Chapter 236 Army Placemen

Chapter 236 – Army Placement

Several reports about each force's power and officers piled up on the side of the government hall, turning them into a mountain of scrolls.

Jia Xu finished his reports after a full two hours briefing.

"That is the last report. Next, I wish to confirm the power of our force and the policies that we shall deal with these intruders. Young master Zhang, please."

All eyes were on Tong as they believed that Tong was the MVP of the previous war against the Imperial Army.

In reality, Jia Xu was the biggest contributor in the previous war, yet he gave all credits to Tong and pretended that all stratagem came from the young lord instead of himself. For the sake of his career and his safety, he abandoned all fame and ambition so he could avoid all infighting between colleague workers like he did in the Capital.

Glancing at the old fox, Tong smiled wryly as he cursed Jia Xu in his mind.

'Cunning fox! You don't want to take the spotlight, so you dump all mess on me?'

Tong sighed, 'Oh well, you can clean up my mistakes after I suggest a plan.'

As Tong was about to open his mouth, the system sound rang in his ears, and the obnoxious voice ruined Tong's mood.

[Hey, idiot demon. It's time for you to do your job.]

<you have="" received="" a="" mission="" as="" you="" possess="" more="" than="" one="" skill="">>

…

*********************************************

**Main Mission No.20**

Clear Condition: Kill Zou Jing.

Failure Condition: You die, Zou Jing escape, or time limit exceeded.

Clearing Reward: 10,000 years of lifespan. Bonus experiences for your active skills.

Mission Failure: Your location will be shown on the system map to other players for 1 year.

Time Limit: 3 Months

*********************************************

…

Tong almost collapsed on the ground as soon as he finished reading the content of the quest.

'Zou Jing of Liu Yan? Three freaking months!? Are you kidding me?'

[If you don't want to receive more quest, make sure you delete all your skills or kill yourself. Then you won't receive anything from me again. BYE!]

Tong gritted his teeth as his face reddened from the frustration. He was planning to lead an army to confront Yuan Shao while he let the others deal with Liu Yan and Sun Jian.

The entire plan had to be revised!

Tong coughed and revealed the status of the armies.

…

Everybody was now in front of the building and sat on the ladder stand, watching the gigantic strategic map that Tong had placed several units on the board.

With tokens and chips which represented the number of soldiers, they got a clearer picture of the situation.

"As we can see, if the three lords decide to attack us at the same time, we won't be able to send reinforcement to other cities. However," Tong pointed at Jinyang, "Jinyang city has 70,000 soldiers, which 50,000 of them is deployable. We'll request Lu Bu and his comrades to station at Julu, so they will face Yuan Shao with us."

Tong placed a unit of 50,000 heavy cavalries on Jinyang. As Tong was adding the chips, the officials murmured in excitement and relief that they had backers.

Lu Zhi and Sima Fang nodded as they were expecting no less from Tong. Jia Xu, on the other hand, raised his eyebrows and played with his beard as if he was thinking about something else.

"Now, about our army placement in the next battle …"

<ding>>

'Huh?'

While Tong was busy explaining what he was planning to do with the army, Hua Shi sent a clan message.

Hua Shi: The system gave me a forced-quest.

Hua Shi: It wants me to kill an otherworlder!

Hua Shi: Deadline is December 31st, 190 A.D.

Tong gulped as Lilim messed with their lives just like when Lilith gave the first battle royale quest.

Zhang Tong: I'm meeting with everyone ATM.

Zhang Tong: I'll do something about it.

Dong Bai: You have 8 years.

Dong Bai: That's plenty of times.

Li Feihong: I also got mine.

Li Feihong: It wants me to kill a general in Yuan Shao force.

Zhang Tong: Does it specify who you have to kill?

Li Feihong: Yes, Gao Lan.

Zhang Tong: Got it. You tell Lu Bu to send reinforcement to Julu ASAP.

Zhang Tong: If he doesn't want to come, bribe him with gold. I'll pay him after this.

Li Feihong: Roger!

Zhang Tong: Sir Ding Yuan, are you here?

Ding Yuan: I heard you.

Ding Yuan: I'm busy right now. We'll take about this later today.

Zhang Tong: Thank you.

Li Feihong: BTW, who should I recruit into our clan this year?

Dong Bai: Get Zhang Liao.

Hua Shi: Yeah, Zhang Liao.

Li Feihong: Not Lu Bu?

Dong Bai: That brute will throw a fit in this chat.

Dong Bai: I don't want to see a troll here.

Li Feihong: Roger!

Tong closed the chat menu and resumed explaining his plans. He began placing officer tokens on the board.

Zhongshan City – Zhang Liang, Zhang Bao, Bo Cai, Zhang Tong.

Jia Xu squinted his eyes as he disagreed with this city placement. If it were him, he would put Tong on Julu as the Yuan Army was too formidable that required Tong's superpower to handle them.

Julu City – Lu Zhi, Zhou Cang, Xu Huang, Jia Xu, Jinyang Army.

Murmured came from all spectator stands as they were surprised by the allocation. Aside from Zhou Cang, Xu Huang, and the reinforcement from Jinyang, there was no other marshal or a general in it.

Sima Fang stood up to voice disagreement, "My lord, I don't think this placement is proper. Fighting against the aristocrat Yuan will require your power. Please reconsider your placement!"

Everybody, including Jia Xu, agreed with this.

Tong shook his head, "No need for me to handle to Yuan personally. There is one thing that all of you should know about. Within the Jinyang Army, there is another immortal that can handle this. Besides, there is that monster Lu Bu as their grand commander, so none of you should be concerned about the ability of the generals. Also, I'm sure that my mentor and our strategist can oversee the army policies just fine. Can I entrust you two on this?"

Lu Zhi touched his chin and nodded. He might look like a civil officer at a glance, but he was also well-versed in the military. Commanding an army was not a problem.

As for Jia Xu, he snorted and showed an indifferent expression. If he wanted to command an army, he could do it with ease. Because of his laziness, he had been avoiding these tasks for years. Moreover, he enjoyed keeping his low-profile, so he could avoid all infighting among his colleagues.

Claiming too many credits and achievements could attract envy and jealousy from other co-workers.

Sima Fang nodded and sat down. Seeing no more objection, Tong continued placing officers on the board.

Ye City – Zhang Xiu, Zhang Ji, Xiao Wu.

The crowd was astonished again. Xiao Wu, or Friday, had made a name for herself in the previous ambush against the Imperial force at Jinyang. All ambushing soldiers had witnessed her in action, which she decimated the emperor bodyguards and ultimately slain Liu Ping.

To the city workers and the military men, they saw Friday as the strongest warrior of their force.

…

'Sun Jian is a well-rounded general. Using the strongest warrior against a tactical general is bad,' Jia Xu analyzed the placement in his mind.

'But I have scouted a promising scholar and put him there as temporary the deputy governor. He should be able to cover the three's weaknesses.'

Before Jia Xu returned to Julu, he had developed a groundwork for the locals and the remaining officials in Ye City. During his stay, he noticed a talented young scholar within the assistant worker department. He promoted him into a deputy governor without hesitation as he was more promising than all the bootlicking officials.

The scholar was famous in Tong's timeline as he was part of Cao Cao's advisors and was from the dominant family.

Xun Yu!

He was a member of the Xun House in Xuchang, which was the same family as his cousin, Xun You.

'But that brat is a spy from the Xun House of Xuchang. I hope he won't do anything stupid for now.'

Despite entrusting the vital job to Xun Yu, Jia Xu had not fully trusted this 20-year-old strategist yet because he knew about this family custom.

This Xun family had a tradition of sending their members to various cities to expand their family influence as nobles. However, they forbad themselves from taking arms or establishing their army as they deemed that creating another force would disrupt the peace of the people. Instead, they tried to manipulate all forces from the inside.

As such, Xun Yu had no problem joining the Yellow Turban while he knew that his cousin joined the volunteer force of Cao Cao.

Both of them had hidden agendas, entrusted by their family head. They were to judge the lords of each force, which they had to report the result back every month. Should any of them reveal a sign of corruption, they had to defect from the force and return to the family.

Jia Xu knew about this fact as he dug into Xun Yu's background when he recruited this scholar into the army.

'So far, none of the key personals have embezzled the government funds or taxes yet. That Xun brat should stick with our army for a while. I hope I can drag the whole Xun family into this force to relieve me, so I can have times to laze around again.'

This lazy old fox had simple ambitions, [Drag more talented people here, so I can be lazy!].

…

"Since Hua Shi is pregnant, she won't participate in the battle. Father and Sima Fang will stay behind in Julu to maintain order. As for the troop allocation and mobilization, I'll have a meeting with the involved personals directly."

As Tong finished issuing the war policy, Jia Xu patted his robe and gestured Tong that he wanted to meet him later.

Noticing the gesture, Tong tilted his head in puzzled, 'He can object or advise me just now, but he chose to advise me in private? Does he want to conceal the vital information from spies?'

Tong's thought was correct. Jia Xu did not like revealing all plans to the public as every official could be a spy from another force.

Later that day, Jia Xu visited Tong in his courtyard.

"My lord, the general allocation is flawed. I wish to suggest a few corrections."

Jia Xu did not waste any time as he advised Tong about the troop placement.

Tong looked at the dolls on the strategic map with a wry smile. Jia Xu switched Tong with Lu Zhi and Zhuo Cang's position as expected.

"To be honest, I also plan to station in Julu to face Yuan Shao, but there is a circumstance that I have to fight Liu Yan personally …"

Tong explained about the system quest and the punishment if he were to fail the mission.

"There is this the mandate from Heaven!?"

"Yeah, I can't help it."

Jia Xu shook his head, "What a whimsical mandate. It's like they want to torture you."</ding></you>