MMORPG: War God, You are Invincible Again
Chapter 674 - 161: War Discourse

Chapter 674: Chapter 161: War Discourse

Lei Jinjin, who had become a fervent admirer of Lu Hong, was thoroughly impressed by his impressive achievements of the past two years. A year ago, at Lu Hong’s request, Lei Jinjin returned to Nansha to seek a partnership with Lei Sai.

Surprised by the young Clan Leader’s military record, Lei Sai gladly accepted the proposal for cooperation, also arranging many skilled people from Nansha to go to the Xiao clan to learn skills and become warriors.

Over the year, the relationship between Nansha and the Xiao clan grew increasingly close, leading them to jointly devise a strategy to eliminate the obstacles lying between their two clans. The Xiao clan would attack Viscount Xisi, while Nansha would launch a surprise attack on Naton.

Lei Sai’s visit to the Xiao clan this time was to finalize the timing of their offensive with Lu Hong.

The more Lei Sai interacted with Lu Hong, the more he realized his talent.

After the battle at Nansha, where the Human Race triumphed, the population of Nansha Town surged as countless tribes of the Human Race came to join willingly. Although Lei Sai, a saint of the Human Race, had little experience in commanding an army of over a hundred thousand, Lu Hong was different. Having seen many major battles between superpowers in his future life, where the armies often started with millions, Lu Hong was unfazed by a battle involving just a hundred thousand or so. Even if there were some minor flaws in his command, it did not prevent Lei Sai from admiring him.

Lei Sai liked Lu Hong, and so did Lei Jinjin, which brought about a father-daughter relationship filled with kindness and filial piety.

A month earlier, Lei Sai had approached Lei Jinjin, asking her if she would be satisfied with Lu Hong as her husband.

Lei Jinjin blushed on the spot, responding delicately, "I’ll leave it all to Father to decide."

It must be said that Lei Sai hadn’t seen his daughter in such a state for many years, and it instantly shattered the old father’s heart.

Although both father and daughter were willing, Lei Sai found the topic too daunting to broach. After all, he was a saint of the Human Race—he couldn’t very well beg someone to marry his daughter, could he?

So, Lei Sai came up with an excellent plan: to drop hints to Lu Hong, subtle at first, but gradually more overt.

However, it didn’t quite have the desired effect...

Lu Hong wouldn’t agree, which led Lei Sai to be more explicit, eventually even calling him son-in-law.

This led everyone in the Xiao clan to believe that a marriage agreement had been reached between Lu Hong and Lei Jinjin. The former Clan Leader of the Xiao clan, who was now Lu Hong’s adoptive father, was even planning to organize the wedding, wondering when the event should take place.

"Hehe, son-in-law, are you finally out?" Lei Sai rubbed his hands together. "When do we get this happy occasion sorted?"

Lu Hong gave Lei Sai a look. "Can you focus on important matters? Has the precise time for the attack been decided? Are weapons and supplies ready? Have you got the deployment maps of Earl Naton’s forces drawn up? Where do you plan to launch the invasion from? Will we split our forces for a siege, or go all-in with a single push? How many powerhouses does the enemy have? Have you figured it all out?"

After a rapid-fire questioning from Lu Hong, Lei Sai opened his mouth but couldn’t come up with an answer for a long time, right, he hadn’t considered these things. Isn’t fighting just a matter of rushing in? Why bother with all this miscellaneous stuff?

Though he grumbled internally, Lei Sai couldn’t deny that every issue raised by Lu Hong was a key factor that could affect the outcome of the war. If all were adequately prepared, it would be difficult not to win.

"Father, if you can’t answer, why are you still standing here? Why don’t you go and do as Brother Xiao suggests?!"

Seeing her father embarrassed, Lei Jinjin also felt disgraced and started to complain.

Lei Sai, feeling as if he had been stabbed in the heart again, turned around and left dejectedly.

Lu Hong, speechless, slapped his forehead and called out to Lei Sai, "My lord Saint, let’s put that matter aside for now. We must finalize the specific timing for battle today."

"Right, right, right, you tell me—I’ll listen to you," Lei Sai hurriedly nodded in agreement.

Lu Hong beckoned the two into the house, where a large territorial map was drawn on the wall, showing mountains and rivers at a glance.

Lei Sai exclaimed, "When did you draw this? How come I didn’t see it before?"

"Just a few days ago," said Lu Hong, as he harnessed his blood and qi to mark the information gathered by Hai Ge’s squad during their recent reconnaissance on the map.

Currently, we know Naton commands an army of four hundred thousand, most of whom are around Second Transition level. It’s been difficult to investigate the exact number of Third Transition warriors, but conservatively, there should be around three to five. That means Nansha Town must deploy six to seven Third Transition Peak warriors to sweep the formation, just in case." Lu Hong then turned his head to Lei Sai, "How many soldiers does Nansha have now?"

"If all citizens took up arms, we’d have around two hundred and fifty thousand, with a standing force of about one hundred and fifty thousand."

"And what about supplies and armament?"

Lei Sai shook his head, "Not enough, we’re short by at least seventy or eighty thousand."

"Then what’s the point of fighting!" Lu Hong said, exasperated. "We’ve been planning this attack for a long time, my lord Saint. Haven’t you been taking this matter seriously?"

"I’m already swamped with tasks," Lei Sai complained resentfully, "you want me to seek cooperation with the elves and arrange military affairs, how can I handle all that?"

"Eighty thousand."

"What about Viscount Xi Zi?"

"One hundred and twenty thousand."

"And the military supplies?"

"We haven’t prepared."

"Damn! I knew it!" Lei Sai cursed: "You haven’t even prepared yourself, and you’re questioning me?"

"Do I need to prepare?"

"Don’t we?"

Seeing the two at odds, Lei Jinjin tugged on her father’s sleeve and whispered, "Um, Dad, Le Leng originally had a force of one hundred and fifty thousand, but it was wiped out by big brother Xiao. At the time, the Xiao clan only had eight thousand warriors."

"I...,"

Mom sell off, Lei Sai thought to himself. He was at the Third Transition Peak, as Lu Hong had proposed, but on the battlefield, his endurance was incomparable to Lu Hong’s.

Lei Sai was like an intercontinental ballistic missile: capable of striking far and wide, but limited by the vast number of enemy troops, his lethality had a ceiling.

Lu Hong, as long as there wasn’t a super powerful being to explosively defeat him, could turn into a Gatling gun with endless ammo. In larger-scale battles, Lu Hong’s role became even more critical than Lei Sai’s.

Lei Sai was well aware of how Le Leng had been defeated. The Xiao clan might not have had many soldiers, and their military preparations might have been poor, but Lu Hong’s sheer strength was enough to compensate for all of that. Moreover, the Xiao clan was fighting against a Viscount, the weakest noble rank among the beastmen, most of their warriors were at the First Transition Late Stage, making them incomparable to those under Lei Sai’s command.

"I’m starting to regret why I chose to attack such a troublesome target as Nadun," Lei Sai started, "Dear son-in-law, shall we swap? You take on Nadun, and I’ll help you deal with Xisi?"

Lu Hong looked at Lei Sai in surprise, "Holy sir, are you serious?"

"Of course, more real than gold!"

Lei Jinjin couldn’t bear to listen to her father: "Dad, can you be serious? If you have big brother Xiao fight the beastmen Earl, where will we in Nansha Town put our faces?"

"Shut up!" Lei Sai retorted discontentedly, "You’re not from Nansha Town, don’t you care if our own people die?"

"Oh, according to the Holy sir, it’s fine for the people of my Xiao clan to die at will?"

"No, that’s not what I... Sigh!" Lei Sai sighed, "Do we really have to fight? I feel like we’re not ready."

Lei Sai finally expressed his inner thoughts after some delay.

"We have to fight, we must!" Lu Hong insisted firmly, "Now, with internal strife and the elf army pressing down on them, they can’t afford to focus on the border areas. This is our perfect opportunity to take control of this region. Once the Lionheart God ends his retreat, repels the elves and quells the internal discord, do you think we’ll have another chance?"

"This..." Lei Sai admitted that Lu Hong made complete sense, "But with our forces, we simply can’t fight on two fronts simultaneously, taking on both the beastmen Earl and Viscount."

"We still have to fight," Lu Hong continued adamantly, "If you don’t fight, you’ll never understand the strengths and weaknesses of our Human Race, or the combat effectiveness of the beastmen. If we always rely on the power of other races to deal with the beast tribes, that’s not the path to empowerment for our Human Race. So, we must fight, even if it’s a pyrrhic victory, even if it’s a disastrous defeat, we must fight!"

Facing Lu Hong’s thundering rebuke, Lei Sai fell silent.

Yes, Lu Hong’s words pointed out the current weaknesses of the Human Race, especially in wars against the beast tribes.

Years of domesticated life had instilled an instinctual fear of the beastmen in humans. Although Nansha Town had triumphed and defeated the second greatest Heavenly God of the beastmen, Tiger Howl, the fact remained that it was an alien race that had defeated Tiger Howl, and it was the elf army that had truly crushed his forces. The Human Race had simply assisted them. Even though the victory invigorated the human spirit, the inherent fear of beastmen had not been eradicated.

Lu Hong stepped out the door and into the sunlight, over the training ground built by the Xiao clan, where countless warriors were sweating profusely, honing their swordsmanship.

Pointing to his soldiers below, Lu Hong said to Lei Sai, "Only by truly defeating the beastmen on the battlefield will they realize that the beastmen are not invincible, that they are not unbeatable. Only then will the heart of the Human Race awaken and become fearless, and only then can we truly become empowered and witness the rise of the Human Race!"