, Baiqi had already starting to make plans. He wanted to smoothly take down the pass with the least casualties.
Up until now, although the Qin army held the absolute advantage, in truth, both sides lost close to half of their men.
In Changping Valley, the 500 thousand men of the Qin and Zhao forces laid in wait.
In a blink of an eye, half a month passed.
The Zhao ambassador achieved nothing in Xianyang, and understood that the Qin would not negotiate and had seen through their scheme, furiously leaving Xianyang.
Even though they saw through their schemes, there was nothing the Zhao could do.
During the time they sent their ambassador to the Qin, Handan didn't lay in wait. They sent out ambassadors with large amounts of goods and gifts to the various countries to try and get them to send troops, but unfortunately it didn't work.
In the Wei country, needless to say, Xinling Lord was locked up. The Qi king, under the advice of Pu Xianru, declined; the Chu king was on the fence in this battle; the worst was Yan country who even wanted to attack the Zhao.
Human nature was cruel, the world was harsh, and what everyone paid attention to were profits and self-gain.
The king of Zhao also activated Lianpo and started to recruit a new army in Handan.
Half a month had passed, and the 100 thousand newbie army had started to form. Even with Lianpo's ability, he didn't have any confidence in his army.
However, because of the tough times, the Zhao couldn't handle it if their entire force collapsed. The Zhao king could only order Lianpo to lead the troops to charge toward Hukou Pass.
However, one could imagine how a 100 thousand man rookie army would do. After the Qin army took over the camp, they reorganized their troops and sorted out their equipment. The soldiers were sent to the city wall and trained in the art of defense, getting familiar with the defensive facilities.
Not only that, Baiqi had also sent Meng Ao over to Hukou Pass. With him there, there would be definitely no chance for Lianpo to take them down.
What Lianpo was up against was such a pass.
Based on his original intention, he didn't want to attack the pass. Unfortunately, he couldn't go against the king's orders, and also because there were many of the men that followed him for years in the Gu Pass army, he couldn't leave them there.
With the continuous attacks, apart from the number of casualties increasing, they had no progress.
As Lianpo attacked the pass, Zhao Kuo, who was at Gu Pass, finally recovered. He naturally wouldn't sit and wait. He needed to break the entrapment before they ran out of grain.
North or south? Zhao Kuo needed to make a choice.
If they went north, not only did he need to go past Ying Bao's camp, but also Hukou Pass. Going south, he naturally needed to go against the South camp and Wang Ling camp.
Whichever side he chose, it wasn't going to be easy.
What was worse was he couldn't move all his troops. Gu Pass was trapped in the middle, and no matter where he chose, Gu Pass would be attacked by the other side.
After considering everything, Zhao Kuo ordered Zhao Zhuang to bring 70 thousand men and defend the southern part of Gu Pass. He led 200 thousand of their main force to attack Ying Bao's camp.
At this point, there were 140 thousand men there. Zhao Kuo, to take down such a camp with only 200 thousand men, was harder than ascending the heavens.
Before leaving, he did a final rally, "Brothers, this is our last chance. Either we succeed or we die trying. There's no third way out."
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" A sad and tragic feeling spread out of Gu Pass, giving them courage and the motivation to attack.
"Move out!" Zhao Kuo ordered.
Di Chen and the other player lords brought their remaining forces, looking on as they walked toward their deaths. At this point, if they refused, they would only be killed.
Both sides were in a life or death battle from the start.
There wasn't any testing out or any luck; it was either you die or I die!
Each battle, one could see the eagerness of each soldier. Each city wall needed one to continuously defend and attack. If the Zhao army took it down, then the Qin army would try to take it back.
The number of dead soldiers could be seen to increase with the naked eye.
Zhao Kuo split his army into two parts, taking turns to attack the wall, not stopping before they succeeded.
The Qin army also wasn't easy meat, Ying Bao leading an army of elites to be a 'firefighting squad.' Every time they appeared, they would take back the lost land.
The red sea and black wave struck at each other again; they stepped on the enemy's corpses and advanced. The cruel battlefield made every soldier into an Asura, and made the battlefield into a living hell.
In their eyes, there was only killing and nothing else.
A morning of attacking had resulted in the Ying Bao camp being in tatters. All the defensive tools were destroyed, and the Qin army could only use their bodies to block the attack. As the attacking force, the Zhao army was also feeling the pressure and their bodies piled up outside the camp.
Not being able to succeed made the Zhao army's morale dip. The huge deaths, continuous winning and losing was a crushing grinding and testing of their mental strength.
From now, it was a metal battle to see which side couldn't last.
The one that broke the balance of the battlefield wasn't either of the two sides that fought, but it came from the behind the Zhao forces.
Gu Pass, was broken by the Qin Army.
Do consider giving us a if you are enjoying TWO! Like last month, we will be releasing 8 bonus chapters if we come first!
Chapter 281- The War Is Over
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
Just as Zhuo Kuo led his troops to attack Ying Bao's camp, Baiqi similarly dispatched his troops to attack Gu Pass.
Two hundred thousand troops surrounded the south side of Gu Pass.
With the help of the sets of three-bow arcuballistas that Ouyang Shuo and Mulan Yue brought, numerous step arrows were shot into the walls. This allowed the Qin soldiers to climb up and attack like a flood.
Zhao Zhuang's forces tried their best to retaliate, as numerous rolling wood and giant rocks pelted down from above the wall, crushing wave after wave of soldiers. The fire defense line formed by the alchemical fire oil cabinets burned the enemy. When their bodies fell to the ground, they instantly fell apart.
Apart from that, the Zhao army used their height advantage to rain down arrows.
The Qin army was also fearless. They used the corpses to fill up the moat and ate away at the defensive resources that the Zhao had. Under the city wall, the bodies of the Qin soldiers piled up to 2 meters high.
The soldiers stepped on the bodies and continued to climb upward.
The attack of the vanguard team became the last straw that crushed the Zhao Zhuang forces.
Gu Pass had finally fallen. The remaining soldiers inside had no other place to go. Hence, they raised their hands and surrendered.
The fall of Gu Pass meant that the Battle of Changping had entered its final stages.
Upon learning that Gu Pass was lost, the Zhao army, which was attacking the Ying Bao camp, no longer had the motivation to attack. Looks of despair filled their faces.
After a little struggle, shortly after Zhao Zhuang surrendered, Zhao Kuo surrendered too.
Based on Zhao Kuo's personality, he would rather die than surrender; furthermore, based on what Di Chen and the rest said, the Qin army would kill off troops that surrendered and wouldn't let them survive.
Only, history had already changed. Zhao Kuo would follow Chun Shenjun to step onto another journey and into another world to continue his fight against Baiqi.
At this point, the war was officially over. The Zhao camp had no way to fight back, and the battle notification sounded.
Maybe Gaia couldn't bear to see 200 thousand Zhao soldiers being slaughtered, thus ending the battle when they surrendered.
"Battle report: the Battle of Changping is officially over. Now based on player's contribution and their use in the battle, calculating bonus battle contribution points."
In this battle, Ouyang Shuo wasn't the only shining light. Di Chen, Zhan Lang, and Chun Shenjun had all affected the proceedings and played a huge role. As such they all gained high amounts of points.
A system notification resounded by Ouyang Shuo's ear.
"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, player representative of Qin Country, the Shanhai City cavalry that he led had huge contributions, and he thought of the method to break the chariot circle formation. Awarded bonus 20 thousand battle contribution points."
Compared to the two battles before, Gaia's evaluation of his performance had largely dipped and even his points was at its lowest yet.
Even so, based on the killings of the 10 thousand cavalry, his battle contribution points were still at the top of the leaderboard.
Rank- Name- Battle Contribution Points
1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 350 thousand
2nd: Di Chen- 150 thousand
3rd: Bai Hua- 120 thousand
4th: Zhan Lang- 100 thousand
5th: Feng Qiuhuang- 85 thousand
6th: Chun Shenjun- 55 thousand
7th: Xunlong Dianxue- 50 thousand
8th: Mulan Yue- 45 thousand
9th: Xiong Ba- 30 thousand
10th: Feng Qingyang- 25 thousand
Expectedly, the leaderboard was taken up by the Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance. Apart from Ouyang Shuo being the untouchable first, the rest were inseparable.
With such results, although the Yanhuang Alliance lost, there was still glory in it.
Di Chen, Chun Shenjun and the others ranked up to 1st class earl and had finally cleared the obstacle to become a grade 3 ciy. The next would be to make preparations to upgrade to a prefecture.
Regretfully, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang couldn't rank up to 3rd class Marquis. Both of them had to wait until the next battle before they could rank up.
As the lord's class increased, the number of troops they could bring increased too, making the main way to earn battle contribution points slaughter on the battlefield instead of quests and bonus points.
Taking this battle as an example, Shanhai City had 20 times the troops of a normal lord, and 10 times that of Di Chen and the others. Hence, their ability to get points weren't on the same level.
Therefore, although they took the initiative and spent time planning and scheming, they couldn't compare with Ouyang Shuo in terms of battle contribution points.
With pros, there were definitely cons too.
With such a huge army, one had to pay a high price too. After the battle, of Shanhai City's 10 thousand elite cavalry, only 6500 remained. The rest all died on the battlefield of Changping.
Not only Ouyang Shuo, but the other lord's forces had heavy casualties. Out of the 70 thousand player troops from both sides, less than 30 thousand survived.
Ouyang Shuo roughly remembered that during the year-end celebration, Gaia would do a small scale update, which would involve changes to the battles.
The lords used up large amounts of gold and troops. If they only earned merit points, it wouldn't be worth it. Hence, Gaia would release more tempting prizes to motivate lords to participate.
Ouyang Shuo earned 39 thousand merit points and now he had reached a total of 129500 merit points, ranking up to rank 2 Marquis, and he was a lot closer to the 204800 merit points required to rank up to rank 1 Marquis.
The ranking up didn't make Ouyang Shuo satisfied. What he cared about were the rewards that the Qin gave out.
During the Battle of Zhuolu, he had obtained the
As usual, Bai Hua and the others went back to the main map while Ouyang Shuo went to the Wang Ling Camp to wait for his reward.
An official brought the reward from the Qing King, a jade pendant.
Name: Dragon and Phoenix pendant (platinum rank)
Type: Jewelry
Specialty: Deterrence (Raise the prestige of the wearer), Implication (Helps the cultivation of the wearer)
Evaluation: Dragon and Phoenix, represents peace and prosperity and also a high status. It shows a good sign and represents well wishes.
The specialty description was simple, and as for how it worked, Ouyang Shuo had to find out himself.
A pendant was naturally good. Unfortunately, it was still far from what he expected. He thanked the official and wore the pendant.
Ouyang Shuo came to say goodbye to Baiqi.
He seemed like he was specifically waiting for him. "Did you get your reward?"
"Yes, I'm here to say goodbye to you."
"Great, lets go!" Baiqi said casually.
Ouyang Shuo didn't react and stammered, "W-we?"
"Yes? You don't welcome me?"
Baiqi's words were like a huge pie that smacked him on the head.
Ouyang Shuo couldn't understand. He didn't trigger the recruiting mission, so why would Baiqi be willing to follow him?
If he didn't know the reason, he wouldn't be at ease.
"I don't understand."
As if he expected that Ouyang Shuo would ask that, he said, "My god told me that Lianpo and Zhao Kuo had went to the player world. The Qin no longer need me, so I want to go to the player world too. You are first rate, be it talent or territorial power, so you're obviously the best choice."
Ouyang Shuo understood; so it was the work of Gaia. If it was as he expected, recruiting him was the hidden reward.
How could it be just a jade pendant?
What Gaia told Baiqi probably didn't stop with Zhao Kuo. In history, after the Battle of Changping, Baiqi was killed by the Qing King, so that was another reason.
"Wu An lord, please!" Ouyang Shuo said solemnly.
Baiqi shook his head, "There's no more Wu An Lord, I am Baiqi." Following which, he took the lead and walked out.
After that, Ouyang Shuo led the troops back to the main map.
On the way back, he checked Baiqi's stats.
Name: Baiqi (God rank)
Title: Asura
Dynasty: Warring States (Qin)
Identity: Shanhai City General
Occupation: Special rank general
Loyalty: 75
Command: 98
Force: 90
Intelligence: 85
Politics: 45
Specialty: Annihilation in war: Raise troops morale by 40%; Hot pursuit: Raise troops movement speed by 30%; Field fortification: Raise troops Defence by 20%; Adapting to the enemy: Raise troops killing ability by 25%
Cultivation Method: Killing Sword sword technique
Equipment: Heavy type Qin Sword
Evaluation: The best of the 4 famous generals during the warring states, good with machines and mechanics, great courage, a cut above the rest, great at adapting, produces miracles, shocks the world, the best war god.
Compared to Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai, Baiqi's stats were terrifying. His command, force and intelligence were all first rate, and the only thing he lacked was politics.
His character specialties were an all-round buff for his troops.
Amazing, Baiqi!
Do consider giving us a if you are enjoying TWO! Like last month, we will be releasing 8 bonus chapters if we come first!