Chapter 769 – War Starts
On the same day, Financial Director Fan Li left Shanhai City and rushed to Lion City. After he arrived, he would discuss with the negotiation teams of the Business Division and help hold the discussions with the ASEAN countries.
Thread guild leader Qing Sikou also headed to Lion City. She had already obtained the relay of Xingzhou Prefecture Governor Pei Mo and was invited over to discuss establishing a branch guild.
In contrast to other branch guilds, Thread's branch guild would have workshops and shops as well as farming land outside of the city.
There were many things that Pei Mo needed to discuss with Qing Sikou as Thread was a huge investment in Lion City.
...
At the border of Guilin Prefecture thousands of miles away, the first guild from Chuanbei Province had already crossed the border. They would follow the official path to Shanhai City, renting a merchant boat at Shanhai Port and sailing out to sea.
Guilin Prefecture Governor, who had already taken up the role, set up the first custom at Sanjiang Town; this place would be in charge of checking the goods entering and collecting tax.
Taxation officers from the Taxation Department had already moved into the customs checkpoint.
Anything that entered the territory would be taxed by the Taxation Department. The local officers only had the role of assisting and did not have the power to collect tax.
...
Zhen An Prefecture south of Guilin Prefecture was busy too.
Since a month ago, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered to move all the grain amassed in the Dragon Legion Corps camp toward Consonance City.
The grain supplies of Consonance City alone were not enough for 400 thousand troops.
When they finished transporting the grain, it would be around the time that the 2nd Guards Legion and the 4th Dragon Legion arrived in Kunming Prefecture. The Battle of Yunnan was imminent.
The clouds signifying war had gathered over the skies of Yunnan, growing thicker and thicker.
Along with the Dragon Legion Corps moving to Kunming Prefecture, their original camp had become the base of the 3rd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps. The three legion corps were on their way to completing their internal reorganizations.
...
This was a pretty normal day for Shanhai City, busy but orderly.
Facing the rising sun, Ouyang Shuo was filled with energy and appeared once more in the reading room.
Following which, there would be the endless meetings once more.
Between the meetings, Ouyang Shuo also needed to appear at specific places to show his face. During war time, Ouyang Shuo needed to stabilize and calm down the hearts of the people all the more.
Especially as migration reached its peak, Shanhai City's population had boomed and become rather messy place.
The Shanhai City bailiff forces formed from the Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division had to patrol the streets to solve all kinds of disputes and maintain law and order.
The current Shanhai City started to look more and more like a Capital City.
Apart from the officials and heads of the chambers of commerce, Ouyang Shuo also met those in charge of various associations, guilds, and mercenary groups.
11th month, 25th day, Lin Jing came to Shanhai City.
She journeyed here because she had a special mission.
As what was mentioned before, at the end of the 3rd year of Gaia, the lives of the major guilds would be exceedingly tough. Due to the effects of the achievement value exchange, they did not lack money but did not know what to spend it on.
To make matters worse, their levels rose slower and slower. They were pretty much at a bottleneck. Higher-level players could only gain levels through exploring mysterious regions.
The problem was that mysterious regions were incredibly valuable.
The super guilds lost sense of their direction and needed someone to give them a new way.
Under normal circumstances, such guild matters were not something Lin Jing should ask Ouyang Shuo.
But many things proved that Ouyang Shuo has a special understanding of the game, so Lin Jing arrived in Shanhai City under the persuasion of Xie Siyun.
In the reading room, Ouyang Shuo smiled when he heard the description of his little aunt.
To adventure gamemode players, the 4th year of Gaia was an exceedingly crucial year; it was a milestone year. Anything that happened in that year would be able to flip the scales and fix positions.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to remind his little aunt long ago, but he did not get a chance.
"There will be a chance for you all in the 4th year of Gaia." Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly. Suddenly, he lowered his tone, "The problem is, are you all ready?"
"What do you mean?" Lin Jing frowned.
Ouyang Shuo asked a weird question, "In Jianye, do you have the ability to destroy all the other guilds if they team up?"
"Are you joking? Of course not." Lin Jing did not know what he was going on about.
She was arrogant, but she was not that arrogant.
As the number two guild in the China region, she had over 300 thousand members including branch guilds; her guild was one of the absolute giants.
However, in the imperial cities where there were over ten million, what was she even?
Even as the various territories continue to attract players and many imperial city players flowed outward, the number of players in Jianye was still above eight million.
Deducting casual players and the elderly, there should still be three million professional players.
Of this three million, after deducting work occupation players, solo players, and small groups, around two million were guild players.
It might not be the exact amount, but there are no less than 600 guilds registered in Jianye.
With that, how would they be able to go against all of the other guilds? There was no guild in China with that ability.
Too many ants would be able to bite an elephant to death.
Ouyang Shuo was not surprised and said, "Since that's the case, start working. No matter what you do, ensure that you can turn this impossible scenario possible."
In the 4th year of Gaia, each imperial city would throw out a juicy piece of meat. This juicy meat was a way for guilds to break through the bottleneck and there was only one per a city.
An intense chase and battle was bound to occur.
Even a tiger of the mountains could not guarantee it could enjoy its prey alone, much less super guilds.
When Lin Jing heard his words, her eyes reflected a solemn light, "Little Shuo, did you hear any insider news?"
"I cannot say anymore. You must know that the 4th year of Gaia will be both a chance and a challenge to the guilds. If you want to win, you must be prepared to be ganged up on."
Ouyang Shuo did not want Gaia to focus on him, so there were some things that he could not be too specific on.
"I got it."
Lin Jing nodded, choosing to trust Ouyang Shuo's words.
Although her expression was serious, she felt rather relaxed in her heart.
The feeling of despair did not arise from the road ahead being tough; rather, it came from being unable to see the road at all. With his advice, she knew what to do.
With the development of super guilds till date, a large-scale improvement was impractical. Even merging with smaller groups would cause problems in management.
Think about it, how many enterprises in real life had over 300 thousand people? Even if there were, they were global enterprises, and their members were spread across major cities.
There were basically none that had 300 thousand members gathered in just one city.
Furthermore, the modern enterprises had mature management systems and societal laws to restrict and control players; it was a lot more advanced than management in the game.
Hence, 300 thousand members was basically the ceiling for super guilds. To expand more might actually cause them to collapse instead.
Since they could not expand, they could only use other methods such as alliances, cooperation, and destruction. As one of the top guilds, these act were really common.
To develop to date, they had been through all kinds of waves and used all kinds of methods.
Hence, Lin Jing was extremely confident.
With such confidence, Lin Jing happily left Shanhai City.
"This trip was totally worth it."
...
After sending Lin Jing away, Ouyang Shuo was also filled with many thoughts.
To adventure gamemode players, the 4th year was going to be an extremely bloody year. There would be many giants who would fall and new stars would rise.
But that did not have much to do with Shanhai City.
After all, both sides belonged to totally different systems and were not directly connected to one another. To truly affect the other party, Shanhai City would need to upgrade to Capital City.
12th month, 1st day, after spending a week in Shanhai City and dealing with administrative matters, Ouyang Shuo once again set off. He brought the Divine Martial Guards and teleported over to Consonance City.
Along with his arrival, the Battle of Yunnan would slowly start.
The various media outlets once again gathered in Consonance City.
After he arrived, Ouyang Shuo lacked the mood to bother about the outside world; he simply gathered the relevant people to do a last battle meeting.
After which, the four legions in Consonance City moved out. As for the two legions on the way, they would not pass Consonance City and would directly proceed to the battlefield instead.
The meeting location was not within Consonance City but in the camp outside the city.
In the tent, Baiqi, Huo Qubing, Shi Wanshui, Zhang Liao, Jia Xu, and Bai Hua had all gathered. Apart from that, the people in charge of the three intel organizations present.
To let these three gather together was actually a supremely difficult task.
Ouyang Shuo sat at the top seat and Xu Chu stood behind him like an iron tower.
"General Baiqi, you may speak."
Ouyang Shuo called for West Conquering Commander Baiqi right away.
"Monarch, the battle preparations have been completed according to the plans of the Military Affairs Bureau, nothing has been missed out. The only thing to think about is that till date, we still do not know where the 200 thousand Alliance Army is housed."
As he spoke, Baiqi's gaze swept past the three head of intel.