Volume 6 Chapter 2: A surprise attack
"Hehehehe..." Bursts of lewd and evil laughter rang out from the conference room of the Thunder Alliance headquarters, making the guards outside the door feel cold in their hearts.
"Alright, the enemy has fallen into our trap, it's time for us to take action!" I stopped laughing smugly and gave orders: "Xiao Wu, your Thunder Group will be the vanguard, lead 150,000 troops, and raid the Nine Cities headquarters!"
"Lonely, you lead the disciples of the Elite Hall as the spearhead, and the affiliated gangs such as Iron Blood and Silver Moon cooperate with you to dispatch 150,000 troops to raid the Sheng Tang headquarters!"
"Xuehai, Xiaoyao, Xionghao, Yuntian Headquarters is now handed over to you!"
"The rest of the factions, do your best to delay the troops of the three factions that are attacking Pojun, and make sure they cannot return to reinforce. Hey, from today on, Lianzhen will be our ally in the world!"
This is my layout.
Ever since the World Alliance unified Pojun and stabilized the trade routes, Jinglei Alliance got to eat the meat and other factions were able to have a taste of the soup. With a steady stream of economic income, the entire alliance has developed rapidly. In terms of strength, it is already above the three factions of Lianzhen. But it is not so easy to really defeat Lianzhen, because now Pojun is like a piece of fat meat, everyone wants to take a bite. Although the east is the sphere of influence of Myna, he cannot come to attack me, but the strength of the various gangs in Shenghua City is not to be underestimated. If I send troops to Lianzhen and cannot win a quick victory, it will definitely attract the covetousness of those who are interested, so I must find a way to defeat the main forces of the three factions in a short time.
But if I follow the conventional method and mobilize a large army to attack Lian Zhen, although I am confident of victory, the scale of the three factions is there, and they have more than a hundred garrisons in total. If we attack one city at a time, even if nothing unexpected happens, it will probably take more than ten days or half a month to complete the battle. In such a long time, there will almost certainly be variables. Moreover, even if we win, we will be seriously injured, and we will have to consume astronomical military expenditures. In the end, the gains may not outweigh the losses.
So I have to be surprising!
So I took down Fengyun Tower by surprise, however, it was just a trick.
As Mingjian Villa was in the middle of a fierce battle with the Tang Clan, it was difficult to fight on two fronts, so it was natural for Aojian to approach the three sects. In order to counter the growing pressure from the World Alliance, the three sects had almost no choice but to form an alliance with Mingjian. Since they had formed an alliance, they certainly couldn't just watch Mingjian being attacked from both sides by the alliance and the Tang Clan, so as I expected, they sent troops to break through the enemy's army and share the pressure for Mingjian.
At this point, the three factions had swallowed half of the hook. Next, contrary to many people's expectations, I sent troops to Tianshi to resist Mingjian's counterattack, which in turn relaxed Pojun's defense. In fact, even if the power of Jinglei League is excluded, the combined strength of the other gangs of Tianxia League is no less than that of the three factions. If we defended with all our strength, we would never have lost so many garrisons. Those small mistakes that seemed to be caused by the lack of unified command were actually the result of carefully calculated designs. After all, the three factions were not fools. If we deliberately showed weakness, it would definitely arouse their suspicion. Therefore, we could only act for the other side and make them think that they were indeed lucky and that there was a problem with the decision-making level of Tianxia League, which gave them the opportunity to take advantage of.
With our side intentionally or unintentionally letting them go, the three factions' offensive was unstoppable. Their ambitions finally swelled, and they put all the forces they could mobilize into the attack, hoping to take down Pojun in one fell swoop. This was exactly the opportunity I had been waiting for for a long time!
Everything we did before was to lure the snake out of its hole. If the three factions had retreated and defended, it would have been a tough bone to chew on Lian Zhen. But now they have come out in full force, and their own defense has been greatly weakened. I seized this moment and launched a thunderous counterattack!
After obtaining accurate information that the three factions were going to massively increase their troops for the attack today, I secretly transferred back most of the 200,000 troops from Tianshi. In addition, the allied gangs also took out some of their previously hidden forces, and divided the troops into three groups to attack Lianzhen directly!
Back to Mingjian Villa, Ao Jian Tianxia has mobilized an army of 500,000 and personally led the team to attack Fengyun Zaiqi. According to the battle situation of the previous two days, they will definitely encounter desperate resistance from Jinglei League. However, the difference in strength this time is too great. No matter how brave and good at fighting the Jinglei League's men are, they can hardly be the opponent of Mingjian, unless Jinglei League continues to increase its troops. However, Ao Jian has already calculated that almost all the troops that Jinglei League can send are here. If more troops are needed, they can only be drawn from Tianxia Alliance. But now Tianxia Alliance is already struggling to deal with the attacks of the three factions, so how can it withdraw troops, unless Jinglei League invites external aid from Brothers Alliance, Tianshui Pavilion, etc. But Ao Jian also has his own intelligence channels. The Brotherhood Alliance is now caught in a fierce battle with the forces of Tianyuan City. It is good enough that it does not borrow troops from the Thunder Alliance. Although Tianshui Pavilion is rich, it is not a sect with the desire for expansion. The number of members in the gang has rarely increased recently. In today's Fantasy, it has become a second-rate gang. Even if it comes to help, its troops are limited and it cannot change the overall situation.
Therefore, Ao Jian Tian Xia is fully confident that he will win this battle!
Mingjian Villa was indeed victorious. After the first wave of attack was strongly blocked, the defense line of the Jinglei Alliance collapsed as soon as the second wave of offensive was launched, and the Mingjian army successfully recaptured the Fengyun Tower’s base.
However, Ao Jian Tianxia not only did not show any joy, but his face turned pale. He knew that he had fallen into a trap.
As soon as the battle started, Ao Jian felt something was wrong. The Jinglei League had obviously less than 100,000 troops. However, he did not think too much about it. He just thought that the Jinglei League had to give up here because of the tight situation of Pojun. He transferred the troops back and regretted that he had made a fuss by withdrawing 500,000 troops. However, the first wave of offensive was not successful. Ao Jian suddenly realized that since the Jinglei League was going to give up, why not just withdraw all the troops? Leaving some troops to resist would be useless in the end. Then the other party's only purpose was to delay time!
Five hundred thousand men were transferred from the southern battlefield. The troops there were seriously insufficient. Every ten minutes of delay here would allow the Tang Sect to capture one more of their own base! Although Fengyun Tower must be recaptured in order to stabilize the rear, and they were mentally prepared to suffer certain losses, it was also good to return to support a moment earlier. The tens of thousands of troops left by the Thunder Alliance had tied up their five hundred thousand troops for nearly an hour. Of course, it was much better than the Thunder Alliance not withdrawing a single person and the two hundred thousand troops resisting to the death. But when the battle report from the southern front was delivered to him, Ao Jian Tian Xia still took a breath of cold air!
The Tang Clan actually launched an all-out attack!
Although the Tang Sect had been fighting with the Thunder Alliance for two consecutive days, it was impossible for them not to notice that they had further transferred troops from the south line today. The Tang Sect must be here to take advantage of the situation, but how could the other side be sure that they were not playing a trick and boldly launched an all-out attack? If these 500,000 troops of theirs were not here to attack Fengyun Zaiqi, but were ambushed in the south line and attacked from behind when the Tang Sect attacked, wouldn't the other side suffer a great loss? It was because they saw through the suspicious character of Mr. Tang (the leader of the Tang Sect) that they dared to transfer troops from the south line on a large scale. They had expected that the Tang Sect would definitely test it first and determine the movement of their own troops before launching a large-scale attack, but this would waste a lot of time. It would be in time for them to destroy Fengyun Zaiqi first and then lead their troops back to provide assistance. At most, they would have to give up a few front-line garrisons. But now... yes, the Tang Sect must have had some kind of connection with the Thunder Alliance! Yes, if they could form an alliance with the three factions, why couldn't the Thunder Alliance join the Tang Sect? Only by keeping in touch with the Thunder Alliance can the Tang Clan quickly and accurately grasp the movements of its own troops!
Now Aojian Tianxia only had one thing that he couldn't understand, which was why the Thunder Alliance had to help the Tang Sect for nothing? After attacking Tianshi and forcing him to withdraw troops from the south, the Thunder Alliance also gave up the Fengyun Tower. Even if the enemy's troops were transferred back to block the attack of the three factions, the final result would be a waste of troops, without any benefit, and only gave the Tang Sect a good opportunity to defeat Mingjian. Moreover, if the Tang Sect completely defeated Mingjian Villa and annexed Tianshi, it might not continue to develop northward. At that time, how could the Thunder Alliance resist the greatly increased strength of the Tang Sect? What kind of interests were exchanged between them?
However, the reality does not allow Ao Jian any time to think deeply. The Tang Clan took advantage of the weakness of Mingjian's southern defense to launch a fierce attack. Almost all of the garrisons on the first line have fallen, and most areas on the second line are also extremely critical. Ao Jian has no time to think, he must lead his troops to return for support immediately!
Mingjian Villa was devastated by the fierce attack of the Tang Sect, and the three Lianzhen sects were not having a good time either. When they were immersed in the joy of the victory of the army in front of them, they suddenly received a declaration of war, and the target was directly aimed at their own headquarters!
The main forces of the three factions have all been dispatched. Although the fortifications of the headquarters are strong, there are not enough troops to defend them. It is a bit stretched to resist the attack of our elite troops. At this critical moment, the leaders of the three factions showed some heroism. They judged that even if they immediately withdraw their troops to support, it will take a long time to transfer millions of troops back, and they may not be able to catch up with the battle here. Therefore, the three factions issued an order that the army should not only not retreat, but also intensify the attack and strive to capture the headquarters of several important gangs in the World Alliance!
The current situation has become a confrontation between the two major forces of Pojun and Lianzhen. Whoever can capture the other side's headquarters first will gain absolute advantage in the entire battle.
However, regardless of the fact that the World Alliance is stronger on both sides, I will just say that the current battle situation was designed by me and everything is under control. I have considered in advance the opponent's various reactions and our coping methods, including the situation where the three factions fought desperately against each other. On the contrary, the three factions became hasty and suddenly found themselves in a trap. Although they mustered their strongest courage to fight - in this regard, I still admire my opponents. If they withdraw their troops to support, they will only lose faster - but how can improvisation compare to our careful planning? At the very least, the deployment of our forces was the most optimized configuration that had been calculated in advance, and in order to balance the situation, the three factions had to temporarily change the attack direction of several troops to attack the headquarters of several important gangs of ours. Otherwise, even if the attacks of both sides were successful, they would lose the three most important headquarters, and we would only lose a few insignificant branch bases, with completely different strategic significances. Therefore, the armies of the three factions inevitably encountered some obstacles due to this temporary mobilization, and we seized this obstacle and launched several beautiful ambushes, which greatly weakened the opponent's offensive capability.
Plan carefully and win the battle thousands of miles away!
In this battle, I relied more on wisdom rather than strength. Through various arrangements, I confused the enemy and mobilized the enemy's troops. Finally, Lian Zhen, who had been defending like an iron barrel, revealed a flaw. This flaw was enough to determine the outcome of the battle.
The results of the battle were extremely fruitful. Although the troops attacking from three directions encountered strong resistance from the enemy, they still successfully captured the headquarters of the three factions with their absolute advantage in military strength. The three factions that attacked the headquarters of Xuehe, Suiyue and Shenzhou suffered heavy losses before they launched the attack because our side had predicted their marching routes in advance and set up an ambush. The headquarters of Xuehe and other factions were also strengthened in terms of defense. As a result, the three factions' armies failed to capture the headquarters for a long time. When the news of the fall of the three factions' headquarters came, the morale of the army was greatly depressed. They had no choice but to retreat, and were chased and killed by our side, suffering heavy losses.
Afterwards, after the three factions moved their headquarters, they ordered the troops in Pojun to retreat in an all-out manner, hoping to gather their forces to counterattack and recapture the headquarters. How could we let the enemy go so easily? The reserve troops that had been prepared long ago were immediately dispatched, not only to recover all the garrisons that had been breached by the three factions in the past few days, but also to launch an all-out attack on Lianzhen! The elite troops were gathered together, and while the three factions were eager to recapture the old headquarters and their own defenses were empty, they divided and surrounded the gangs of all sizes in the hinterland of Lianzhen and annihilated them one by one.
In this situation, the three factions were doomed to defeat. Whether they were defending or counterattacking, they had lost their strategic depth and did not have much room for maneuver. They were surrounded and eaten away by us, and were defeated step by step. They had no ability to resist at all.
Three days later, with the capture of the last stronghold of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Lianzhen City fell entirely into the hands of the World Alliance!
This battle shook the entire Cang Continent. Without asking for any external aid, I annexed the sphere of influence of a large city in less than a week. All forces had to re-evaluate the strength of the World Alliance.
The annexation of Lianzhen is only the first step in my expansion plan. The prelude to the southern expedition has sounded, and what will follow will be even more intense battles.
