485 World in Smoke (1/2)

The Lingnan City-State was not the only factor slowly changing the situation in China.

As they entered the winter season of the Gaia second year, the flames of war rose up.

After the Battle of Julu ended, all the territories entered a power transition. The winners of the battle were enjoying their spoils, as the employed the benefits they had gained. As for those who had lost, they were just hoping that they could survive.

While the fires of war blazed, blood dripped on the battlefield.

The blood-red clouds covered the China skies, not scattering for a long time.

During this period of time, Caiyun City, Fallen Leaf City, and Black Lion City, as well as Swordsman City all became grade 1 prefectures.

The China region now had twelve prefectures.

The next stage, Wufu's Stone County and Sha Pojun's Asura County would also upgrade. The China region was one step away from the fifteen prefecture requirement to trigger the fifth war.

The strong Lords in their region were naturally trying to grind their blades to grab that last spot. After all, when the war began, those that had upgraded to prefecture would reap immense benefits.

No one wanted to lag behind.

The entire wilderness had an impatient atmosphere.

Especially the north of China, as they did not have much time left. In just about two months, an icy air would sweep up the entire region.

At that time, let us not talk about fighting wars, even letting soldiers perform their normal training would pose difficulties. Snow and ice would cover everywhere, bringing freezing temperatures. The entire north region would fall quiet as it went through the winter.

Hence, the Lords had to reach their targets before that happened.

In truth, those feeling impatient and acting up in the wilderness were not only the Lords.

Apart from Huangjin, which was already exterminated, the remaining three uprising armies were planning something.

10th month, 1st day, after Chensheng led his troops to attack the territories in Zhongyuan Prefecture. Afterward, he announced the establishment of his country, officially setting up the Zhangchu Regime in Chen County.

The moment he established it, it became a considerable force in the region. Even Shanhai City, which covered four prefectures, did not match it in terms of size of territory.

The day he established the regime, the Lords in the region hollered in unison, ”The wolves are here!”

After Chensheng established his country, he did not foolishly attack Luoyang. He did not even have the intentions of attacking other provinces. His main goal was to calm the people and rest and solidify his rule.

Chensheng, who was living a second life, was not the farmer that others used as a spear. The first peasant uprising leader in China’s history was now walking onto the path to kingship.

The land size of the Zhangchu Regime was simply too great, so they faced enemies on all sides. On the north, there was Fallen Phoenix City, west there was Fallen Leaf City, and on the south, there was Pill Sun City.

East, there was the West Chu Regime of Xiang Yu.

The day that he established the Zhangchu Regime was the day when the wolves started to split the cake.

Almost simultaneously, Fallen Phoenix City, Fallen Leaf City, and Pill Sun City started to gather the territories around them, forming three huge armies and gathering at the border.

A huge war was about to begin in the middle region of China.

Amusingly, the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had actually become allies for this one time.

Chensheng obviously did not want to surrender. In order to break the situation, he acted in a decisive manner. The same day, he announced that they had officially formed an alliance with the West Chu Regime on the east.

Xiang Yu led the West Chu Regime. After entering the wilderness, they had turned their blades to Ludong Province, north of Peng City. As for the Zhongyuan Province right next to it, they did not move for it.

Probably, at that time, the two powers had already come to a tacit understanding.

After all, Xiang Yu was under Chensheng during the early days, so they had a level of relationship. When they were tossed into such a dangerous position, the two regimes decided to trust one another.

The alliance of the two regimes had made the region more and more complicated.

With that, not only did Chensheng get rid of the threat to the east, he could even obtain help from Xiang Yu.

This alliance had immediately solved the problem of Chensheng lacking able generals. Be it Xiang Yu himself, his grandfather, father, or Xiang Zhuang, they were all generals that one yearned for.

As expected, the day that they allied, Xiang Yan traveled to Chen County to help Chensheng in his military and his establishment of defense lines.

Chensheng even boldly named Xiang Yan as the Zhangchu Great General. With that, it showed that the relationship between the two Chu Regimes were exceedingly close.

Zhangchu was facing off against three player alliance armies.

On the north, the Shanhai Alliance-Phoenix Alliance that Feng Qiuhuang built up had gathered 150 thousand troops. On the west, Piao Linghuan had gathered up one hundred thousand soldiers. On the south, Chun Shenjun had formed a 180 thousand strong army.

Of course, Zhangchu was not a soft egg. After taking over an entire province, their overall soldier strength hit close to six hundred thousand.