Sustaining War with War

(Note: One chapter added, 4 chapters still owed, will continue tomorrow.)

After Chen Hao redeemed his enemy-killing rewards and troop-commanding rewards with Nie Shicheng, he leveled up twice, reaching Level 22. At the same time, Nie Shicheng deemed his performance outstanding and additionally rewarded him with 2 command attribute points.

Whether the merit points could be exchanged for an official position depended on whether Nie Shicheng's memorial to the throne would be effective. After rewarding Chen Hao, Nie Shicheng returned to the headquarters tent, picked up his brush, and penned the memorial.

"During the Battle of Langfang, foreign forces deployed 4,066 troops. All officers and men of our army fought the enemy with utmost strength, and the militia also provided substantial assistance. There is a foreign-realm adventurer named Chen Baxian, who has long held the ambition of serving his country. He led 1,000 adventurers to assist the main army. That this battle resulted in the complete annihilation of the foreigners is a merit that cannot be overstated. During the engagement, Chen Baxian led the adventurer warriors to charge forward courageously, blocking the foreigners' retreat route and creating the conditions for their total annihilation. He also beheaded the enemy leader Seymour and the Western adventurer Zoro, rendering a great service."

"Chen Baxian previously offered advice to this aged subject, stating that the Russians are the heartland calamity of our Great Qing. If the Allied Forces land at Tianjing and the Russians seize the opportunity to push south, then the cradle of our Great Qing's rise shall be in peril! Therefore, he is willing to go to the Northeast to resist the Russians. This subject admires his ambition. At a time when men of talent are urgently needed, I earnestly beseech the Empress Dowager to reward this righteous man, enabling him to dedicate his loyalty to the country..."

After writing the memorial, Nie Shicheng had a personal guard send it to the capital, while he himself continued to issue quests, preparing to recruit adventurers to deal with the upcoming main force of the Allied Forces. Because his character was mentally exhausted after participating in the massive battle, Chen Hao chose to rest in Nie Shicheng's military camp, and then logged out of the game to access the forums.

With the players' current strength, it was impossible to change a plotline like the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance. Consequently, the Chinese players participating in the upcoming quests would feel deeply aggrieved as they faced a continuous string of defeats.

Changing the overarching plotline was impossible. The only glimmer of hope lay in utilizing the system's green light to alter the plotlines of Aigun and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River. If he could prevent the Russian atrocities, gain massive renown, and raise his official rank, Chen Hao could recruit more bandits and liaise with the Northeast government troops to resist the enemy.

If changing the Aigun plotline could trigger a butterfly effect, uniting all the government troops and mounted bandits in the Northeast, they might ultimately alter the fate of the entire Northeast being occupied by the Russians.

The forums were exceptionally lively. Countless players were discussing the recently concluded Battle of Langfang. The majority of players had missed out on the quest, while those who did participate—even if they gained no benefits—were smugly flaunting their exploits in resisting the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Because Chen Hao had played a pivotal role in this campaign and did not hog all the glory for himself after killing Seymour, the players held a very favorable opinion of him. Thanks to this campaign, the name Chen Baxian became widely known to the majority of Chinese players. If he were to establish a headquarters right now, quite a few players would likely flock to his banner.

Xuanyuan Jian, Sansheng Shi, and Guan Ning had all become the laughingstocks of the forums. Xuanyuan Jian and Guan Ning had maintained a high profile in the game with consistently massive reputations; having suffered a crushing defeat this time, many players gloated and posted threads to mock them. Sansheng Shi, previously lacking in fame, was recorded receiving military flogging and had the footage posted on the forums, thereby gaining a certain degree of renown as well—though strictly of the negative variety.

Xuanyuan Jian fared slightly better, while Sansheng Shi and Guan Ning were absolute jokes. The video of them receiving military floggings from the provost marshal quickly surpassed ten million views, with many discussing whose posture while taking the beating looked more dashing.

The forums were not entirely devoid of people satirizing Chen Hao, however. Zhuge Kuntian had published a post in which he painted Chen Hao as a petty, brainless villain.

Zhuge Kuntian argued that Chen Hao disregarded the greater national righteous cause while fighting the foreigners, instead settling personal scores and targeting players of his own faction, which was the epitome of pettiness. To offend two deeply-connected players like Xuanyuan Jian and Guan Ning without any tangible benefits was pure suicide. Only an idiot would do such a thing.

Chen Hao occasionally browsed the forums, and what he loathed most was people throwing around grand concepts of national righteousness to pressure others. It was just a game, yet Zhuge Kuntian had slapped such a massive label on him.

Had he pretended to be magnanimous at the time and refrained from using thunderous methods against Xuanyuan Jian and the others, who knew how arrogant those people might have become? How could he command players to resist the enemy if his prestige was compromised? So what if he was settling personal scores? After dealing with Xuanyuan Jian and his clique, hadn't he still completely annihilated the Allied Forces?

Chen Hao curled his lips in disdain after reading Zhuge Kuntian's commentary. By comparison, the post published by Guan Ning was much more direct. He did not use national righteousness to pressure anyone, choosing instead to flex his financial muscle.

"In the game, whoever kills Chen Baxian even once can claim a reward from me by presenting the kill video. A reward of one million RMB for every single kill on Chen Baxian."

Chen Hao clicked his tongue in amazement. Guan Ning was certainly wealthy! Killing him yielded no benefits whatsoever, yet he was willing to offer a million-dollar bounty. With this post by Guan Ning, he would have to tread carefully no matter what he did. Not every player in the game was thriving, and quite a few would likely be willing to take risks for a million RMB.

Chen Hao entered the game forum's reception room, where Baifuhu Yaoye and the others had all gathered. Fishing Passerby was excitedly explaining the course of the battle to them. Seeing Chen Hao enter, Baifuhu Yaoye said dejectedly, "Brother Chen, you chased us off to the Northeast to suppress bandits while you remained in northern Hebei playing the carefree boss. If you don't come to the Northeast soon, I'm going on strike."

Chen Hao rolled his eyes and replied, "If I went to the Northeast with you, how would I win over Wu Peifu and Yang Du? Who would handle those bandits for you guys?"

Baifuhu Yaoye chuckled and said, "I was just joking! By the way, Brother Chen, where did you find so many famous historical figures? After Yang Du arrived in the Northeast, he whipped those bandit chieftains into absolute submission, saving me an immense amount of trouble."

Chen Hao coughed dryly twice. "Well, as for that! It's actually related to a hidden game mechanic."

Upon hearing Chen Hao mention a hidden mechanic, everyone else pricked up their ears. After building up their anticipation, Chen Hao smiled and said, "The better your character's morality is in the game, the more NPC historical figures will come to pledge allegiance to you. I don't know why all these famous figures came to me instead of you guys..."

"Tsk, Brother Chen, you are too shameless." Baifuhu Yaoye gave Chen Hao the middle finger.

Yudie also chimed in weakly, "It should be directly proportional to the thickness of one's skin! The thicker the skin, the easier it is to persuade those NPC historical figures to join. Our biggest flaw is that our skin is too thin."

"Haha! Little Yudie, you don't speak often, but when you do, you shock everyone! That makes so much sense."

"Yeah! Little Yudie makes a good point. It seems our skin needs to be a bit thicker, or else no famous figures will ever come to join us..."

Yudie rarely spoke much, so when she took the initiative to crack a joke, the others chimed in one after another. Chen Hao, having become the target of their teasing, wanted to change the subject, so he asked Baifuhu Yaoye with a serious expression, "Yaoye, how many mounted bandits do you have under your command now?"

"Over 4,000. Bandit suppression has been going relatively smoothly lately. With Wu Peifu training the average bandits and Yang Du using his belly full of wicked tricks to whip the bandit leaders into shape, expanding the scale of our bandit force isn't difficult. It's just that we don't have the money to recruit any more."

There were numerous mounted bandits in the Northeast, but many of them had outdated equipment, and procuring weapons was essential to giving them any combat effectiveness. The silver dollars donated by Li Peisen that Chen Hao had received were immediately mailed to Baifuhu Yaoye, which, combined with the more than ten thousand silver dollars from before, was still far from enough.

Chen Hao muttered to himself for a moment before saying, "Next time, you can choose to wipe out bandits with poor reputations—kill the chieftain and keep the ordinary foot soldiers. That way, you can confiscate some wealth to supplement your funds."

Baifuhu Yaoye smiled bitterly and replied, "We tried that trick long ago, but wiping out small-scale bandits doesn't net us much wealth either. They're even poorer than we are."

At the start, the Russian forces participating in the war numbered only a little over 10,000 men, but by September, in order to occupy the Northeast, they mobilized over 200,000 soldiers for the campaign. Defeating the Russians was impossible, and having just over 4,000 men was far from enough to wage guerrilla warfare. However, wiping out large groups of bandits to plunder their wealth would chill the hearts of the cooperative bandits. For a moment, Chen Hao had no good ideas.

Yudie suddenly blinked her eyes and said, "Big Brother Chen, I think we are making terrible bandits! The bandits in the Northeast all go around burning, killing, and pillaging. It's fine if we don't burn and kill, but isn't it entirely possible for us to occasionally make a raid to plunder the government yamen?"

Chen Hao's eyes suddenly lit up. Since they couldn't acquire wealth by suppressing bandits, why couldn't they rob the government yamen? Plundering government offices would be a grave crime if discovered, but Baifuhu Yaoye and the others wouldn't need to do it themselves; they could direct the recruited mounted bandits to carry it out! Anyway, the Russian forces were soon going to invade Fengtian Province, and rather than letting the wealth of the Qing court in the Northeast benefit the old hairy Russians, it would be better to loot it and put it toward doing some proper work.

Because of his memories of the future, Chen Hao knew it was best to avoid getting on the Qing court's blacklist in the early stages, which made him overly cautious and prevented him from thinking of robbing the government. Baifuhu Yaoye had recruited quite a few NPC mounted bandits in the Northeast who had already been whipped into shape by Wu Peifu and Yang Du. Ordering them to plunder government offices and then splitting a portion of the wealth with them was a brilliant method for rapidly acquiring funds and expanding.

Among the players who joined under the banner of Shuanghui Hen Hexie, there was one who believed in democratic republicanism. Players with this belief typically contacted revolutionary NPC figures during peacetime to engage in rebellious activities. Such players were the least afraid of ending up on the Qing court's blacklist; even if exposed, the revolutionary NPCs would help conceal them.

Baifuhu Yaoye had already recruited over 4,000 mounted bandits in the Northeast. Raiding a county seat each time only required dispatching a thousand or so mounted bandits equipped with long rifles. During the raids, they could have the players who believed in democratic republicanism tag along, ensuring they had a clear tally of the wealth and firearms plundered by the bandits so there would be no fear of the raiding bandits pocketing everything.

If the thousand-odd bandits descending the mountain dared to swallow the loot alone, that would be breaking the rules of the underworld, and they could easily have the mountain-dwelling bandits follow them down to annihilate the culprits. The more Chen Hao thought about it, the more viable this method seemed. Relying solely on his own capital investment made it impossible to expand the Northeast forces; maintaining the army through warfare was the absolute truth.

Chen Hao said admiringly, "Haha! Little Yudie, your idea is brilliant. I was just trapped in a dead end for a moment. You could make a fine military strategist in the future."

Baifuhu Yaoye laughed and said, "Brother Chen, you wouldn't know. Previously, you made all the decisions because you were around. I wasn't used to it when you weren't here. Fortunately, Little Yudie has plenty of ideas, which is why our development in the Northeast has been so smooth. She has long since been our strategist."