Chapter 68: Win-win
General Lin Zheng stared at Fan Meng, shocked. “What? How?
We looked at the walls and structure of the city. It is possible to overrun the
walls, but it’d probably take a few days at least to be able to do so.”
Fan Meng looked at the General. “That’s true for your army,
but to a battalion of the Burning Legion, the wall doesn’t really mean much at
all. As long as they don’t have a battalion of Water Cultivators, we should be
fine.”
This is what I am thinking. At nightfall, you’ll send the
army to attack BlueFire City from the western side of the city. After a few
minutes of fighting, we’ll send a task group of about 20 people from our 31st
Battalion, who will use the cover of the night to approach the city walls from
the northern side. They’ll use the power of their Songs to fly over the walls
into the city and find their way to the enemy commander. Jia Yuan here knows
the layout of the city well, shouldn’t be hard for him to find the enemy HQ.
They’ll kill the commander and open the back gates, where the rest of the Burning
Legion will be waiting. Then, they’ll slaughter their way toward the western
gate of the city and meet up with your 2nd Army.”
“But there are more than 10 thousand troops in that city! I
get that you guys are supposed to be the elite troops but… that’s a 10:1 ratio!
Those guys aren’t slouches either, they’re strong front line soldiers!”
Fan Meng looked at the General with a wry smile. “General,
what’s your cultivation base?”
“Ahh… I’m the 7th level of Manipulation.”
“Right. What about your troops?”
“Most of the officers have some sort of cultivation level,
mostly in the Absorption realm… but the vast majority of the foot soldiers are
just simple fighters.”
“Exactly. With your surname Lin, you should be related to
Lin Pei and Lin Xuan. Are you familiar with the strength they had when they
participated in the Burning Legion Tournament?”
“Yeah. They’re actually my sons. They were around the middle
of the Absorption realm with high level Songs. I spent a lot of effort to
secure those for them.”
“Right. Now imagine you have a few hundred of them running
around wreaking havoc in a city, along with some officers who are even
stronger. Is 10 thousand troops, even if they are seasoned fighters, enough to
deal with that? Would even 10 thousand of your best soldiers be able to deal
with that?”
Stolen story; please report.Lin Zheng gazed at Fan Meng, rather incredulous. “You mean
that your 31st Battalion is so strong already? It hasn’t even been a
year since it formed!”
“We’ve been working hard. Our commander here is even capable
of defeating those in the middle of the Manipulation realm. Even if you were to
fight him, maybe it wouldn’t be an easy victory for you.”
“Oh? Just how strong are you, Commander Jia Yuan?” The
General was rather surprised.
“I’m at the 7th level of Absorption. I could
probably advance to the 8th level of Absorption, but I’ve been
having trouble stabilizing my cultivation.”
“Oh? 7th level of Absorption and already able to
contend with those in the middle of the Manipulation realm? That’s a rather
impressive Song!”
“Mm.” Jia Yuan responded simply, not revealing any
information. After all, he couldn’t very well tell everyone that he had an
unfathomably special Song, especially with the secrets that came with it.
Lin Zheng stood and thought for a bit. It was true that it
would be extremely beneficial to his army and the Fire Kingdom if BlueFire City
were to be taken so fast. It would likely catch the Water Kingdom off guard,
giving the Fire Kingdom a distinct advantage in the early stage of the war.
The enemy’s commander shouldn’t be stronger than the middle
of the Manipulation realm…
After all, the commander only had a command of about 10,000
soldiers. General Lin Zheng could be considered one of the stronger Generals of
the Fire Kingdom, commanding over 100,000 troops, but even he was only at the 7th
level of Manipulation.
10,000 troops… the commander was likely only at the 1st
or 2nd level of Manipulation. And if the 31st Battalion
really was as strong as Fan Meng had said… it would likely be a quick battle
with few losses for the Fire Kingdom.
A win-win!
“Alright, we’ll do it your way.” Lin Zheng finally relented
and decided to trust these youngsters.
Fan Meng replied quickly. “I boasted that we could take
BlueFire City in one day, but we should wait until tomorrow night to execute
the plan. Our soldiers are rather tired right now, and need a day of rest to
return to peak fighting condition.”
“That’s no issue.” Lin Zheng had been willing to wait 2
months! What was another day to him?
Over the next few hours, Fan Meng and Lin Zheng hammered out
the details of the attack.