At this moment, Emperor Taizong of Liang was just as confused as Emperor Taizu of Sheng had been before.

What was going on?

He watched helplessly as his entire army disappeared, replaced by some people he had never seen before.

These people, though also dressed in various ancient armors and wielding ancient weapons, clearly did not look like a regular army; instead, they resembled a motley crew formed by various forces.

Moreover, even though it was a motley crew, it still typically represented multiple armies coming together, and at least the interior attire of a single army would be roughly unified.

But the people before him seemed to be dressed completely randomly, with no apparent rules or systems governing them.

The players immediately gathered in front of Emperor Taizong of Liang.

However, there were simply too many players this time, and only a very few could actually come before Emperor Taizong, while the majority could only glance from a distance and gaze at the soaring royal aura.

Like Emperor Taizu, Emperor Taizong also possessed a royal aura, as if highlighted with a bright effect.

Although this highlighting effect soon spread to all the players, Emperor Taizong remained very conspicuous.

Looking at the Korean side, a massive amount of Demonic Qi gathered, and one could see the demons in the city stirring restlessly.

Especially the 150,000-strong army that Korea had originally sent to aid was now completely possessed by demons.

Emperor Taizong was a bit stunned. Just as he was about to fight a critical battle, where were his great army, and his generals Li Ji, Li Daozong, and Qi Binheli?

It left him seemingly as a mere figurehead commander.

Chuge stepped forward and reintroduced himself, "Your Majesty, we are the Return Order Expedition, protectors of the historical timeline, and we come from hundreds of years in the future."

Since both parties relied on righteous energy, they naturally trusted each other and didn't require much communication.

All heroes appearing in the Return Order Expedition gameplay were assumed to be at their peak.

Emperor Taizu was endowed with the strategies of his prime and the bravery of his youth.

And so it was with Emperor Taizong this time as well.

"Your Majesty, how should we fight this battle?"

All the players were waiting for Emperor Taizong's command.

Clearly here, neither Chuge nor Zhao Haiping was about to compete with Emperor Taizong for command, knowing their place well. Even if they were skilled themselves, before such a historically great emperor known for his military prowess, they could only be modest students.

Of course, Chuge also briefly informed Emperor Taizong about the players' abilities.

The total number of players in "Dark Sand" had now reached two hundred thousand, but among them, fifty thousand players had just entered the game. Though they passed the internal test selection, their combat ability was still significantly weaker compared to other players.

While there were exceptions like Luo Ying, overall, their combat strength was not too reliable.

That is to say, the current composition of these two hundred thousand players was:

Seventy thousand Cavalry, mainly comprised of foot soldiers and Ranger players, with a small amount of assassin players.

Fifty thousand Divine Machine, with a relatively even distribution across four types of professions.

Less than ten thousand commoners, mainly still consisting of foot soldiers and Ranger players.

The rest were those who had not obtained any affiliate identity.

After all, the trials for the three types of affiliate identities were indeed quite challenging, and many people had not yet obtained any.

Moreover, Chuge also introduced to Emperor Taizong the special powers of these professions, the formidable power of siege engines and cannons, and the players' ability to resurrect once.

Emperor Taizong listened intently, his face flashing with disbelief.

He had rarely fought such wealthy battles!

From the time of Lord Qin, Emperor Taizong had often come out on top despite being outnumbered.

For this expedition to Korea, he only deployed sixty thousand infantry and forty thousand navy personnel, some of whom were assigned to siege duties, and the actual force for field battles was only thirty thousand.

According to historical records, the total population of Korea at that time was just over three million, and even if estimated high, Korea could mobilize up to four hundred thousand soldiers.

But this four hundred thousand could not all be mobile field forces. Most of them needed to defend various cities, maintain stability across regions, or even engage in regular agricultural production.

Korea's decision to send out a hundred and fifty thousand as reinforcements to Anshi City this time was essentially mobilizing the nation's troops.

If this battle was lost, Korea was almost unlikely to muster any decent mobile force to take on the Liang Army in field battles again.

Under these circumstances, historically, Emperor Taizong opted to face the hundred and fifty thousand with thirty thousand, achieving a sweeping victory, and crushing Korea's capacity for field battles thereafter.

It was only because Anshi City was strategically too difficult to conquer that he finally had to withdraw his troops reluctantly.

At this time, the combat morale of the Liang Army was at its peak, dominating one-on-one and evenly matched in ten-to-one encounters.

At this moment, the players' combat power did not fall short of the peak Liang Army. Having various special supernatural powers from the Return Order, Emperor Taizong himself seemed eager and ready for action.

Furthermore, Emperor Taizong's body had also reverted to its peak state.

Historically, when he had personally led the campaign against Korea, he was already in the later years of his life and passed away shortly after returning to the court. Thus, he was only able to command from behind, no longer able to personally engage in battle.

Acting like the war wolf of his younger days was naturally out of the question.

But now, Emperor Taizong had regained his peak state from his time as Lord Qin. 게 what this meant was something that perhaps the players present understood better than anyone else.

After all, in the simulation trials earlier, they had all been driven hard by Lord Qin.

The image of him riding his warhorse and wielding a great bow had left a profound impression on them.

At that time, Emperor Taizong, or rather, Lord Qin, directly said to the leading players, "Follow me to survey the battlefield!"

...

Soon, several players had followed Lord Qin to inspect the terrain around Anshi City.

Anshi City was a military stronghold, guarding a strategic passage.

Moreover, it was situated on a hillside, easy to defend but hard to attack.

In fact, in actual history, someone had suggested to Emperor Taizong that they should bypass Anshi City and launch a surprise attack directly on the capital of Korea. However, Emperor Taizong did not adopt this suggestion.

Later, when returning to the dynasty, Emperor Taizong mentioned this to Li Jing, who also thought that a surprise attack should be conducted, and Emperor Taizong felt somewhat regretful.

However, this matter does not necessarily imply that Emperor Taizong's intelligence was off. Looking back, a surprise attack might have achieved impressive results, but completely annihilating Korea in a single battle would still have been difficult.

The reason Emperor Taizong did not choose a surprise attack was fundamentally because the position of Anshi City was too critical; bypassing it without securing it and then making a lengthy charge to the rear of Korea was not stable enough.

And Emperor Taizong could not have foreseen that they would fail to capture the city until the end.

At the time, it seemed quite possible to capture Anshi City.

If it were not for the collapse of the Liang Army's dirt mound and the negligence of the officer in charge, Anshi City would have been conquered much earlier.

Once Anshi City was captured, the Liang Army's advance eastward would face no further worries, similarly achieving a sweeping momentum.

Thus, Anshi City really was a key point that directly influenced the outcome of the war.

The players also explored the surrounding terrain with Emperor Taizong, naturally greatly enhancing their military command capabilities in the process.

Anshi City was flanked by mountains, with the city built against the slope of the northern mountain.

Below lay a river, cutting through the mountains. The valley formed by the river was the strategic passage guarded by Anshi City, also serving as the route to penetrate deeper into the Korea territory.

The river flowed south and at a position not far from leaving Anshi City, to the southwest, there was a small open area, which was the most suitable place for deploying troops for combat.

The Korean reinforcements were coming from the south, along the river valley.

This meant that it was highly probable for both sides to choose this small open area as the optimal spot for a decisive battle.

Soon, the players followed Lord Qin to a nearby hillside, overlooking the entire battlefield.

Zhao Haiping finally seized the opportunity to ask the question he had always wanted to ask.

"Your Majesty, how exactly can one ensure victory in every battle by adapting to situations on the spot?"

Lord Qin smiled slightly, "Isn't it simple?

"By observing the enemy's formation, you can discern which of their troops are strong and which are weak.

"By engaging our weaker forces against the enemy's stronger forces, and deploying our stronger forces against their weaker ones.

"Even if the enemy's stronger forces charge at our weaker units, our units will only retreat a few hundred steps, not break; however, when our strong forces attack their weaker ones, we will surely encircle and crush them in a single battle!

"In this way, victory and defeat can naturally be decided."

Upon hearing this, the players following him were left speechless.

Good lord, Your Majesty, your words are too sensible, pure, hard truths!

It was like asking a god for advice, the same as asking for no benefit at all.

Firstly, how can one determine which enemy troops are strong and which are weak just by observing their formation? Is it by the formation? The demeanor? Or some intangible... morale?

Secondly, why would our weaker forces only retreat a few hundred steps and not break when struck by the enemy's strongest troops?

Lastly, why would our stronger forces definitely be able to break through the enemy's weaker forces in one go?

It can only be said that this tactic was like an advanced version of matching horses in a race, but it was much harder to implement than simply matching horses; a slight discrepancy in the details could lead to drastically different outcomes.

It can only be said that Lord Qin's military strategies were not meant to be learned by others.

His maneuvers only had two kinds: the first kind, you understand but can't learn; the second kind, you neither understand nor learn.

Just like every battle he conducted, he would begin by withholding resources and continuously sending small troops to disrupt the enemy's supply lines, engaging in frantic multi-theater operations until the enemy could no longer withstand and began to retreat, then pursuing relentlessly to the death.

And his talk of using weaker forces to withstand the enemy's stronger ones and using our stronger forces to penetrate their weaker ones.

These all belonged to the category of understandable, but unlearnable operations.

As for Lord Qin having a few cavalry dare to taunt and provoke a camp of a hundred thousand troops, or daring to charge thousands against ten thousand, these belonged to neither understandable nor learnable operations.

Soon, Lord Qin had completely surveyed the nearby terrain and began to arrange his troops.

"Fan Cun, Luo Ying.

"Both of you lead thirty thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry, position on the western hillside of this open area, display banners widely to attract the Korean Army to battle!

"Li Hongyun.

"Lead ten thousand Divine Machine troops and provide cover on the hillside!

"Zhao Haiping.

"Lead twenty thousand elite cavalry to conceal in the valley of North Mountain on the east bank of the river, waiting for the opportunity to encircle the enemy's rear!

"I personally will lead five thousand cavalry on the heights of North Mountain to watch and command the battle!

"Others continue to fiercely attack Anshi City, I hope the day we win the field battle will also be the day Anshi City falls!"

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