42 Three Great Factions of China

(BM) "Now that we have an abundance of blueprints I think we should pay a visit to the auction house again." Baron said with satisfaction.

(GY) "I believe there is going to be an event held by the Chinese community heads that will be good for selling blueprints and the like." Guan Yu informed Baron.

(BM) "Oh that's nice, when will this event be held?"

(GY) "In about 2 years time."

(BM) "Two years huh? I'm still not quite used to what you people consider soon. Anyway, I think that we should sell a portion of these blueprints then we will have enough money to shop around in two years time. Once that event starts we can auction off our slightly more advanced blueprints that are in our possession."

(HX) "Yes, that also works, but why do you want to sell the blueprints now? We aren't exactly short on money" said Han Xin a little confused.

(BM) "Remember what I told you guys about increasing our standings in the Chinese community?"

(YF) "Ah now it makes sense" said Yue Fei coming to a realization.

(GY) "Wait this is news to me. Why do you guys need to increase your standings?"

(BM) "You see Guan Yu, we don't plan on just becoming another faction. We seek to be the peerless faction on Planet 4. So to start we need to gather as many elders as we can."

(GY) "Every faction wishes for this. As of now the factions to beat in just the Chinese community is the Yellow Wang Alliance, Middle Kingdom, and most importantly the Sun Coalition."

(BM) "How powerful are these factions? I've heard of them before but I haven't quite understood just how powerful they are."

(GY) "Let me just give you a quick rundown of the three factions considered the most dangerous in the Chinese community. First up the Yellow Wang Alliance is an interesting case to say the least. Theyonly recently, within the past few hundred years, weren't part of the top three. They were two lesser factions that merged together to become a powerhouse, but they are still the least powerful of the three."

(BM) "A merging of factions? That's rather interesting."

(YF) "Well, don't think too much about it. It's a rare occurrence and when it does happen it's usually among the extremely weak factions. The Wang faction and the Yellow faction merging was a first for two powerful factions to come together. They aren't common because the majority of the time the leaders of either faction are too selfish and that's how deals fall through. It worked for them because elders of both sides acted as representatives for their respective factions and they just happened to be brothers in arms."

(BM) "That's amazing. Please tell me about the other two great factions of the Chinese community."

(GY) "Next up is the Middle Kingdom faction. This faction is headed by the infamous strategist Wu Qi."

(BM) "Wu Qi? He's considered to be one of the best strategists in all of China's history."

(GY) "...Yes, as I was saying. Wu qi is no slouch when it comes to tactics, in fact he's leagues above me. That is why he is one of the two current Great elders within the Chinese community. Just this one person alone should give you an idea of how powerful this faction is. Factor in all of the young talent he recruits, and he is even more unbelievable. Yet this faction is not the most powerful."

(BM) "Who are the Sun coalition then?"

(GY) "The Sun Coalition is headed by another great elder, Sun Tzu. I'm telling you this guy is absolutely insane. Not even Wu Qi can compare to him."

(BM) "Sun Tzu.....the guy that wrote the Art of War. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be the biggest obstacle in my path. Wait, I've been told that there is supposed to be three great elders. How come there is only two at the moment?"

(GY) "It's about a matter of contribution, skill, and popularity. If you have enough contributions and skill, then everyone in the community will get together and vote on it. There are four people that are closest to that seat right now, but all of them have their own downfalls. Wang Jian, Lian Po, Li Mu, and Bai Qi."

(BM) "What? The four most revered strategists during the Warring States period in China's history? I'm not surprised to be honest, those four have made quite a name for themselves. We worship them like gods back home. What are their downfalls"

(GY) "For Wang Jian he may be a great strategist, but he is too secretive and keeps to himself. Therefore he doesn't have much popularity among the members of the Chinese community. Li Mu is said to be the closest to the great elder seat but his downfall is his tendency to be a cautious individual and therefore doesn't take any risk when it came to any sims in any situation. Bai Qi is ruthless and therefore is disliked by many. Lian Po is charismatic there's no doubt about that, However, he takes far too many risks and sometimes they blow up spectacularly in his face."

(BM) "That's quite an interesting point. Which factions do they belong to?"

(GY) "They weren't originally in the same faction, but they teamed up together and they were the ones who managed to merge the Yellow Faction with the Wang Faction. The four of them now co lead the Yellow Wang Alliance. We actually had another great elder before."

(YF) "Stop it Guan Yu, you know we aren't supposed to talk about that."

(GY) "Oh calm down Yue Fei, he deserves to know."

(BM) "well now you have my full attention."

(GY) "Zhuge Liang was once a great elder that was on about Sun Tzu's level of strategic prowess. However, he was by far more popular and when it was suggested, we had to vote on whether or not Zhuge Liang would become the China Community's overlord. He was voted in and we actually managed to get quite high up the rankings thanks to him. He did so much for us when he was our overlord. In fact the reason we are even third place right now is all thanks to him. Before that we were usually around 8th or 9th place."

(BM) "What do you mean was?"

(GY) "One day he just up and vanished, it was a few decades after one of the Death Match tournament. No one knew where he was, no one knew what happened, and no one had an explanation. It's like he died again."

(BM) "As much as I want to keep this conversation going I think that's enough of that for now. Let's head over to the auction house and sell our items. Perhaps we could check out some of the other exhibits too."

The six of them left Baron's room and they all headed over to the auction house to sell their goods. This time was different because the presence of two elders made quite a commotion amongst the other shoppers. Just like last time, Baron split up the blueprints, mostly of lower quality but also some higher more advanced blueprints, and the other five members of his faction each began talking to auctioneers. Baron decided to use this time to peruse the exhibits that were already on display.

Bronze full Iron armor 2,000 silver coins. Steel pole arm 600 silver coins. Flying guillotine 6,000 silver coins. The flying guillotine caught Baron's interest. He had heard of this weapon before back on Earth. However, no records existed on how to use it. The best guesses were it was soaked in poison or it was thrown onto someone's head and with a few tugs the victim would be headless. Hence the name flying guillotine. He asked the nearest auctioneer and received confirmation that it indeed did decapitate someone. Baron was also informed that this was a favorite among the Chinese community as it was an interesting show to say the least. He continued to look through the endless halls of the auction house.

Chigiriki a Japanese flail type weapon 800 silver coins. Urumi an Indian sword with multiple whip like blades 1,200 silver coins. Triple edged karambit 1,000 silver coins. There were multiple others but the others returned to Baron and they all went back to their HQ. There they decided that practising just against NPC's was not a great idea. So they all paired up and went to practice aerial sims against each other. Yue Fei teamed up with Guan Yu, Han Xin with Baron, and Xu Da with Ban Chao. The six of them practiced aerial warfare for the next couple of weeks, and on occasions would switch partners to keep things fresh between them.

The ranking among them for this type of battlefield was Guan Yu at the top, Yue Fei in second, followed by Baron, then Han Xin, Ban Chao, and Xu Da. Although they had grown tremendously compared to themselves just a few months ago, they had gotten too accustomed to their friends' play style. They needed to play sims against new people, with new strategies, and new situations. So they put out a notice rewarding aerial masters 100 silver coins just to participate in a sim against the six of them. Soon, many flocked to do battle.