Section 104: Chaos

After sending the message to Wu Fan, Li Zhan suddenly remembered that his friend list was still set to reject incoming messages. However, for the sake of operational security, he didn't want to change his status just yet. After a moment of thought, he sent one more message to Wu Fan:

Li Zhan: Brother Wu, I have had to set my friend status to reject messages for unavoidable reasons. If you are online, please watch the game clock; send me a message during the first 15 seconds of any minute, and I will toggle the setting then, only to set it back immediately afterward.

After sending this, the game clock showed 22:01:32. Li Zhan stared at the time at the edge of his interface. As the clock hit 22:02:00, he quickly restored his friend status. Almost simultaneously, a message from Wu Fan arrived:

Wu Fan: What the hell? Why are you being so mysterious?

Li Zhan immediately switched his status back to reject messages and replied to Wu Fan:

Li Zhan: A tribe has dispatched heavy reinforcements to attack a brother alliance of mine. I need to borrow your troops to set a fire in their backyard.

Wu Fan: Alright, alright. This chat is too cumbersome; we should talk in person. I’ll bring ten militiamen—is that enough?

Li Zhan: That’s enough. Come quickly; I’ll come to meet you.

Closing the friend menu, Li Zhan ordered his two arrow boats to continue upstream until they met Wu Fan.

They traveled against the current of the Han River for over twenty minutes—along the way, a tributary fed into the Han from the north bank; five miles up that tributary lay the Kuangyin Village. On the river ahead, two fishing boats appeared, moving at high speed. Each boat was manned by two fishermen with advanced fishing and hunting skills—one steering and one rowing. Combined with the downstream current, their speed was exceptional, reaching grade C. In contrast, Li Zhan’s arrow boats, struggling against the current and under-crewed (a standard arrow boat required seven men: one to steer and six to row), had slowed significantly to grade E.

As the vessels drew closer, Li Zhan immediately recognized Wu Fan standing at the bow of the fishing boat. Wu Fan, surprised, recognized Li Zhan as well. After ordering his men to bring the boats together, Wu Fan led his ten militiamen onto the two arrow boats.

As soon as he boarded, Wu Fan quickly scanned the arrow boat, then patted Li Zhan on the shoulder. "Brother, you move fast. You’ve even built arrow boats!"

Li Zhan smiled and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect. "I apologize for disturbing you late at night, Brother Wu. I hope you can forgive me."

Wu Fan waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, stop it. None of that hypocritical nonsense. Tell me, who are we wiping out this time?"

Li Zhan gave a bitter smile. This Wu Fan had clearly decided he was a "ruthless" character, and with such conviction that even if Li Zhan jumped into the Yellow River, he couldn't wash that label off.

However, there was no time to explain. Li Zhan ordered the arrow boats to turn around and head full speed toward the tributary they had passed earlier. Wu Fan also ordered his two fishing boats to follow closely behind, so that after the battle, he could lead his men back to his own Lingyun Tribe.

Once these orders were given, Li Zhan said to Wu Fan, "It’s a village called Kuangyin. They just upgraded to the Feudal Age and joined five or six other tribes to attack an ally of mine. Since a head-on confrontation would incur too many losses, I plan to use your troops to set a fire in their backyard and relieve the pressure on my ally."

Wu Fan laughed heartily upon hearing this, slapping Li Zhan on the shoulder. "Brother, you’re something else! This plan perfectly captures the essence of 'besieging Wei to save Zhao'!"

Li Zhan chuckled and continued, "However, Brother Wu, since your Lingyun Tribe is a neutral party, it cannot join the war immediately. We must form an alliance first."

Since the founding of his Lingyun Tribe, Wu Fan had never been involved in a war with other tribes. While he was highly knowledgeable about civil development, his understanding of the rules of war was very limited. Hearing Li Zhan’s reminder, Wu Fan readily agreed: "Fine, Brother. You handle it; do whatever is most convenient."

Li Zhan opened his alliance leader menu and added the Lingyun Tribe to the alliance. Since the leaders of tribes like Longyinfeng had secretly withdrawn from the alliance before launching their attack (each player pays fifty gold to the system to withdraw without triggering a notification to other members), the list of tribes in the alliance now consisted of the four direct tribes—Yanhuang, Leiming, Waiwai, Fengxing, Fengling, Muyu, Huapen, and Tutu—plus the newly joined Lingyun.

Just then, Wu Fan’s militiamen let out a series of shouts, brandishing their crude iron swords in a defensive posture as if facing a great enemy. Wu Fan was startled and roared, "What are you making such a fuss about?" Following their gaze, he saw seven war wolves crouching in the shadows beneath the gunwales, eyes closed, appearing completely indifferent. Beside them sat a female villager.

Wu Fan nearly jumped out of his skin, shouting, "What the hell! Brother, what’s going on with these arrow boats? And how do you have so many war wolves??"

Li Zhan laughed. "Brother Wu, don't worry. These war wolves are my capable assistants. When the Yanhuang Tribe was attacked last time, it was thanks to these seven that we weren't overrun."

Reminded of this, Wu Fan calmed down. He recalled posts he had seen on the forums about the Yanhuang village having war wolves. He had meant to ask Li Zhan about it, but got busy after logging in and had forgotten. Seeing the seven wolves now, he realized the rumors were true. He nodded repeatedly, letting out a sigh of relief. "It seems the rumors were true. You really are a resourceful one, coming up with all these strange and exotic things."

The two arrow boats sped downstream. With Wu Fan’s militiamen joining the rowing, the boats reached the standard crew configuration, significantly increasing their speed from grade E to grade C. Before long, they arrived at the tributary. Following Li Zhan’s order, the helmsmen turned the rudders, and the six rowers coordinated to pivot the boats ninety degrees into the tributary.

The water in the tributary was shallow and overgrown with weeds. Fortunately, arrow boats were light military vessels with a shallow draft. Though they slowed down, they maintained a steady pace. Had they been medium-sized warships, navigating would have been far more difficult.

Visibility was poor in the night, and they traveled over four miles into the tributary before seeing the Kuangyin Village two or three hundred meters away. The village was centered on the tributary, with half on the east bank and half on the west. The village hall was built on the west bank, indicating that this was the original site, while the east bank was a later expansion. The structures on the west bank were significantly larger, with most civic buildings surrounded by stone walls and three arrow towers, making the defense exceptionally sturdy. The east bank was enclosed by wooden palisades and housed barracks, a target range, several fields, residential houses, and one arrow tower. Each bank had a small dock.

By now, the militiamen on duty in the arrow towers had already spotted the two arrow boats moving through the narrow tributary. After several shouts of "Stop!" were ignored, they rang the warning bell. Instantly, torches lit up the wooden houses, illuminating both banks. The panicked villagers ran out of their homes, their first instinct being to cram into the village hall. Once it was full (a village hall held 50 people), they sought refuge in other durable structures like the barracks, the target range, and the arrow towers.

Ignoring the arrows raining down from the towers, Li Zhan ordered the boats to press forward. Aside from the rowers and helmsmen, all soldiers took cover behind the gunwales. After docking at the east bank, the soldiers, led by Li Zhan and Wu Fan, surged out and attacked the wooden palisades, while Jin Xue and the seven war wolves followed closely, waiting for an opportunity.

Within seconds, the wooden palisade collapsed, creating a gap several meters wide. Zhao Ming led four swordsmen, supported by Zhang Feng and his five archers, and charged into the building complex to focus their attacks on the arrow tower in the center of the fields. Wu Fan gestured for his ten militiamen to split into two groups and attack the barracks and the target range.

Since upgrading to a village, Kuangyin had hosted over a hundred wandering players and their villagers. Seeing their village under attack, the online players were horrified. Due to game settings, they were helpless to defend against the attack and could only lead their villagers to safe areas outside the village boundaries. Meanwhile, a few players who were on good terms with Longyinfeng, after securing their villagers, immediately ran toward the Leiming Tribe to inform him of the attack.

Watching the players disappear into the night, Li Zhan smiled slightly. He knew his plan was half-successful; the rest depended on Longyinfeng’s cooperation. As long as Longyinfeng withdrew his troops to reinforce his home, Li Zhan would be able to pursue him with his own reinforcements, coordinate a pincer attack, and deal a devastating blow to his forces.

With a thunderous crash, the arrow tower collapsed. The militiamen and villagers inside tumbled down, only to be instantly finished off by the seven war wolves. Li Zhan directed his soldiers to continue attacking the houses and fields, plunging the Kuangyin Village into even greater chaos.