I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 500 - 276: Reorganizing the Army, Preparing for War, Cutting off Supplies

Chapter 500: Chapter 276: Reorganizing the Army, Preparing for War, Cutting off Supplies

The manifesto calling for the cleansing of the Emperor’s side had spread across the entirety of Dalong, north and south, in just a few short days. Gu Shanhai didn’t believe there wasn’t someone pushing this behind the scenes.

In the end, under the guise of a greater cause, a bunch of messy affairs emerged.

Afterwards, the second coalition against the traitors began to assemble. Jiang Lu was invited to participate, bringing along one hundred thousand Sun and Moon Daoist Soldiers.

Meanwhile, within Liang State, Zhan Yan, Li Yu, and others were also busily preparing a two-pronged plan.

Gu Shanhai, on the other hand, didn’t interfere with anything. He was stationed there not to lead the charge, which meant as long as no major incident occurred, he didn’t need to get involved.

He was well aware that specialization matters, and without any incidents, he didn’t offer any unsolicited advice or meddle, regardless of his capabilities.

By now, he had already begun developing targeted research on the White Tiger, his Companion Spiritual Beast. The essence of military spirits and such had already been collected using the equipment and taken away by Jiang Lu.

As for the local stuff, he could handle that himself. There was no need for him to lead the charge; remote collection was sufficient.

The reason Jiang Lu was involved was because his location was so far away that Gu Shanhai’s collection equipment was losing its signal.

"Liang State borders both Min State and Xiang Province. Although these provinces have their governors, they lack the strength to suppress the various powers. Even though they were granted titles, they became even more chaotic."

"This is a good opportunity. We just need to strike swiftly, like a bolt out of the blue, take Min State and then Xiang Province. In a month or so at most, we can have both provinces in our grasp."

Zhan Yan talked at length, sharing his plan.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to attack on two fronts; it was just that he couldn’t spare that many troops. There were only four hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers in Liang State; they definitely couldn’t all be deployed, and at least half had to remain behind to maintain daily operations in Liang State.

As for splitting the forces further, to expect one hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers to conquer a province was wishful thinking.

The four hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers weren’t commanded by a few generals; instead, they were divided among thousands of generals, which meant they couldn’t produce the power of four hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers in a unified manner but rather in a scattered way.

And the notion of Jiang Lu alone commanding five hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers was impossible. If you only serve yourself and don’t share with others, who would be willing to work for you? It’s like working without pay.

Furthermore, if you dared to monopolize five hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers for yourself, the news would spread, and you’d be the next traitor to be pursued.

Such news couldn’t be contained. If you hoarded everything for yourself, who would cover for you? If others didn’t get their share and were exploited by you, anyone would bear a grudge.

So, it was a necessary evil. To achieve a win-win situation, you had to share the spoils – give them some soup if you were eating meat; the Emperor would not lack soldiers due to hunger.

This meant that although Liang State had five hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers, it didn’t possess the actual power of that many.

This situation applied to all states; it was an immutable reality.

"Mr. Gu, what do you think of this plan?" After saying a lot, Zhan Yan finally looked to Gu Shanhai for his opinion.

Gu Shanhai was almost dozing off from listening; had Zhan Yan not prompted him, Gu Shanhai might have clapped out of habit after he finished.

"Just proceed with your plan; there’s no need to consider my opinion," Gu Shanhai didn’t give a direct response, but the meaning was clear to everyone: he had no objections.

"But one thing – don’t be overzealous or rash, lest you spoil the grand scheme."

To summarize Zhan Yan’s plan, it was a blitzkrieg.

Speed is important, but stability is even more so. A misstep in one area could potentially affect the big picture given how easily one thread could lead to unraveling the whole cloth.

A month may seem like a long time at first glance and doesn’t quite match the concept of a ’lightning war,’ but in a world where long-distance communication relies solely on the strategies of generals, spanning across provinces for coordination requires at least a general with one hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers, and the governors of Min State and Xiang Province simply lacked that strength. So, theoretically, the plan was feasible.

Practically, Gu Shanhai wasn’t sure; he wasn’t an executor, and when it came to military matters, he was half-baked at best. How could he know so much?

The others, upon hearing Gu Shanhai’s advice, could only agree.

If they could acquire two more provinces and develop them over a couple of years, Jiang Lu’s power could quickly rise to rival that of a sovereign.

To those who controlled major provinces, these three states might seem insignificant, but power isn’t determined solely by the size of the territory; production capacity also plays a crucial role.

Their territories might be vast and output high, but their productive forces paled in comparison.

At the very least, handing over three provinces to them wouldn’t allow a noble of a different surname to single-handedly sustain one million Daoist Soldiers and still divide another one and a half million among his troops.

Only Yong’an City, which served as the capital and influenced the entire Dalong, had that capacity. But even that drained the last of Dalong’s vitality to maintain a standing of ten million Daoist Soldiers – it was unthinkable now.

With Gu Shanhai’s help, Jiang Lu truly could achieve this level of power with just three states.

That was the difference in productive capacity.

"Please give the order, Mr. Gu, to organize the army and prepare for war," Zhan Yan quickly spoke up.

Mainly because Jiang Lu had entrusted all tokens of authority, such as the Tiger Talisman, to Gu Shanhai, and also because Gu Shanhai’s status was indeed high. For such a significant operation, without Gu Shanhai’s nod, they wouldn’t dare to take rash actions.

Especially since the highest-ranking members in Liang State were all disciples of Gu Shanhai, the newly appointed officials also didn’t dare to incur his displeasure.

"Organize the army, prepare for war," Gu Shanhai didn’t play any games. He was merely there to make an appearance; such matters weren’t his to handle.