370. The Year Of 198 AD

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Now with his guerrilla tactics being pushed back by Gao Shun, he was thinking of other tactics when suddenly he was interrupted by a messenger who came from the capital of the Goguryeos Gungnae, where the messenger gave him a letter that was signed by his king Sansang, where when he opened the letter he was surprised by the order he received.

He was ordered by Sansang to retreat back to the capital and brought the entire Army alongside him, as his older brother Balgi was rebelling where he managed to amass support from smaller kingdoms and neighboring tribal states that gave Goguryeos tributes.

This support was in the shape of money, supplies, and troops, so Balgi amassed a large amount of power to challenge his authority. Their capital Gungnae was also under siege by Balgi and his army, and couldn't hold on for a long time.

The main general of the Goguryeo Army was put in a dilemma because on one side he had to protect the domain of his motherland, while on the other side, his king was in danger and needed his help.

While he was conflicted about what decision he should make, the messenger saw him feeling conflicted and immediately told him that their King couldn't hold on much longer and only he could save their King.

Hearing these words, the main general of the Goguryeo Army finally decided to abandon the border of the territory of the Goguryeos and save his king at Gungnae.

Even though it pained his heart to abandon a large area of his motherland once again to their enemies, he could only do so for the stability of his nation which was affected by the rebellion of Balgi.

So after he made the decision, he announced the full retreat of the Goguryeo Army and headed toward Gungnae to save their king, the retreat order at first was received very badly by his retainers.

But after knowing the reason as to why they suddenly retreated, the entire Goguryeo Army national spirit was burning after knowing that the older brother of their King, Prince Balgi was rebelling and now sieging their capital Gungnae.

Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, and Gongsun Gong at first didn't notice the retreat of the Goguryeo Army and they contributed to the lack of resistance they received due to Gao Shun managing to defeat the guerrillas.

They began to feel suspicious after they managed to take down 3 small towns in a row and numerous villages, where they didn't receive any resistance whatsoever from the Goguryeo Army and only the defenders of the towns and villages.

So Zhang Liao led the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry to scout the surrounding area and he didn't find any trace of the Goguryeo Army, which confused him because he already scouted several kilometers from the town they had managed to conquer.

He returned to the town where he informed his findings, where both Gao Shun and Gongsun Gong were also confused as to why there was no presence of the Goguryeo Army, even though they were sure that the Goguryeo Army must have retreated.

What the three of them wanted to know was the reason why the Goguryeos suddenly retreated, and even when they asked the Oriole hoping that they would have an answer, the Oriole could only shake them and told them that their spy operation hadn't reached the domain of the Goguryeos yet.

Even though they were confused, they still proceeded with their invasion of the Goguryeos with caution, in case all of this was a ruse because the Oriole couldn't give them any help outside of the Gongsun Clan's domain.

As the invasion continued, Lie Fan who was at Xiapi received all the reports from the Oriole that was stationed around Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, and Gongsun Gong to keep an eye on their safety.

Reading the letters that described the bad situation of the invasion in the first several days, before being turned around by Gao Shun, and then the disappearance of the Goguryeo Army caused Lie Fan to feel like he was reading some kind of a novel.

He closed the letter and was intrigued by the reason for the Goguryeo's Army's sudden retreat, where the ten remembered about Balgi the older brother of King Sansang of Goguryeo's rebellion that would happen in a couple of years.

Lie Fan suspects that because of his butterfly effect where the Goguryeo's continuous losses to his army contributed to Balgi's rebellion date becoming much earlier, due to the weak state of the Goguryeo's military.

Still, it somewhat doesn't make sense to him because Balgi's rebellion happened because he received support from the Gongsun Clan which was led by Gongsun Kang in the original timeline, and he hasn't received any report concerning Balgi coming into contact with his forces or any forces in China whatsoever.

While he was thinking about this matter, the door to his study was opened and Lu Lingqi came in bringing him some snacks and tea, Lie Fan saw this and stood up from his chair as he helped Lu Lingqi bring the tray full of snacks and tea to his table.

Spending time with Lu Lingqi while eating some snacks and drinking tea, Lie Fan threw away his thoughts concerning the Goguryeos, and everything was going shortly for Lie Fan for over a month when they entered the new year.

With the land entering the new year of 198 AD, Lie Fan received two reports where the first one reported that the construction of Xiapi's outer wall had been completed and that his specialist group had managed to create a mirror after numerous tries.

Receiving both of these reports, Lie Fan immediately left his residence and headed toward Xiapi's outer wall with his bodyguards who were on duty, when Lie Fan reached the outer wall he saw Mi Zhu and Liu Ye overseeing the completion of the Outer wall.

Liu Ye: "My Lord you have arrived! Congratulations My Lord, the first phase of Xiapi's Expansion Project have been completed! With the size of our new wall, I'm sure it would be very hard for our enemies to siege us!"

Lie Fan: "Haha while that's true, I hope that none of our enemies, currently or in the future won't have any chance to reach Xiapi, as it means our army had lost massively or our enemies are very strong and large in numbers."

Mi Zhu: "I support My Lord's words! While I do want to see the walls in action, Master Liu Ye, let's hope that it will never happen but maybe our army could use it to learn their agility and movement speed in climbing siege ladders, what do you think My Lord?"

Lie Fan: "That's a marvelous idea Zizhong! Xiapi's Outer Wall should be the largest and tallest one right now in the land! If our soldiers could train their agility and movement speed in climbing siege ladders with our wall, it would increase their abilities."

Liu Ye: "I also agree we should use it for our soldiers to conduct their training their ladder climbing skills, and speaking of siege ladders My Lord, I also managed to invent siege ladders that could increase our siege capabilities!"

Lie Fan: "Really?! That a great news Ziyang! Does it already have a prototype or it's still in a schematic design?"

Liu Ye: "It's still in a schematic design My Lord, which meant that in theory, it should work but I'm 100% confident that it would also work practically!"

Hearing what Liu Ye had just said, Lie Fan nodded his head in happiness. Even though he still does not know if Liu Ye's invention would work, at least there is finally an invention from the people of this era.

As Lie Fan was filled with happiness, Liu Ye called for his page who was holding a box compartment, where Liu Ye opened it and took out a piece of paper from inside the box compartment.

He then gave it to Lie Fan who took it and saw the content of the paper, while Liu Ye explained that he called it the Climbing Tiger and that he took inspiration from the Hwacha who used wheels, and the trebuchet lever pulling system.

Where the ladders would be pushed by the soldiers and don't need to be carried around, and he also included some protection around them so that the soldiers that were pushing them in could be protected from arrows.

As Liu Ye continued his explanation, Lie Fan who was looking at the schematics was surprised as Liu Ye's invention was just like the scaling ladder of the Roman Empire and Escalade during the medieval era of Europe.

He never thought that Liu Ye could make such an invention that was way ahead of his time, even though he gained ideas after looking at the Hwachas and the trebuchet that he introduced, it shows the kind of talent that he possessed.

This shows that Liu Ye being known as the best architect of this era wasn't just a word that was made up and that it was true looking at the schematics for new siege ladders that he had created.

Mi Zhu who was intrigued by Liu Ye's explanation had come to Lie Fan's side to see the invention Liu Ye had made, and oh boy he was also surprised at the ingenuity that Liu Ye had just created.

Looking at the type of resources needed, he had calculated that the making of the Climbing Tigers wasn't very expensive, or could even be said to be moderate in terms of other inventions that Lie Fan had introduced before.

It's not because Liu Ye's inventions are much worse, but because some of the technologies that were used by Liu Ye in the Climbing Tigers had been invented, and the size needed was much smaller compared to the inventions that Liu Ye took as inspiration.

After Liu Ye finished explaining his invention to Lie Fan, he was praised by both Lie Fan and Mi Zhu who were amazed at his invention.

Lie Fan even took a step forward and pat Liu Ye on both of his shoulders while laughing happily, saying that there was finally an inventor under him Liu Ye who heard this humbly said that it was all due to Lie Fan's invention that he managed to be inspired to create the Climbing Tigers.

So the one that all people should praise was Lie Fan in Liu Ye's opinion because Lie Fan introduced many technologies and new innovations that transformed the current norm, like the crop rotating system and several inventions that he introduced even though it wasn't his own but Lie Fan was very open in trying new ideas, and that what caused innovation to flourish under him.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu

Age: 30 (197 AD) -> 31 (198 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 462,000

Renown: 825

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 1,121,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 936 (+20)

VIT: 598 (+20)

AGI: 583 (+10)

INT: 587

CHR: 96

WIS: 509

WILL: 397

ATR Points: 0