Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
"Guys, do not panic!"
Yuan Ping was the first to calm down; he looked at his allies and coolly said, "Guys, the City-State is far from collapsing. Not only do we have 150 thousand troops, we still have armies in each territory. If we all gather up, we can at least gather another 150 thousand troops."
"But that's also not enough; the enemy has 500 thousand elites," someone said dejectedly.
Yuan Ping was not angry either, "Do not forget that we are not fighting alone, we still have allies!"
Like he was replying to Yuan Ping's words, a guard hurried over and passed Yuan Ping a letter.
Yuan Ping opened it; a smile appeared on his face, and he said, "Look at what I said, this was a letter from Caiyun City; they have gathered 50 thousand troops and would like to immediately come down south to assist us."
Some of the Lord laughed, "Caiyun City truly has conscience."
"It's Caiyun City not Xiangnan City-State?" There were some sensitive Lords that identified the problem.
"Strictly speaking, Caiyun City and a few allies are sending troops together." Yuan Ping tried his best to explain, "No matter what it's a good start, right? Who knows, maybe after a while the other City-States will also come to help us."
Yuan Ping was destined to be disappointed.
For the entire morning, apart from the letter from Caiyun Zinan, no sounds were heard from the other City-States.
The atmosphere in the command center that had become excited instantly dropped to the freezing point.
"Those people have no sense of camaraderie!"
The Lords were furious toward Yunnan City-State for leaving them to die. Why did they support Yunnan City-State so much? These people were truly a group of snakes.
When Yuan Ping heard these words, his expression was also extremely awkward. He had already sent a letter to Qin Feng to seek answers.
Unfortunately, Qin Feng did not even reply to him.
What shocked Yuan Ping and the others was that Yanhuang Alliance did not move either.
This was the first step to totally crushing Yuan Ping.
Based on what he had discussed with Di Chen and the others, the Yanhuang Alliance had promised that once Lingnan City-State was invaded, they would definitely send troops to assist.
For this, they had specially left a territory within the province that did not enter the City-State to ally with Handan City for them to teleport troops over.
How could Yuan Ping have known that the moment the war started, this would be the outcome?
"This should not be happening!"
Yuan Ping felt bitter. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand.
Jingdu Province, Handan City.
Di Chen could not be considered a person who betrayed his friends. However, he had his own difficulties.
The moment Shanhai City invaded Lingnan City-State, Di Chen found Fenghua Juedai to discuss sending out help, who knew that things would change.
"Difeng has sent news that during this week, Wufu has been connecting with the big mercenary guilds in the imperial city. Based on reliable info, he is willing to hire 100 thousand mercenaries." Juedai Fenghua said.
The reason behind Stone City hiring mercenary troops was pretty obvious. They only had one opponent - Handan City.
"When did that kid get so much money?" Di Chen could not understand.
Speaking of which, Wufu used to be in the same camp as Di Chen and the others. When Di Chen was at his lowest point, Wufu was invited to his camp and helped get Di Chen out of that scenario.
However, the two of them had only worked together for a short time. As their ideals did not match and their statuses were different, they had left on separate paths.
Hence, Di Chen knew some things about Wufu.
"It might be the loans from the Four Seas Bank." Juedai Fenghua made a conjecture, "The biggest possibility would still be Qiyue Wufu lending money to him. All signs show that Qiyue Wuyi earned a huge sum during the voyage trip."
"Dog sh*t luck!" Di Chen scolded.
"Do you think Wufu is doing that because the old fox instructed him to? Their goal is to contain us, but in truth, they did not even hire mercenaries?" Di Chen guessed.
Juedai Fenghua nodded, "I won't exclude that possibility. But I'm leaning toward this being a scheme. If we do not send troops, both sides would remain at peace; if we do send troops to help Lingnan City-State, they could use this chance to bite off a large chunk of meat."
"Many signs show that Qiyue Wuyi does not only want to nail down a piece in the north but to develop someone that could go up against us. Hence, Stone City definitely has the objective and reasoning to attack us." Juedai Fenghua used this chance to remind Di Chen not to underestimate his neighbor in the north.
"So the old fox is using money to suppress us and is warning us not to act without thinking?"
Di Chen's expression became a little ugly. Weren't such methods the specialty of aristocratic family descendants like him? Why was it the old fox using such moves on them in the blink of an eye?
"What irony!"
"It can be understood in that way." Juedai Fenghua saw through the entire situation.
The game still had game rules and wealth distributions were obviously different from real life. If the aristocratic families still thought they had the advantage in funds, they were going to be in for a rude awakening.
"If we do not send troops, how will we answer Yuan Ping?" Di Chen was placed in a tough spot.
Juedai Fenghua's expression was stale but her words were chilling, "Why do we need to answer to a dead person?" Regarding the Battle of Lingnan, she did not have any high hopes for Lingnan City-State.
A chess piece that had no practical use was destined to be thrown away.
Di Chen kept silent.
It was not that he could not bear to abandon Yuan Ping. On this point, he held the same view as Juedai Fenghua. However, he was reluctant to once again give up on the chance to stop Shanhai City from rising up.
In the first half of the year, the work done by Handan City had closed the gap between the two by a large degree. However, in the blink of an eye, it was going to become an even bigger deficit.
Such a hit was an exceedingly deep one, straight to the bones.
"Do not overthink." Juedai Fenghua's expression became gentler, calming the anxious heart of Di Chen, "Calm down, laying down the roots is the most important. Difeng reported that there are many resistant forces hidden in the territory that can start chaos."
When Di Chen heard these words, his face showed signs of struggle before he sighed. This kind of feeling of being plotted against by your enemy made someone as arrogant as Di Chen feel extremely uncomfortable.
If it was not for his training, Di Chen would have exploded.
As for now, Di Chen could already easily control his emotions. He could rein it even with the defeat during the Battle of Red Cliff; he did not say much. His mentality was getting better and better.
"I'll just listen to you; we will watch from the side!" Di Chen nodded.
Fenghua Juedai smiled gently.
"Oh right." Di Chen suddenly thought about something and asked, "Two days ago, Xiong Ba suggested during the meeting that we activate the hidden power to plot against Xunlong Dianxue, what do you think about that?"
Juedai Fenghua thought about it and said, "We can do it, but do not hold too high hopes."
"Why so?"
"Toward him as a person, I specially asked Difeng to investigate his info. He is a quest maniac and likes to walk a path to its end. He pays attention to all the small details."
"That's right. If not, he would not have fought with Ouyang Shuo because of a small matter, truly stupid." Di Chen nodded, supporting that statement.
"I do not think he's stupid. For him to be selected by Qiyue Wuyi shows that he has skill. At the very least, he is not truly dumb." Jurado Fenghua shook her head, "If we try to plot to make Xunlong Dianxue betray them, it might end up with both sides using one another. He definitely would not genuinely trust us."
"That's true." Di Chen nodded.
In his eyes, an alliance was just a mutual interest relationship.
"There's one more point. Xunlong Dianxue hates the rich; he has the mentality of a small city boy who does not have a good impression of rich people." Juedai Fenghua reminded.
"I've heard about that."
Speaking of which, his expression changed. Suddenly, he remembered the 1st system auction. Wasn't he humiliated by the two of them?
If it was before, Di Chen would not even be interested in coming into contact with Xunlong Dianxue.
However, now was different; for interests, Di Chen could choose to forget the past.
Juedai Fenghua continued to speak, "Xiong Ha is trying so hard because he wants to build a barrier between King City and Shanhai City. Especially the start of the Battle of Lingnan, if Xunlong Dianxue stays on their side, Xiong Ba would be faced with a headache."
"Scoff, that fellow was so gleeful when he took down Yizhou Island. Now he knows to be afraid? Assassinated during the Battle of Red Cliff, so embarrassing." Di Chen did not have a good relationship with Xiong Ba.
"On the topic of Yizhou Island, I do not believe that Qiyue Wuyi will let it go."
"You're right. Let him fight with the old fox; let's just watch." Di Chen also understood, and he suddenly felt delighted.
At this time, Di Chen felt fortunate that his territory was so far away from Shanhai City.
"Regarding the matter with Xunlong Dianxue, let's just spectate from the side and let Xiong Ba worry about it. Even if it fails, we have nothing to be sad about, so why not?"
"Let's do that!" Di Chen nodded.
In the reading room, it slowly became quiet once more.
Taiyuan Province, Fallen Phoenix City.
For the matter of Shanhai City changing targets, even Feng Qiuhuang did not know anything about it.
"Even hiding it away from me; I'm going to deal with you later!" Feng Qiuhuang was just that dominant.
"Lord, should we do something?"
The one who asked was a middle-aged strategist; he was Cheng Yu from Cao Cao's Camp.
Feng Qiuhuang truy had skill. Although she did not recruit him during the battle map, she managed to recruit him when she returned to the main map.
Who knows how she managed to do that.
"Naturally, we should. No matter what, we need to create some problems for Di Chen."
Feng Qiuhuang smiled; however, her eyes were filled with killing intent.