LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 17 - Simulation
Lu Ping headed towards the main hall.
Luo Jinlan followed behind, still trying to ingratiate herself with Lu Ping as she pouted, “Those Di barbarians were strutting around just a few days ago, but today they don’t even dare show their faces. I suppose they must have heard you were coming and got scared off!”
An offhand remark, but it made Lu Ping stop in his tracks.
Where did the Di barbarians go?
Weren’t there supposed to be 20,000 Di soldiers coordinating with the rebels?
Following behind, Lu Heng also furrowed his brows.
Seeing that Lu Ping had stopped again and was lost in thought, Luo Jinlan shook his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Lu Ping, now serious, firmly shook off Luo Jinlan’s hand, much more decisively this time.
Luo Jinlan felt wronged, but before she could say anything, Lu Ping demanded in a questioning tone, “Who is the commander of the rebel army?”
“You’re being mean! I’m not telling you!” Luo Jinlan retorted.
Lu Ping gritted his teeth, enunciating each word, “I’m asking you, who is the commander of the rebel army?”
Perhaps seeing that Lu Ping was genuinely angry, Luo Jinlan became flustered. “I… I don’t know.”
Lu Ping was speechless.
So she really was just a silly sweetheart. Her own subordinate generals had rebelled, and yet as the leader, Luo Jinlan didn’t even know who they were!
At that moment, a Yan region general stepped forward to assist Luo Jinlan. “Reporting to the Grand Preceptor, the leader of the rebellion is a man named Zhang Hong.”
“Zhang Hong?”
Lu Ping searched through his card pool and soon found the name Zhang Hong.
Though the name was quite common, Zhang Hong had a notable background.
A red card!
And when Lu Ping read the character description, a chill ran down his spine.
Zhang Hong had once been a retainer of the Han Marquis!
“Lu Heng, stand guard outside. No one is allowed to disturb me!”
Lu Ping walked into the main hall and slammed the door shut.
Lu Heng, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, blocked the entrance.
Luo Jinlan stamped her foot in frustration, yelling, “This is my Yan Marquis Manor! You can’t stop me from going inside!”
…
Through Zhang Hong’s identity as the rebel leader, Lu Ping began to piece together a possible scenario.
As far-fetched as it seemed, with Han Marquis Luo Jinxuan involved, he couldn’t afford any mistakes.
He locked himself in the hall and started reviewing every detail.
It was well known that the Han Marquis didn’t keep idle people around.
So if Zhang Hong had been recruited by the Han Marquis, he certainly wasn’t mediocre.
The character card confirmed this, with Zhang Hong boasting an impressive eight stars in military strategy and five stars in politics—rare attributes for a general.
But why would such an excellent general end up in the Yan region?
Lu Ping shook his head, realizing his thoughts were straying.
Why Zhang Hong had come to the Yan region wasn’t the crucial issue.
What mattered was that with Zhang Hong’s military strategy and political acumen, he should have been fully aware of the consequences of rebellion.
Undoubtedly, it was a path to self-destruction.
Lu Ping sighed. “I better run a simulation!”
Simulation was one of the game’s unique features.
For instance, if you sent two characters into battle, the simulator could predict the outcome based on the attributes of the commanders, the size of their armies, and other factors like troop types and terrain.
However, the situation Lu Ping needed to simulate now was far more complex, and he wasn’t sure if the simulator could produce an accurate result.
[Placing characters: Zhang Hong + Rebel Ironclad Army of 50,000 vs. Lu Ping + Lu Heng + Imperial Army of 150,000.]
[Simulation location: Yan region.]
[Simulation result: Zhang Hong, leveraging the terrain, temporarily resists the Imperial Army. However, due to the overwhelming difference in troop numbers, the rebels are defeated after two months of resistance, with fewer than 4,000 of the 50,000 rebels surviving.]
“Two months of resistance?”
“But they couldn’t even last two days?”
Lu Ping laughed bitterly. Either the simulator was malfunctioning, or the conditions for the simulation were incorrect.
A strong person knows how to reflect, so Lu Ping began to look for possible errors on his part.
He reviewed Zhang Hong’s character card again and finally noticed something odd.
A red general, but why was his status listed as “Deceased”?
Lu Ping spent some more time investigating Zhang Hong’s connections.
“Damn it!”
A roar of frustration echoed from the hall.
[Placing characters: Han Zhong + Rebel Ironclad Army of 50,000 vs. Lu Ping + Lu Heng + Imperial Army of 150,000.]
[Simulation location: Yan region.]
[Simulation result: Han Zhong, lacking talent, is quickly defeated in half a day, with 10,000 rebels surrendering.]
“That’s it!”
Han Zhong was someone Lu Ping found through Zhang Hong’s connections.
They were sworn brothers.
But Han Zhong was a white card.
Aside from his mediocre intelligence attribute, he was essentially worthless.
How could such a useless person be a sworn brother to a red card general?
He probably relied on his acting skills to climb the ranks.
According to Zhang Hong’s card, he was already deceased, so the most likely person to take over the rebel leadership would be Han Zhong.
The simulation predicted that if Han Zhong led the troops, they would last half a day.
But since Lu Ping had ordered Lu Heng to encircle rather than attack, Han Zhong holding out for an extra day seemed reasonable.
Lu Ping entered even more detailed information into the simulation interface.
[Placing characters: Han Zhong + Rebel Ironclad Army of 50,000 + Di Army Leader (Unknown) + 20,000 Di vs. Lu Ping + Lu Heng + Imperial Army of 150,000 + 20,000 Ironclad Troops.]
[Simulation location: Yan region.]
[Tactics: Han Zhong (None), Di (None), Lu Ping (Encircle but do not attack)]
[Simulation result: After several days of being besieged, Han Zhong surrenders. The Di Army fight desperately to break out, and the Imperial Army wins a costly victory, losing nearly 50,000 troops.]
Seeing the simulation result, Lu Ping narrowed his eyes in surprise.
The Di Army’s combat strength… was this formidable?
20,000 of them wiped out 50,000 of his troops?
But the problem was, the Di Army hadn’t shown up at all!
Yet the reports clearly stated that the rebels were coordinating with the Di Army.
Did the Di Army retreat at the last moment?
That was completely out of character for them.
“Lu Heng, come in!”
Lu Heng pushed the door open and entered the hall. “Grand Preceptor!”
Lu Ping asked, “If you were leading the army this time, what strategy would you employ?”
Lu Heng hesitated for a moment before replying, “With our overwhelming numbers compared to the rebels, the rebellion would be crushed no matter what strategy I used, or even if I had no strategy at all!”
“I’m asking what you would do.”
Lu Heng’s expression remained unchanged as he answered, “Kill those who resist on the spot, and enslave all who surrender!”
“You may leave.”
Lu Ping nodded and once again fell into deep thought.
Could it be that his strategy of encircling without attacking had caused the simulation to deviate from reality?
‘In that case, let’s run it again, using Lu Heng’s approach—essentially a normal person’s strategy.’
This time, however, Lu Ping didn’t use the simulator. Instead, he went to the table, picked up a pen, and started sketching on the map.
[The rebels should be eliminated, but after suppressing the rebellion, only 20,000 troops will remain in the Yan region.]
[Given the Di’s kill ratio of 20,000 to 50,000, the remaining forces in the Yan region would be too weak to resist the Di in the short term.]
“Is this a Di Army strategy?”
‘How could the Di Army, with their current level of civilization, come up with such a plan?’
‘Then someone must be manipulating things behind the scenes.’
Lu Ping thought of Zhang Hong again.
How had this man gone from being a retainer of the Han Marquis to a general in the Yan region?