Conquering Myriad Worlds from the Mythical Three Kingdoms

What is it like to have an enemy general who is one of your own?

Lu Meng didn't know this before, but now he does.

When the Wu family revealed the entire defense plan of the Chu capital to Lü Meng, the smile on Lü Meng's face did not fade.

He didn't trust the Wu family, but his scouts in the city used coded messages to relay the movements they observed to Lü Meng.

Based on the verification of both sides, it can be basically confirmed that this is true.

Lu Meng couldn't wait to invade the capital of Chu and began to consolidate the national strength of the entire Chu state.

Zhou Cang used realistic examples to prove that it was entirely feasible to replace the gods with the Yellow Heaven.

Apart from a few fanatical believers, most people still hold the most primitive and simple view of gods: whoever has the biggest fist, they will believe in.

Therefore, when Huangtian ruthlessly crushed the methods of the gods, the people had already collectively converted to Huangtian.

After all, unlike the oppression and exploitation by the gods, Huangtian truly provided benefits to the people.

With both physical and mental conquest, the cities they had previously occupied have largely begun to submit to the rule of the Star River.

However, they didn't have time to develop that place into a paradise and set it up as a model for the people of Chu; otherwise, the process of unifying Chu later would have been much easier.

"In order to deal with our threat, they actually made peace with the enemy in the north, wanting to withdraw their border troops by ceding territory?"

Lu Meng looked at the latest intelligence that had been delivered to him with a cold smile.

Honestly, he's starting to feel that the State of Chu is no longer worthy of being his opponent.

As many as four noble families from Chu have secretly shown him goodwill, but compared to the Wu family's all-in bet, Lu Meng basically doesn't care about those who want to see the results before placing their bets.

Offering help in times of need and adding to someone's success are two completely different things.

"Lord Lian'an, isn't this arrangement a bit too cautious?" Ma Xige asked Wu Fei, the head of the Wu family, with some curiosity.

Wu Fei nearly emptied the capital of all its manpower, including the private armies of various families, and completely dispersed them to fill the army.

These troops were deployed to various positions by Wu Fei in a manner that was almost like perfectly coordinated gears.

“Thirteenth Young Master, I thought that after experiencing a defeat, you would take this war even more seriously.”

Wu Fei turned his head and faced Ma Xige with a serious expression.

"Sorry! I was being presumptuous!"

Ma Xige was speechless. After truly facing the Xinghan army, he understood that Wu Fei's arrangement was not without reason.

“Thirteenth Young Master, we must hold out at all costs until the border troops return to defend. You know the enemy’s strength better than anyone, don’t you?”

Ma Xige lowered his head. He even embellished his own image in the battle report, which was originally just to exonerate himself.

He tried his best to shift the blame to the gods, but Ma Xige knew in his heart that he himself had made many mistakes.

Now it seems that Wu Fei has noticed the inconsistencies in the battle report.

"..." Wu Fei let out a sneer in his heart.

Honestly, if Lü Meng hadn't shown him the battle report, he would have actually believed Ma Xige's report.

However, when the two are compared, many problems naturally emerge.

The final defeat was indeed due to the slaying of the gods, but why they were forced to this point was only briefly mentioned by Ma Xige.

Seeing that Ma Xige remained silent, Wu Fei didn't bother to press her any further.

To be honest, if Ma Xige hadn't suffered a crushing defeat, the task of arranging the city's defenses would never have fallen to him.

As a ruler, the King of Chu always harbored suspicion towards all his ministers, and in fact, he trusted Ma Xige more than Wu Fei.

However, at the same time, while he believed in Ma Xige, he also questioned her because of her crushing defeat, which is why the combination of Wu Fei and Ma Xige came about.

Wu Fei didn't use any tricks; he deployed his troops like a normal military aristocrat, sparing no effort in speculating about Lü Meng with the utmost malice.

The arrangements were so elaborate that even Ma Xige, a member of the royal family, felt they were overly cautious.

When Lü Meng received the defense plan, he also praised Wu Fei's arrangements, saying that it would have been better if the Wu family hadn't defected.

Wu Fei's arrangement was going to give Lü Meng a real headache, since Lü Meng wanted to minimize his losses, while Wu Fei's arrangement could inflict maximum casualties on the Xinghan soldiers.

Wu Fei was demonstrating his abilities, which pleased Lü Meng. He liked capable people so that he could entrust them with important responsibilities in the future.

Lu Meng had already finalized his plan for the Wu family to replace the King of Chu. The Wu family was qualified, and Wu Fei's performance was indeed commendable.

However, that was after he had consolidated the power of the Chu state.

The Xinghan army advanced slowly, taking twelve days to reach the foot of the Chu capital.

Wu Fei and Ma Xige continuously mobilized their troops to harass the enemy, attempting to slow down the advance of the Xinghan army.

However, these small-scale disturbances had nowhere to hide from Zhao Yun's White Horse Cavalry.

Just as Lü Meng was in no hurry to attack, he received a message from the dragon: the border army had begun to march south, and they had successfully reached an agreement with the enemy by ceding territory, thus freeing up their resources to return and provide reinforcements.

"Will 50,000 troops arrive here directly in six days?" Lu Meng was somewhat surprised as he looked at this brand-new intelligence report.

The Chu state's response was better than he had anticipated. Judging solely from the administrative efficiency of the bureaucracy, it was clearly impossible to achieve such an effect, and the normal marching speed could not possibly reach that speed. Therefore, it must have been the intervention of the gods of Chu.

"Lord Yunzhong?"

Lu Meng retrieved the information about Yun Zhongjun, which was summarized by Wu Fei from Ma Xige's battle report, along with what they had previously obtained, and pieced together a general outline of the gods for Lu Meng.

Needless to say, mountain gods, water gods, and other deities can provide a lot of help during military campaigns.

Among them, Yun Zhongjun is the most helpful for marching, as he can boost the speed of all legions, making the army move at a rapid pace.

Being so close to the sacred land of Chu, the blessing effect would only be more exaggerated than anything they had seen before.

"There are too many variables!" Lu Meng traced his finger across the map.

"Fifty thousand is only the number of Chu's elite border troops. We have no idea what other tricks the gods of Chu might pull."

Lu Meng's finger stopped above the capital city.

"We can't afford to lose too many of my 50,000 elite troops!"

Lu Meng didn't take the elite border troops seriously at all, and even regarded them as reserve troops after he conquered the State of Chu.

"Pass on my order: begin the siege immediately!"

"The Illusionary Warrior Legion works in three shifts a day, advancing in a carpet-like fashion according to the deployment map provided by Wu Fei, forcing the enemy to act according to the predicted plan!" In the end, Lu Meng was still reluctant to part with the 50,000 cannon fodder of the Chu Kingdom. With this batch of cannon fodder, many of his tactics could be more aggressive.

Thousands of illusionary warriors descended from the sky, catching the Chu Kingdom completely off guard.

Wu Fei and Ma Xige were inspecting the city walls when the almost unstoppable advance of the Xinghan army put them under some pressure.

"How is the new army's training going?"

Wu Fei turned to ask Ma Xige, who was a very sensible person. On the one hand, he wanted to get rid of Ma Xige, and on the other hand, he wanted to show his loyalty to the King of Chu. He took the initiative to disband his private army and hand over the newly recruited soldiers to Ma Xige for training.

It can be considered that they voluntarily handed over their own power, and the power of life and death was entirely in the hands of the King of Chu.

The King of Chu was naturally satisfied with this attitude and trusted Wu Fei even more.

Wu Fei certainly didn't have good intentions. His only purpose in dispersing his private army and integrating it into the new army was to gain control of this force.

Under normal circumstances, he would never have been able to get his hands on this army. After all, he had already handed it over, and it was a pipe dream to try to get it back from the King of Chu. The Wu family had completely become the King of Chu's retainers.

But if the capital falls and the Chu royal family is uprooted, then when he raises his arm, these new troops will immediately turn back and join his ranks.

These calculations were completely concealed beneath Wu Fei's righteous and awe-inspiring appearance. While the other nobles cursed Wu Fei for being shameless, they could only compromise and hand over most of their private soldiers to form a new army.

In the eyes of these nobles, Wu Fei, this outsider, was shamelessly trying to curry favor with the King of Chu, even betraying their interests as nobles. They wished they could tear Wu Fei apart.

But Wu Fei is now the Grand General appointed by the King of Chu, holding a large army, so they have no choice but to accept it.

"The new army has basically mastered the basics of command and control, but it still lacks some combat strength," Ma Xige sighed.

The time was too short, and he had too few veterans, not even enough to fill the gaps in the new army.

In the previous battle, the White Horse Cavalry slaughtered nearly two-thirds of the Chu veterans. If it weren't for the elite border troops, the Chu army would have been wiped out.

Not to mention that Wu Fei deployed almost all of his veterans to city defense and harassment missions outside the city, leaving him with very few veterans at his disposal.

"Keep training! As long as you can follow orders, that's enough!"

"Under the watchful eyes of the gods, they will unleash their fighting power!" Wu Fei waved his hand, the so-called new army was destined to be nothing more than filler.

That's why the Wu family's voluntary surrender of their private army put other nobles in a very passive position. With a benchmark in front of them, even if you wanted to back down, you couldn't.

At this critical juncture, going against the King of Chu would likely require launching a campaign to quell the rebellion first.

Just as the two were talking, they suddenly caught a glimpse of spots in the sky out of the corner of their eye. They were startled, their pupils contracted, and they looked towards the sky with a chill running down their spines: "Get ready, the enemy is coming!"

"Enemy troops?" Ma Xige jumped up abruptly, startled, and looked around: "Where are the enemies?"

"The enemy is in the sky!" Wu Fei roared.

Even Wu Fei was completely stunned. They had made countless contingency plans, but none of them had a plan to deal with a large-scale air force attack.

This legion flying directly in the sky completely shattered the Chu army's understanding. How could they possibly deal with such an opponent? Could a powerful cultivator with internal energy leaving their body fly up and fight them? Dream on!
If your own soldiers can't fly, and you try to fight an entire army by relying solely on your internal energy to escape from your body, in the presence of clouds, you're basically just throwing your lives away.

This is also the most powerful aspect of the Illusion Warriors: they come through the clouds, making it impossible for even a master with internal energy outside their body to sweep them away with a single click.

"Fire arrows! Fire arrows!"

After a brief moment of shock, Wu Fei had already guessed what the Illusionary Warriors were all about, so he immediately threw himself into the fight.

Arrows rained down from the archers' hands, raining down on the sky. They didn't care about saving any, unleashing a barrage of arrows.

However, this simple and brutal straight-line attack is difficult to hit the illusionary soldiers in the air. Although they are not very agile, they can still dodge this straight-line attack quite easily.

Being air units, unlike ground units where dodging is difficult, airborne Phantom Soldiers can dodge quite easily.

Therefore, the archers' arrows did not achieve much in terms of battle results.

"Attack with the legion!" Wu Fei ordered decisively.

But it was like using an anti-aircraft gun to kill a mosquito; after the illusionary soldiers dispersed on their own, they didn't inflict much damage at all.

The next moment, all the illusionary warriors plunged onto the city wall and began a desperate battle with the defenders on the wall.

The Illusion Warriors fully demonstrated their mad dog nature of fighting on instinct. Even when they were at a complete disadvantage in one-on-one combat, they still managed to create casualties by sheer force of will.

After all, besides the veterans and elites, there were also a small number of new recruits on the city walls.

Faced with the reckless tactics of the Illusionary Warriors, these new recruits were completely unable to cope.

Not to mention, when they killed the Illusion Warriors, the shattered Illusion Warriors naturally used directional explosives, also known as Illusion Arrows, to deliver the final blow with all their might.

A strike comparable to a heavy crossbow bolt suddenly slammed into the Chu soldiers, instantly knocking down a large number of unprepared Chu soldiers. Nearby illusionary warriors immediately rushed forward to finish them off.

If they are not defeated by this double blow of physical and mental force, as if they have been marked, then even more illusionary warriors will rush forward.

After all, only veterans could withstand this illusionary arrow, making them highly valuable targets for elimination.

After one round of attacks, the ratio of Chu soldiers to illusion soldiers reached one to five, which also meant that it would take five illusion soldiers to take down one Chu soldier.

However, Lü Meng didn't care at all. Since they were just illusionary soldiers, it was a profit to trade fifty for one, let alone five for one.

As long as they can cause casualties, they're making a profit.

After a bloody battle, all the illusionary soldiers were wiped out, and even the elite veterans of the Chu army couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.

"Is it resolved?"

Wu Fei took a breath and looked at the dissipated illusory warriors, asking them a question.

"It should be resolved!" Ma Xige felt even more uneasy.

He had never seen this before when he fought against Xinghan. If such a legion had attacked his rear, he might not have been able to escape.

Wu Fei felt an even deeper sense of awe for the Star Han Empire and resolved to more resolutely pledge allegiance to it.

Such a flying legion is truly unheard of.

In the past, the sky was believed to belong to the gods and the strong.

No one expected that a flying legion would actually appear.

"From the sky! Enemy attack!"

Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, someone suddenly shouted, and everyone saw the spots appearing in the sky.

"Form ranks and prepare for battle!"

Compared to their initial stunned reaction, this time the Chu army quickly took their positions, preparing to meet the enemy from the sky. (End of Chapter)