Volume 5 Chapter 16: Alliance Strikes Back
After the alliance meeting, I returned to the Jinglei League headquarters and held an internal summary meeting. I first praised Xiaowu and the Thunder Group for their outstanding performance. After that, I didn't say anything to Han Jiang, but Badao spoke up and accused Han Jiang of not knowing how to advance or retreat. Knowing that the enemy had an absolute advantage in strength, he failed to respond flexibly and withdrew his troops to maintain his strength. Instead, he engaged in a battle that was doomed to fail, causing heavy casualties among our alliance. Not only did the 8,000 members lose experience, but the alliance also had to spend a large amount of pensions and equipment compensation afterwards.
Han Jiang was not one to shirk responsibility, and he immediately admitted that it was his own fault in command, and said that the loss should be deducted from his future share dividends.
I shook my head in opposition and defended Han Jiang. "First, Han Jiang followed my orders to support Yin Yue. Since Yin Yue had not completely fallen when he arrived at the battlefield, it cannot be said that there was no hope at all. He was right to insist on carrying out the mission. As for responsibility, he was the commander appointed by me. As long as he did not violate orders, no matter what the consequences, the responsibility should be attributed to me, the highest decision-maker. Second, although Han Jiang's participation in the war caused casualties, the benefits outweighed the disadvantages in terms of gains and losses. Since we, the Thunder Alliance, have joined the Grand Alliance, we must fulfill the minimum obligations to our allies. We cannot just run away when we see that the situation is not right. What image will we leave in the minds of others in the future? Which gang will be willing to cooperate with us? This time, Han Jiang faced an enemy force more than twenty times his size, and resolutely led his troops to join the battle, sharing life and death with his allies, and won praise from Yin Yue Guanghua and other gangs. This intangible value cannot be ignored."
Xiao Wu stood up and objected, "No matter what , as a commander who is responsible for leading an army independently, it is necessary to have the ability to act according to circumstances and adapt to changes. From this point of view, Han Jiang is not a qualified commander. For example, he could have not used the entire army at that time, but instead sent 2,000 troops to attack and retained most of the strength to retreat. This would have achieved the best of both worlds, maintaining the image of the alliance and reducing losses."
Even I had no room to refute Xiao Wu's words, but I thought to myself, Xiao Wu is good in everything except that she considers everything from a purely military perspective. It's really strange for a girl to have such a personality.
I hesitated for a moment and was about to speak when Han Jiang said, "Alliance leader, there is no need to excuse me. It is my fault and I should bear the responsibility. You cannot be partial to me just because we are good friends. You are the leader of the Jinglei Alliance and you lead 50,000 brothers!"
I nodded and said, "Hanjiang, I'm not trying to excuse you. I understand that a strong gang must have clear rewards and punishments. But this time I do have some responsibility. You have always been a deputy under Lonely and have never worked independently. It was inconsiderate of me to order you to command a battle independently. Now I announce the punishment order: remove Hanjiang from the position of assistant to the deputy leader and transfer him to the position of acting head of the third branch of Jinglei, with full responsibility for the personnel arrangement, station construction, army formation, etc. of the branch. Hanjiang, from now on, you will be responsible for the handling of all affairs alone. I hope you can take this opportunity to train yourself and become a talent who can work independently in the future! In addition, I will bear the economic losses caused by this support to Yinyue as a punishment for my improper use of people."
In this arrangement, the head of a branch is equal to the deputy leader in the alliance. It can be said that Han Jiang was promoted to a higher level. However, the so-called third branch refers to one of the two gang bases that the Thunder Group just captured (the other was given to Bingyue). After the war, it was severely damaged. It is a hard job to sort it out and rebuild it. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a punishment for Han Jiang. For Han Jiang himself, this is indeed a great opportunity to exercise his own abilities.
In terms of economy, the Thunder Alliance is still in its development stage. Although the income is good now, there are many places to spend money. The dividends that each shareholder can get every month are actually very small. If Han Jiang is asked to bear it, I am afraid he will not be able to pay it back in a few months. For me, the worst that can happen is that I can just fight the boss for another ten days or so.
Han Jiang didn't say much, just nodded silently, but I could tell from his eyes that he was still quite moved.
I smiled and said to Xiao Niao, "Don't look so sad. The profiteer hasn't come back yet, and I still need you to help me with the financial work of the Thunder Alliance. When the profiteer returns from the Western Continent, I will send you to be Han Jiang's assistant. I want you to be with your brother Han Jiang every day. What do you think?"
Xiaoniao's face suddenly turned red, but she didn't dare to refute, for fear that I would really transfer her to a place far away from Hanjiang. Everyone laughed, and the originally depressing atmosphere was swept away. The meeting ended in a happy ending for everyone.
The next task is naturally to prepare the army for the war. Now that the Iron Blood's trump card has been revealed and the strength of the Grand Alliance has been revealed, both sides no longer have much room for conspiracy, and the subsequent battle will be a true test of comprehensive strength.
At the alliance meeting, someone suggested that we immediately form a coalition army, march across the border, and crush the Iron Blood Alliance in one fell swoop. Then, the small gangs under the Iron Hoof would be leaderless and would be easily eliminated one by one. Otherwise, they would have no choice but to surrender to us. But I objected, "During the years of defense, the coalition forces of various gangs were unable to have a unified command, and their poor quality and chaotic disobedience to orders had already been exposed. Now we don't have the time or energy to organize a large-scale exercise, and in fact, we dare not do so at all. Otherwise, what if we are attacked by the Iron Blood when our troops are exhausted? But with the current level of the coalition, although we have the advantage in numbers, and the troops put together by the small gangs of the Iron Blood Alliance may not be stronger than us, but if we encounter the elite divisions of the Nine Cities, I'm afraid they are no match!"
Then I proposed another plan: each gang would form its own team and agree to declare war on the small gangs under the Iron Blood Alliance at the same time. By then, if the Iron Blood Alliance had to send troops to support, it would be a drop in the bucket. If they combined their forces to rescue one or two places, we could give up attacking those one or two places, but we would surely be able to conquer other places. In the end, the Alliance still got a huge advantage.
There is a detail here. If the conditions for declaring war require the defeated party to disband their gangs, then wouldn't the one or two gangs that we failed to attack have to disband? We are all big gangs, and the loss of one gang being destroyed can at least offset the loss of five small gangs of the Iron Blood Alliance! Besides, no one wants this bad luck to fall on themselves, right?
However, there is another rule about the alliance war: if a gang has opened a branch, it can declare war on the other side in the name of the branch. Even if it fails, it will only lose a branch, and the headquarters will not be affected. After the last battle, the eleven small gangs of the Iron Blood Alliance were defeated. Ten of the fifteen factions in the big alliance have opened branches. It is no problem for these ten gangs to declare war on the other side. As for who will be unlucky, it depends on luck. As for the remaining five gangs, I suggest that their conditions for declaring war be to demand a large amount of war compensation from the other side, to hit the Iron Blood Alliance economically. Of course, if you are confident enough in the strength of your own gang, you can also ask the other side to disband the gang. If you are unlucky enough to encounter the main force of the other side and fail and disband the gang, the remaining winning gangs can negotiate and take responsibility for helping the faction rebuild.
According to my suggestion, we can avoid a decisive battle and rely on the stronger overall strength of our Grand Alliance to slowly break up and defeat the Iron Blood Alliance, and finally force the Pojun Iron Blood Alliance into a dead end! Some gangs in the Grand Alliance will suffer losses, but most will gain huge benefits, and who will gain and who will lose depends entirely on luck. However, due to the addition of the last clause, even those with bad luck will not lose everything, so all the bosses are very interested and finally decided to use this strategy!
My plan is rather sinister, and has a bit of the flavor of "using one's own power to hurt others". However, when two armies clash, they will use every possible means. There will be many problems in forming a coalition force immediately. Of course, it is better to let each gang lead its own army, and everyone fights separately, but cooperates closely in time to exert greater combat effectiveness.
Three days later, all the gangs were fully prepared, so the bosses gathered again and decided to launch the attack on this day! This battle was also the first time that the Grand Alliance took the initiative to counterattack against the Iron Blood!
At the Thunder Alliance headquarters, everyone looked at me in confusion. Ah Wei was the first to ask, "Boss, why did you choose to declare war on the former Silver Moon Guanghua base? That place... is not an easy bone to chew!"
I didn't answer immediately, but asked Lonely: "Lonely, do you understand the purpose of my attack on Silver Moon? And all of you should not be idle, you can bring up any opinions you have!"
Recently, the Thunder Alliance has been developing rapidly, with more and more affairs, and everyone's responsibilities are getting heavier. I deeply feel that if our own abilities cannot improve accordingly, it will soon be difficult to control such a large organization. At that time, even if the Thunder Alliance does not fail, it will be reduced to a mediocre gang, and how can it compete for the hegemony of the continent? Therefore, I am not only working hard to improve my leadership and affairs handling abilities, but also pay attention to guiding my brothers in normal times, hoping that they can use their brains more, grow up faster, and be able to shoulder heavier responsibilities, so that I will not be the only one performing a one-man show in the future. (Aside: In fact, you still want to be lazy and return to the leisurely and comfortable life of the original hands-off boss, right?)
Lonely frowned and said, "Attacking Silver Moon is obviously not a good idea. The troops of Nine Cities are stationed there now. You declared war in the name of the Third Branch. For the loss of the Third Branch is very limited. I'm afraid your purpose is not to really attack Silver Moon, right?"
I nodded, and the fat man suddenly said, "Boss, you are so insidious! These days, you asked the intelligence team of Lemmings to spread the news that Meng Tian Bingyue defected to our Jinglei League and was preparing to make a comeback. You want the people of Jiucheng to think that you attacked the original Yinyue base at the request of Meng Tian Bingyue, first to avenge Yinyue, and second to recapture the original Yinyue base. The other party will think that you are doing Bingyue a favor, so you would rather risk failure and declare war."
The fat man's analysis was very insightful, and he accurately grasped the little psychological tactic I used.
Bad Bad looked like he was in deep thought at first, then he suddenly said, "I figured it out. Boss, you really have a good plan! If I guessed correctly, you will declare war on other gangs in a while. Attacking Silver Moon is fake, and attacking other gangs is real, right?"
I laughed out loud and said excitedly, "Yes, yes, my brothers are all right. This is great. We have many talented . It will be difficult for us not to prosper in the future!"
My plan can be said to kill many birds with one stone.
In my eyes, the Iron Blood Alliance is not to be feared, but the combined strength of Iron Blood and Nine Cities cannot be underestimated. Therefore, this time the Alliance's attack on Iron Blood had to be on guard against the Nine Cities army.
Jiucheng colluded with Tiexue, of course, he also had his own interests in mind, in addition to suppressing the Grand Alliance, he also wanted to expand his influence to Pojun City. Therefore, after Jiucheng conquered Yinyue Guanghua this time, Yinyue’s base should belong to the small Tiexue Alliance gang "Douniwan" that declared war, but soon we received news that Douniwan temporarily left the Tiexue Alliance and joined Jiucheng’s affiliated gang, paying tribute to Jiucheng. This must be an agreement between the two gangs, and it is not even ruled out that Douniwan had been bought by Jiucheng a long time ago. In short, Tiexue suffered a great loss in the last battle and did not gain any benefits. I think Tieti would not feel very comfortable!
Whether it was real or fake, my declaration of war on Jiucheng had already sold Meng Tian Bingyue a favor. This was my first gain. Jiucheng finally had a base in Pojun City and would never give it up easily. Even if they saw through my bluff, they had to keep a large number of troops here. Otherwise, what if I really attacked them? This would be beneficial to the Grand Alliance's actions in other directions. This was my second gain. Jiucheng could not mobilize troops to support Tiexue, and Tieti would inevitably feel a thorn in his heart, thinking that Jiucheng only cared about its own interests and didn't care about the lives of its allies. If this could cause a rift between the two major forces and prevent them from working together in the future, this would be my third possible unexpected gain!
I gave the order with high spirits: "This time our alliance will send out 5,000 people to feint at Yinyue. Half an hour later, I will declare war on the other two gangs in the name of the first branch and the second branch. These two battles must be serious and must be won! Ah Wei, you are the most clever and eccentric, so the task of feinting will be handed over to you. No matter how you play tricks, it will be fine as long as you can scare Jiucheng. In addition, pay attention to not too many casualties; Lonely, in the last battle, you troubled me to guard the headquarters and didn't get to go out for activities. I think you are a little itchy, right? This time you will command 25,000 troops to attack Potianmen; I will lead 10,000 people myself, together with the Thunder Group led by Xiaowu, to attack Aoyangmen; I love eating fish the most, so the important task of staying at the headquarters will be handed over to you! Bingyue has recalled more than 10,000 old subordinates of Yinyue these days. He will cooperate with you to defend the headquarters. In case of emergency, you can also ask for help from the Brotherhood Alliance and Tianshui Pavilion."
Everyone followed orders one by one. I smiled at Han Jiang and said, "Han Jiang, it seems that your position as the head of the third branch will soon become a commander without any troops! But don't worry, after today's battle, my Jinglei League will have more branch offices. I guarantee that you will soon have a place to show your skills!"
