Author's Note: Thank you to my book friends Yuanyuan, Meatball, Juzi Hui, Love You Melancholy, Ambiguity, Messy Hair, Romantic, Left Eye Devil, Yunwei, Wuwuwu for your support!
None of the vassals had brought their own navy, so Yang Rui's journey along the waterway was relatively peaceful. Only a small portion of the players on Wenshui had brought their own navy soldiers or boats, but generally speaking, the various factions' naval forces were still relatively scarce.
Yang Rui quickly left the tributary of Wenshui and entered the main stream of the Yellow River. He quickly headed in the direction of Hulao Pass. Along the way, Yang Rui also discovered that many scattered players were also gathering in the direction of Hulao Pass.
At this time, the player achievement and achievement points leaderboards had already been released, but most of the players on the leaderboards were unknown players. Similar to the situation during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, when Yang Rui was leading the charge, there were not many players on the leaderboards. In fact, the names of the major player organizations rarely appeared on the leaderboards in the two days since the start of the storyline.
This situation had, to a certain extent, motivated the players to participate in the story. With the big names missing, they had a greater chance of making a name for themselves. This was especially true for some of the large player organizations outside of the top ten. They worked even harder and occupied many positions on the leaderboard.
Apart from the large number of scattered players, Yang Rui even discovered that many players who had joined the vassals' army had also taken the initiative to leave the area around Suanjujube.
With the scattered players on the leaderboards as a comparison, and the fact that many of the players in Sun Jian's group were already on the leaderboards, this group of players could no longer bear the burden of Suanjube and embarked on the path to Hulao Pass alone.
The players participated in the storyline quests for the quest rewards. Suanjube and the other vassals could do nothing all day, but the players could not afford to waste time and could not wait. Therefore, the phenomenon of the players from the vassals' faction acting on their own occurred.
Strictly speaking, these players' actions could be punished by the vassal's faction. It would not be excessive to directly remove them from the Anti-Dong Alliance. This was why Trace the Dragon Soul had some concerns about sending troops and needed to borrow Yang Rui's name.
However, based on his experience in his previous life. As long as their actions were not too out of line, the various feudal lords would generally not pursue the matter. However, this incident reminded Yang Rui that he was going to give the players as much freedom as possible after he returned to Suanjujube. This was to satisfy the players' need to participate in the story, and at the same time, to earn more Contribution Points for himself.
Originally, Yang Rui's military strength was at the top of the list, so he had the prerequisites to gain an advantage in the contribution points ranking. Naturally, Yang Rui was happy to make use of this advantage. The biggest problem now was how to create more opportunities for the players in his path.
Just as Yang Rui was pondering over the issue of contribution points, he discovered that the contribution points of his own army had also begun to abruptly increase. On the contribution points ranking of the various vassal roads, Yang Rui had seized the second position below Sun Jian, and his contribution points were still continuously increasing.
However, this was not necessarily a good thing because it was very likely that the troops led by Trace Dragon Soul had encountered the forces of Dong Zhuo's Faction. Apart from that, his army had not moved yet. Most importantly, Yang Rui did not know what kind of forces Trace Dragon Soul and the others had encountered in Dong Zhuo's Faction.
It was not yet noon, and Yang Rui was still a short distance away from Hulao Pass on his Wind Carpet. Fortunately, Yang Rui's contribution points did not continue to increase for long, and it soon stabilized at a fixed number. They had probably only encountered a few scattered forces from Dong Zhuo's Faction, and they had quickly eliminated them.
After that, Yang Rui hurried on with his journey as fast as he could. This was so that he could quickly catch up to Trace Dragon Soul and the others. After an hour, Yang Rui discovered the silhouettes of Trace Dragon Soul's fleet more than two hundred kilometers west of Hulao Pass.
When they approached the fleet and found that the crew was still intact, Yang Rui's originally worried heart was relieved.
"Brother Blazing Sun, it's all thanks to your one hundred dagger-boats. When we were passing through Hulao Pass, we didn't expect Dong Zhuo's Faction to place some water soldiers on the front line of the pass to set up defenses. When we were passing through, we were blocked by a few dozen small boats. Fortunately, Blazing Sun's dagger-boats were fierce, and it did not take much effort to eliminate the enemy … "
After Yang Rui appeared, Trace Dragon Soul's gaze fell on Yang Rui's Wind Carpet for a while. Then, he told Yang Rui about his experience when he was passing through Hulao Pass. Just as Yang Rui had guessed, the fleet had indeed encountered a small force from Dong Zhuo's Faction. Fortunately, Yang Rui's dagger-boats had been arranged to lead the way. They were more suited for short-range combat, so they quickly eliminated the enemy.
However, Yang Rui also noticed something fishy. Since Yang Rui had not traveled with the army, his NPC soldiers had been used as laborers. This was inferred from the fact that the dagger-boats had quickly engaged the ships intercepted by Dong Zhuo's Faction. Moreover, when Yang Rui arrived, his dagger-boats had also been arranged at the front of the fleet.
"Brother Blazing Sun, are you willing to part with some of these dagger-boats?"
Trace Dragon Soul's attention shifted to the dagger-boats. It seemed that the dagger-boats had performed well. After inspecting the fleet, Yang Rui discovered that the 100 dagger-boats had barely suffered any damage. The soldiers on the boats had also suffered only a small number of casualties.
"Brother Trace, if you need them, we can discuss this further. However, now is not the time to talk about this. Now that we've arrived at Hulao Pass, what do you plan to do next? Are you going to head to the vicinity of Dragon Soul's territory? "Yang Rui asked.
"I'm not afraid to hide this from you. I've made some preparations over there. Blazing Sun, do you want to come with us? However, if Brother Blazing Sun has any better plans, my Dragon Soul's men are more than willing to listen to Blazing Sun's commands, "Trace Dragon Soul replied honestly. The Tracing Dragon Soul said frankly. Due to the limited number of people this time, he was very willing to act together with Yang Rui.
"For now, I won't disturb Brother Trace's plans. I plan to explore the west side of Luoyang. Once I find a suitable stronghold, I'll temporarily station these soldiers there. Then, I'll return to Wild Jujube to mobilize more troops. Right now, we don't have enough soldiers …"
"That's right. Right now, it's naturally best if we can transport more troops over. However, we've already attracted the attention of Dong Zhuo's camp when we passed through the Yellow River near Hulao Pass. It's hard to say if the transportation of troops will go smoothly …"
Yang Rui chatted with Trace Dragon Soul for a while. The fleet had already arrived at the mouth of Luoshui River. The two groups of people were about to split up. Trace Dragon Soul and the three players on the other ships — Starlight Vast Sky, Roly Yuanyuan, Meatball, and Rose — led the soldiers up the Luoshui River. Yang Rui continued to travel upstream along the Yellow River.
"Brother Blazing Sun, please reconsider the matter of the daggerboats. If it's possible, you can transfer a part of Dragon Soul to us. We definitely won't mistreat Brother Blazing Sun. Also, if there's any suitable missions, you must take care of us, brother, "Trace Dragon Soul did not forget to remind Yang Rui before parting ways with Yang Rui.
In fact, through his observation and investigation of Yang Rui, Trace Dragon Soul could already determine that there were not many players in Yang Rui's Mountain City. In fact, there might only be Yang Rui himself! Therefore, Trace Dragon Soul's attitude towards Yang Rui was much friendlier than before. He wanted to fight for Yang Rui's strength. He even wanted to rope in Yang Rui!
As the largest player organization, Dragon Soul was very clear about Yang Rui's strength. Even if they did not know that Yang Rui had already become the Governor of Qingzhou, Yang Rui was already the Provincial Governor of Qingzhou in the eyes of the players. In the Quest for Glory storyline, he had successfully formed an army by himself. Everyone could see the value of Yang Rui.
As a result, a few large player organizations had the thought of roping in Yang Rui again. Of course, the price that they had to pay was not comparable to the price that they had to pay in the past! The new wave of player organizations trying to get close to Yang Rui would slowly appear in the next few days. Of course, these were things that Yang Rui did not know.
After Yang Rui separated from the players' fleet, he led his soldiers to continue heading west. His destination was Mount Beimang, which was north of Luoyang City, near the shore of the Yellow River. If possible, Yang Rui wanted to arrange for these soldiers to be stationed in Spirit Condensation Mountain Village.
Previously, Yang Rui had accepted Empress He's mission to save Liu Bian. After thinking about it, he might have to use the secret passage in Spirit Condensation Mountain Village to successfully reach the Imperial City. However, he was not sure if the passage could still be opened.
Then, Yang Rui's fleet encountered two waves of enemies on the Yellow River. One of them was a group of players. As there were only about twenty to thirty ships, Yang Rui discovered them in advance and used the close-range combat ability of the Daggerboat to eliminate them.
However, this reminded Yang Rui that the closer they were to Luoyang City, the more concentrated Dong Zhuo's forces were. Yang Rui had no choice but to use the Wind Carpet to scout in front of the fleet to avoid attracting more attention from Dong Zhuo's forces. By the time they reached the Yellow River near Luoyang City, it was already late at night.
The timing of the night was just right. With Yang Rui scouting in front and eliminating any enemies, and with the cover of the night, the 3,500 Fifth Grade warriors successfully reached Mount Beimang's Spirit Condensation Mountain Village. The navy soldiers and ships quickly headed downstream under the cover of the night.
Mount Beimang's Spirit Condensation Mountain Village was already hidden and had been abandoned. Therefore, it would not attract the attention of Dong Zhuo's forces. Yang Rui originally wanted to open the secret passage to check out the situation inside. However, considering that he did not have enough soldiers at the moment, he let the soldiers stay in the mountain village and wait for more soldiers to arrive before making any plans.
The speed of the fleet's return was much faster. Before dawn the next day, Yang Rui and all the soldiers had passed through Hulao Pass' Yellow River. Dong Zhuo's forces were already on alert. They had set up a small number of ships to guard the area, but they could not stop Yang Rui's fleet at all. They had already fled from afar.
After passing through Hulao Pass, there was no longer much of a threat on the surface of the water. Yang Rui left the fleet and headed towards Suanjujube. Along the way, he purposely checked on the situation at Hulao Pass. He discovered that Sun Jian's army was stationed not far away from the pass. However, it was obvious that the two parties had not engaged in a major battle yet!
When Yang Rui returned to Suanjube, it was already dawn. As expected, Yuan Shao had sent soldiers to inform the vassals to stay at Suanjube for the day! Therefore, Yang Rui patiently waited for the fleet to return, hoping to send another batch of soldiers to Spirit Condensation Mountain Village.
At the same time, Yang Rui was also prepared to talk to the leaders of the remaining player organizations about the Black Mountain Army. Many players were not idle at Suanjube. After several reminders from Trace * Dragon Soul, Yang Rui was prepared to send a portion of the players' forces to fight the Black Mountain Army.
Moreover, Yang Rui had already thought of an excuse. He would send the players to the East County in the name of the grain transport team. The other vassals would not be able to say anything. Yang Rui's Mountain City and Qingzhou were both in the East County!
The only thing left was to discuss the conditions with the other player organizations. Currently, the plot of the Black Mountain Army's eastern battlefield had not started yet. Yang Rui was basically providing information to the player organizations in advance. Naturally, he would want some benefits …
"General Blazing Sun, there is a person with the surname Wu Anguo outside the tent. He said that he has an important matter to discuss with you!" Just as Yang Rui was thinking about how to negotiate with the players, a soldier came to report.
Wu Anguo?! Hearing this person's name, Yang Rui was immediately surprised!
"Let him in!" Yang Rui ordered loudly. Then, he stood up and walked toward the entrance of the tent.
"Greetings, Governor Blazing Sun! I am Lieutenant Wu Anguo, subordinate of the Minister of the North Sea! I am here on the orders of Governor Cheng. I have long admired the name of Governor Cheng. Please accept me! "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
