The World Online
chapter-715

The moment Ouyang Shuo returned, he was rushed by Zheng He into the battle room.

"Monarch, something has happened in Jiangling." Zheng He's expression was solemn as he handed over the letter.

When Ouyang Shuo read the letter that Feng Qiuhuang had sent to him, his brows furrowed. He did not expect that Jiangling City would fall, and it would be a total defeat.

……

To explain this matter, one had to start from before the week.

By the time Ouyang Shuo killed Guan Yu, the Zhou Yu Army had already led troops down to Jiangling. Close to 300 thousand troops had surrounded Jiangling City.

Outside the city, flags waved; spears and blades were prepared.

The next morning, the army launched a ferocious assault on Jiangling, attacking from all directions. The most large-scale battlefield in the Battle of Red Cliff had exploded and it would decide the fates of both sides.

On the first day of battle, nothing went wrong. After close to 10 thousand casualties, Zhou Yu's army backed down like a flood. Jiangling City stood tall.

The second day was exactly the same.

The situation changed on the third day. Just as the Cao Cao Army started to put down their guards, the west gate of Jiangling suddenly opened from the inside. The player army that was in charge of the west gate had betrayed them.

The Zhou Yu Army that was prepared rushed into Jiangling City like a flood.

Zhou Yu was truly smart; the battle during the first two days was just a ruse. On the third day, Zhou Yu gathered his main force at the west gate while the ones attacking the other three were all false.

The army gathered all their main forces and also had someone on the inside; naturally, it was an easy victory.

Catastrophe had struck.

General Cao Ren, who was in charge of guarding the west gate, died in battle. At the same time, the Cao Cao Army that was caught off guard suffered heavy casualties.

Luckily, he was decisive and Feng Qiuhuang and the others were alert, and they led troops to leave from the north.

Their destination was Yiling.

Who knows how this happened, but they suffered another scheme as they headed up north.

Zhou Yu had predicted that the Cao Cao Army would escape to Yizhou and planned an ambush. During this battle, naturally the Cao Cao Army lost both soldiers and generals.

Facing so many obstacles and paying such a heavy price, the remaining forces finally reached Yizhou. Of the 300 thousand Cao Cao Army, only 150 thousand remained.

Di Chen and the others naturally earned contribution points like crazy, and his points had caught up to Ouyang Shuo; Di Chen was second place now.

Of course, their army suffered loses too.

Be it the City Protection Legion led by Er'Lai or Feng Qiuhuang and Bai Hua's forces, they all led their elite forces. The Zhou Yu Army also lost 50 to 60 thousand troops from their retaliation.

Currently, Zhou Yu was leading the army to surround Yizhou to get ready to annihilate the enemy.

If Yizhou fell, the battle map would immediately end. The Invincible status that Ouyang Shuo had kept would be broken. If that happened, the defeat of Xiong Ba and the others would not mean much anymore.

Of course, this was not easy.

The Zhou Yu Army was able to easily defeat Jiangling only because they had spies within.

The one who opened the gates were the forces of Caiyun Zinan, Qin Feng, and Yuan Ping. Who knows what scheme he had used to obtain Cao Ren's trust, but the general had allowed their armies to guard the west gate.

With that, it created a hidden cancer for the battle.

After learning the defense layout, Feng Qiuhuang and the others objected to Cao Cao and hoped that their forces could be spread around.

Ouyang Shuo had instructed them to be wary of Caiyun Zinan and the rest beforehand. Their current actions were simply too unusual. With how smart Feng Qiuhuang and the rest were, they would obviously be wary.

Helplessly, their power was feeble in front of Cao Cao, and he did not listen to them. More importantly, she did not have proof that Caiyun Zinan and the others would betray them.

Furthermore, Caiyun Zinan had insurance - the trust from Cao Ren.

With Cao Ren's support, the matter ended just like that. Although Feng Qiuhuang and the others were anxious, they could not do anything.

With that, only then could the catastrophe occur.

Cao Ren, who was the cause of all this, received his lesson with his death in the battle.

After the Battle of Jiangling ended, Caiyun Zinan and the others knew their place and knew that they could not do anything else in the battle map. Based on the rules, even if Zhou Yu trusted them, they could not attack their own camp.

They used a loophole in the system to open the city gate.

Furthermore, they were afraid that Cao Cai would try to take revenge. Hence, they decided that after they opened the city gate and completed their mission, they would directly kill themselves and back out of the battle map.

Their actions were the typical harming others but not benefiting themselves. They would rather choose to earn nothing from the battle if they could harm the Shanhai Alliance.

After this battle, Gaia would probably make a system hotfix regarding such actions. After all, if everyone acted like that, the uncertainty factor in the battle map would rise, which was a matter Gaia would not want to see.

Before the hotfix, Shanhai City became the greatest loser.

The player armies in the Cao Cao Camp were mostly made up of Shanhai Alliance Lords. In this battle, including the City Protection Legion, they had all suffered heavy losses.

The City Protection Legion even lost two major generals, so one could see how intense the situation was.

As the Battle of Jiangling came to an end, the direction of the battle became cloudy and uncertain.

Even after taking down Jiangling, the victory of the Sun Liu Alliance Army was still not certain yet. On the other side, Cao Cao still had over a hundred thousand troops, and the city still had sufficient resources.

This was because Yizhou was the grain transfer point of the Cao Cao Army. From the north to various places in Jingzhou, all grain must come through here.

Although the grain storage here could not be compared to Jiangling, it would not be a problem to support them for half a month.

On the contrary, the Zhou Yu Army had a lack of grain. The grain sent from Wulin was intercepted by the City Protection Legion. Even the grain in Jiangling was burned down under Cao Cao’s orders.

Things were just so awkward. As the victor, they still had to live on an empty stomach.

Helplessly, Zhou Yu could only arrange the army to the various lands and villages to scour for grain. With the hungry army facing the defenseless people, everyone could guess what would happen.

The hundreds and thousands of villages in Yizhou fell under the horse hooves of the army.

Anyway, Jingzhou was under Liu Biao. Be it Cao Cao or Zhou Yu, they did not empathize them. As a general, feeding their troops was the priority.

If not, who would fight for them?

In such a chaotic world, who would truly pity the common people?

When Liu Bei was not that successful, he actually cared for the people. It was his unusual acts that made Liu Bei famous.

The pitiful Jingzhou people had already given grain to Liu Biao during the autumn sowing season. Cao Cao's arrival meant that they had even given him their food.

Now, the arrival of the Zhou Yu Army meant that even all their emergency rations would be swept clean.

This winter would be a lot colder than usual for the people. What awaited them was either freezing to death or starving to death.

Those that did not want to die could only dig for roots and chew on bark.

During this winter season, even bark was rare. As the army past, all they left behind were refugees that ran for their lives. On the way, who knows how many people suffered due to this tragedy?

Selling kids and women was now a reality.

……

If they did not have enough grain, it would not be an easy matter for them to take down Yizhou. Apart from that, to the Sun Liu Camp, the Shanhai City Squadron was still a problem.

Along with Liu Bei's escape, only the Jiangdong side was left. Moreover, their navy had nearly completely fallen apart under the successive strikes of the Shanhai City Squadron.

If they did not remove this problem, it would be hard to win this war.

Hence, the key to victory and defeat laid in the Shanhai City Squadron. If Ouyang Shuo was at Jiangling City, it would be nearly impossible for Caiyun Zinan to enact his betrayal.

One could only say that Ouyang Shuo had hurried a landmine for Jiangling because of his selfishness. Now, it was time for him to make it up.

Dragon Head, battle room.

"So, what should we do?"

After understanding the situation, Ouyang Shuo passed the problem to Zheng He and Jia Xu.

Of course, the main person he asked was still Jia Xu.

Zheng He was only a navy admiral. In strategies that affected the entire battle, he needed the help of a top strategist like Jia Xu.

No matter what, this was his backyard.

Ouyang Shuo deciding to bring along Jia Xu was the best decision.

"Mister, please!"

Zheng He directly kicked the ball into Jia Xu's court.

When Jia Xu heard their words, he smiled awkwardly, but he did not push it aside and said slowly, “The Yizhou problem is hard to solve. There's another thing we can do."

Jia Xu immediately rejected helping Yizhou.

Ouyang Shuo agreed on this matter. The navy was obviously good at naval warfare, but in terms of guarding a city, they were pretty much useless.

Assisting Yizhou would be attempting to use their weakness to attack the enemy's strength.

During this period of time, Ouyang Shuo understood Jia Xu's way of making strategy. His way seemed exceedingly unconstrained, but in truth, it was meticulously planned out.

His most obvious specialty was his ability to use generals and troops. Be it assassinating the leader or using fire to burn the Liu Bei Army, these events showed the way he used troops.

His excellent analysis of the battlefield, his vast strategic vision, and his vicious eyes totally saw through the enemy; these were all skills that a strategist needed to have.

Be it Jia Xu or Guo Jia, they were all like that.

Apart from that, another specialty of Jia Xu was his rationality. His goal was to win. As for the process and the price they needed tp pay, it was not within his considerations.

As a result, his intentions were misread, and he was called a vicious strategist.