The World Online

The longest road in the game was the traps Gaia set for the players.

No one could have expected that right at the start of the battle, the most exciting moment of the Battle of Red Cliff - the fires engulfing Red Cliff – would have already ended.

This matter caught all the Lords in Cao Cao’s camp off guard.

After the fires engulfed Red Cliff, what kind of battle situation was there? Let’s have a quick recollection.

During the defeat at Red Cliff, Cao Cao ordered the use of fire to burn the resources and warships at Wulin Camp. Following which, they rushed toward Yunmeng Lake in the west and they got lost on the way.

Cao Cao led them back toward Huarong. The road was muddy and there was a strong wind. Cao Cao’s tired troops used grass to pave the way so that the cavalry could pass. The weak troops were stepped on by the passing cavalry and were killed in the mud.

One had to say that Cao Cao was truly vicious.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang with genius foresight placed Guan Yu on Huarong Path. However, due to his righteousness, he let Cao Cao and his men pass. Naturally, all of that was fake. Even then, this path was truly difficult for Cao Cao and his army to pass.

At the same time, Zhou Yu and Liu Bei’s navy attacked together in a chase for the win.

Zhou Yu’s army chased closely after Cao Cao’s retreating troops, his navy going against the current to Jiangling.

Liu Bei, Huang Gai’s navy entered Dongting Lake, Huang Gai turned into the Yuanjiang to obtain Lin Yuan, which was the governing area of Wuling Prefecture. He was appointed as the Governor of Wuling by Sun Quan.

Liu Bei went against the current on the Xiangjiang to attack Linxiang, the governing area of Changsha. Han Xuan surrendered to Liu Bei without resisting. At the same time, Sun Quan and Zhang Zhao sent troops to the east, one to attack Hefei and the other Dangtu.

After Cao Cao escaped back to Jiangling, he left Cao Ren, Man Cong, and Wen Pin to various areas to order the troops back to return north.

Apart from the troops lost in Red Cliff and Wulin, Cao Cao also decisively abandoned the weak soldiers. They had also rushed to escape, so they did not bring any resources. As a result, a large number of soldiers starved to death. The result was that half of Cao Cao’s army was lost.

Of the original 100 thousand, less than 40 thousand made it back to Jiangling.

Xu Jia, Cao Xiu, and Cao Dun led elites who were adaptive and faster at running than everyone else, so they suffered very little loses. The navy lost the most, with nearly everyone falling. Hence, they lost control over Han River and Changjiang.

The other legion of the Cao Army, Zhao Yan’s 70 thousand, did not suffer heavy losses as they were not present at Red Cliff. Consequently, they retreated smoothly to Jiangling.

Strictly speaking, the main force of Cao Cao’s army did not suffer heavy losses.

However, because they no longer had a navy, the morale was really low; Cao Cao was not in the mood to fight and wanted to retreat north. He allowed Sun Liu to expand, which resulted in the formation of the Three Kingdoms.

Hence, the first mission of the Lords in the camp was to persuade him to not go back and use Jiangling as a base to have a battle with the Sun Liu Army instead.

If not, everything would be useless.

……

Just as the Lords were making noise at the door, the battle report sounded out.

”Battle Report: Battle of Red Cliff, 40 Lords participating, 620 thousand troops. Cao Cao Camp has 15 Lords, 270 thousand troops; Sun Liu Camp 25 Lords, 350 thousand troops.”

Out of the 50 Lords that met the requirements, only 40 joined.

The further the game progressed, the more the battle maps became the world of the giants. Normal Lords did not have the strength and ability to fight. If their luck was not good, the battle contribution points they obtained would not even be enough to revive their dead troops.

The entire Yanhuang Alliance had joined the Sun Liu Camp.

First, their intel showed that Ouyang Shuo would join the Cao Cao Camp. Secondly, the temptation of Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, and the like was stronger than those in Cao Cao’s Camp.

Without the change of Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, the numbers on both sides would have been extremely close.

Now, there was a tipping of the scales.

Just thinking about it, the expressions of Bai Hua and the rest grew uglier.

”Battle Report: As Cao Cao camp has less troops, based on battle rules, they will obtain a 25% defense buff.”

……

”Battle Report: Based on rank and merit points, Cao Cao camp player representative is Qiyue Wuyi, Duke. Sun Liu Camp representative is Di Chen, 2nd Class Marquis.”

……

Be it the Cao Cao Camp or the Sun Liu Camp, the soldier numbers crossed that of the camp troops. Hence, during this battle, the player forces would play a crucial role.

The strength of the player representative was even more evident.

On the side of Cao Cao’s Camp, Shanhai City, Consonance City, Fallen Phoenix City, and Stone City had 150 thousand, more than half of the total.

Along with the prestige of Shanhai City, there would not be any problems for him to lead the players.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not so optimistic.

Because in the camp, Ouyang Shuo saw Qin Feng from the Yunnan City-State, Yuan Ping from the Lingnan City-State, and Caiyun Zinan from the Xiangnan City-State.

With the three of them, there would definitely be no peace in Cao Cao’s Camp.

Ouyang Shuo could not guess whether it was coincidence they chose this camp or if they did it on purpose. Thinking back to the Nanjiang War that was about to start, this battle map became more and more interesting.

Along with Di Chen and the others each having one province, the number of Lords in China had decreased. The four City-States had become the pillars of the Lord player groups.

During this battle, there were eight Lords from the four City-States. In the player army, they had a certain amount of talking power; they were not people Ouyang Shuo could move and command.

No matter what, the first thing that Ouyang Shuo needed to do was to go meet Cao Cao.

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo brought the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and Xiahou Ying into Jiangling City.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was making a statement, it was just that there were too many people with nefarious intentions in Cao Cao’s Camp, so he had to play it safe.

If Ouyang Shuo was assassinated, everything would be over.

In the camp, Er’Lai’s city protection legion was one group, while Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, and Wufu’s 50 thousand army was the other, led by Fallen Phoenix City’s General Zhou Bo.

The two groups started to mesh and coordinate with one another in the barracks. At the same time, they paid attention to Yuan Ping and the others.

Before the battle even began, the players in the Cao Cao camp had seeds of doubt sowed in their minds as they were wary about one another.

……

Jian An 13th year, when Red Cliff was engulfed in flames, Zhuge Kongming was 27, Zhou Yu 33, Liu Xuande was 47, Cao Mengde was 53.

Cao Cao was the oldest, crossing the 50 mark.

With that, it was not hard to imagine how rushed he felt. After crushing Liu Bei, despite unprepared circumstances, he wanted to attack Sun Quan to complete his goal of ruling the world.

”Time does not wait for anyone!”

No wonder Cao Cao would sing such a sad song like Short Song Style at Red Cliff.

I lift my drink and sing a song, for who knows if life is long or short!

Man’s life is but the morning dew, past days many, future ones few.

The melancholy my heart begets,

Comes from the care I cannot forget.

What can unravel my woes, I only now one drink Dukang Wine.

……

Bright is the moon’s spark, when can I pick it apart?

Thoughts of you from inside, cannot settle, cannot subside.

Friends drop by from the country road, the respects they pay really show.

……

No mountain too steep, no ocean too deep.

Sage pauses when guests call, so the empire at his feet will not fall.

……

At that moment, Cao Cao had a really complicated feeling. He had the ambition to sweep the north; he felt his goal of becoming an overlord was not being fulfilled.

The Cao Cao that Ouyang Shuo saw in the Lord’s Manor was exactly that one.

The defeat at Red Cliff, his goal failing, retreating badly, and the morale of his troops had hit rock bottom. After these series of blows, even though he was optimistic, he could not help but feel ashamed and sad.

In the guest room, Cao Cao sat. Below him was an old man dressed like a scholar. Out of his generals, even his bodyguard Xu Chu did not appear here.

After the defeat, the generals were busy organizing the troops.

Seeing the old man, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze. The images of the historical people in the game were not made up but replicated using photos and modelled after paintings; if they did not have pictures or images, films were used as a reference.

Hence, as long as the Lords tried, they would be able to recognize the prominent historical people.

Ouyang Shuo had spent so much effort on studying history, along with the data from Red Cliff, he was able to ascertain that this was the important general under Cao Cao’s camp - Jia Xu.

Jia Xu was a famous strategist from the Wei Country during the Three Kingdoms Era. A famous strategist, people often called him venomous. He came up with many brilliant strategies and calculated and planned many victories. He was intelligent and good at self-preservation.

When he died, he was 77 years old, and he was one of the rare few who died happily or well during the Three Kingdoms Period.

In truth, during that period, Jia Xu could have definitely been considered one of the top three strategists. As for Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Sima Yi, and the like, they could not be considered pure strategists.

In the Wei Country camp, probably only Xun Yi, Xun You, and Guo Jia could be mentioned in the same sentence as him.

Before the Battle of Red Cliff, he had suggested to calm down the people and not chase to Jiangdong. Helplessly, Cao Cao listened for two months but could not hold it in in the end, he sent his troops to Jiangling, resulting in defeat.

With that, Cao Cao trusted Jia Xu all the more.

One had to say that the way that Cao Cao used talents was something that many Lords could learn from.

”Player Qiyue Wuyi greets the prime minister!” Ouyang Shuo bowed.

Xiahou Ying, who followed behind Ouyang Shuo, looked at Cao Cao with a weird expression and did not bow.

”Who are you, how can you be so rude to the prime minister?” Jia Xu chided when he saw that.

When Xiahou Ying heard these words, he smiled and looked at Cao Cao, “Do you recognize me?”

In truth, the moment he walked in, Cao Cao’s eyes had frozen, and he was filled with questions. When Xiahou Ying opened his mouth, Cao Cao’s guesses were basically ascertained.

”Dare I ask, are you the old ancestor?”

In the Xiahou family temple, Xiahou Ying’s painting and portrait was hung.

”That’s right.” Xiahou Ying nodded.

”Ah!” Jia Xu was astonished.

Cao Cao did not care, directly leaving his seat and hurrying over.