Chapter 418- Wang Li Deserves to Be Executed
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Night, Anyang City.
After settling in Anyang City, Ouyang Shuo and his men entered the Lord's Manor.
The officials in Anyang City had escaped a lot earlier.
The current Lord’s Manor was empty, with various items and furniture thrown all over the place.
Seeing that, Wang Feng arranged a small squadron to help arrange and organize the manor. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was not a person that cared much about such stuff, so after a simple clean up, he started to deal with matters.
As for the rooms, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were in charge of them.
Their storage bags contained a full set of sleepwear and items, so there was no need to worry.
In this aspect, Gaia was still humane. Although it said that storage bags could not be used during war time, there were still some exceptions. If not, the players would definitely cause a racket.
Facing such an elite army, none of the aristocratic families, merchants, or civilians in Anyang City dared to do anything. They were all like a bunch of sheep waiting for slaughter.
However, Ouyang Shuo still went out to receive all the representatives of the merchants and aristocratic families. Considering Baiqi's strategy, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to have Anyang City under his control.
The first thing was to make all the civilians feel at ease.
There were many people around that were anti Qin. Anyang was also located within Zhao Country, so there were numerous people unhappy with the Qin Dynasty.
Since Zhang Han had raised all the grain in the city, only a tenth of the people remained.
Those that stayed were either aristocratic families or merchants.
Zhang Han gave these people a chance. He also knew that to provide for this entire war, he could not push the aristocratic families and the merchants to the edge. If not, it might backfire on them.
Ouyang Shuo took a firm stance. He directly used his identity as the Qin Dynasty Camp player representative to state his views: whoever dared to help the uprising army spread information would have their entire family wiped out.
His terrifying threat left the various families and merchants in fear.
As this was a battle map, Ouyang Shuo did not need to do things like bribe them for their loyalty. He just directly announced that from tonight, Anyang City would enter a full lockdown under military control.
The various Guards of the aristocratic families needed to gather up. They were placed under the control of the palace Guards.
Ouyang Shuo definitely would not allow an armed force to run wild under his charge.
The various Chamber of Commerces needed to gather up all their resources for the army to use. However, Zhang Han had swept the area around Julu, and the uprising army had subsequently followed suit. As a result, there was not much grain left.
Ouyang Shuo only had a small amount of military grain pills left. Naturally, he needed grain to replace it.
Not only did Ouyang Shuo lack grain, so did the Anti-Qin Army.
To ensure the grain supply, Xiang Yu had arranged Fan Zeng to personally head to Peng City to obtain grain.
The transport team was different from the palace Guards, who could reach Julu in four to five days. A safe guess would be that they would need another four days before the first batch of supplies could arrive.
At night, Ouyang Shuo could finally get some much needed rest.
Although Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were not great at fighting wars, they were good at logistics, helping out Ouyang Shuo a lot. If not, things would not have been so smooth for him.
The next morning, Anyang City started bustling again.
The palace Guards mobilized the civilians to fix the walls and gather the city wall protection items. The palace guards protected the various city gates and did not allow anyone to leave.
As this was really important, Ouyang Shuo had to be careful.
He only hoped that nothing serious would happen before Wang Li's troops arrived. The originally unassuming Anyang City was destined to be the deciding factor of this war.
Last night, Ouyang Shuo had already sent a small unit to receive Wang Li's forces.
The Feng Birds also followed them.
The reason Ouyang Shuo initiated such a plan was to ensure that both forces kept in contact, just in case.
Who would have guessed that his plan would really come into use.
At the same time, Anti-Qin Camp.
The thirty thousand troops sneakily gathered. Then, they left the camp under Lianpo’s lead.
The players camp and the Anti-Qin Army camp were situated separately. In this name, Di Chen was in charge, so he used this loophole to lead his troops out.
Even so, when Xiang Yu hears the news, Di Chen could not escape the punishment.
Di Chen was highly confident in their attack on Anyang City.
It was just an empty city.
The hard part would be to defend it and block off the Qin Dynasty troops.
Although Han Xin saw through Baiqi's plan, he was unable to answer the questions of how many troops would be there or when they would arrive.
Hence, Di Chen invited Han Xin to follow them.
Who would have expected Han Xin to shake his head and reject the offer?
They only had thirty thousand troops. Moreover, they already had Lianpo leading them, so Han Xin was not interested in butting in.
Furthermore, he was the grain general of Xiang Yu's army. If they found out he left his post, he would be severely punished on the basis of military law.
Seeing this, Di Chen shook his head regretfully.
His invitation hid complex meaning.
Firstly, with Han Xin along, their chances of winning would increase.
Secondly, there was Di Chen’s personal goal. He wanted to make Han Xin go against the law and make him unable to stay in Xiang Yu's camp.
If one talked about tricks, this aristocratic heir was really adept.
Unfortunately, Han Xin did not fall for it.
Helplessly, Di Chen could only lead his troops and head for Anyang City. The Anti-Qin Army base was only half a day away from Anyang City.
Around noon, they reached the outskirts of the city.
Di Chen sat on his war horse and looked at Anyang City from afar. Their victory or defeat in the Battle of Julu would depend on this play.
Just at this moment, the vanguard came to report.
"Report!"
"Speak!"
"Lord, there are troops housed inside, and it isn't an empty city."
"What?"
Di Chen was shocked, did he come too late?
Lianpo, on the other hand, was more calm and asked, "How many men are there? Which force?"
"General, there are no flags on the walls, so we don't know which army. From afar, there are only civilians fixing the wall, and there aren't many soldiers."
Lianpo’s eyes brightened when he heard this; he turned to Di Chen, “Lord, it’s definitely the vanguard force of the Qin Army that has just arrived. As long as we take it down before their main force arrives, everything will go as planned."
Originally, Lianpo did not believe Han Xin's deduction. But the appearance of the Qin Army vanguard proved it right.
Lianpo started to respect Han Xin.
"That's right!"
Di Chen nodded his head vigorously, “There's no need to wait. Go all out and take them down!"
"Yes, my lord!"
The thirty thousand troops increased their speed toward Anyang City.
The huge army naturally could not escape the eyes of the palace Guards.
When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he was astonished.
"How many enemies are there?"
"No less than thirty thousand, with infantry as their core. It looks like a player army."
"Not good!"
After experiencing a few tough battles, of the three thousand palace guards and the one thousand elites from Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, only 3,500 were left. Even after adding in the Guards that they had recruited, they only had five thousand men.
With this five thousand, how were they going to handle thirty thousand?
No matter how Ouyang Shuo thought about it, he could not guess why the enemy would suddenly lay their eyes on Anyang City. After all, just a week ago, Anyang City was empty, and they did not move in.
Remarkably, the second day that he moved in, a player army would attack.
Such a coincidence made Ouyang Shuo feel doubt.
Was there a mole?
No!
Only Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang knew about it, so there was no such possibility.
Or was there someone within the city that had tipped them off?
Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo's eyes turned cold, sending a chill down the spines of everyone present.
Ouyang Shuo tossed aside his thoughts; this was not the time.
"Have we managed to contact Wang Li's troops?"
"We did. Based on his reply, as they needed to search for grain in Henei, they will be two days late. The vanguard force will most likely reach here by tomorrow afternoon."
"Tomorrow afternoon?"
A tinge of fury flashed across his face.
Preposterous, not sticking to orders.
Yesterday, in Baiqi's letter, it was already said that Wang Li would reach the city this afternoon at the latest. Who knew that he would be late by a full day.
One day was enough to change the entire landscape of the battlefield.
Baiqi's plan was incredibly precise, and he had also calculated that if Xiang Yu's army failed to take down Jiyuan City, they would notice Anyang City at the back.
Hence, he instructed Wang Li's forces to set out so early.
Who knew that Wang Li would be so bold.
Thinking about it, if Ouyang Shuo did not rush over from Su County and move into Anyang City, Baiqi's plan would be totally wasted.
Such an outcome was simply unthinkable.
For committing such a huge mistake, he simply deserved execution.
In Ouyang Shuo's eyes, killing intent flashed.
He tried to calm himself down and said, "Send the order to Wang Ling's army, his vanguard force must arrived by tomorrow morning. If not, I will behead them."
"Yes, lord!"
The personal guard trembled and quickly backed down; he rarely saw the lord so angry.
Although Ouyang Shuo was just the player representative, he could order Wang Li. This seemed illogical, but it was actually totally normal.
The day Wang Li rushed to Jiyuan City, Baiqi had summoned him. At that time, Ouyang Shuo was there, sitting on the Lord Seat.
Obviously, in the current Qin Dynasty Camp, Ouyang Shuo was the second lord.
As for the Qin King in Xianyang, who would care about him?
Hence, Ouyang Shuo could order Wang Li.
After arranging everything, Ouyang Shuo called Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang over, roughly briefing them on everything. Then, he said, “The logistics will depend on you two!"
"Don't worry, leave it to us!"
The two of them were heroines, and they were already used to this kind of situation.
Ouyang Shuo nodded, as he hurried out of the Lord's Manor.
At the door, the Guards had already brought Qingdian over.
Ouyang Shuo mounted his steed and said, “To the city west gate."
The enemy attack would come from the direction of the city west gate.