176 Civilized Hong San
The night passed uneventfully.
…As if.
The entire city spent the night in fear under the shadow of the elves’ attack. Although the elves of Twilight were proud, they did not mind using schemes, let alone using their strengths.
Early in the morning, Kang De, who had slept enough, was enjoying a sumptuous breakfast at the Vidal Chamber of Commerce.
The taste could only be said to be okay.
The culinary skills under the modern system were born after continuously importing and fusing ingredients from all over the world, improving and upgrading the cooking techniques, processing the ingredients carefully, and converting the spices and condiments. They were definitely much stronger than in ancient times. Of course, they were also stronger than the other world, but they were not completely superior.
At the very least, there was magic in the other world. In relatively fashionable words, it was the spiritual energy world. The quality of the ingredients was relatively high, and it was possible that fantasy chefs like the Magic Chef of Ice and Fire might be born. They might be able to make more special dishes.
However, top ingredients and top chefs would definitely not appear in the branch of the Vidal Chamber of Commerce in a city in the east of Goethe… Therefore, the taste of this breakfast could only be said to be alright.
Leona sat at the master’s seat, Hong San sat opposite Kang De, the butler stood at the side to accompany her, and the maids stood carefully. No matter what was needed, with a move and a look, the beautiful maids would immediately prepare it. They were well-trained and very considerate.
Such a depraved life was difficult to enjoy on Earth… After all, not most people were rich and shameless. There had to be superficial respect and equality.
Kang De sighed in his mind, then asked Hong San, “Was it very lively last night?”
Last night, he was strengthening the projection weapons for Nick’s elite troops. Although it was the roughest and most primitive direct injection method, it still consumed mental strength. After feeling tired, he immediately stopped what he was doing and began to sleep and rest. After all, this job was not as efficient as 996. Even if he worked overtime, he had to ensure that he had enough energy to deal with the second siege that was about to happen.
As for how much had happened during this period, he did not know.
However, Hong San knew that Hong San had been vigilant and paying attention to the situation of the battle almost the entire night. Moreover, it seemed that he was not tired or depressed at all after cultivating. Instead, he was in high spirits.
According to him, the internal cultivation method taught by his sect was used for meditation. It could replace sleep and take a short rest and relaxation. He would enter a meditative state every few days and accumulate enough to relieve his fatigue.
Therefore, although he had been busy the entire night, it was equivalent to sleeping the entire night.
After Kang De heard him tell it, he was very excited and envious. This skill was simply a role model for air cavalry and the light of the ancient battlefield—so he wanted to learn it.
Hong San reached out to touch his bone structure and take his pulse. Then, he revealed a difficult expression. His words were only a common saying in martial arts novels. He was old and his bone structure was set. He could not teach him. Even if he barely cultivated, his advancement was very slow. After all, martial arts was also about opportunities.
How should he put it? Although it was very tactful, the words “you’re just a mixed spiritual root” simply appeared on his face.
—D*mn, when I find a martial arts expert to extract one day, the Star Absorption Technique will scare you to death.
Hong San did not know what Kang De was thinking. When he heard the question, he replied, “It’s very lively. After all, the elves are powerful and brave and hold the initiative on the battlefield. Valentine’s military strength is limited, and his relative combat strength is even worse. He doesn’t dare to leave the city to launch a sneak attack, so only the elves can attack the city…”
Kang De frowned and said, “This is very troublesome.”
The elves attacked the city, the humans defended the city, and the elves took the initiative. Then, when and how to attack were all decided by the elves. They could sleep soundly tonight and conserve their strength, or they could casually choose a time to raid the city and do whatever they wanted. As for the humans, they could only be fully vigilant according to the principle that the elves could attack the city at any time. It was the same all night.
If the elves wanted to use this advantage, things would become even more disgusting.
For example, he would let most of the elite soldiers sleep and rest peacefully. Then, he would choose a team to attack and feint. He would shoot a rain of arrows and cause some huge commotion. After arguing, he would run away. The cycle repeated, causing the defending side to fall into a cycle of making a fuss over nothing. In the end, he would achieve the effect of exhausting the enemy…
This method was very shameless, disgusting, and effective. What was even more terrifying was that after countless harassments and feints to make the enemy relax their vigilance, there was suddenly a true siege raid. It turned from illusion to reality and attacked brazenly. This was the true reason why the city guard did not dare to lower their guard even if they knew that it was a feint.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in the battle for Hanzhong, the Wei army camp was harassed by the Shu army three times. Then, they retreated 15 kilometers and camped again because Boss Cao was afraid that Kong Ming would suddenly do this to him.
Now, the elves had used this method.
“It’s indeed very troublesome.”
Hong San nodded and said, “However, Mayor Nick has also dealt with it. Both sides can be considered to be defending and attacking, but neither side has the advantage. Although the elves have the initiative, we also have the advantage. Although they’re elites, there’s a limited number. We… Sigh, we have many people and can endure the consumption.”
At this point, he shook his head and smiled bitterly, feeling self-deprecating. Yesterday, he was still roaring at the people who had died because they were casually controlled. Today, he was thinking about the problem from the perspective of a decision-maker. How ironic.
Hong San only sighed and continued, “Mayor Nick has developed a very perfect vigilance system. The troops in charge of keeping watch at night are mostly recruits led and commanded by a few veteran elites. According to the strength and attack of the elves, the vigilance will increase. Only when it’s confirmed that the elves are officially attacking the city will all the elite troops and mages be awakened. This ensures the greatest rest of the elite troops.”
“This is passive defense. The mayor has also planned to take the initiative to attack.”
“The attack plan revolves around a principle. If the other party is feigning an attack, it’s unlikely that they’ll send a large number of mages to accompany the army, because the elf mages also have to rest. In this way, the strength comparison of the local mages will reverse. If the humans gather a large number of spellcasters, they’ll have the advantage.”
“The specific tactic is that when the elves carried out the third feint attack, they ordered the entire team of mages and warlocks who were prepared to launch a joint attack. The results were outstanding. That feint army encountered an extremely dense range spell and catapult cover. The small number of mages accompanying the team could not block all the attacks.”
“There’s a benefit to this tactic. After successfully implementing it once, you can let the mages go back and rest. The elves will also face the same riddle problem. Humans have to guess which feint attack of the elves will turn into a true siege, and the elves have to guess which feint attack will encounter the full attack of the human mages.”
Kang De was fascinated.
What Hong San said was all summary and refinement, but in the long night of more than ten hours, only the person involved knew how much blood, sweat, and tears had gathered.
He said, “It must be very difficult.”
Hong San nodded and sighed, “It has to be said that other than Mayor Nick’s personality being a little decisive and cold, he’s indeed a hero. After my division attacked and successfully struck that feint army, the elves launched two more feints. Once, the distance was already very close, but the mayor still calmed down. He did not order the warlocks and mages to attack again. Instead, he ordered the four sides to be vigilant.”
“In the end, as he expected, that feint attack team was only bait, and the elf mages reunited in the dark sky and circled towards the east wall with an elite team. In other words, once my method division launches a fierce attack on that feint army, the elf mages on the other wall will immediately attack the city…”
Kang De asked, “Then?”
Hong San laughed, “It’s precisely because Mayor Nick did not do anything that the elf commander is not sure what scheme he has. In the end, he did not dare to attack and ordered the mages to quietly retreat. It’s the right choice. After all, with the strength of the elves’ army, there’s no need to take the risk of a night battle surprise attack…”
Kang De nodded repeatedly when he heard this and said, “Unfortunately, I wasn’t here last night…”
Hong San put down the cup in his hand and shook his head. “There’s nothing to pity. Although it sounds like it’s up and down and filled with scheming, all of this is very boring on a long night.”
Kang De raised his eyebrows and said, “It sounds like you were there the entire time?”
Hong San nodded calmly. “I also gave the mayor a small plan.”
Kang De was interested. “What?”
Hong San’s smile was a little shy, “You know that I learned my strategies from my master. However, I only swallowed them in one go and did not have any place to verify and practice, so I can’t think of any impressive plan…”
“In fact, there’s no earth-shattering plan in the world. The so-called military strategy is only suitable for the heavens, the earth, and people. Just like how the mayor dealt with the elves’ attack and feint with the mage team and vigilance system, it’s built on his complete understanding of the military strength, terrain, and situation of the city to ensure that this plan is effective.”
“I don’t know the right time, place, and person. I can only give suggestions from my old profession.”
At this point, he said in embarrassment, “I’m just a good-for-nothing. All these years, I’ve only done one thing, and that’s to figure out people’s hearts. As long as I can figure out what others think, I can live comfortably. I’ve achieved nothing and am willing to degrade myself. I’m hopeless, but I’m not bad at figuring out people.”
“Since you can figure out the human heart, it’s not very difficult to figure out the elves.”
“At the very least, as long as the method is correct, angering the elves is much simpler than angering humans.”
Hearing this, Kang De and Leona looked at each other as if enlightened.
The two of them guessed Hong San’s plan almost at the same time.
After all, they were also civilized role models.
As expected, Hong San said, “Elves want a reputation and have very high self-esteem. It can even be said to be arrogant. I think this is one of the fatal weaknesses of elves. It’s time to deal with a feint attack.”
Kang De probed, “Scold them?”
Hong San’s expression did not change as he said, “It’s not just me, but I asked the soldiers on the city wall to curse together. The mage controlled the wind to send them out. The elves could hear them even if they run two miles. Who asked them to have sharp five senses?”
“It’s not only cursing, mocking, humiliating, spreading rumors, distorting the truth, and fabricating jokes. We made it up on the spot.”
He said, “If the elves pretend to attack and run, we’ll fabricate that they were defeated and peed their pants. Then, they escaped in a sorry state. We’ll say that they cried for their mother and knelt to beg the humans in the city not to kill them.”
“We’ll also fabricate that the elf commander eliminated his dissidents and deliberately sent these feint troops to their deaths to eliminate the elves who were not on his side. We’ll also say that for the sake of credit, the other party did not care about the lives of the soldiers and did not hesitate to suffer huge casualties to take Valentine down. The people who died were all soldiers he did not like.”
“These were all still tame. If we’re a little more impudent, when the elves’ feint army approaches, we’ll comment on them one by one. Whoever looks handsome and squeezes very close to their comrades beside them must be having an affair.”
“Not only that, I guessed loudly and deduced that when these two elves do things, which one is in front, which one is behind, which one is stabbing, and which one is in pain, so much so that they seduced the officer and carried out a group activity… I won’t go into detail. They’re all dirty words, so it’s fine not to listen.”
“The truth has proven that the effect is extremely shocking.”
“The elves are all furious and even took the initiative to advance. Seeing this, the mayor ordered the elites to prepare an ambush and kill many people. Then, the elves forcefully restrained them and ordered the troops not to approach. However, this is the nature of the elves. How can a military order change it… They’re extremely proud and look down on humans. Therefore, when they were humiliated by the lowly and despicable humans, they were even more furious.”
“As for not being angry or impatient and only treating humiliation and cursing as a breeze, it sounds nice, but the facts have proven that it’s definitely unbearable. With the elf sword in hand and relying on his courage, how can he lower his head to humans?”
At this point, Hong San smiled again, “This way, the elves will suffer more and more casualties. There’s nothing we can do. The feint attack team won’t dare to approach too close and cooperate with the vigilance system. This way, it’s basically fine.”
“Apart from that, this method is also beneficial to raising morale. After all, you understand. There are soldiers and commoners. Actually, they all like this. If you aim at the lower three paths, they’ll listen and say it excitedly. It’s just that the scene is too dirty and not a place for decent people to stay.”
Leona’s eyes lit up when she heard this, and Kang De was beaming with joy. These two decent people did not feel that anything was wrong at all. Instead, they were extremely regretful. They only hated themselves for not being there last night and participating in this grand event.
She thought that if she were here, there would definitely be more exciting and imposing curses.
Kang De thought that if he was here, he would definitely be able to make the elves die on the spot.
Without thinking, the eldest daughter of the Vidal family blurted out, “Do you still have a chance tonight?”
As soon as these words were spoken, she felt that something was wrong. The smiles on Hong San and Kang De’s faces disappeared.
Because it was dawn, the scheming and strategy of exhausting the enemy in the night had already ended. In broad daylight, the elves had already prepared their army. The humans were also prepared. The two armies faced each other. It was not a surprise attack or harassment. A true cruel war was about to begin.
Even if he repelled the elves and protected the city today, he had to make a huge sacrifice.
Even if the elves pretended to attack again at night, after the tragic casualties in the day, in fear and pain, could the soldiers guarding the city still disperse the fear in their hearts with joy and rampant emotions like last night and curse and laugh extremely happily at the elves?
“…Yes.”
Kang De said, “A tragic victory has to boost morale. A beautiful young lady standing on the city wall and cursing can even boost people’s morale. I’ll curse with you tonight.”
Everyone in the house heaved a sigh of relief. Leona looked at Kang De’s gentle smile and her heart shook.
However, in the next moment, a huge roar swept through the sky and the ground shook slightly.
The sky quickly darkened.
The few of them turned around and looked out of the window. They saw dark clouds rolling in the opposite direction and the sky was dark. Lightning leaped into them. Spell streams broke through the city wall and swept into the city in the arc of death.
Kang De and Hong San suddenly stood up. The old butler took a step forward and protected Leona.
The servant girls’ faces turned pale.
The horn of war suddenly sounded. The overlord of Twilight had arrived.
“It’s starting…”
Kang De and Hong San looked at each other, then quickly checked the equipment on their bodies and carried their heavy backpacks. Their stable auras gradually calmed the people down and made them feel at ease.
In the end, Kang De’s gaze swept past everyone’s faces one by one and finally stopped on Leona.
“Stay here and don’t move…”
He said, “I’m going to kill a few elves.”
…