Chapter 577- The Sudden Battle
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Everyone had thought that this huge snow would bring about a period of utter silence to the wilderness.
At least before the lunar new year, they had thought that things would be relatively calm.
No one had expected this peace to be broken so quickly.
No one had thought that before the lunar new year, the fifteenth territory would upgrade to prefecture in the China region.
This upgraded prefecture was also a dark horse. It was the Lord that had grabbed the 8th placing on the rankings during the year end rewards - Earth-shaker.
Earth-shaker had obtained twenty thousand merit points and upgraded to a class 3 marquis. After half a month of hard work, he completed the upgrade mission and his territory became a grade 1 prefecture.
Hence, he successfully triggered the fifth battle.
Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 15th day, a system notification sounded out in the China region.
"System Notification: 15 territories have upgraded to prefecture in the China region, triggering the 5th battle map, Battle of Mobei. It will start in three days, please look forward to it. Friendly Reminder: the Battle of Mobei is not a compulsory battle map, and only the top 50 territories can sign up."
The Battle of Mobei had suddenly struck!
During the 4th year of Yuanshuo, Emperor Wu of Han moved 140 thousand cavalry, 140 thousand war horses, and 100 thousand infantry. Wei Qing and Huo Qubing took the position of commanders, separating into east and west troops, as they set out toward Mobei.
When the Xiongnu Chan Yu (leader of the tribal alliance) heard the news, he shifted their elite troops toward the north of the desert to welcome the Han troops.
When Wei Qing exited the stronghold and learned that Chan Yu did not go east and proceed forward, he ordered Li Guang and Zhao Shi to flank from the east. Wei Qing led his troops and traveled thousands of miles across the desert to face off against Chan Yu's forces, who were already prepared for battle. He arranged heavy armored chariots in a ring, creating mobile fortresses that covered the archers and crossbowmen. Then, he sent five thousand cavalry to act as reinforcements to these mobile fortresses.
At sunset, when the winds started blowing and the sand and stones smacked the enemy in their face, Wei Qing led his cavalry to surround Chan Yu from the wings.
He observed that the Han Dynasty Army held the numerical advantage. Moreover, their soldiers and war horses were stronger. As such, his chances of winning were slim, so he led hundreds of elite cavalry to break out from the north west.
Wei Qing hurriedly sent the light armored cavalry to chase, as he led the main forces forward. By the time they reached Zhao Xin City, they had killed nineteen thousand and burned down the resources of the enemy.
Li Guang and Zhao Shi lost their way in the desert and failed to meet up with Zhao Qing in Mobei. Wei Qing summoned Li Guang to his manor for questioning, causing him to commit suicide out of embarrassment and anger.
After Huo Qubing left the stronghold, he brought small amounts of resources and heavy equipment, making the captured Xiongnu prisoners act as vanguards to lead the way. They crossed the desert and the river, capturing Chan Yu's important minister, Zhang Qu. Then, they crossed the Nanhou Mountains, capturing three Xiongnu lords and 83 nobles.
During this expedition, Huo Qubing's men captured 70,443 men with a loss of ten thousand of their own. At this point, Xiongnu's left and right wings were cut off, and only Xiongbu remained in Mobei.
Huo Qubing conducted a series of rituals on the Khentii Mountains to symbolize the Han victory. Then, he continued his chase up to Lake Baikal, where he effectively ended the Xiongnu Clan.
After this battle, the three famous generals of their time all faced different treatment.
As his contributions were offset, General Wei Qing did not obtain any rewards.
Old General Li Guang killed himself, causing the people to weep when they received the news.
General Huo Qubing was greatly rewarded and was living the high life. Two years later, he suddenly died at only 24 years of age.
Without a doubt, all the players would fervently chase these three famous generals, especially Wei Qing and Huo Qubing.
Even Ouyang Shuo was not an exception. One must know that both of them were listed among the top 10 generals of olden China. They were people on the same level as Baiqi and Han Xin.
"System Notification: Congratulations players Qiyue Wuyi for meeting the requirements to join the Battle of Mobei. During this battle, no matter how high your rank, you can only bring three thousand men. Please prepare in advance."
When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he could help but frown.
Three thousand men was only the limit of a normal 1st class earl.
He was now a 1st class marquis. Based on the usual rules, he could bring fifty thousand troops.
Comparing the two, it was a sixteen to seventeen times difference; it was like comparing heaven and earth.
Gaia definitely did not make this rule of everyone bringing the same number of troops because of Ouyang Shuo alone. One could only say that this battle would be greatly different from the previous ones.
Rank had always been the most important and core goal of Lords.
Ouyang Shuo definitely did not believe that he as a 1st class marquis would receive the same treatment as a 1st class earl. If not, what purpose would there be for his hard earned merit points?
As for what compensations he would obtain, he would probably only find out when he entered the battle map.
Apart from the number of troops, Gaia also restricted the number of Lords that could join.
Currently, around five hundred territories remained in China.
Apart from some poor ones, the rest had basically reached grade 3 county.
If everyone joined, even if every single Lord only brought three thousand men, it would still result in a huge 1.5 million player troops.
However, Gaia had taken out 90% of the Lords with this one shot.
At this stage in the territory development, upgrading to prefecture was extremely difficult. As such, the grade difference between territories were not as obvious as previous years. However, this did not mean that there was not a difference in development between the various territories.
In the China region rankings, when the grade of the territories were the same, the four territory indices would decide the positionings.
The higher their four indexes, the higher their relative positions.
Before this, the battle of rankings was just a battle of face. The further in front one was, the more face they obtained.
From now on, the battle for territory rankings meant much, much more. After all, whether or not one could join a battle map was a huge influence on the development of their territory.
In a serious context, it would affect whether one could upgrade to the prefecture grade or not.
In the future, as Lords strived to upgrade their territories, they would not forget to pay attention to the four indexes. After all, these four basically covered all aspects of the territory.
Internal administration and external diplomacy, a territory could not be lacking in either aspect.
To train these young Lords, Gaia had truly expended a lot of effort.
With that, even if all fifty eligible Lords joined the battle map, the number of player troops would not cross 150 thousand.
It seems like the players could not cause a definite influence to the Battle of Mobei.
Since they would bring the same number of troops, the many Lords would start on the same starting line. Something like this had not happened in a long while.
Shanhai City did not have their usual numerical advantage this time.
"This battle will be extremely difficult!"
Ouyang Shuo let out a long sigh.
More importantly, during this battle, how would players choose their camps? Would players actually choose the Xiongnu camp that was destined to lose?
Even if one wanted to take a gamble, they could not get past the race divide.
Help the Xiongnu fight the Han Army? One would get a headache just thinking about it.
Furthermore, Xiongnu did not even have any generals that were worth recruiting. Meanwhile, the side of West Han had three famous generals and a number of other smaller and weaker ones.
Which side to choose was such a simple question.
Wouldn’t Gaia be afraid that the difference in player numbers of the two camps would be huge?
Amongst all this, what was Gaia planning?
Everything was a total unknown.
Even Ouyang Shuo, who was living his second life, did not know what was going on.
In his last life, any information related to this battle was rarely revealed on the forums.
If not, Ouyang Shuo would have started preparing for it a lot earlier. All he could do now was order the Combat Logistics Department to make some preparations based on the uniqueness of the desert.
For example, they would produce a huge batch of military grain pills.
Grain supply was the hardest problem while traveling in the desert.
If not, Emperor Wu of Han would not send one hundred thousand infantry troops to take charge of the logistic of the cavalry.
Now, Gaia had restricted each Lord to only three thousand men. With that, all of his previous plans were useless.
"What a bad beginning!"
Since he could only bring three thousand men, Ouyang Shuo did not even hesitate and decided to bring the Divine Martial Guards.
After all, he could not possess a numerical advantage, so Ouyang Shuo could only hope to obtain some advantages through the combat strength of his troops.
Such an advantage was not too large.
One could ask, in the wilderness, which territory would not be able to bring out three thousand elite cavalry? Their elite troops would not be that much weaker compared to the Divine Martial Guards.
As for the generals that would follow him, Ouyang Shuo was not going to summon Baiqi or Han Xin.
It was not that they could not rush over.
After the system update, if an army member wanted to join the battle, they did not need to use a specific teleportation formation. As long as Ouyang Shuo submitted a name list, no matter where they were, they would be teleported to the battle map.
This setting was made after considering that as the territories expanded, three days of preparation would not be enough to gather up forces.
For example, if Ouyang Shuo wanted to bring fifty thousand troops, he would have to move the three legion corps.
Just the travelling time would cover more than three days.
On this point, Gaia was really humane and flexible.
Ouyang Shuo did not summon them, as he did not want to act excessively and make himself stand out too much. Moreover, three thousand Divine Martial Guards did not give Baiqi or the others much to work with.
Even if they considered all the troops of the Shanhai Alliance, they had less than twenty thousand in total.
If he mobilized Baiqi, that would be like killing a chicken with a butcher’s knife.
Why not just let them stay in the wilderness to continue organizing the army?
At the current stage, Ouyang Shuo could be considered a strong general.
Apart from that, he was also planning to take along an advisor. The person he chose was the Deputy Director of the Military Affairs Department and the War Secretary, Zhao Kuo.