Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

Chu Ze's body didn't move, but the taut string in his mind was plucked sharply.

Simon.

The tiny doubt in his mind was magnified infinitely at this moment.

He looked at the woman before him, still lost in her memories, and was once again astonished by her keen insight. This kind of experience, so simple yet so brutally honest, from the common people, is sometimes more deadly than any military strategy.

"I see."

Chu Ze didn't say much, but simply saw Su Qingying out of the study and instructed her to continue to closely monitor the movement of all supplies.

When the study door closed again, Chu Ze returned alone to the huge three-dimensional sand table.

His gaze was fixed on the area around the West Gate.

Will it count?

If Amin really believed he had intercepted the secret message, what would he do? Would a reckless man come up with such a elaborate scheme to turn the tables on someone else?

Perhaps. But more likely, someone is plotting against him behind the scenes.

A person who is more insidious than Amin, more familiar with the Han people, and more eager for credit.

For example, Hu Yongqiang.

A Han Chinese bannerman who volunteered to take on the toughest challenge.

Chu Ze slowly closed his eyes, frantically considering all the possibilities in his mind.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere was completely different at the temporary headquarters of the player guild [Shenzhou].

Wang Han was giving a passionate pre-battle pep talk to the core members of the guild in the guild channel, his spittle flying everywhere.

"Brothers, something's wrong! Something really wrong!"

His face, framed by black-rimmed glasses, was etched with the excitement and suspicion of a seasoned game designer.

"Think about it! What kind of game is 'Iron-Blooded Empire'? It starts on hell difficulty, the tutorial is all guesswork, and every NPC is a cunning old fox! And it gives us such a simple 'Trojan Horse' epic quest?"

Shi Dali was using a whetstone to sharpen his newly acquired broadsword when he heard this and interrupted in a muffled voice.

"President, just say what you mean, don't beat around the bush."

"What I mean is, this is definitely a trap!" Wang Han slammed his hand on the table and asserted.

"We thought we were on the first level, that we'd seen through the enemy's plan. But knowing how this game's designers operate, they're definitely waiting for us on the fifth level! There's definitely something wrong with the south gate, but the real, deadly danger isn't here!"

His "conspiracy theory" instantly ignited a heated discussion on the channel.

"Damn, that makes sense! This game has never done anything human!"

"That's right, with that chicken-finding mission last time, who would have thought the chicken was in the well!"

"So, the chairman means that the scam is fake?"

"No, the scam is real." Wang Han pushed up his glasses, a shrewd glint in his eyes behind the lenses. "But it's just a decoy! A smokescreen to grab all our attention!"

He took a deep breath and, in a highly inflammatory tone, announced a brand new guild quest.

"All members of the [Shenzhou] Guild, listen up! We are now commencing the guild's internal activity: [Guangning City Defense Weakness Investigation]!"

"Finding any suspicious weaknesses in the city's defenses, identifying any anomalies, or offering valuable hypotheses will earn you guild contribution points! There's no upper limit!"

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The players' restless, trouble-loving hearts were instantly ignited.

A grand and spectacular "scientific exploration," a veritable spectacle of absurd performance art, has unfolded in every corner of Guangning City.

At the foot of the city wall, several players majoring in physics were busy with something quite serious.

They found a long rope, tied one end to a stone, and lowered it down from the city wall while chanting incantations.

"Measurements complete! The south gate wall is 12.7 meters high, the west gate 11 meters, the north gate 13 meters, and the east gate 12.5 meters. The west gate is the shortest, conforming to classic siege mechanics models!"

"What about the wall thickness? Quickly measure the thickness!"

Another player, holding two long poles, tried to calculate the wall thickness using parallax, but ended up getting dizzy and disoriented.

Meanwhile, Zhou Keke and her civil engineering team were conducting "sampling analysis" on the foundations of various sections of the city wall.

She carefully dug a clod of soil from the corner of the west gate wall, smelled it, rubbed it between her fingers, and her face showed an extremely solemn expression.

"No! The soil moisture here is at least 8% higher than at the South Gate! And it contains trace amounts of alkaline components!"

A player nearby was completely confused. "Coco, what does this mean?"

"This indicates there might be groundwater below, or... someone has recently disturbed the earth! Either way, it means there are significant safety hazards in the foundation structure here!"

Zhou Keke's conclusion caused the surrounding players to gasp in surprise.

The most outrageous one was Shi Dali.

He rejected all "high-tech" methods, firmly believing that the most primitive methods were the most effective.

He lay face down on the ground near the west gate, pressing his ears tightly against the cold earth and holding his breath.

In the team channel, Qian Lele's live stream camera was pointed directly at his huge buttocks.

"Fellow family members, does anyone know this?! Brother Meat is using the long-lost 'earth listening technique,' which is what we often call 'passive sonar detection,' to detect the enemy's underground activities! Let's wish him good luck!"

The next second, Shi Dali jumped up suddenly, covering his ears and howling.

"Damn! A bug crawled inside!"

The channel was instantly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

Just as most players were using all sorts of bizarre methods to create fun, a black figure, like a ghost, silently disappeared into the night outside Guangning City.

It was Qin Jue.

He accepted Wang Han's private commission to investigate the true movements of the Later Jin camp.

An hour later, while the players were still fiercely debating whether it was a centipede or an earthworm in Shi Dali's ear, an extremely brief message suddenly appeared in the management channel of the [Shenzhou] guild.

The sender was none other than "Shadow Meteor".

[West Gate. Patrol respawn rate is abnormal. One patrol every five minutes. The standard respawn time should be fifteen minutes. Alert range increased by ten meters. Elite monsters present.]

When Wang Han saw this message, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Behind the gaming terminology lies a cold and brutal military reality.

More frequent patrols, a wider perimeter, and more elite soldiers.

The Later Jin's main force was not at all in the direction of the South Gate, which they thought was the most peaceful, but at the West Gate!

Inside the study of the garrison commander's residence.

Chu Ze looked with great interest at the scenes of "exploration" on the map of mountains and rivers, which made him both laugh and cry.

From the player's perspective, those are individual tasks and data.

But from his perspective as the GM, these data, when put together, form a complete intelligence puzzle.

The west gate is the shortest.

The foundation of the west gate is unstable.

The enemy has amassed a large force outside the west gate.

All the clues, like rivers flowing into the sea, point to the same answer.

For the first time, a genuine smile appeared on Chu Ze's face.

He originally intended to use these players as cannon fodder, but he never expected that they would give him such a huge surprise with their knowledge and way of thinking from their own world.

They were not just fearless soldiers.

They are also thirty detectives, engineers, and analysts from different professional fields!

Just then, he noticed that a post on the player forum was being pushed to the top of the trending list at an astonishing speed.

Posted by: Liver King.

[A shocking conspiracy theory! A trap set by the main storyline boss? We may have all misjudged the true target of the city-deception scheme!]

In the post, Wang Han used flawless logic to perfectly connect all the "silly" evidence collected by the players with the core intelligence that Qin Jue risked his life to obtain, and finally came to a shocking conclusion—the Later Jin's real target was Ximen!

The forum exploded the moment this post was published.

"Holy crap! Chairman Wang is awesome! With that analytical ability, it's a shame he's not a planner!"

"It's terrifying to think about! I almost got tricked by the NPC!"

"Ximen! Brothers, stop digging! Hurry up and go block the spring at Ximen!"

The entire player community's opinion was completely ignited within just a few minutes.

Chu Ze looked at the post and slowly nodded.

The time has come.

He needs a "spokesperson" who can perfectly execute his plan.

Wang Han is undoubtedly the best candidate.

He spoke to the air, using a voice only he could hear, and gave the instructions.

"Summon Wang Han to come to the garrison commander's residence to see me immediately."

A moment later, Wang Han, still immersed in the immense satisfaction brought by his brilliant analysis, was led by his personal guards to Chu Ze's study.

"My lord! I've discovered it! Based on my observations over the past few days, their real breakthrough is very likely in the West Gate, which we've all overlooked!"

Wang Han became increasingly excited as he spoke, elaborating on the basis of his judgment and hoping to receive some praise.

Chu Ze listened quietly to him finish speaking, his face expressionless, seemingly uninterested in this "astonishing" discovery. He then abruptly unfolded a huge map of Guangning's city defenses in front of Wang Han.

That long, powerful hand, carrying an undeniable force, slammed down on the left side of the map.

This is the location of the West Gate.

Chu Ze then raised his head, his deep eyes coldly fixed on Wang Han, whose cheeks were slightly flushed with excitement, and slowly said:

"What you said makes some sense, but you're only half right."