Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 149: A Great Opportunity
After Xu Ren and the others received Li Xian’s letter, although they were called fools, everyone couldn’t help but burst into laughter—because they really were fools.
With high-speed flying machines, how did they not think of the decapitation strategy? How did they not think of airstrikes? Simply modifying the 240mm shells into aerial bombs and dropping them in large quantities onto the enemy’s heads!
In the past, the typical war machines flew slowly and at low altitudes, so people didn’t come up with such ideas. But Anyang is different! The two stored flying machines have a speed of 420 kilometers per hour, and their flying altitude—over a thousand meters when fully loaded, and a terrifying height of over 5,000 meters when empty!
In an empty state, using only propellers, the flying machine can reach an altitude of 5,000 meters—at this height, the floating cloud formation is completely ineffective.
Li Xian’s letter also mentioned a new flying machine concept, which was separately named the “airplane” (O(∩_∩)O haha!).
Unlike the usual design thinking for war machines, which is more like a grinding wheel, the airplane’s design is fully enclosed, focusing on speed, mimicking the shape of a bird, and adding propellers to the wings and other parts.
The design of the airplane is not that easy. Without prior experience designing flying machines, Li Xian didn’t dare take on this project. Flight has always been a dangerous and life-threatening pursuit, a special kind of power.
Traditional war machines often focus more on basic agility and payload; however, Li Xian’s airplane concept is all about speed! It’s all about speed, speed, and more speed! Once the speed is sufficient, then they can think about the attack!
Additionally, Li Xian mentioned in his letter that from now on, messages between Anyang and the Imperial Mausoleum will be sent by airplane. Sending messages on the ground is too dangerous, and Anyang has already paid a heavy price, losing over a hundred lives—it’s too costly!
After the group finished laughing foolishly, Xu Ren pulled out the second letter from the envelope. This was Li Xian’s reply to “Poison Master Li Yuanming,” and the reply was simple, consisting of only two sentences: “What has been divided for a long time must eventually unite, and what has united for a long time must eventually divide; without breaking, there can be no establishment, only through breaking can there be establishment!”
“What does this mean?” Xia Qingqing didn’t fully understand at first. These two isolated sentences seemed completely unrelated to Xu Ren’s question of “how to deal with Li Yuanming.”
Yan Ze’an thought for a moment. “Madam, young master means that if we’re content with a small, isolated area, then Li Yuanming is of no use. But if we intend to pursue the world, then the Poison Master might have unexpected abilities.
Doesn’t the Poison Master like chaotic times? Doesn’t he enjoy poisoning the world? But if we use him well, the Poison Master could become Anyang’s vanguard strategist!
Let others ‘divide,’ let others ‘break,’ while we in Anyang go on to ‘unite’ and ‘establish’.”
“However, a Poison Master must be controllable. I think, Mr. Xu, you may have a solution for this?”
“Yes!” Xu Ren nodded confidently. “The solution is simple: four words—common interests!”
“Common interests?” Hearing these four words, Yan Ze’an nodded thoughtfully.
Xia Qingqing also understood, but she wasn’t very happy—if Anyang were to use Li Yuanming, the first thing they’d have to face would be the Great Xia Kingdom. In other words, the first to be ‘broken and divided’ would be the Great Xia Kingdom!
Although Xia Qingqing had already come to terms with reality, it still felt uncomfortable to bring such matters to light.
Xu Ren quickly smoothed things over. “Let’s put Li Yuanming aside for now. Let’s first discuss the issue of Zhongshan County. Regarding the airstrikes and decapitation tactics mentioned by the young master, I plan to begin before dawn tomorrow. This will surely settle things once and for all.
But how should we handle things after that? We need to come up with a plan!
Currently, the surrounding counties are just watching us fight it out. Take the Kong family, for example. They claim to be sending troops to attack Zhongshan County, but in reality, they’re just driving Zhongshan County’s army to attack Anyang!
It’s clear that as long as Anyang is not destroyed, these governors won’t take any action.
So, if we solve the Zhongshan County issue suddenly, what should we do next? How can we maximize the effects and gain the most benefits?”
This is indeed a serious issue. The surrounding governors, even if they intend to attack Zhongshan County, will certainly wait until Anyang is defeated before acting. If Anyang suddenly destroys Zhongshan County now, everyone’s expressions will surely be interesting.
Of course, no matter how interesting, the most important thing is how to gain the greatest benefit for Anyang from this “interesting” situation. So, how can we secure the most important benefits for An Yang?
First and foremost, it still requires Li Yulong’s cooperation! This matter must be communicated to him as soon as possible.
Xu Ren planned to have Cheng Jiming send a flying machine at the highest speed and altitude to deliver Song Xing to outside Wuyang City, where he would inform Li Yulong of the next battle plans.
Currently, the flying machine’s maximum speed is 420 kilometers per hour, or 840 miles. A round trip to Wuyang City would take no more than four hours, two time periods at most. They would return before nightfall, just in time for the battle before dawn tomorrow.
Additionally, Xu Ren planned to work with Li Liang to fully control Zhongshan County! They would also need to control Luliang County—however much they could control. After all, Luliang County’s southern region is still home to the Yuan family and Dongyuan County, the Kong family, and Nanyang County. Anyang doesn’t have the capacity to swallow the entire Luliang County.
But Anyang has a very important bargaining chip—Zhao Guoshan, the governor of Luliang County, along with General Zhao Youdan, Li Yuanming, the civil official of Luliang County, and Zou Zhiquan, the right general of Luliang County! It could be said that the key figures in Luliang County are all under Anyang’s control.
After discussing with Yan Ze’an and considering all the details, Xu Ren immediately wrote a letter and handed it to Song Xing. Cheng Jiming personally operated the flying machine to send Song Xing outside Wuyang City, where Song Xing would then parachute in.
Additionally, the Qingyun Mountain Valley was instructed to attach tailfins to the 240mm shells used by the ironclad ships; some shells would even be outfitted with yellow explosives. This time, Xu Ren was determined to obliterate all the high-ranking members of Zhongshan County, including the secret agents from the Cai Kingdom lurking among them.
However, there was still one problem—how to accurately determine the location of Shi Chengsong and others? Xu Ren knew that the bombing could only be done once; if it failed, Shi Chengsong would certainly hide.
Currently, Anyang only had two true flying machines, so for insurance, only one target could be attacked. The question was, how could they find Shi Chengsong?
Shi Chengsong should be among the main army and likely in the commander’s tent. But what if he wasn’t? Xu Ren didn’t dare take any risks—he had to ensure everything went perfectly!
They needed to come up with a way to draw Shi Chengsong out, ideally getting him to stand in an obvious location, so that under everyone’s watch, they could bomb him to death! That would cause the collapse of Zhongshan County’s 200,000-strong army.
But sometimes, things happen just at the right moment; just as Xu Ren was pondering, a letter from Beichen Yuqing arrived. Upon reading the first half of the letter, which mentioned that Zhongshan County was preparing to break through from the south with elite troops, Xu Ren couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat. Though he had already made preparations, there was still some danger involved.
But when he saw the second half of the letter, which revealed that Beichen Yuqing and others were about to attack Zhongshan County’s army’s flank, Xu Ren immediately shouted excitedly, “What a great opportunity!”