World Conquest Online

Dom nodded in Gan Ning’s direction, who reluctantly removed his mask, showing a slightly more aged and scarred version of the Young Gan Ning from earlier. Sun Quan, Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao all exclaimed in surprise, with Zhang Zhao having to take a seat and almost fainting in shock.

"I didn’t know that Gan Ning had a slightly older identical twin brother?" Zhang Zhao questioned, his words making as little sense as the current situation, but trying to come up with a logical solution.

"This is a secret that must stay in this room." Sun Ce ordered them seriously. "I mean it, this will cause chaos and confusion."

"Just a little!" Zhou Yu exclaimed as he pushed his fingers through his hair, the intelligent strategist caught off guard slightly, "How is this even possible?"

"There are a lot of things that are impossible." Gan Ning explained honestly, "Some of the things we have seen and fought against whilst being in Riverside are even stranger than me appearing here again."

"So are you our Gan Ning?" Sun Quan asked seriously, confusion on his face, however his mind was trying to put together some advantages.

"Honestly, I do not know." Gan Ning replied, "But, I have fought this battle and many more to come."

"Ignoring the fact that this is unnatural and unbelievable. That gives us a huge advantage in what is to come!" Zhou Yu stated, some slight excitement sneaking in to his voice. Whilst Zhang Zhao continued to sit there in surprise.

"It does, which is why he is here." Xun You agreed, "However, we have to be careful with what is shared as the impacts could be great."

"We must also keep this very quiet to not cause chaos within the ranks." Zhang Zhao stated, "With your arrival here, I am to assume that we win this battle and I was wrong to tell us not to do it."

"We do, however your logic was sound." Gan Ning explained evenly, which Zhang Zhao appreciated, "It’s an important victory, however we aim to win the Battle better this time."

"That is a question I wanted to ask, why this Battle?" Sun Quan asked, "If we had made a huge loss, your appearance would make more sense."

"That is something that we can not discuss." Dom interrupted in a serious tone, "You can trust us, we will help, but we will not share information that shouldn’t be shared."

"I understand that." Zhou Yu agreed, "Otherwise our lessons and goals may change, knowing your next steps can be dangerous. We shall see what happens when our messengers return. But for now we have a lot to discuss and prepare. Tonight we shall feast before tomorrow we depart."

"I agree, we shall head back to our camp for now, I believe Sun Ce and Xiao Qiao would most likely wish to stay for now." Dom replied, but I would request that they join us later before the feast. The group agreed and Dom, Xun You, Subutai and Gan Ning with his mask back on headed back to their camp. Leaving Sun Ce and Xiao Qiao with the daunting task of calming those in the room.

.....

As Dom walked he worried about exposing Gan Ning’s identity, but felt it did help them slightly. Subutai however felt like they had gained more power and it would help them get in to a position to claim more merits.

"This is a temporary mission, so as long as we win and leave, that is all that matters." Subutai commented, "As well as our quests, we should use this as a recruitment opportunity. I have already spoken with Sun Ce and he is going to try and negotiate some reinforcements with his brother, however we should target some commanders. Gan Ning, who do you think?"

"Zhou Yu would be perfect, his knowledge is great and he will die in a couple of years if he stays here, but I doubt he will leave Sun Quan and the forces. We would need to leave him to Sun Ce and Xiao Qiao to persuade, however both of them are aware on how he dies so they may be able to persuade him. Xiao Qiao also wants to take her children to her new home and obviously doesn’t want her husband to die, so that may be helpful." Gan Ning began, "The other one we should target is Dong Xi, as he is the most important to us right now as a strong Navy commander after Zhou Yu. It is a shame Jiang Qin isn’t here."

"Naval strategists and commanders would definitely be the priority." Xun You agreed as they headed in to the command tent that was in their part of the camp. "What about the others?"

"There are many, such as Lu Su and Zhang Zhao. I hadn’t always got along with Zhang Zhao, but he would be a strong addition to Shang Yang’s council. However, a lot of the Generals are loyal to Sun Quan as he has given them opportunities. Lu Su, Lu Meng and Xu Shang for example will be hard." Gan Ning explained as the other Riverside Generals headed in to the tent. "Reluctantly, Ling Tong is an exceptional Warrior who would be worth approaching, but only Sun Ce could bring him based on his fathers Loyalty, but it will be hard. The other is Cheng Pu who has been loyal to the Sun family since the days of Sun Jian."

"So how did that go?" Tomyris asked as Gan Ning removed his mask again and took a seat. The other generals followed suit as Liao Hua closed the tent flaps behind them.

"We have agreed a plan of action. Sun Ce will lead a testing vanguard with one of our potential recruit candidates Ling Tong." Subutai explained, "They will then retreat and pull the enemies in to more open water where yourself and Gan Ning will strike from the flank, whilst some of their forces will also hit the enemies."

"I’m looking forward to getting my teeth involved, I’d much prefer to be on land but I am sure it will be fun!" Tomyris agreed.

"If we can attack some of their flagships, it will be like a land battle when you fight on them." Gan Ning interceded, "If you have the Calypso follow my Enyo, we should dominate the battlefield."

"What about us?" Tomoe asked, pointing towards Liao Hua who was stood by the door, acting as a guard.

"You will both join me and Lord Lazarus with the Cavalry. We will take the peak that Gan Ning mentioned, before the enemy can and use it to trap them, like they would do to us." Subutai explained, "We will be joined by around five thousand land troops under the command of a robust General called Cheng Pu. Once the naval battle has began and we have gained control, we will then lead the attack on the City of Jiangxia. Cheng Pu is also a target for us, so we need to demonstrate our strengths."

"Cheng Pu once rode through a battlefield with just one horseman to rescue Sun Ce. He is a capable horseman and commander." Gan Ning explained, "His personal Warriors are much better than the majority of those that you will find. If we did not need the Merits, I would put him as the Vanguard."

"It will be interesting to Duel against him then!" Tomoe grinned, causing the heads to shake on those around them.

"Once the naval ambush has happened, the main naval force will move up and then as a collective head towards Jiangxia to cause chaos across the City." Xun You continued, picking up from where Subutai had explained so far. "Just as an awareness, there is another Gan Ning here who will be leading that charge."

"Another Gan Ning?" Tomoe queried with a teasing grin, the surprise of things passing over the heads of most of those who had been with Riverside for a long time. "Isn’t one enough?"

"One is definitely enough." Gan Ning replied with a laugh, "But I am not sure if that is a compliment or an insult."

"With Tomoe, you’ll never know. What will you be doing?" Tomyris laughed before asking Xun You. "I would feel uncomfortable if you were left here alone."

"Do not worry, I intend to join with the main Naval force under Zhou Yu and learn a little from them." Xun You replied with a smile, grateful that Tomyris was worried about him.

"Our key issues is the time." Dom explained, as everyone turned to listen to him. "We are aware of the pace of this battle, and our plans will increase that pace. However, we do not know how long we will be here for. Not only do we have the goals to win the battle with more merits and also save the people of Jiangxia, we have also been informed that Sun Ce and Xiao Qiao’s families have been requested to come here so they can return with us."

"So we need to slow down the pace so that they can arrive in time?" Liao Hua asked from the tent door, "How long will they take to get here?"

"The Messengers have been sent, even with a fast boat travelling at full speed it will take up to two days. They will then need to prepare, these aren’t warriors so the travel back will be slower." Gan Ning explained, "It could potentially take up to six days in total, five if they travel by fast boat back. If they decide to take land, it could take a couple of weeks."

"How long to Jiangxia from our current location?" Xun You asked as he tried to work out the plans.

"A day to travel to there, however we will want to move most of the way tomorrow and then attack the following morning." Gan Ning replied, "The battle originally took a couple of days, but these plans would allow us to do it in one."

"So, with moving and attacking, we could be completed within three days?" Dom questioned.

"Exactly, and if they are coming here and not Jiangxia then that is an additional day on their travel." Gan Ning continued.

"Ideally, the fall out of the battle should be discussed back here." Xun You stated, "Then we can discuss prisoner allocations and have a victory feast."

"That is what happened in The Battle of Kadesh." Subutai explained, "We had the victory feast and then returned."

"The Xun Family mission and the Halberd Twins mission were both quests where we travelled from one location to another, so neither of those battles can be used to plan ahead." Dom added as he thought it through.

"We did however have a feast at the Bar before we decided to join you." Xun You replied seriously as he tried to work on the plan.

"That is true, so that could potentially be taken as a conclusion point of the quest?" Subutai replied.

"The Quest to save the population of Jiangxia could stretch this out slightly, so including the travel, battle and return we could potentially push this to quest to five days." Xun You calculated, as those in the room exhaled in frustration.

"So we are a day short then." Tomyris questioned, "Can we delay our departure?"

"If we do, then we may lose the momentum, it risks the enemies finding out and planning ahead." Liao Hua replied. "We also can’t make the battle longer."

"Huang Zu is old and full of himself." Gan Ning replied, "Regardless of what we send, he will confident in a victory at first, he is indecisive as well and that will work in our favour."

"So we need to extend by at least a day." Xun You thought out loud.

"The original battle from this time and the initial aftermath took around seven days." Gan Ning stated as he thought back, "As far as my memory remembers anyway! So I would assume that is how long we would have?"

"That is actually a good point." Dom replied, "We do not know how long we have or if there is a failure condition for not completing it in that time frame. We also do not know the time difference between this Quest and Riverside."

"Let’s work on the seven days being the maximum." Xun You explained, as his eyes opened wide as if he had formed a plan. "We can use Sun Ce to reduce the pace."

"What is the plan?" Subutai asked with a grin as he saw a smile appear on Xun You’s face. Xun You turned to Tomoe and grinned, causing the bloodthirsty general to lean back in her chair in worry.

"Our plan is Tomoe." Xun You laughed, "Tonight we feast, and we propose a day of joint training, a way to link the two of us together. We can demonstrate some of our naval techniques, however we can use this experience to show our might."

"Are you proposing Tomoe beats up some of the Generals?" Gan Ning asked as he sat forwards from his chair with a grin, "I would like to see that."

"Anyone in particular?" Tomoe asked with an innocent look on her face.

"I will tell you later." Gan Ning grinned.

"Then that is the plan!" Dom agreed, as the group began to discuss the finer details of their plans for the next few days.