Qi Fei: Big Shot, the Times Have Changed

By the time Qi Fei finished the screening for the second city, the people in the first city were already mostly trained, so they no longer required his constant supervision.

Consequently, Qi Fei directed them to station themselves at the location of the twenty-first city he had previously planned, while also engaging in military farming.

Next, Qi Fei led his men toward the third city.

Then came the fourth, the fifth...

And so the cycle repeated, until all twenty cities had been screened.

When Qi Fei finished screening the twentieth city, the twenty-first city was also nearly completed.

Qi Fei then stationed himself in city number twenty-one and began drilling the soldiers.

Although twenty cities were already engaged in production, Qi Fei still set aside ten thousand men for military farming.

After all, his opponent was a God of War; he had to be prepared to abandon production entirely and turn the whole population into soldiers if the situation demanded it.

As for the two hundred people suited for mental power cultivation, besides practicing their mental power daily, they also had to study military strategy and assist Qi Fei in handling administrative affairs.

The one among them with the best aptitude even gained access to the Shared Space of the Mental Talent realm.

That's right, Qi Fei was attempting to actively cultivate individuals capable of developing a Mental Talent.

This tactic was something he hadn't had time to test yet, but he was using it directly here now.

Theoretically, this should be similar to cultivating Internal Qi Separation, but in practice, it was hard to say.

Compared to internal qi, mental power was far more ethereal and subjective.

Moreover, the formation of a Mental Talent was the sublimation of an individual's knowledge and life experience.

It was only through the effect of the Shared Space that Qi Fei was able to take this step.

But no matter how high the difficulty, he had to give it a try.

Having one more Mental Talent to coordinate and control the Cloud Qi would be a significant boost for Qi Fei, who was commanding a large army.

Furthermore, even if a Mental Talent failed to form, the mental power cultivated would not diminish.

After Qi Fei developed the other side of his own Mental Talent, he could use them as a reserve stock of mental power.

It wouldn't be a wasted effort.

While training troops and governing, Qi Fei also had to be responsible for building blast furnaces.

Civilian farming tools, military armor, and weapons all relied on iron smelted in blast furnaces.

Qi Fei didn't want to wear leather armor to face off against a God of War.

Even if the big shot on the other side would likely only be able to field leather armor himself by that time.

In addition to developing himself, Qi Fei also began establishing an intelligence system to gather various pieces of information regarding Sun Wu.

As he expected, the big shot on the other side was also drafting populations from various cities to train troops.

And the big shot's speed of training troops was incredibly fast.

The army currently in his hands not only had talents that were gradually taking shape, but they could also follow commands and move fluidly.

"Hmm, completely as expected."

Qi Fei's estimation of the God of War was set extremely high.

Especially for someone like Sun Wu, a God of War who had no flashy special effects and had put all his skill points into excavating the soldiers' own strength and his own command ability.

Wasn't it only natural for him to achieve this?

"It seems if we go to war at the end of the year, I must be prepared for the big shot to bring out at least ten thousand dual-talent soldiers."

Qi Fei silently raised the priority of mass production by another level.

Thus, he began using his talent to cultivate livestock with internal qi to assist in development.

Just as both sides were buried in training their troops, the season turned to autumn.

Relying on new farming tools and the cooperation of livestock with internal qi, the land under Qi Fei's governance was able to cultivate far more farmland than the normal scale.

Consequently, this harvest completely solved the problem of food shortages (from Qi Fei's perspective).

In this way, he could allow the commoners responsible for production to cultivate internal qi while also receiving a certain degree of military training.

This would make it easier to convert them directly into soldiers in the future.

This situation continued until the end of autumn.

"I still have to fight a battle."

Qi Fei looked at the thirty thousand soldiers under his command.

After the autumn harvest, the garrison troops had undergone intensive reinforcement and had basically stabilized at a single talent level.

As for the twenty thousand full-time soldiers, they had already reached the limit of a single talent.

A small number of soldiers should have already reached the level of dual talents, but since a talent was the manifestation of collective will, the breakthrough of one or two individuals was useless.

If he wanted to go any further, he had to rely on actual combat.

"If I had known, I should have designed a bandit mechanic; otherwise, I wouldn't be in a position where there's nowhere to gain actual combat experience."

Thinking about taking absolute novices to fight the God of War, Qi Fei couldn't help but feel a bit of regret.

He had only thought about competing with the great Sun Wu, forgetting that the current dreamscape mechanism was not yet fully perfected.

A real miscalculation.

However, fighting a battle is fine too.

Although intelligence had been constant over the past six months, the specific strength of the God of War could not be discerned on paper.

Fight a battle, determine the gap between the two sides, and then devise targeted solutions.

"Pass the order: march in three days."

Following Qi Fei's command, all twenty-one cities under his control began to mobilize.

Among Qi Fei's cities, those closest to Sun Wu's territory were cities three, four, and five, followed by city twenty-one, which served primarily as a military camp.

Therefore, with the infrastructure built previously, grain, fodder, and supplies were rapidly transported to these four cities.

Qi Fei arrived near city four with an army of thirty thousand, and after resting for two days, began to advance toward Sun Wu's forces.

The commotion of thirty thousand men approaching could not possibly go unnoticed by Sun Wu, no matter how strictly Qi Fei controlled the intelligence.

Thus, not long after Qi Fei began his advance, Sun Wu received the relevant news.

While mobilizing his own troops, he began to arrange scouts to investigate the specific situation of Qi Fei's army.

However, the scouts, just like the previous reconnaissance personnel, never returned.

"This kid has some real skills."

Sun Wu couldn't help but praise.

Up to this point, he had failed to obtain any useful intelligence, which could be considered fatal in the art of war.

"Since that's the case, let's switch to a conservative approach."

While marching, Sun Wu began to adjust the talents of his soldiers.

Some of the soldiers' offensive talents were removed and replaced with defensive ones.

As for the lost attack power, he would make up for it with Cloud Qi formations.

On the other side, Qi Fei was rewarding his scouts.

His scouts were divided into two parts: cavalry and infantry.

The cavalry consisted of three hundred elite Gongsun White Horse with the talent of Godspeed.

Because of their unique attack method, the Gongsun White Horse possessed terrifying lethality against non-complete military units without defensive fortifications.

They held an absolute advantage in this type of scout warfare.

Of course, the White Horse couldn't run in just any terrain.

This was when the infantry came into play.

Qi Fei's infantry scouts used the strategy of the Kushan Empire from the original work: a pseudo-Internal Qi Separation captain, equipped with a dozen experts who had achieved Qi Solidification.

In a battlefield without Cloud Qi, this configuration could be described in only two words.

Invincible.

Without the interference of Cloud Qi, the superhuman power of Internal Qi Separation could be unleashed to its limit.

No soldier could stand against them.

Coupled with the Light and Shadow Reconnaissance Secret Technique he developed based on the Floating Shadow Magic from the Coiling Dragon World and his past life's knowledge of optics.

Qi Fei's infantry scouts were practically killing machines.

Under these circumstances, it was only natural to reward them to boost the morale of his side.

After the rewards were finished, Qi Fei began to study the intelligence he had gathered.

The great Sun Wu had brought thirty thousand men on this expedition.

Among these thirty thousand, only ten thousand were proper full-time soldiers, while the remaining twenty thousand were laborers with some training experience.

It seemed the great master, lacking intelligence, had misjudged the scale of the war.

The intelligence blockade was showing initial results.

And among those ten thousand full-time soldiers, at least three thousand had an aura that surpassed the level of a single-talent soldier; they were likely double-talent elites, or perhaps even Imperial Guard.

It was slightly worse than Qi Fei had anticipated.

However, Qi Fei did not feel any sense of ease.

If Han Xin could use laborers to kill single-talent soldiers, there was no reason the great Sun Wu couldn't do the same.

Treat laborers as single-talent, single-talent as double-talent, and double-talent as Imperial Guard.

That was the only proper way to view it.

As for Sun Wu's unit configuration, it consisted of over two hundred cavalry, fifty chariots, and the rest were all infantry.

Qi Fei was not surprised by this.

When he previously saw the uniform plain-terrain configuration on the expert's side, Qi Fei knew that chariots could be deployed.

He figured the expert's memories hadn't fully awakened, so he had subconsciously chosen this configuration.

During the Spring and Autumn Annals period, chariots did indeed show signs of being replaced by cavalry, but this replacement would not be fully completed until the Han dynasty.

Before that, even the Chu State would equip a considerable scale of chariots.

It was not surprising that the expert made this choice.

"However, this really works in my favor this time."

Qi Fei's lips curled into a slight smile.

When it comes to chariots, I'm sorry, but all the livestock in my ranks possess internal qi; what are you going to use to compare with me?

Once the expert deploys his chariot phalanx, I will have my own chariots charge directly, while the cavalry assists with crossbow fire from the flanks.

As long as I can trade for the expert's chariots, horses, armor... and other supplies, it will be a success.

Clearly aware of his own advantages, Qi Fei formulated his counter-strategy point by point.

Amidst these preparations, the army of Sun Wu finally arrived at a position twenty miles away from Qi Fei.

After setting up camp and resting for a day, they took the initiative to attack.

Upon observing Sun Wu's movements, Qi Fei immediately ordered the cooks to prepare food, and once the soldiers were well-fed, he prepared to do battle with Sun Wu.

However, despite having the advantage of vision, Qi Fei did not pull any fancy tricks like surprise attacks.

For a creature like a God of War, the more options available to manipulate on the battlefield, the greater the chance of victory.

Therefore, a standard heavy infantry group advance, forcing them into a head-on slog, was the way to win.

Because of this, Sun Wu was able to see the full extent of Qi Fei's military might.

"...Is production technology really this advanced now?"

Looking at Qi Fei's army from afar, Sun Wu sighed subconsciously.

Although he had noticed the current rate of armor among the troops when observing the camp from outside the dream, the scale of Qi Fei's force still shocked him.

On his own side, only the one hundred and fifty soldiers on chariots, two hundred cavalry, and three hundred elite infantry were barely equipped with metal armor, and even then, it was only standard Liangdang Armor.

The rest of the soldiers only had leather armor, and the twenty thousand common laborers had nothing but weapons and a wooden shield.

Opposite him, all thirty thousand men were clad in iron armor.

Moreover, except for the cavalry riding White Horse, they were all wearing high-grade armor that covered their entire bodies.

Even the horses of the non-White Horse cavalry were draped in a layer of thick iron plating.

Not only that, Sun Wu noticed that at the very front of the opposing formation was a group of Metal Dumplings.

Forgive him for only being able to use this term to describe them.

The armor on that group of people had no traces of cords or rivets; each component was a complete, solid piece of metal, and once worn, the person looked exactly like a lump of iron.

Can they actually move while wearing that stuff?

Besides these Metal Dumplings, Sun Wu also noticed the opposing chariots.

The opposing chariots were more than a size larger than his own, and at the same time, the oxen and horses pulling them also had iron armor.

Setting aside whether they could even run, the key question was where did you get so much iron?

If not for the sake of the dignity of the older generation of military strategists, Sun Wu would have wanted to raise his hands and surrender right now.

There is no point in fighting with this level of disparity in national strength.

Sun Wu took a deep breath.

I'll drag it out; as long as I don't suffer a crushing defeat, it's a victory.

Sun Wu lowered his expectations significantly.

Following the methods practiced previously, Sun Wu incorporated the twenty thousand laborers he had brought along into the regular army.

He had brought these laborers along to bolster his numbers and to familiarize them with the battlefield.

If the initial battle was won, they could replace the regular troops in pursuit to prevent the regulars from falling into the enemy's traps.

But now, there was no such opportunity.

Using the elite soldiers as the backbone, Sun Wu quickly integrated all his troops.

After the Cloud Qi in the sky had merged, he forcibly manifested a Muscle Defense Talent upon those twenty thousand common laborers.

In an instant, the army that could only be considered cannon fodder a moment ago took on the appearance of an elite force.

"Impressive, impressive."

Qi Fei was observing Sun Wu's actions through his Secret Art.

The maneuver of forcibly elevating common laborers to a first-tier talent was impressive, but it did not exceed his expectations.

Instead, it was the formation of the great Sun Wu that captured Qi Fei's attention.

"Equipping over a hundred infantrymen around each chariot—that's a bit too many people to bring along at once."

Generally speaking, the number of soldiers responsible for coordinating around a chariot is around a few dozen; having over a hundred starts to hinder the coordination between the chariots themselves.

It seems the great master has abandoned the idea of chariot charges and is simply using the chariots as leading units.

"Since that's the case, let's start with a Ten Thousand Arrows Volley to test the waters."

As the drums began to sound, some of the Huangfu Personal Guards, clad in plate armor, picked up the small crossbows prepared at their sides.

Under the cover of their teammates' thick Solid Wood and Steel Composite shields, they slowly advanced toward Sun Wu's army.

In the God Three World, crossbows were originally intended for defending cities.

However, the three hundred-plus Huangfu Personal Guards that Qi Fei had specifically selected, each weighing over two hundred catties, were able to wield them as individual equipment.

Furthermore, because their Elite Talent was Self-Adaptation, they could be mixed and matched with the shield-bearing Huangfu Personal Guards.

There was absolutely no need to worry about the manifestation of their talents.

In the God Three World, archers also possessed special Elite Talents.

But because these special talents did not provide much of a boost to their own physical attributes, archers could not wear the thick armor that other troop types could.

At the same time, due to the differences in their Elite Talents, archers could only coordinate with heavy infantry and could not be directly mixed into the same units.

This resulted in elite archers being easily traded off by the opposing side's cannon-fodder archers.

Therefore, Qi Fei never intended to train archers from the very beginning.

It was better to just equip everyone with Heavy Crossbows.

You ask what to do if there is no talent-based power?

It doesn't matter; brute force solves everything.

With physical attributes generally at the level of Internal Qi Condensation, combined with the Strength Enhancement talent pushed to the limit of a first-tier talent, small crossbows were a bit troublesome, but large, individual-sized Heavy Crossbows were no problem at all.

As for poor accuracy?

It doesn't matter; trading a hundred arrows for one head on the God of War's side is still a profit.

Even without mentioning an individual's productivity, just the fact that this person is under the command of the God of War means their future combat record would be worth far more than a single head.

Trading a hundred arrows for that is simply too cost-effective.

What's more, it's not as if this kind of accuracy can't be trained.

"All units, fire."

Once the Huangfu Personal Guards and the heavy crossbowmen brought Sun Wu's vanguard into range, Qi Fei issued the order to attack.

The next instant, large and extra-large arrows shot out from their hands, heading straight toward the direction of Sun Wu's massive army.