Chapter 8 You Only Realize How Little You Know When the Time Comes to Use It

After deciding to dispatch troops, Li Xiang began seriously considering which generals to bring along for the campaign.

Of course, before that, he needed to leave sufficient commanders behind in Bingzhou to ensure its security.

First and foremost, Wang Meng, who had been Li Xiang’s most trusted and relied-upon general, would remain at the main camp. Li Xiang felt very reassured with Wang Meng guarding the base and thus did not plan to take him on this expedition.

Li Xiang pondered further and saw no need to assign many more generals to Wang Meng. After all, the commander of the city gates of Jinyang in Taiyuan County, the administrative center of Bingzhou, was Li Yuanfang, a relative of the Li family and a capable man who had accompanied Di Renjie. Li Yuanfang was talented, both brave and wise, fully competent for the task. Along with Zhang Huan, Li Lang’s assistance, and former Bingzhou commander Fan Neng supporting Wang Meng, the defense of Bingzhou was well covered.

Beyond that, Li Xiang intended to have Gao Shun detach three thousand troops from the thirty thousand soldiers suppressing Bingzhou to form a newly established "Trench Breaker Battalion" to confront Tian Hu.

The goal was not to annihilate Tian Hu but to keep him under surveillance—preventing him from aiding Wang Qing, who would soon return to Bingzhou, or from disrupting the local counties and prefectures opportunistically.

Li Xiang had not forgotten that when Tian Hu was balanced and driven out, five people had accompanied him.

He would not underestimate these five. Although the Water Margin heroes might not boast many top-tier talents—true masters could be counted on one hand—the sheer number of figures in the Water Margin saga, including the Four Great Bandits, characters from the Song and Liao dynasties, as well as those in later tales such as the Outlaws of the Marsh and Marauder Chronicles, totaled nearly a few hundred. Many were highly skilled; while top-tier or superlative talents were not abundant, their numbers were far from insignificant.

As one of the Four Great Bandits, Tian Hu’s companions likely ranked among the elite. Even if some were weaker, reaching peak first-class was probable.

Since this campaign was led by Li Xiang, and the enhancement effects of the Eight Great Bandit Armies did not apply to Xue Rengui, Li Xiang decided to assign these eight men to Gao Shun instead.

With these eight all initially reaching superlative martial prowess combined with Gao Shun’s Trench Breaker Battalion, containing Tian Hu would be effortless. If Tian Hu were reckless, eliminating him outright might not be overly difficult.

Moreover, far away at Yanmen guarding the border, Meng Tian faced many Southern Xiongnu generals. Li Xiang still vividly recalled the great battle at Yanmen, where several of his own generals were severely wounded, barely making it back alive.

After careful consideration, Li Xiang resolved that Xiong Kuohai must go. Dian Wei, whose fundamental martial strength had risen to 103, would also join. Under Meng Tian’s border defense skill enhancements, these two were now on par with the Southern Xiongnu generals.

Additionally, Lin Chong, Meng Wu, and the developing Zhang Liao would accompany them.

With this lineup, not only was it unlikely the Southern Xiongnu would attack while engaged with the Mongols, but even if they tried to exploit the Han’s weakness, these men alone would be more than sufficient for defense.

However, the generals guarding the Taihang Eight Passes and stationed at Shangdang Huguan to fend off Wang Qing posed a trickier issue.

Having dispatched so many top generals, Li Xiang was left with only Xing Tian, Xue Rengui, Liu Yang, and Qin Qiong.

Besides these, there were only three newly discovered and promoted officers: He Meng, Cao Xing, and Cheng Lian.

Li Xiang had once been pleased upon discovering these three, though their abilities were modest. He suspected they might possess a combined skill set akin to the Eight Great Bandit Armies.

If only he could find Wei Xu, Song Xian, and Hou Cheng, and invest some effort to win over the future Mount Tai bandit leader Zang Ba, these eight heroes would be complete.

Once their skills were combined, the result would be formidable. Among these eight was Zhang Liao, known as Zhang the Eight Hundred from the fearsome Xiao Yao Ford. Should Zhang Liao receive enhancement from both the Eight Heroes and the Five Good Generals, upon reaching his peak, his strength would be terrifying.

Li Xiang even entertained the thought that if Zhang Liao could be simultaneously boosted by the Eight Heroes and the Five Sons’ combined skills, just how powerful would he become?

Yet, he quickly abandoned this unrealistic notion, acknowledging it was nearly impossible to achieve.

As for the remaining members of these eight heroes, Li Xiang had spent time searching for them but failed to find Wei Xu, Song Xian, and Hou Cheng.

After some inquiries in the floating water quarters, he learned that Wei Xu had married into Lü Bu’s family.

Years ago, when Lü Bu accompanied Ding Yuan to Luoyang, Wei Xu had followed with his entire family. Song Xian and Hou Cheng, on good terms with Wei Xu, had been persuaded by him to join Ding Yuan’s service.

Returning to the main point, Li Xiang needed to select a general to assist him in commanding the troops. His first choice was Xue Rengui. Consequently, the defense against Wang Qing would fall to Qin Qiong.

With Qin Qiong’s high command skill of 98 and the advantage of strong natural defenses, holding off Wang Qing would not be difficult.

Among the remaining generals, Xing Tian was certain to accompany Li Xiang.

Li Xiang would never forget that Zhang Jiao’s side still had the warlord Chi You.

Though Chi You might not yet be at his peak, as a general whose base strength reached the ceiling like Xing Tian’s, Li Xiang knew he would be a tough opponent.

Years ago, when Xing Tian was not at his peak, he still managed to suppress the Mountain Lion Camel, whose base strength of 106 exceeded Xing Tian’s at the time.

The higher the base strength of these fierce generals, the more superior their skills.

Should Chi You go berserk, without someone strong enough to stop him, he might truly lead the Yellow Turbans to crush the Han forces.

If Xing Tian accompanied Li Xiang, Qin Qiong would be left with only Liu Yang and Cao Xing.

Li Xiang was uneasy about this lineup.

Wang Qing was different from Tian Hu; when Wang Qing was balanced out, Li Xiang’s system had already upgraded, so he was well aware of the characters Wang Qing carried.

Because of this knowledge, Li Xiang did not trust Qin Qiong’s current forces to stand against Wang Qing.

Wang Qing’s lineup included several figures comparable to the Five Tiger Generals of Liangshan, whose martial prowess, according to previous summoning data, seldom fell below 95.

Coupled with other personnel and numerical advantage, Qin Qiong’s side was in some danger.

Li Xiang had always been satisfied with his generals’ lineup, but only now realized the true pang of having too few commanders when the time came.

This was merely the Yellow Turban Rebellion period, yet manpower shortages had already emerged. What would it be like during the era of warlords vying for supremacy? The thought was alarming.