Battle Royale of the Sinners

"What can this thing do?"

All generals but Li Feihong did not know what the potential of these deadly black dust.

Jia Xu noticed Li Feihong's reaction. He nodded at this young strategist.

"Explosive powder. These little dust can cause fire explosion if it's gathered in a large amount," Jia Xu explained, "My spies had told me. A young merchant has been experimenting with this powder for a year. I think master Lu Zhi should know about this man since our young lord posted a warrant for this person."

"Te Langpu," Li Feihong and Lu Zhi muttered.

Lu Zhi knew him as a threat to his disciple, but Li Feihong saw Te Langpu as another otherworlder.

This former-president of a country was a threat to Tong and his force as he joined Yuan Shao after the first auction event. Tong put a bounty on Te Langpu, hoping to get rid of him. However, they still failed to kill Te Langpu until today.

"All of you should have learned about our young lord's favorite tactic, the trebuchet bombs. That's something that we'll face in this fight. Instead of using lamb oil or burning oil, they will be using these explosive powders in a barrel. Once it explodes, the damage burst will be greater than our lord's inextinguishable flame."

All generals sucked in cold breathe, while Lu Bu snorted as he saw it as an underhanded cowardice tactic. However, the attitude of Lu Bu changed in an instant as he recalled that Tong used to throw an exploded thing at him before, and it stunned him for several minutes.

'Come to think of it. That thing was in a hand-size. What will happen if they throw a barrel size?'

A chill ran down Lu Bu's spine as he finally realized the threat of the new weapon.

"But this thing is a double-edged sword," Li Feihong interjected, "As long as we can determine the location of their powder storage, we can destroy this with a single spark of fire. Secondly, I doubt that Yuan Shao and Te Langpu can amass these powders in such a short amount of time. From what I have learned, these powders took time to create since they have to mix several substances together."

"Oh? You knew about this?" Jia Xu was surprised.

"Yes, this powder is the foundation of Tong's handgun and bullets. I'm also using his gun and bullets at the moment."

Li Feihong ordered his subordinates to bring him two pliers to disassemble a bullet in his hand. Upon taking off the bullet header from the casing with the pliers, similar black powder dropped from the shell.

Jia Xu, Lu Zhi, and Zhang Liao stared at the bullet and gunpowder with interest.

"This thing can't just cause an explosion. It can propel a piece of iron as an arrowhead if we have the right tool, such as this gun." Li Feihong explained.

"Can it be mass-produced?" Asked Zhang Liao.

"If you knew about this, why didn't you share with us?" Lu Bu also questioned.

"Right now, only Tong can create bullets and this gun with his magic. Also, he can only create one bullet a day. He told me that we have to find the right formula for the gunpowder before we can start creating cannons or ..."

Li Feihong took an hour, explaining and answering the barrages of questions from Jia Xu, Lu Zhi, and the others. They sidetracked from the battle plan, but Jia Xu managed to pull them back to the briefing.

"Enough questions about gun and bullet technology for now. We'll focus on reinforcing the walls and forts with more trebuchets and ballistae. Sir Li, I'll need your help for monitoring the perimeter as well."

…

…

March 1st, 183 A.D.

Yuan Shao and his men took his time and finally arrived at Anping County. All 200,000 soldiers form arrays and battle formation as they approached the fortresses in front of them.

Wen Chou and Yan Liang rode by the sides of Yuan Shao's grand carriage.

The grand carriage was a single chair on a gigantic wheeled cart, decorated with tiger skin mat, cotton, and gold, which was carried by ten horses and six wheels. It was something that did not belong on the battlefield.

Yuan Shao sat on the carriage chair with two beautiful women, feeding him wine and fruits. He dressed in a yellow dragon silk rope and a golden coronet as if he were the real Emperor.

Trailing behind Yuan Shao carriage, He Jin rode his horse behind the caravan. Instead of being timid like before, He raised his chin high and proud.

Several officers followed behind He Jin. Feng Ji, Tian Feng, Te Langpu, Guo Tu, Shen Pei, and other advisors came here to contribute to the army.

Other generals, such as Gao Lan, Qu Yi, and dozens of talented generals were with their subordinates in their platoon.

All of them gazed toward the fortress in solemn. They knew that the opponent was Tong's strongest forces, and they were expecting a difficult battle.

Although Yuan Shao committed blunders in history when he fought against Cao Cao, this world Yuan Shao had not been distracted by his family and the infighting between his officers yet. As a result, his army was still in its prime, which could intimidate all forces including Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo.

It was fortunate for Tong that he had poached Zhang He and Ju Shou beforehand. Or else, he would have had a headache trying to deal with Yuan Shao at his strongest.

"Tian Feng, Te Langpu," Yuan Shao called his two advisors.

"Present!"

"Yes, Lord?"

"Our last intel said they had only one old fortress. Why are there three and there's a lot of improvement in the area?"

Tian Feng gazed at the fortresses and the defensive moats, "It must have been Jia Xu who's behind this since he is the current head strategist in the Yellow Turban force."

Te Langpu tilted his head, but he did not say anything. He was not an expert in the military so he refrained himself from giving useless comments.

"Have we sent an invitation to this Jia Xu? Why is he still fighting for those bandit gangs?"

"We did, but I heard he burned our letter right in front of the massagers."

"Ha! Foolish guy. He doesn't know what is good for him. Now, draft me a strategy to take down those bandits."

"Yes, Lord! We shall go back and prepare at once."

Tian Feng and Te Langpu bowed and returned to their strategist group.

On the way, Tian Feng glanced at Te Langpu in doubt. He knew that this chubby man was talented, but he enjoyed keeping his low profile. Fortunately, Tian Feng's spies learned about Te Langpu's experiment and reported to him, so Yuan Shao got their hands on Te Langpu's incomplete gunpowder formula.

Because of the discovery, Te Langpu got promoted to the status of Tian Feng's equal. After that day, both of them always got summoned when Yuan Shao requested a piece of advice.

"Lord Te, I have a plan that I want to suggest, but I'll ask for your opinion first. What would you do if you were the commander of this army? How do you think we can win?"

Te Langpu answered in a reflex, "Spread the freedom and nuke them back to stone-age!"

"Freedom? Nuke?"

"I meant, we throw our bombs at them, of course. Artillery bombard first to soften their defense, then let the ground forces do their jobs."

"Of course. I also planned a similar strategy. What do you think about fire attack?"

"Did you check the wind direction?"

"It always blows east to west on land. It sometimes comes from the north to south in spring though."

"Then, go with the wind. There are three castles to attack, right? We'll concentrate on the northern castle and let the fire and smoke kill the soldiers inside. Build the trebuchets that I designed and throw in those bombs. Don't forget to mix in some crude oil as well."

"…"

Tian Feng nodded in approval. Te Langpu's tactic and insight were beneficial to Yuan Shao, so he did not mind about this chubby man's crude manner.

…

All strategists gathered around a make-shift strategic-map table. Though they had not received an updated scout report yet, the strategists decided to hold a meeting to discuss their plans first.

Feng Ji was hungry for the achievement. He took the lead, "This fortress weakness had already been scouted by Sir Wen Chou two years ago. I say we should focus on the range attack and barrage them with trebuchets and archers."

Guo Tu, an officer who had escaped from Ye City along with Shen Pei during the betrayal of Ju Shou and Zhang He, had also contributed his thought, "Since we have stolen their crossbows, we can craft siege towers and use them against the defenders!"

Shen Pei, a friend of Guo Tu, also chimed in, "We can use Xiongnu horse archer tactic. Let our horsemen fire the repeating crossbows at their soldiers outside the forts. If they pursue our horse archers, we use the hit-and-run tactic."

There were 20 strategists in the group, which all of them exchanged their thought without refrain, except for Te Langpu and Tian Feng who was still keeping quiet.

Thirty minutes later, Feng Ji noticed that his target of hatred and envy, Tian Feng, and the new guy Te Langpu were still keeping their mouth shut. He decided to probe the two quiet men.

"What are our [Leading Strategists] currently thinking? Would you mind sharing with us?"

Tian Feng still did not open his mouth as most of the eyes were on Te Langpu. Because he was a hot-shot who had just been promoted a few months ago, everyone paid attention to this ex-president.

Te Langpu clicked his tongue in annoyance. He spoke with his obnoxious facial expression.

"Burn them, bomb them, and use the wind."

Te Langpu held his arms and snorted as a gesture that he was done suggesting.

Instead of getting frustrated by his short comment, all strategists gazed at Te Langpu in awe and respect.

"Such a profound insight!"

"Good wisdom!"

"That's how he earned his title, much respect!"

Te Langpu had a wry smile on his face, 'What's wrong with these people? I just copied this Tian Feng's plans and spoke in a short term. Yet, these yellow monkeys jumped around thinking I'm a genius?'

Te Langpu did not know that these natives loved poems and short sentences as they enjoyed digging the meaning behind the author's words. They mistook that Te Langpu's words had other underlying meaning that could be comprehended in many ways.

Tian Feng, on the other hand, chuckled as he understood Te Langpu's point of view and the crowd reactions.

'Ah, those guys … Sir Te is just being lazy. Sometimes, you guys think too deeply.'