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

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The official road from Guangning to Shanhaiguan has never been so bustling in hundreds of years.

According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, when a large army set out, it was considered normal to travel 30 li a day, and 50 li was called a forced march.

Now, this army of tens of thousands of natural disaster victims has trampled the military manuals of the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of War underfoot.

Wang Erniu sat on horseback, his whip frozen in mid-air.

He stared wide-eyed at a burly man passing by on his left.

Shi Dali.

This two-meter-tall giant was now only wearing a pair of shorts.

He strapped the plate armor and the greatsword to the backs of four smaller players.

"Hoo-ha-hoo-ha!"

Shi Dali sprinted away, his legs leaving afterimages as he swung them through the mud.

"Brother Meat, slow down! We can't run with this iron lump on our backs!" The four henchmen behind him were panting heavily.

"Stop talking nonsense! This is called reducing wind resistance! Don't you understand aerodynamics?!" Shi Dali said without turning his head. "Hurry up and take your stamina potion! If you fall behind, you won't even get any assists!"

Wang Erniu's mouth twitched.

What does air study?

Going to battle without armor would be punishable by fifty strokes of the military rod in the Guangning Army!

Before Wang Erniu could recover, another cart passed by on the right.

A player was lying on the cart, his hands folded over his chest, fast asleep.

The player pushing the cart was sweating profusely, stuffing potatoes into his mouth as he pushed.

"Bro, shift change! I've pushed this cart for twenty miles, and my stamina is completely depleted!" The player pushing the cart slapped the player lying down in the face.

The player who was lying down opened his eyes and sprang up straight.

"It's my turn! It's my turn! You log off and go to sleep!"

The two quickly switched positions.

The person pushing the stroller lay down and fell asleep instantly, while the person who had been lying down grabbed the stroller handle and yelled as they continued to rush forward.

Wang Erniu gasped.

He turned to look at Chu Ze beside him.

Chu Ze rode on his black horse, his face calm, seemingly oblivious to the scene around him.

"General..." Wang Erniu swallowed hard. "Don't these heavenly soldiers ever get any sleep?"

Chu Ze pulled on the reins to avoid the puddles on the ground.

"Erniu, don't use ordinary logic to judge natural disasters. They only care about getting to the battlefield as quickly as possible."

Wang Erniu responded sullenly.

This is no longer a question of whether it's fast or slow.

This is a group of tireless monsters.

Middle of the line.

Qian Lele held up the black cube and walked around a pool of blood.

Ahead lies a burned-down village.

Only ruins remained of the few thatched huts, with wisps of smoke still rising from the half-built wooden pillars.

Several corpses lay on the roadside, barely clothed, their faces contorted.

Qian Lele put away her usual playful smile.

She pointed the camera at the ruins, her voice lowering.

"Family members, did you see that?"

"It's still more than a hundred miles from Shanhaiguan. The Jurchen cavalry have already infiltrated this area."

"This isn't game CG; this is the real border region of the Ming Dynasty."

The number of comments in the live stream decreased significantly, replaced by a barrage of angry curses.

"Damn it! These bastards!"

"Huang Taiji deserves to die!"

"Brothers, quicken your pace! All I want to do right now is kill people!"

Qian Lele turned the camera and switched the scene back to the official road.

There was an endless army of players there.

There were no orderly ranks, no solemn military bearing.

Some people were running wildly, some were eating potatoes, and some were cursing at each other.

But everyone had a red name above their head, and everyone held a weapon in their hand.

"We players usually argue for ages over a single copper coin when we're just hauling bricks in the city," Qian Lele sniffed. "But when it comes to something like this, none of us back down. That's our bottom line."

The comments section erupted again.

"I'm moved to tears!"

"The emperor guards the nation's gates; players die for the state!"

"Cai Miao, stay close to the main force! We want to see the Jurchens crushed to dust!"

Just as tens of thousands of players were getting excited about the Ming Dynasty.

In a hidden corner of a player forum.

A gathering is taking place within a privately encrypted platform.

Guild Name: Reverse Scale.

In the guild chat, lines of text scrolled rapidly.

"Guild leader, is this mission really reliable? Chu Ze is the biggest boss in this version. If we betray him now and get caught, our accounts will be ruined!"

The guild leader, whose ID is Descendant of the Dragon, sneered and typed a line of text.

"Idiots. You know nothing about history."

"In 1629 AD, the Jisi Incident occurred. From that moment on, the foundation of the Ming Dynasty was completely rotten!"

"Huang Taiji's army of 100,000 entered the pass, and Yuan Chonghuan was executed by being cut into a thousand pieces. This is called the inevitable course of history!"

"The game 'Iron-Blooded Empire' emphasizes realism; the system would never allow an NPC to defy fate. No matter how high Chu Ze jumps now, he'll ultimately become a stepping stone for the Qing Dynasty!"

There was a few seconds of silence on the channel.

The descendants of the dragon continue to contribute.

"Why do we play games? For the rewards! For the hidden quests!"

"The Ming Dynasty camp is overcrowded right now. Tens of thousands of hardcore players are vying for those meager merit points, and they can't even get a sip of soup."

"But think about it, what if we were to side with Huang Taiji now?"

"A timely help in times of need! This is absolutely a one-of-a-kind Dragon Rise questline! When the Manchus enter the pass, we will be their loyal subjects, and titles, fiefdoms, and top-tier equipment will all be ours!"

These remarks accurately pinpointed the greed of some speculators.

These remarks accurately pinpointed the greed of some speculators.

"That makes sense! Fortune favors the bold!"

"President, what do you say we do? We'll do whatever you say!"

The Descendant of the Dragon sent a smug emoji.

"A direct confrontation is definitely not going to work; tens of thousands of lunatics could tear us apart."

"Jin Buhuan, you're in the logistics team, right?"

Jin Buhuan, who was called out, immediately replied: "Here I am, Chairman. I'm currently with the third batch of supply convoy."

"Alright. Find an opportunity to cause some disruption. It doesn't have to be too big, just slow down their march. What Huang Taiji needs most right now is time. As long as we can hold off Chu Ze's army, that will be our pledge of loyalty!"

At the boundary between reality and virtuality, the seeds of conspiracy have already taken root and sprouted.

Behind the official road leading from Guangning to Shanhaiguan, the third batch of supply trains is trekking.

The wheels crunched on the muddy ground.

This convoy was loaded with exploding shell fuses and gunpowder packs that Cheng Huaxue had rushed to make overnight.

The danger level is extremely high, and there are dedicated heavy infantry guards around it.

Jin Buhuan was dressed in a work uniform and had a towel draped around his neck.

He held a wooden mallet in his hand and pretended to tap on the axle of each carriage to check for safety.

He stopped beside the third carriage.

The vehicle was piled high with wooden crates, each marked with a red skull and crossbones symbol.

That was drawn by Cheng Huaxue herself, representing extreme danger.

Jin Buhuan looked around.

The player pushing the cart in front was looking down and drinking stamina potions, while the guard next to him was complaining that the road was too difficult to walk on.

Nobody paid any attention to him.

Jin Buhuan squatted down, replacing the wooden mallet in his hand with a pair of iron pliers.

He precisely locked the retaining pin on the left side of the axle.

With a forceful twist of his wrist, he gave it a sharp wringer.

Gaba.

The pin was loosened by more than half.

This technique is extremely sophisticated. If it were completely removed, the car would fall apart after just a few steps, making it too easy to spot.

The car can still move if it's loosened halfway. But when it encounters bumps, the pin will completely fall off.

It looks like normal metal fatigue and wood aging.

"Done."

Jin Buhuan put away the pliers, stood up, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"This vehicle is fine, let's keep going!" he shouted to the player pushing the vehicle in front of him.

The convoy continued on its way.

Half an hour later.

A downhill section appeared ahead, the road surface muddy and riddled with deep potholes from the previous army's trampling.

"Hold on tight! Slow down downhill!" the logistics officer in charge shouted.

The third carriage began to descend the slope.

The wheel suddenly plunged into a deep crater.

The massive vehicle body tilted.

The already loose pin could no longer withstand the torque and flew off.

Click!

The sturdy wooden axle broke on the spot.

"Holy crap! The car's tilted!" the player pushing the car yelled in pain.

The carriage lost its balance and overturned.

All the wooden crates inside the carriage were smashed out and rolled down the slope into the ditch next to it.

Bang bang bang!

The box hit a rock, the lid popped open, and the fuses of the exploding shells inside scattered all over the ground, soaked with mud and water.

"Stop! Stop everything!"

The entire logistics team was in complete chaos.

Zhou Keke, wearing a safety helmet and carrying a mud trowel, ran wildly from the front of the group.

She trembled with rage as she looked at the overturned carriage in the ditch and the fuses soaked in water.

"What's going on! Weren't we checked before we left?!" Zhou Keke yelled.

Jin Buhuan mingled in the crowd, pretending to be panicked.

"Sister Zhou, it's really not our fault! The road was terrible, and the carriage was overloaded; the axle just broke!"

Zhou Keke jumped into the ditch and waded through the mud to the broken axle.

She reached out and touched the stubble at the broken end of the wood.

Then he looked around at the scattered wooden planks.

There are no signs of being cut or chopped; the cut reveals the natural texture of the wood being torn.

Zhou Keke gritted her teeth and slammed her fist on the carriage.

"The ancient craftsmanship was so poor! The wood simply couldn't withstand such intense, continuous marches!"

She's a meticulous engineer who only believes in data and structure.

The fact that this wooden axle broke under the combined effects of overloading and bad roads makes perfect sense from a mechanical point of view.

She never even considered the possibility of an inside job.

"Quickly salvage the goods! Pick out all the dry fuses!" Zhou Keke began to direct.

"Hey construction crew! Bring the spare axle over, let's get this repaired right away!"

"The team ahead should rest where they are and wait for this vehicle to be repaired before continuing!"

The entire logistics team was forced to come to a halt.

Rescue supplies, replace axles, and reload the truck.

It took more than half an hour to finish.

Jin Buhuan stood to the side, helping to move the boxes, a triumphant sneer flashing across his lowered face.

Half an hour.

In the ever-changing battlefield, the difference between life and death may be the only one.

He quietly opened the guild channel and sent a message.

"Mission accomplished. The logistics convoy has been held up."

Vanguard.

As Chu Ze rode on horseback, the interface of the Mountain and River Map in his mind remained constantly open.

The blue dot representing the logistics convoy suddenly stopped moving.

He frowned.

"Su Qingying," Chu Ze said.

Su Qingying, who was standing next to the horse, immediately stepped forward.

"General."

"Go check at the back and see why the supply train has stopped."

Su Qingying clasped her hands in a fist salute, her posture upright, and replied, "General, rest assured, Qingying will investigate this matter thoroughly and ensure that the supplies are not lost!"

Having said that, she nimbly mounted a chestnut horse, gave it a sharp tug on the reins, and the horse neighed loudly, its hooves flying, kicking up a cloud of mud, and galloped off toward the rear of the army.

Chu Ze withdrew his gaze and turned his attention back to the vast expanse of sky and earth directly in front of him.

The cold wind howled across the plains, scattering the snow and ice everywhere. At the edge of that blizzard, the majestic, gray-blue walls of Shanhaiguan stood clearly where heaven and earth met.

The towering city gate and the long crenellations exude a sense of solemnity and impending doom.

Beyond this towering pass lies the true meat grinder, a battlefield of carnage and bloodshed.

Chu Ze frowned slightly.

Although he didn't know what had happened to the supply train, he knew better than anyone that this battle concerning the fate of the nation would not be as easily defeated as these fanatical players of the natural disasters had imagined.

Huang Taiji, the Khan of the Later Jin, was no ordinary bandit who could be easily toyed with by players using all sorts of bizarre tactics. He was the most formidable opponent the Ming Dynasty had encountered in its two hundred years of existence.

Huang Taiji not only had the fearless Eight Banners cavalry under his command, but also Han Banner commanders like Hu Yongqiang who were opportunistic, fickle, and ruthless.

These traitors, known as the Butchers of Hu, slaughtered their former compatriots in an attempt to prove their worth by groveling before their new masters, employing methods even more insidious than those of the real Jurchens.

Within the vast army of players controlled by Chu Ze, there has never been a monolithic entity.

Human greed and selfishness, when faced with absolute benefits and achievements, can tear off the mask of hypocrisy at any time, revealing the ugliest and sharpest fangs.

Chu Ze's rough hands pressed tightly against the cold hilt of the sword at his waist, his knuckles turning white from the force.

A chilling killing intent flashed in his eyes, and a cold, ruthless smile slowly curved his lips.

No matter who it is, whether it's the Jurchen cavalry or the parasites among the players, as long as they dare to block his path to rebuilding the Ming Dynasty, he will crush them without mercy.

A gust of wind violently struck Chu Ze's dark heavy armor, causing his cloak to flutter wildly in the wind.

He suddenly drew his long sword from his waist.

The steel-forged blade reflected a chilling light under the gloomy sky, its tip pointing directly at the majestic Shanhaiguan Pass ahead.

Chu Ze took a deep breath of the icy air, his chest heaving violently, and his roar, infused with powerful internal energy, completely drowned out the howling wind and snow: "All troops, heed my command!"

Tens of thousands of players, who were in a frenzy, stopped in their tracks, and countless pairs of eyes, gleaming with bloodlust, turned to the man in black armor on the high slope.

Chu Ze swung his longsword forward with a sudden burst, the blade cleaving through the cold wind with a sharp, explosive sound: "Enter the pass!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The deafening roar soared into the sky, completely shattering the thick, leaden-gray clouds on the horizon.

The vast army of tens of thousands converged into an unstoppable black torrent, treading on the frozen earth and carrying an indomitable killing intent, surging into that ancient and weathered pass.

The heavy clatter of hooves, the chaotic footsteps, and the clanging of weapons mingled together, creating a deafening roar on this frozen land of Liaodong.

At this moment, the wheels of history were pushed in an unknown direction by these natural disasters.