On this afternoon, in front of the Abundance Kingdom capital hall, the place that originally seemed a bit empty in the morning had become quite lively.
A large amount of supplies were gathered in front of the main hall, carried by ox carts and horse-drawn carriages. Strong men carried wooden boxes or sacks into the main hall and put them away. Among them were expensive gold and silver treasures, exquisite silks and satins, armor, weapons and even dried meat. It could be said that the ingredients were quite complex.
"Your Majesty! We have evacuated all the land of the Xin Clan tribe! Most of the Xin Clan tribe members have also been killed! But some of them fled to the north and disappeared into the mountains!"
At this moment, at the entrance of the busy hall, Wang Zhifan, who was chatting with the old Prime Minister who was holding a ledger and supervising the transportation, saw a cavalryman in short clothes running in front of him. The cavalryman pulled the reins to stop the horse, then jumped off the horse and half-knelt on the ground to report to him.
"Well... let's ignore those Xin Clan tribesmen who escaped for the time being. You go and summon the sergeants to come over and reward them based on their merits."
Wang Zhifan After listening to the cavalryman's report, he quickly responded after thinking for a moment and issued the next round of orders.
"No!"
The cavalryman in short clothes responded immediately, got up and jumped on his horse, and left with a rather excited expression.
"Xiangguo, thanks to you for recommending this group of capable soldiers to me, otherwise the extermination of Xin would not have gone so smoothly."
After the cavalry left, Wang Zhifan smiled and said to the old man in civilian clothes beside him, his eyes passing over the man who was eagerly watching the large amount of property being put into storage.
"Your Majesty is so complimentary! The battle to destroy Xin was so smooth, all thanks to Your Majesty's unparalleled power. These soldiers are just the icing on the cake."
Because the financial crisis had been completely resolved, Lao Xiangguo immediately looked away from the account book in his hand and answered Wang Zhifan with a smile on his face, not daring to take any credit.
Because as someone who had personally experienced the previous battle to level the Xin clan, he knew very well how fragile the fortified city built by the Xin clan was in front of the king. It can be said that the powerful Xin clan collapsed so quickly, all because of Wang Zhifan. With terrifying strength, he wiped out the main force of the Xin family with a single move and took away the wealth accumulated by the Xin family for decades. Even if the remaining members of the Xin family still had some strength, they could only abandon their family property and run away, not daring to confront the hundreds of soldiers he had summoned.
"Prime Minister, with today's financial resources, can we raise an army of ten thousand?"
Not caring about the old man's praise, Wang Zhifan then asked the other party about this issue that he was more concerned about. He personally killed Xin Clan not only to solve the problem of the empty treasury, but also to get the first pot of gold and continue the winning trend.
"This... let me think about this..."
When the old prime minister heard that Wang Zhifan wanted to expand his military strength, he did not dare to answer casually for a while. He knew that military affairs were complicated and consumed a lot of money. Even if he had wealth in his hands, he could not squander it at will.
"Xin Clan Warehouse A has thousands of loads of grain. If it supplies an army of 10,000, it can sustain..."
The old man then opened the account book in his hand and began to calculate whether it could support the daily consumption of 10,000 sergeants based on the details above.
"Prime Minister, there is no need to worry so much. We only need 10,000 soldiers for half a month. It will not be a problem to capture Pottery Kingdom or Yin Kingdom supplies."
Wang Zhifan knew at a glance that the old man had misunderstood what he meant, so he opened his mouth to explain.
"Your Majesty wants to attack Tao and Yin? The veteran thinks that we must take a long-term approach."
Suddenly hearing that Wang Zhifan revealed such a wild plan, the commoner man quickly lowered his voice and replied. He already knew that Wang Zhifan possessed extraordinary strength, but subconsciously he still believed that it was not safe to only rely on this kind of power to conquer other countries.
"Soldiers are valuable and quick, so don't be slow and procrastinate. I just ask you if you can summon ten thousand soldiers for my use in the near future."
Wang Zhifan immediately answered with a serious face, showing his very determined attitude.
"Your Majesty, it will take several months to gather 10,000 soldiers, but if we only need 3,000 soldiers, we will be able to do so in the future."
The old man thought about it, but still felt that it would be difficult to obtain 10,000 soldiers in the near future. After all, Abundance Kingdom was only a small country, with only a few thousand troops in its ranks. Expanding the scale would not be achieved in a day.
"Three thousand is three thousand, Prime Minister, please go ahead and give the order."
Wang Zhifan After thinking about it, I felt that it wouldn't matter if there were fewer people. Anyway, these people would only be there in the initial stage.
"In addition, the king needs generals to lead the army, and the prime minister also recommended several candidates."
Considering that he could not lead troops and could not always lead troops to fight in person, Wang Zhifan made this request again. As for where the original general of the Abundance Kingdom was, he heard that he ran away after the military pay was cut off because the other general was not a local of the Abundance Kingdom.
The two of them continued to talk for a while, and hundreds of sergeants gradually gathered on the mountain road below the mountain peak. These people were all the soldiers who wiped out Xin Clan's troops today. They can also be regarded as Wang Zhifan's current base. Wang Zhifan called them over to discuss their merits and reward them in order to further win over them, so that he could have some people to use, so that he would not have to go to the old man of the Prime Minister for everything.
The following time became somewhat streamlined. Wang Zhifan spent some energy getting acquainted with these sergeants and personally distributed some gold and silver rewards to them. He was busy until nightfall when he had some personal free time and lay down on a wooden bed to rest in a bedroom in the palace.
"Being this kind of king is much more troublesome than being a gang leader. Many people are involved in everything, and everything needs to be planned and thought through. It would be great if you can fight alone in a war."
Wang Zhifan, who once served as the leader in the dungeon, felt deeply that he himself was not very good at handling this kind of situation, but the dungeon forced him to have such an identity, so he had no choice but to carry on.
On the night of the first day, he did not rest. Instead, he continued to practice Great Dream Saber Scripture deep in the Entering Dreams state, until he was interrupted by an old man who came to discuss matters in the early morning.
The old prime minister had a very busy day. On the one hand, he had to arrange for him to gather the sergeants from Feng State to prepare for war. On the other hand, he had to think about suitable candidates with the ability to lead the army. He also collected intelligence about the enemy country and tried to change Wang Zhifan's eager war mentality.
But Wang Zhifan did not change his mind. His plan for this copy was to finish it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if the pace slowed down, this copy would have to be delayed until completion.
Another day later, after preliminary preparations, Wang Zhifan led the assembled three thousand Abundance Kingdom soldiers to leave the capital and followed the mountain road to the east, where Yin Kingdom was.
The reason why he chose Yin Kingdom to start with was naturally because this country had suffered a recent defeat and its military strength was weak, so it was necessary to pick the weak one. Another reason was that it was the closest to the Abundance Kingdom, so swallowing it would facilitate further development.
Thanks to the help of several professionals recommended by the old prime minister along the way, nothing went wrong. The cavalry spies in the front, the infantry army in the middle, the grain and grass team, and the guards on both wings all cooperated fairly well, until half a day later a scout cavalry looked slightly confused. He came back nervously and reported to Wang Zhifan riding on Crimson Deer Horse: "My King! There are huge circular footprints on the ground ahead. The villain suspects that they were left by the Pottery Kingdom's Terracotta Army. They also went to attack the Yin Kingdom capital!"
From the look on this soldier's face, he could tell that he was frightened by the Pottery Kingdom army, which had achieved great results in recent battles.
"Explore again! The entire army continues to move forward!"
Wang Zhifan didn't hesitate for a moment after hearing this man's report. He knew that the battle was inevitable, no matter whether the first one hit was a soft persimmon or a hard persimmon.
"Your Majesty... The young general has seen Terracotta Army before. They are extremely powerful and not afraid of casualties. It is a bad idea to confront them head-on... The young general suggests stopping the troops first to investigate the situation..."
As soon as the scout left, a young general in armor began to persuade Wang Zhifan, hoping that he would not underestimate the threat of the Terracotta Army. Those things are not the same concept as ordinary armies.
"It doesn't matter, I just want to see how powerful this Terracotta Army is."
Wang Zhifan then looked at the young general who was recommended by the old prime minister with a smile, and said something that made the other person speechless.
Because he did not participate in the battle to destroy Xin the day before yesterday, he had only heard about Wang Zhifan's strength, and did not know how much of a threat Terracotta Army was to Wang Zhifan. However, he was young and energetic, and found that Wang Zhifan, the king, was not afraid of powerful enemies, so he said no more.
After a while, the slowly walking army passed a strange section of road. There were many dustpan-sized footprints on the ground, which looked as if they had been trampled by a large group of giant elephants.
"This number... I'm afraid there are thousands of pottery figurines... or I don't know what their combat effectiveness is..."
Wang Zhifan made some mental calculations as he passed by these footprints, and curiously asked the young generals following him:
"Do you know what the weaknesses of the Terracotta Army are? How to deal with them?"
"Terracotta Army is not good at speed, weak at hitting hard with axes and hammers, and afraid of splashing water."
The young general answered without much thought.
"Well... then let our army's shield and axe-bearers fight when the time comes."
Wang Zhifan then replied something that left the young general speechless. The reason was that he knew very well that these soldiers did not have the courage to charge towards the terrifying Terracotta Army.
The army advanced like this for another hour, and saw many huge footprints along the way, but still did not find a single figure of the pottery figurines. All the soldiers knew that powerful enemies would appear soon, but they were glad that they still had not appeared.
"Send the order and the whole army will stop and prepare for battle."
Suddenly, Wang Zhifan, who was riding in the front and taking the lead, stopped Crimson Deer Horse and issued an order to the young general beside him.
"Your Majesty... why is this so? The scouts found no trace of the enemy."
The young general did not immediately implement Wang Zhifan's instructions. As someone with some martial arts knowledge, he knew that such chaos would waste the energy of the soldiers, so he retorted directly.
Wang Zhifan didn't blame him when he saw this. He just raised his finger and pointed at the ground in front of him and said:
"The enemy is far away and right before our eyes."
"Huh?"
The young general then waved the command flag in his hand to make the sergeants behind him stop quickly, and then carefully observed the ground indicated by Wang Zhifan.
There was nothing surprising about the place at first glance, except that they had seen a lot of dirt roads covered with huge footprints along the way. However, after the young man continued to observe for a few seconds, he discovered that the huge footprints seemed to protrude from the ground in the middle, which looked uncoordinated.
"Those are... the heads of the pottery warriors hidden underground?! How can the pottery warriors be so insidious!"
He reacted quickly, and he couldn't help but shed a lot of cold sweat on his back. He thought to himself that it was fortunate that the king had stopped the sergeants in advance, otherwise they would have been doomed if they reached the top of the pottery soldiers. As soon as the enemy emerged from the ground, the entire army would be turned upside down and destroyed in an instant! "You ask the sergeants to find a way to get them out. If we want to fight, we will fight in an upright manner."
Then Wang Zhifan gave the next instructions.
"Your Majesty... Our army is not in a position to fight hard at the moment. It is better to evacuate first."
The young general thought for a moment and then answered, thinking that even if they discovered the opponent's conspiracy, they would not be able to defeat him, but it would not be a big problem if they wanted to escape now. After all, Terracotta Army is not very fast.
"Do as I am told."
Wang Zhifan ignored his thoughts and forced him to execute the order.
Originally, hard pressure could easily lead to conflicts between superiors and subordinates when life and death were at stake, but the young general did not initiate a confrontation with the stubborn Wang Zhifan, because he suddenly thought that the character displayed by the king along the way was not the reckless type. The fact that he was able to detect Terracotta Army hidden underground before the scouts and himself showed that he must be a careful person, and how could a careful person make such a crude mistake? As a result, the young general who had initially established trust in Wang Zhifan quickly ordered some soldiers to torment the pottery soldiers hidden under the road. The specific method was to throw some uncorked water bags on the heads of those things, so that the water they hated most could soak into their bodies.
As expected, after this operation, the pottery warriors who were originally hidden underground became a little unable to hold back. The troubles they were experiencing would not have much impact on them, but the enemy's behavior showed that they had been exposed, and continuing to hide like this was just deceiving themselves.
Rumble~ As the ground beneath their feet shook, the Abundance Kingdom sergeants saw rough-looking three- to four-meter-tall "natives" emerge vertically from the ground. In the process, they did not show any difficulty corresponding to their size. It can be seen that they can move relatively freely in this earthy environment, and this kind of place is their home field.
"Abundance Kingdom people! I didn't expect you to be able to see through my Pottery Kingdom's Concealment Formation! As long as you offer the food and fodder for the army, I, Terracotta Army, can let you go today!"
A hole appeared on the chest of an earth-yellow pottery figurine, and the upper body of a man was exposed in the hole. He shouted to the Abundance Kingdom army in front with a tone of surprise and contempt. They probably knew that it would not be easy to kill this army if they failed in the ambush, and it conflicted with their original plan, so it was better to intimidate them.