Chapter 83 - Spring Assault
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Levs
After completing the change of the military, Ouyang Shuo tossed out a large scale military plan. This plan was what he had thought of after being forced slowly into a corner by the six tyrants of Handan.
The appearance of the mountain barbarians allowed this plan to work out earlier.
If Shanhai Town wanted to protect its lead, he needed to make use of this advantage. Since he had already built such a strong mixed camp, he naturally couldn't let them be cooped up in the barracks.
Ouyang Shuo looked at the group of leaders and said," I have a plan, let's temporarily call it the Spring Assault. Let's discuss and perfect it, everyone can raise their views. The plan was split into 3 steps. The first is the reorganisation of the military and raising of military strength. The second is to clean out all the raider camps in the territory. The third would be to go out of the territory and act as bandits. The objective of the spring offensive would be to improve the coordination of the army and also to amass a large fortune.”
The various leaders were obviously interested in this plan and asked eagerly, "Sire, can you elaborate more?"
Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Today is the 9th of March and to upgrade to a grade 3 town, we have approximately one month. We should make use of this time limit as a clock to reorganise the military and train it. How long do you think it will take to form proper military strength?"
General Shi thought for awhile and said, "Out of the Mixed unit’s five squadrons, the first cavalry squadron was the earliest one that was set up. The second cavalry squadron had not been set up and the process from recruiting to class changing will take 5 days. The 3 infantry squadrons all have a certain amount of battle experience. What I'm afraid of is that the mountain barbarians in the 2nd and 3rd squadrons are too used to forest warfare and aren't used to plain warfare. They also need to get used to military life and added with the language barrier, I think we need 1 week to sharpen them.
General Shi's analysis was mostly correct, only that it wasn't an all round analysis. Ouyang Shuo reminded, "General, don't forget that there's still the coordination between the different types of soldiers. We still need to liaise with the navy in Beihai Town. This spring offensive needs to make use of all our military power. If there's a need, the navy and the village protection squad from Qiushui village can join in. Against water bandits, the Beihai Town navy could be of greatest use.”
"Sire's reminder is correct!" General Shi said with remorse.
Ouyang Shuo said, "Hence, I will give the army 10 days to sharpen. In these 10 days, you must complete 2 things."
"Sire please tell!"
"The first thing was the money needed for the class change of the cavalry squadron. I'll tell you all something, the territory has no more money and we need you guys to think of your own ideas. No money and no food, go look for raiders. This thing will be done by the infantry and cavalry first squadron." Ouyang Shuo looked at Lin Yi and Zhao Sihu.
"Sire don't worry, we will complete the mission!" The two of them stood up and said loudly.
Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and turned to the Military Intelligence Division's San Gouzi and Leng Qian, "The second thing, we need to do a good intelligence gathering job. To strengthen the division, I'll expand the division to 50 people. You are in charge of the selection and training of the men."
"Yes!" The two of them said excitedly.
"Apart from that, let Lei Xun continue following the Qingfu horses." Ouyang Shuo added. Leixun was another go-getter in the division, and in this period of time, he had been coordinating with the Material Reserves Department at the opposite shore and catching Qingfu horses.
San Gouzi nodded his head to represent that he understood.
"The second step which are the bandits in the area, I don't need to say anything more. I will only give you a month, do you have confidence to complete this mission?" Ouyang Shuo said loudly.
"Yes!"
"Very good, the next and last step is the most important one which is being bandits out of our area. As opposed to inside our area, this is much more difficult. You must make sufficient preparation and I hope that when the time comes, not only will we gain anything, we will also not cause ourselves harm.."
This step was a more dangerous and advanced method. The reason why he made such a decision was in hope that they would quickly adapt to close combat and gain experience. As for the monetary rewards, they were secondary.
The leaders all agreed and were determined to win this battle.
"You have 2 weeks of time, whatever you gain, I can't wait to see." Lastly, Ouyang Shuo said.
"Sire don't worry, we will complete the mission!"
After returning from the barracks, it was already 6pm at night and Ouyang Shuo returned to the barracks and went offline.
Getting out of the game cabin and looking at his phone, there were two calls from Song Jia. This made him realise that he had forgotten to set the alert function in the game cabin.
At noon, Ouyang Shuo took time to call Song Jia, "Beautiful, sorry I didn't pick your call yesterday."
On the other end of the call, Song Jia was sitting on a sofa in her living room, "Busy man, what have you been so busy with, not even picking up a phone call."
"Cough, I'm a gamer with no job. Oh ya, that call yesterday, did you have anything important?"
"What, I can't call you if I have nothing?"
"No, you know I didn't mean it like that." Ouyang Shuo acted pitiful.
Seeing his pitiful look, Song Jia's mood turned for the better and said, "Forget it. Let me ask you something, have you heard of a game called Earth Online?" Talking about this game, Song Jia's expression became nervous and she was hesitating when she talked.
Ouyang Shuo was shocked. The incident about Sun Xiaoyue’s grandfather alerted him that the secret truth behind Earth Online was starting to spread to the smaller powers. Listening to the words of Song Jia, he was now 100 percent sure. Song Jia was from a powerful family in Lingnan so her knowing was not surprising.
However, how could he explain to her. Song Jia should have only gotten the news and the moment she did, she didn’t care about her family's demand to keep it a secret and told him immediately. If he wasn’t touched he was definitely lying.
Song Jia saw that Ouyang Shuo's face in the video had become unsettled and asked, "So have you heard about it?"
"Yes, but only a bit. I also joined in the beta test." Ouyang Shuo decided to tell a lie.
Song Jia relaxed, this wouldn’t be counted as leaking a secret. She judged Ouyang Shuo and teased him, "I didn’t expect you to be hiding so much, what is your id? I’ll add you and we can play together."
It seems like he couldn’t escape that question. The good thing was that he had thought of a good reply and said, "I signed a non-disclosure so my ID can’t be told to anyone. However, if you have any questions, you can give me a call and I will answer them."
Everything that had to do with the beta test was highly confidential information. Song Jia wouldn’t know that the non-disclosure agreement was only during the beta test and it didn’t prohibit him from telling his ID. This was just his excuse and one day in the future he would explain it to her.
Song Jia believed him and said cutely, "Oh, I wanted to play together with you."
"What occupation do you play?"
"I play a chivalrous expert. I want to be a female chivalrous expert, to be righteous, maintaining law and order, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Such a carefree life." One couldn’t tell that the demure Song Jia would actually have such adventurous spirit.
That’s true, being born in a rich family and with a silver spoon, one wouldn’t have much freedom. The restrictions on her life would be too much so the game would be a chance to release herself.
People like Song Jia faced the problem positively. There were many other people who looked honest and lived a life which was very routine and orderly, but in the game, there was no more morals and law, they liked to do bad things, showing how twisted their minds were.
Of course the authorities in the game weren’t useless and if the player broke the law, they would jail him.
"I couldn’t tell that our big beauty had such a huge burden. How about this, tell me your ID and i’ll prepare a gift for you in game." Ouyang Shuo laughed and said.
"That’s more like it, I’m near broke in the game, not having enough money to learn basic swordsmanship. You are a beta player so please fund me." Song Jia didn’t decline his offer and smiled, "Remember, my ID is Jiaqi Rumeng."
The number 4 beauty in the top 10 beauties in his last life, wasn’t she Jiaqi Rumeng? She was the only chivalrous expert in the top 10, gaining her many fans.
This was really a case of coincidence. After meeting his little aunt Snow Rose, Ouyang Shuo now had another famous buddy in the game. In his last life, it was such a sad case that he had missed both of them.