Zhan Long

Chapter 809 - Higher Ambitions

This was a completely new concept as it was a main tier military quest. This was already different from the quests that normal players received. However, the rewards should be similar. The only difference would be the additional achievement points as a reward. With enough Achievement Points, I was bound to be promoted from my current military position. Yup, the higher the rank the better. This way, I could recruit even more soldiers into my army.

……

Louis stepped out beside me and said, “Your majesty, the man responsible for these heinous crimes is General Yugo alone. Now that Yugo has already suffered his punishment, the rest of the soldiers are innocent. Your majesty, please have mercy!”

The old king nodded, “I will just pardon these five thousand men from the Long Spear Army.”

Louis looked at me and then said, “But… the armor, spears, mounts, and even the dozens of Dragon Crystal Cannons that the Long Spear Army possesses have already been moved. Your majesty, may you announce an order to the Royal Army to return everything to the Long Spear Army!”

I couldn’t help but smile. You want me to give up something I’ve already swallowed? Dream on! I walked forward and said, “Your majesty, the Violent Thunder Army’s Long Spear Garrison’s base is near the War God’s River, but they have yet to act in favor of the empire. Instead, they’ve completely wasted these machines that the empire has so generously bestowed upon them. My Royal Army on the other hand must set out to battle the Dragonling Army. If I return everything, I’ll be an axe without a blade!”

King Rob smiled, “Li Xiao Yao, what’s your point?”

I quickly responded, “I ask that your majesty bestow those equipments, armors, and cannons upon the Royal Army!”

Louis exclaimed, “Li Xiao Yao, you b*st*rd!”

Who would’ve imagined that the old king would say, “General Louis, the Royal Army is about to face a strong opponent, and as the old proverb goes, you must use the steel on the blade. Let us bestow this equipment onto them. I will prepare another set for the Long Spear Army from the treasury.”

Louis went completely silent after that. There was nothing more he could say. All he could do was stand there, red with humiliation.

Han Yuan and Xiao Lie both hid their smiles behind me, while the five lieutenants of the Violent Thunder Army were completely pale. More likely than not, these five were not going to face a good fate with this mood of Louis’.

……

After I walked out of the Great Hall, Pearl caught up to me and said, “You should’ve told me before you attacked the Violent Thunder Army. Otherwise, I would have known how to protect you.”

I apologetically responded, “I apologize your highness, the situation at the time was too urgent and so I didn’t wait. Instead, I led my men directly there.”

Pearl helplessly replied, “Alright then, it's not like I don’t know your personality. Whatever… I suppose this is a situation where the general must sometimes act without orders in a battle, eh? You are a man of great deeds, and you undoubtedly do not bother yourself with these administrative details. I can help you settle things in the palace. Li Xiao Yao, in return, you have to make the Royal Army into the most powerful army ever. That’s right, I will soon write to Dragon City, I suppose I should praise you before Lady Frost…”

I smiled back, “Haha, is that right? Then, thank you your highness!”

“No need. Hurry up and prepare your men. Eliminating pirates will not be a simple task. Those men are incredibly cunning. In the past, both the Flame Dragon Army and the Xia Yu Army attacked them at the same time, deploying over seventy thousand troops onto the War God’s River and they still weren’t able to defeat them. You must be careful this time!”

“Okay, I understand!”

I leapt onto my horse and led Han Yuan and Xiao Lie back to the Royal Army Garrison. The five thousand soldiers from the Long Spear Garrison were returned to Louis. Louis was as sissy as ever and he kept fussing over the five thousand pieces of equipment and armor. I, on the other hand, did not pay any attention to him.

On the way there, I opened up my chat and saw that Li Mu and Qing Qian were in the middle of a discussion——

Qing Qian: “Looks like Achievement Points are better used for exchanging equipment…”

Li Mu: “Any player who isn’t ranked in the top ten for Achievement Points don’t even have a choice in the matter, alright?”

Wan Er: “But Drunken Spear managed to get a military position, not to mention he leapt up all the way to becoming a commander of an army in one step. He’s almost the same rank as our pig!”

Wang Jian laughed, “They’re completely different ok? Brother Xiao Yao’s position is just too great! There are fifty thousand men in the Royal Army, ready at his beck and call. Furthermore, he’s a Fourth Tier General of the South. Drunken Spear on the other hand, is at best a supervisor who’s in charge of a garrison within the Xia Yu Army, with is at the Eighth Tier. He’s miles and miles away from Brother Xiao Yao!”

I couldn’t help but add, “Be nice, he’s just starting…”

Qing Qian: “Well well, Brother Xiao Yao has finally appeared in the guild chat. Hurry up and tell us, what have you been up to these days?”

I was a little embarrassed and said, “After the Battle of the Sea of No Return, I’ve been constantly busy. The NPC army has just too many tasks. First, I need to replenish the Royal Army’s equipment and treasury, and so I’ll have to rely on all of you guys to continue building up [Zhan Long]!”

Wan Er smiled, “Don’t worry piggy, we’ve got it all set. You just focus on your Royal Army for now!”

Li Mu let out a long sigh and said, “Xiao Yao, as your brother, I have to be straight with you. Is is really worth it to spend this much time and effort on the Royal Army? Rather, I’m starting to think that with all that time you spend there, why don’t you take some of our [Zhan Long] brothers farming, or even spend more time with your goddess Cang Tong…”

I smiled, “Li Mu, you don’t understand. Let me ask you, later on, during the country wars, if we decide to invade the capital of another server, it’ll be easy to invade, but how easy will it be for us to maintain it?”

Li Mu was stunned and said, “Maintain it? Eh… we can deploy some of our main troops to hold the place for a while. Either way, as long as they hold off any counterattacks, we’ll be fine!”

I smiled, “Alright then brother… when we invade Moon City, I’ll deploy two million players to guard the city. That’ll be enough to hold off any counterattacks, but what happens when we decide to take Port City? Or even Flame Cloud City? How many more times must we split our troops in order to hold these cities? If we split up our military strength like this, we’ll never be able to fight against a place like Port City which has over seven million people.”

Li Mu stiffened, “D*mn, when you say it like that…I guess I have been too simple-minded…”

I smiled, “Therefore, we need to start getting the core members of [Zhan Long] more involved in NPC military matters. If everyone was like me and managed to bring up their own NPC armies, then we could combine armies and have each stand guard at a capital. We wouldn’t even need players to stationed there. Afterwards, these NPC armies will buy horses and supplies on their own and defend against any counterattack. That’s when we can truly claim that we’ve taken over a city!”

Li Mu sucked in a deep breath, “This…”

Wang Jian let out a sigh, “So… so Brother Xiao Yao was actually thinking this far… d*mn, I think that even Fang Ge Que or Q-Sword wouldn’t have thought of this much…and they’re even ranked higher than Brother Xiao Yao in the CBN Battlenet Rankings…”

I laughed, “Yeah, I’m aiming higher than Q-Sword and Jian Feng Han by New Year’s in 2018. I no longer care about the wins and losses of a PK tournament or the rankings on the CBN Battlenet. What I want is the right to claim that I ruled the world!”

Qing Qian smiled, “New Year’s? Brother Xiao Yao, something must’ve triggered this… Sister Cang Tong, tell me, just what happened to him that night? If I remember correctly, you were with him that night…”

“Oh?” Dancing Forest smiled mischievously, “A lot of things must’ve happened that night then?”

Bai Qi laughed, “But of course… Maybe something like popping a cherry!”

Wan Er was completely red and just mumbled something.

I face palmed, “You dirty b*st*rds. Looks like you don’t want to be captains and flag bearers anymore, is that it? I can fire you all right now!”

“Guildmaster, you’re the best, please spare us!”

……

I talked with everyone in the guild chat for a little longer and praised them for their quests in Dragon City. It was good that they were getting as much Achievement Points as they could. Besides, these stats were interchangeable between Dragon City and Tian Ling City. Later on, if they wanted, they could get military positions with those points in Tian Ling City. Right now, there were already players starting to enter the ranks of the NPCs. For example, Simple, Jian Feng Han, Goodbye Tears, and Drunken Spear were all under the Xia Yu Army flag, while Fang Ge Que, Xia Ye, Mu Xuan, and Bai Li Ruo Feng were under the Flame Dragon Flag. There were some that had already become supervisors, while others were among the captains and the lieutenants. Not only could the players take on military officer positions, but they could also become the guild masters, flag bearers, or captains of their guilds. In the eyes of the NPCs, we were like mercenaries with military ranks. So in all honesty, it was a mutually beneficial relationship.

Not long after, I arrived at the Royal Army Garrison. There was a long stretch of tents drying on the ground. Normally the tents would be lined up in neat rows, but Tian Ling City had the climate of a rainforest and was incredibly humid. Sleeping on the ground made the soldiers more susceptible to natural diseases. And so I suggested to Han Yuan that we begin cutting down trees to create wooden planks for beds. Furthermore, I suggested that they layer the beds into bunk beds. This way, a tent that could originally only hold a hundred of me could now hold two hundred. This would also improve the living conditions of the soldiers.

When I reached the camp, Long Xing walked his horse over to me and said, “Commander, the dock is already in the process of being built. Just this morning, a group of Dragonling battleships were monitoring us from afar, but I set up some cannons on the shore and scared them away.”

I nodded, “Keep up the good work!”

Han Yuan raised his spear and furrowed his brow, “My lord, what are you thinking? The Dragonling Army is a group of pirates, and their movements on the river are completely random. The time it takes for us to build a dock is just too slow. Plus, with only a dozen or so ships in our possession, there’s no way we can stand our ground against several hundred!”

I replied simple, “That’s right, we can’t!”

Long Xing asked, “Commander, then just how do you plan on exterminating this Dragonling Army?”

Xiao Lie was completely puzzled, “This is just too difficult a task… Commander, how can you be so certain, unless, you already have a plan? If you do, can you not hide it from us?”

I smiled, “Yes, I’ve figured out our first step.”

“What are you planning?”

I confidently replied, “While the Dragonling Army seems to move randomly… They must have some kind of port or dock along the shores in order to replenish their food, weapons, or women. As long as we search for that point, we can burn it all down and force them on the shore to fight with us. At that point, it’ll be time for our cavalry to show its might!”

Everyone was stunned. Some of the lieutenants were dumbfounded, “Lord commander, you’re truly wise…”

I picked up my Zhen Yue Blade and mounted my horse, feeling proud. The spring breeze lightly fluttered my Ruler’s Cape.