66 STRATEGIC MEETING

"We will use deception, guerrilla tactics and coercion strategies"- Kin

Everyone who heard him were confused. They understood somewhat about deception strategies, as war strategies itself is deception. But how can they use guerrilla tactics and Coercion, when they are ordered to not move out and have no idea about the enemies or their personalities.

"General, can you explain in brief these strategies?"- Luo Gan

Luo Gain is the patriarch of the Luo clan and is known as the number one swordsman under the heaven. For a patriarch, he was dressed in simple white cultivator uniform, with a normal leather scabbard and simple looking sword resting on his left waist. He is at 6 ft high and may look like any normal citizen at first, but a veteran can clearly tell the sharp sword aura emanating from his body.

"We all clearly know, war itself can be won by using deception. Currently, we are about to face complete siege by these enemies. If I am not wrong, they are enemy spies in the city monitoring each and every action of ours, especially Lord Kuro, as he is the close aide of Empress.

First we need to identify these spies and use them to our advantage. Information manipulation is also a type of strategy"- Kin

It is not much of a surprise to know that the enemies are using spies, it is a common occurrence to use spies before launching attacks. But what does he mean by information manipulation?

"General, isn't it safe if we just identify these spies and kill them?"- Jiang Yan

Jiang Yan is the clan head of Jiang clan and is known for his spearman ship. He is at good 7ft height and is dressed in the traditional green robes of the Jiang family. He is also the current minister of Intelligence in the Empire.

"As veteran generals you all should know, that spying is a dangerous job and most of the spies will already forfeit their lives when they accept a job. So we will not gain anything by killing them, instead we will alert the enemies of their deaths. So we will use these spies to manipulate the crucial information to our enemies, in a way that we can deal huge blow to the enemy forces.

Duke Samil also gathered a lot of cultivators from various sects, organisations and clans to fight against the Empire. They may hold grudge against the Empire, but I am sure most of them don't know of this invasion and the traitorous thoughts of Duke Samil.

If they knew, they are being used as pawns to enslave themselves, they would surely join our cause. At that time, all we need to do is coerce them to our side and work from the inside to deal a heavy blow to the enemy forces."- kin

All of them shuddered at these thoughts. They never thought spies can be used in such a way, it's similar to poking your own eyes with your own finger. At first they all thought he was a simple looking kid, but they learnt an indirect lesson not to get on his bad side. Who are they kidding? Who in the Royal family is normal ones?

"But General, you already said spies are always determined to sacrifice their lives. Also, we must take into account that these spies are high level cultivators and are veterans of the field. They won't pass information without confirming the news themselves."- Wang Jian

Wang jian is the head of wang family and known for his cruel and ruthless tactics when he was the governor of the Blue Mist fort. In his eyes, a good enemy is a dead enemy. But despite his character, his loyalty towards his friends and Empire is unquestionable. Normal citizens may be afraid of his reputation, but those who observed him closely or worked with him, will have nothing but respect towards him.

He is at 7.2 ft, dressed in red robes. He has sharp eyes, with a ice cold aura of death surrounding him. Couple him with his aura and dress, people will easily mistaken him for a Blood thirsty general.

"Excellent point general. But first we need to identify these spies. After identifying them, all we need to do is leave them to my uncle Shisui. Once they come under his radar, they will be nothing but puppets under our control"- Kin

Again all of them turned towards Shisui, who looks innocent and harmless. Another monster from the Royal family? How can one turn a high god level cultivator into a puppet, without alerting his master or friends. This is definitely a dangerous individual.

"General, leave this job of identifying these spies to me. This is my city and I am very familiar with each and every citizen of this city. We also issued special identification tokens to every foreign cultivator who entered the city.

Gives us 2 to 3 days time and I will definitely catch most of them for sure"- Yang Qi

As a High God and Mayor of this city, he is clearly suited to catching these spies. Yang Ye also showed approval and admiration to his Younger brother.

"General, how about Guerrilla tactics then? How can we use them, when we are only restricted to the city, while the enemies are hiding in the Greenwood forest?"- Ouyang Shuo

Ouyang Shuo is the head of Ouyang clan. He is also a member of Empire's Military Strategy Department. He is clearly the go to man, if you want to know details about various battles that happened in the past.

His hobby is to discern these battles and come up with his own plans and how to efficiently finish these battles in a quick time. He is clearly interested by Kin's ideas so far and want to learn more about him.

It is also the main question everyone want to know. How can one use Guerrilla tactics when the soldiers can't leave the city?

Kin didn't answer them, but instead summoned a single spirit mouse and took out a green vial from his spatial ring.

"Who said that we need to use soldiers to ambush our enemies? Maybe it's our luck or our enemies overconfidence, they are using bunkers, which are dug deep into the earth. All these bunkers have one way opening. There are also no ventilators inside them.

The green liquid in this vial is called Yama's Curse. It is a grade 15 poison potion made by mother. It is colourless and odourless. Any cultivator under sovereign level, who comes into contact with this poison will die in mere minutes, without even leaving their bones. Even most of the sovereigns will be injured and bedridden for a while, until they clear the poison in their body.

We will use this poison with the help of this Spirit mouse. They are puppets and can easily bypass the detection formations of the enemies. The poison will also have no effect on them, so we can easily release it inside the center of all these bunkers, dealing major damage to all these enemy soldiers.

We will only implement this poison plan, when our deception tactics work and the enemies will have infighting. Then we will use coercion tactics to get as many of them as we can under our banner, supply them with antidote, to deal final blow to anyone, who are lucky enough to escape this poison.

Oh. My mother made sure that this poison is environmental free. Since we are using this deadly poison inside the bunkers, it will dissolve itself, after coming into contact with the layers of earth. So it will not affect the wildlife and greenery of the forest. My mother surely knows, how to keep the environment safe."- Kin

*GULP GULP GULP* all of them started to sweat so much, that they immediately took out few drinks from their spatial rings and sated their thirst. Then by instinct they all moved as far away from the 'Yama Curse' as possible. Their only thoughts were monstrous, cruel, sadists and merciless.

As generals and soldiers, they suddenly felt pity towards these enemy soldiers. It is considered as an honor for a soldier to die on the battlefield, but now millions of these enemy soldiers will die without even lifting their weapons. Suddenly they looked towards Wang Jian, who seemed like a saint compared to this mother and son duo.

Wang Jian also had similar thoughts.' Fu****s, let see who will dare to call me ruthless after this. I will personally string them by the rope and feed them to the animals, if they ever mention I am cruel.

Also what do you mean Environmental free my prince? How much free time does her highness have to tweak this poison in order to not affect the surrounding. Millions of soldiers are dying and she is still considering about the environment.' He could only cry within himself, for the wrong treatment he received, when in fact these royal family is the actual bad guys.

" General, how do we start our preparations? If we do it now, we may alert the spies and enemies. It will also cause panic with the civilians and foreign cultivators and will threaten the security of this city itself."- Huang Bin.

Huang Bin is the head of Huang Clan. He is also the oldest of the clan heads in the Empire. Despite his strong cultivation, time took toll on his body and now he is an old man. He is dressed in silvery gray robes, suiting his old age.

"Oh this is simple problem. The answer is with you guys. Tell me why did you all gather here in the first place?"- Kin

Why did we gather here? We are here to get in touch with the Royal family members in advance. What does it have to do with us?

"Sigh. Looks like you are not figuring it out. You all are here based on the rumours that the royal family will be coming to this city? It is also true with most of the foreign cultivators. So instead of denying these rumours, we will spread this rumours announcing to the public, that the royal family will arrive in this city in few days.

Since the Royal family is arriving in this city and they have threat to their life from the remnants of the destroyed sects, it is only natural to strengthen the defences and comb through the entire city for any possible intruders. It will also give mayor Yang Qi, enough justification and chance to clearly mark and weed out these spies."- Kin

Silence. Rumours can also be used in this way? After confirming the rumours, they can openly move their soldiers to this city and start their preparations. Itachi and Shisui also never expected this move from Kin.

"Don't make sudden large movements while moving the soldiers. Only pick the elites and it will be even better, if they are archers. Also, disguise most of these soldiers as rogue cultivators, which will confuse the enemies on our military strength. When it is time to fight, they can remove their disguise and join the ranks, surprising the enemy."- Kin

The main strategy of war is always deception. It is better to hide your military strength and lure your enemies into false security, before fighting them with full strength. This move will clearly give them extra advantage on their enemies. All they need to do is, to make sure that these disguised soldiers never act as a soldiers, but instead act like some wanderers.

"Lord Kuro, starting tomorrow, you will personally make tours around the city, in order to overlook the security of this city. The enemies will also not make their move as long as they see you in this city.

You need to show your anger and displeasure at the soldiers strength and city defences. I hope Mayor Yang Qi will also participate in this tour of ours. Show the entire city of your wrathful side in the next 3 to 4 days.

Your Majesty Emperor Luke and Princess Astarte, it will be even better if you people create some noise and distractions during your stay here."- Kin

He doesn't know that he is the Prince of this Empire, but he still dares to use all the powerful figures in this world as a part of his plans. What kind of storm will he whip up, when he learns that he is the prince and he has far greater power than he can command at the moment. Scary, the thought itself is scary.

"I just hope, you all keep the details of this meeting to yourselves. Don't even reveal it to your family or your own soldiers. We don't want to have any accident at the last moments do we ?"- Kin

Everyone understood his words and gave him their promise, to not reveal anything.

"Alright, we will release rumours starting in 2 hours and will have our future meetings depending on the situation."- Kin

With that Kin collapsed in his chair, it really took a lot of strain to face these many generals and speak to them of his plans. If he showed even a single opening in his thoughts or plans, he along with his mother would have become complete laughing stock in the Empire. As long as he is there, he will never let anyone point their fingers at his mother.

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Authors Note: Advance chapter release for today as I will be travelling to another place tonight. I will return by tomorrow morning, so there will be no changes in the chapter releases. Also I will be working on another novel, which will be smaller in words compared to this one. I can promise that the releases of APCD will be regular in size, quality and releases. I know most of the readers will say, Stupid author, why do you spend the time on this extra novel instead of APCD? that way we can have more releases. But all i can say, I just want to write this new one too, before I forget most of the ideas popping up in my head. To make up for this, I will increase the chapter size of APCD by 100 to 200 words every chapter.

The title for this next one is "Elder Sister, Are Zombies Scary?". It is about 2 siblings in an ancient world, surviving against Zombie horde. You can suggest, better title if you can. The story will be available on webnovel starting this thursday.

I also opened a discord channel. link is available on the synopsis page. Please feel free to join