Chapter 171: 171
Chapter 171 – Battle of Liyang - Part 1
Tong could not sleep because the nightmare of the one hundred thousand ghosts kept haunting him in his dream . Although Tong steeled himself and ordered the entire city exterminated, the guilt was still inside his heart .
He regretted his decision because of his uncontrolled anger . Yet, he consoled himself with various selfish reasons and excuses to make him feel better .
Tong thought that he could have imprisoned the survivor, but it would have been more like a torturing to the people . He could have expelled them to other cities or provinces, but they would have been robbed, ravished, or killed as they were defenseless .
Or the alternative plans, he could have allowed them to continue living in this city . However, had he let them be, they would have developed a grudge . Their descendants would inherit their parents and their guardians" stories with Tong as the ultimate villain . Then, in the next ten years, these descendants of the survivors would have reappeared to harm the country Tong was building .
Secondly, he had to control the morale of his army . The soldiers were also human, they could think or sympathize with the peasants of this city . If the survivors were still alive, they could come into contact with his soldiers and planted the seeds of doubt about Tong"s leaders.h.i.+p and moral as a human . If such scenarios happened, the soldiers would have had a high chance to desert or betray him in the future .
And the most important issue, the winter wind was about to arrive . The wall of this city was a fortress against the freezing blizzard during the winter .
The winter in ancient China was as cruel as the winter in the wilderness . Because there had not been any air conditioner technology in this era, people relied on bonfires and shelters to keep themselves warm . For the marching soldiers and garrisoning soldiers on the wall, it would be the freezing h.e.l.l .
Fortunately, they were a bit close to the central plain . The regions in the northern plains, such as Liu Yan"s Ji City or Gongsun Zan"s territory, already snowed in the early October . The temperature would continue to decrease to at least minus 10 degrees Celsius or minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit . In the worse years, it could get as low as minus 20 Celsius on certain regions .
Tong estimated that the cold would hit Liyang City before the end of this month . Once the winter struck down onto this county, the battle strategies had to change and Tong would have an advantage of being within the city walls . The wall would become an invaluable s.h.i.+eld from the cold wind and the blizzard for the troops inside the city . On the other hand, the Imperial troops had to encamp in the open field, which would be attacked by the freezing windstorm during the winter months .
In the minus degrees temperature, the soldiers" movement would be slower . Their frozen iron armors would torment them to death . Food and oil consumption would be doubled . It was the perfect season for the prolong-war strategy for an army with unlimited supplies of oil and food .
He had to occupy the city and stabilize it before the winter no matter what the cost if he wanted to defeat such a large army of the Imperial forces!
"Mistakes had been made, let wrong be wrong . I"ll make use of this mistake into an opportunity! I"ll let the world know my cruel side! Anyone that refuses to submit to me has to die!"
"Even if Zhao Yun won"t join me because of this, it"s fine! I don"t need a naive youth that can be conned with a few words!"
"Even if Sima family will betray me in the future, it"s fine! I"ll settle a new foundation for my new country, and it will be so firm to the point that the Jin Country will have to copy my way! The people of the future will benefit from my system!"
"Even if the historians or the people will call me a [Traitor] or a [Villain], it"s fine! As long as my family and my people can have their safe haven, I don"t mind being the villain!"
Tears rolled down from Tong"s eyes . No matter how he deceived himself, he could not control his true conscience .
"I"m sorry . . . "
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October 2nd, 182 A . D .
Morning .
Tong meditated instead of sleeping last night . He started to get a knack of not falling asleep while meditating now . It was tough at first . But once he used his regen before midnight, he managed to get through the night without falling asleep .
It was still different than the cultivators in the fantasy novels did . His body still required sleeping even though he had stepped into the door of the demonhood .
The progress of his sins was getting smoother, but he had more concerns to worry about .
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His [Pride] went down by half, which delighted Tong . Although he did not know how it had gone down, it was still good progress regardless .
But his joyous mood did not last long, there were three mysterious sins showed up in his system log, and the percentage was on the high side .
Furthermore, he could not summon his [Sloth Soul] out of his body . Every time he did, he would get a message .
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It was a piece of troublesome news for him as he planned to ma.s.s produce his bullets . Tong did not make enough when he had experimented his demon soul in Ye City . He only made and stored only five hundred 9mm bullets in his inventory because the system charged him 10 lifespans for each use instead of the usual one lifespan .
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**Status**
Name: Zhang Tong
Age: 17
Lifespan: 29,638 Years
Shopping Pa.s.s: 0
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Food creation shaved over 10,000 of his lifespans, but the citizens could last for another year in exchange for his sacrifice .
His [Immortal Yang Vein]"s regen ability also took a portion of his lifespans, but it was on the low side . Since he could only regen his health or his injury once a day, it did not consume much .
At first, Tong planned to spend another 10,000 to 20,000 lifespans for the bullet creation, but he could not complete his plan anymore as his demon soul had been weakened by something .
"System, what happened to my demon soul?"
[Swear allegiance to me, and I"ll tell you everything . ]
"…"
[Don"t you wanna know what those [???] skills are? Just swear that you"ll work for me and I"ll reveal them to you . Heck, I will even help you overcome all of your sins! Not a bad deal, right?]
"What about my family?"
[Nope! No can do . They are on their own! You have to choose if you want to reign supreme or you will be dragged down by them forever . ]
[Being the absolute G.o.d means you have to leave your sentiment behind! Don"t get stuck up on those mortals . They come and go like a droplet of water in a river . Sooner or later, they will reach the end of their lives and have to reincarnate again . By that time, they won"t even remember you! What"s the point of wasting your time on them when you can join me and live forever for real!?]
[Listen, I know it"s harsh for you . But you have to trust me . I know it"s vexing because you grew up in that kind of culture . It"s understandable that you value your kins because it"s the mortal"s instinct . They have to protect each other to ensure their genes can be pa.s.sed on to the later generations . ]
[But we"re now different . We"re immortals! We"re the apex and the top of the food chain! We don"t need those sentimental feeling about pa.s.sing on the genes . We only need to make sure we are strong enough to fend off all those power-hungry G.o.ds!]
Tong sighed as he read all of the messages from Lilith . He could see that she was trying hard to get his favor . All of her words made sense . He was sure that if it were any other people, they would have accepted it without hesitation .
But to Tong, she lacked something important .
Credibility .
From his direct experience with her, she had the mental age of a spoiled child without proper parenting . Everything she did depended on her mood .
He had a feeling that he would be betrayed the moment he said "Yes" to her .
[Just join me, okay? Heck! You know what? I give up . How about this? I can ensure all of your family and your frie-*ZAP*]
The messages were cut off mid-way . Something might have happened on her end, or she messed up something .
"Had she exempted Sunday, Friday, and Li Feihong from this game and guaranteed my family"s safety, I would have accepted that . "
"But the last sentence seems to be the case . I wonder what has happened . "
While Tong was confused by the abrupt disconnection, his eyes glanced at his radar map by instinct and noticed an abnormality .
A ma.s.sive group of white dots appeared in the west of Liyang City . The distance was 50km away . Tong was into the meditation too much that he did not notice the arrival of the Imperial Army .
"Dammit, me . I messed up!"
"How did I not notice this? They should have been in my radar 2 or 3 days ago!"
"Never mind that, time to intercept!"
"First, I"ll take down the scouts!"
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October 3rd, 5 PM .
Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun Army reached Liyang County"s territory . They settled their camp in the wilderness for now . Tomorrow, they planned to enter Liyang City to resupply and recruit more troops .
They had sent their scouts to Liyang City yesterday to notify the Prefect of the city, hoping to get a warm welcome from the local lord .
The scouts galloped back to the camp with pale faces . A hundred men squad of scouts left yesterday, only ten returned alive .
The ten injured men arrived at the camp . Three of the ten lost their strength and collapsed, dying in relief . The back of the three revealed arrows which got stuck in their flesh .
The seven survivors were treated in a hurry and the news got to the two generals . Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun rushed to the injured seven scouts to inquire about the situation .
"M-My lord, bad news! The Zhang family took Liyang County!"
"What!?"
"How!?"
The two generals were speechless . The last intelligence they had about Zhang Jiao and Zhang Tong was that they were still in Julu . Liyang County was over 300km away from Julu City, how could their army show up here?
"T-There"s more, my lord . "
"Don"t hurry! Take it easy and talk slowly . " Zhu Jun looked at the scouts with a concern . He thought that these men might have been through a tough fight with the Zhang Clan, judging from their panicked expression .
"It"s terrible . Their soldiers killed the townspeople and burnt them in a pit! We saw the remains of the burnt corpses . They were over ten thousands of people in there . "