Chapter 5: After Shu?

After the capture of Wei Yan, the remnants of the Shu defenders crumbled. Even Guan Xing could not prevent himself from being captured.

Guan Xing is an excellent officer, his unique skill is Promotion that awards Will to his unit after defeating an enemy unit. This isn't too great considering he had to get the killing blow. But I guess his 86 WAR made up for it. His 62 INT is still vulnerable but overall a solid general. Recruiting him will be difficult since his sworn brothers Zhang Bao is still with the Shu. He would never betray his sword brother. I do not wish to execute young talents in times like these. So he would have to stay imprisoned for now.

Dong Jue is an average intellectual. Without stats that stand out nor an unique skill to speak of, he'll do fine but will not impress in the battlefield. At least he's still 26. A few months in prison will soften his resolve to refuse our offer of employment.

While we were busy tearing Shu apart, many things has occured elsewhere. The Shu Kingdom is in a downward spiral. They are down to two cities. One is Yong An, just two months march from Jiang Zhou, another is Xiang Yang right across a hotly contested Wei rivertown of Xin Ye. Both are poorly defended with Zhuge Liang on his last stand at Xiang Yang. Their garrison numbers around 16000 & 6000 respectively. There is one huge problem though: Xiang Yang is deep within Wu territory. To take that town would mean rampaging across Wu's borders and then getting embroiled with the Wei & Wu at the same time. A complete mess but being a third party in a two way battle could be profitable.


I've already instructed my men to reinforce the northern border defenses by erecting towers in the mountain pass to Zi Tong but I'm not sure if that will suffice at stopping the Wei western forces. Their closest city is Han Zhong, freshly taken over from the Shu, garrisoned within are 20,000 men. They can easily pipeline reinforcements from three to four cities if need be in response to an assault on Han Zhong. Marching to Han Zhong will take at least 90 days. With a narrow passage like that, it could easily lead into a choke point battle, where we can't use numbers effectively.

Black dot indicates possible objectives

So we have two options:
Either march towards Han Zhong after researching Adept Marching to avoid casualty when traversing hostile terrains and assault Wei western territories.

Or do a quick offensive towards Yong An and race towards the last Shu stronghold of Xiang Yang to capture ALL their personnels pitting ourselves against Wu & Wei.

If we stop at Yong An it will lead to another force gaining a huge wealth of talent after conquering the last Shu town of Xiang Yang. This must not happen. We're already starved of talent, giving more to Wei is suicidal. They are the dominant force at the moment.

Note: Deep Blue = Over 100,000 troops.

If we move towards Han Zhong we don't have to wage a two front war since it is doubtful the Shu & Wu wants to mess around with two enemies at the same time. We'll be facing whatever western forces that Wei Kingdom can muster at us. And it does not look good based on troop concentration reports. Over 100,000 in two provinces? If we ever take Han Zhong the counter attack will be very brutal. Cheng Du will be our central of operations while Jiang Zhou and Zi Tong will be our front lines.

Note: Currently Wu & Shu are allied with each other against Wei. Our kingdom is not allied with anyone. Relationship is 'Hostile' between both Shu & Wu while it is 'Poor' with Wei.

The Battle for Xin Ye

A third option would be to wait for opportunities with either Wei or Wu and divide their territories accordingly. But eventually one or both of them will turn towards us. Ganging up on the Wu is simple. They are on a desperate coastal battle with Wei at this very moment, and Shu is no help at all. Attacking their western borders from Shu territory would be devastating. But that would lead to more power gained by the Wei with the massive resources at their disposal and I'm afraid we are ill equipped to handle two kingdoms at once.


We cannot interfere directly with the battle of Shou Cun. But Xin Ye is just a river crossing away from Xiang Yang. I will rethink my move after I seize Yong An in two months time. Within a year, Shu will be no more. I have not faced the Sleeping Dragon yet, but hopefully we will meet face to face when the reign of Shu ends and have a little chat.

-End of Chapter 5-