Chapter 370- Intel Network
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
The completion of the changes in the Beihai Bay Squadron was only the first step.
Next, they needed to find a navy general.
The top ten navy generals in China included the Three Kingdoms Era Zhou Yu, Tang Dynasty Liu Rengui, South Song Era Li Bao and Zhang Hongfan, Yuan Dynasty Yu Tonghai, Ming Dynasty Zheng He, Deng Zilong, Yu Dayou, and Zheng Chenggong, and the last was Shi Lang from the Qing Dynasty. Near the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Deng Shichang was a general, they already had iron warships.
Out of all these generals, the earliest Zhou Yu appeared during the Three Kingdoms Era.
After the Battle of Changping, the next was the Battle of Julu. The end of the Battle of Julu would mark the start of the Qin Dynasty. It was an entire time period before the The Kingdoms Era.
Hence, it was impossible to achieve this through normal recruiting methods.
There were only two ways: either through the recruitment hall, or the summoning token.
The recruitment hall needed a year of cooldown time. As for the summoning token, without mentioning the difficulty of obtaining one, even if they had one, they must be lucky enough to summon a navy general.
Toward this matter, Ouyang Shuo really had no ideas.
He was so far away from achieving his target of setting up a strong navy.
He could only amass various warships, especially turreted ships. At the same time, he ordered Pei Donglai to continue training sailors for future expansion.
The large-scale storage of ships posed a problem. If sailors were not using them, it would result in a waste of resources.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only take it step by step.
3rd month 28th day.
Black Mamba found Ouyang Shuo and reported the results of a month's work done by the Black Snake Guards.
After a month of preparation, the Black Snake Guards had started operating in the nine imperial cities.
The Black Snake Guards had 370 odd mercenary group members as the core. Along with the NPCs, they had a total of five hundred men.
Apart from that, the conductor of the various intel stations spent large amounts of cash to purchase eyes all around. This included the likes of merchants, beggars, coolies, brothel girls, and more.
Although they did not look like much, they could bring in a lot of intel for the Black Snake Guards.
The next step was to take down the maidservants of the royals and the nobles, as well as the imperial city guilds.
With that, they would basically have a complete intel network in the imperial city.
Of course, as resources were limited, be it the targets or the normal folk, the intel needed time to be obtained.
After they bought over these eyes and ears, the Black Snake Guards needed to help them rise in power. After all, these people could not obtain much intel yet due to their low positions.
For example, for the chosen beggar, they needed to make him the head of the beggars of a region. For a brothel girl, they needed to make her famous. For a coolie, they needed to help make him successful.
All in all, nurturing intel sources was a long and complicated process. It could not be rushed.
Only by nurturing their sources step by step would they be loyal and reliable.
For players, they were mainly gathered in guilds and territories.
Guilds were broken in through bribing or infiltrating. They probably would not learn much, just the rough direction the guild was moving in.
Similarly, if they got promoted to a position of power, their value would grow greater. If they were able to become a core member, then they would have really succeeded.
Different from NPCs, the player’s loyalty was a problem.
Hence, for some guilds, the snake guards themselves had to go undercover to personally obtain intel.
Basically, all the guilds in the TOP 10 had undercover snake guards, including those in the alliance.
For territories, they had formed hidden contact points.
Then, the manager of that contact point would build a network in the territory.
As the territories were special, they decided for the managers of these contact points to be NPCs. If players took up these roles, it was easy to raise the doubts of the lords.
Hence, the Black Snake Guards were training the various NPCs in the intel stations, forming an elite batch of spies.
As they were still training the NPCs, the infiltration of territories had not begun.
Lastly, the Black Snake Guards took over the eyes and ears the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group had placed down. At this point, their intel network was barely staying afloat.
When Ouyang Shuo heard all of this news, his mouth was agape.
If they could really follow Black Mamba's plan, that would be amazing. The future China region, be it the imperial cities, guilds, or territories, these groups could not escape their eyes.
Of course, a plan was just a plan. For it to work, time and effort were needed.
Even with a bunch of professionals and huge financial support, it would take a year or more to build such an intel network.
When he saw this, Ouyang Shuo took out twenty thousand gold from his backup funds and passed it to Black Mamba.
Toward Ouyang Shuo's support, Black Mamba was naturally really excited. What he was currently doing was far more interesting than what he did in the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group.
Black Mamba could feel the cold blood inside him start to boil once again.
The reason Ouyang Shuo supported the Black Snake Guards was also because he felt some danger in what they described. If they could build such an intel network, couldn’t Di Chen and the others do so too?
Maybe, a territory was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their powers.
The large powers probably could not compare with Ouyang Shuo in running a territory or knowledge of the game. But in other areas, they far surpassed him.
Building an intel network was naturally something they were good at.
He was too careless!
During the Battle of Lianzhou, three territories betraying him was already a sign. The intel network of Di Chen had in fact already seeped into the Lianzhou Basin.
However, Ouyang Shuo had not known.
When he thought about it, he felt a shiver run down his spine, and he told his thoughts to Black Mamba.
When Black Mamba heard this, he kept silent.
After a long while, he calmly said, "Do not worry, lord. I'll personally clean up Lianzhou and within two months I'll find all the spies hidden here."
What Black Mamba said was find, not remove.
When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he nodded. Some spies, as long as they just scrutinized them, did not need to be removed. Maybe, they could have some uses too.
"Thank you!"
Black Mamba nodded and did not say anything more.
Apart from the intel network, Black Mamba also heard some interesting news.
The matter Ouyang Shuo paid the most attention to was naturally the events between Star Alliance and Thread.
"The Rumor between Xingzhe Zichen and Qing Sikou is a fact. On the other hand, Star Alliance is really pushing Thread into a corner."
"It seems like it's time for us to act!"
Ouyang Shuo laughed, appearing very confident.
When Black Mamba heard this, he looked at Ouyang Shuo with a weird expression. He did not understand what trump card Ouyang Shuo possessed to have such confidence in snatching Thread from the mouths of Star Alliance.
Although they were newly built, they had a strong ally in Jianqi Zongheng. They also had the backings of Handan County. To beat them was not an easy matter.
Without mentioning other factors, even Xingzhe Zichen's family was not something to underestimate.
For a hidden aristocratic family to come out, naturally, they would give it their all. If Ouyang Shuo wanted to beat them, he needed to pay a price.
Of course, Ouyang Shuo would not explain anything to Black Mamba.
That afternoon, he brought four Guards and teleported to Jingdou. Then, he entered the office there.
The conductor of that intel station was White Snake.
Out of the nine imperial cities, Jingdu was really important, so White Snake was one of the best out of all of them.
White Snake described in detail the intel that they had obtained.
Based on what they knew, under the oppression of Star Alliance, Thread was nearly in chaos. They could not buy any rare resources, and the members had started to grow unhappy.
Their leader, Qing Sikou, had started to release control. She was right about to give up and surrender.
When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he said, "Help me ask Qing Sikou out for a meeting."
"No problem."
The Black Snake Guards had moved into Jingdu for a month. They definitely had ways to contact her. As a professional, White Snake naturally would not ask about Ouyang Shuo’s reason and goal.
To him, he just needed to follow orders.
After he left, Ouyang Shuo remained alone in the room and prepared for the meeting tomorrow.