Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 459 - 257: What Is There to Fear? (10,000-Word Update Asking for Monthly Votes)_4

Chapter 459: Chapter 257: What Is There to Fear? (10,000-Word Update Asking for Monthly Votes)_4

"To be honest, the second stage of this instance was still quite difficult for him.

Starting from the helpless realization that Li Hao was indeed Qin Huizhi, to the attempts to advise the emperor in vain, and eventually forcibly breaking through and completing the turnaround, Chu Ge was quite satisfied with his own performance.

And most importantly, he had managed to clear it without even using the function to summon heroic spirits.

What does it mean to be a real hardcore player? What does it mean to be a paragon among scholar-players?

Right now, Chu Ge just wanted to stand with his hands on his hips and laugh heartily three times.

But considering his pride as a high-end player, he still had to maintain some composure.

"I wonder how the players are getting along with the other two lines?"

Chu Ge couldn’t help but be curious.

Although the line Chu Ge chose was the lowest in difficulty according to the system’s definition, his way of playing was by no means simple.

If players abandoned their principles and followed in the old footsteps of Qin Huizhi, then this line would indeed be the easiest; there’s no doubt about that.

But Chu Ge took another original path, which probably made the difficulty higher than the line of the generals.

It’s just that he wondered, how exactly did the other players plan to clear the lines of general and prince?

At this moment, in the historical slice where Zhao Haiping was, troops had already been stationed in Yan City.

On a high hill, Zhao Haiping, with only a few personal guards, was personally riding his warhorse, scouting for enemy intelligence.

Far away, the dust was swirling.

There, the elite Jin soldiers led by Wanyan Sheng were advancing; the great battle was on the verge of breaking out.

"After the troops have been fully trained, the first battle is to be the Battle of Yan City?

"It’s pretty direct."

Zhao Haiping couldn’t help but sigh.

After entering the second stage of the Trial Illusion, he had been busy training troops.

While Chu Ge’s Li Hao was active in court politics, matching wits with the foolish emperor, he was training troops;

When Fan Cun, who played the prince, tried every means to stop the Jingkang Incident, destroyed Xixia and returned to purge the court, Zhao Haiping was still training troops.

Training to the point where he was almost dizzy.

Fortunately, with General Deng’s guidance and assistance, Zhao Haiping had finally managed to train a new army with strong combat capability based on General Deng’s tactics.

However, what he didn’t expect was that this new army’s first battle would be the biggest and most fierce battle between Qi and Jin: the Great Victory of Yan City.

At this time, the phantom of General Deng Yuanjing was also riding a warhorse, standing beside Zhao Haiping.

"Because the Great Victory of Yan City can be said to be a key battle that will determine the fate of the world with one single fight.

"Engaging in minor battles would be of no benefit."

Zhao Haiping nodded and mentally prepared himself.

The reason why the Great Victory of Yan City was General Han Fuyue’s most famous battle was not because it regained lost territory, nor because it achieved a certain strategic objective, but because this battle, winning against the majority with a smaller force, directly shattered the main force of the Jin people.

Great military strategists throughout history often show a surprising consistency in two respects.

The first is to be adept at using guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare, actively seeking one’s own opportunities for battle, without dwelling on the loss or gain of individual cities.

The second is the courage to engage in annihilation battles, targeting the elimination of the enemy’s living forces.

This holds particularly true on the battlefield between Qi and Jin.

After strategizing against the ’Eight Thousand Li Road Cloud and Moon’ instance for some time, Zhao Haiping’s understanding of the Jin people had reached a very high level.

Naturally, just like the historical General Han Fuyue, he accurately saw the Achilles’ heel of the Jin people.

And that Achilles’ heel is, the scarcity of their people!

Initially, the Jurchen tribes had barely more than two thousand five hundred people; after taking up arms, they fought battle after battle victoriously, and in just a decade, they completely swallowed up the then dominant power armored with a million men, extending their military reach southward, consuming over a thousand miles of Qi territory, and establishing a vast empire.

At first, there were myths of a few thousand Jurchen defeating enemy forces of more than a hundred thousand.

And the saying ’When the Jurchen numbers are less than ten thousand, they are unbeatable’ became a slogan that struck at people’s hearts.

But the greatest vulnerability of the Jin people was always their small numbers.

And this also laid the groundwork for the downfall of the Jin Country.

Despite its vast territory, Jin Country had a very complex ethnic makeup. The only ones with real combat power and privileges were the native-born Jin people, especially the military nobility among the Jin people. These people, also known as Meng’an Mouke, were the absolute core force of Jin Country.

The reason why the early Meng’an Mouke could maintain such strong combat power was because they were a class that could benefit directly from war among all Jin people. After each conquest, they could share in the spoils of land, gold, and silver, so their combat will was very high.

As long as one earned military merits in war, one could be enfeoffed with a large tract of land and rise to great heights overnight.

But the Jin people were always very lacking in political wisdom; during their reign, the other ethnic groups basically lived as slaves.

Not only did the Jin people embark on a rampage of killing and looting when they moved south into Qi territory, treating the Qi citizens as animals to be slaughtered at will, but within Jin Country’s borders, other ethnic groups were also greatly oppressed.

Therefore, after General Han Fuyue achieved a great victory in history, internal strife broke out within Jin Country, and various oppressed ethnic groups rose up in rebellion.

As for later attempts at reform by Wanyan Hailing, or the rise of the Northern Barbarians to overthrow Jin, it was all because these few military nobles enjoyed the greatest benefits, but rapidly decayed and lost their combat capabilities with the aging of one generation.

Thus, the fall of Jin Country was unsurprising.