372. The Ma Clan Chang'An Crisis

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It's not only the people working, when he used it for the first time what he saw was a black scene and he thought that it was broken, when he moved to the side for a bit what he saw was the color blue and Lie Fan could immediately guess that it was the ocean, and he remembered that it was the prototype of the brass telescope so he decreases the length of the telescope and could see clearly the scenery of people working at the harbor.

Even though the scenery he saw was very clear, he could see that the glass of the telescope was a bit blurry, maybe due to it being a prototype and they made it without perfecting it first, advocating practicality so that they managed to craft it.

For Lie Fan it wasn't a problem and was considered to be a great success for a prototype, he also noticed that the retracting and extracting movement was a bit rusty and noted this down to tell his men.

He took down the telescope and gave his compliments to the heads of each specialist group, saying that they had managed to make something that would be recorded in history forever.

Listening to Lie Fan's words, every one of them laughed and thanked Lie Fan for his kind words. As this happens, Lie Fan gave the telescope to Mi Zhu and Liu Ye to try using it so that they could give their opinions.

While the two of them tried to use the telescope, Lie Fan then told each head of his specialist groups about some things that he found not very good and could cause some problems when being used.

Such as the somewhat blurry glass and the rusty detracting and extracting motion of the telescope, where if the telescope was mass produced and had these defective on each of them, it could hinder the information gathering of his units.

The head of each specialist group immediately takes note of what Lie Fan has just said, promising to create another prototype that was in line with Lie Fan's request and began to mass produce it.

Mi Zhu and Liu Ye, on the other hand, were amazed by how amazing the telescope was, the people in the harbor whom they couldn't see from their location with naked eyes, now using this telescope they could see them clearly.

In Mi Zhu's mind, exotic things such as the telescope could be a hot commodity among the Nobles, especially those with military backgrounds who would definitely be interested in this.

He not only found that it could be used as military armament but could also be used as an item for sightseeing, something that the noble caste enjoyed very much but when Mi Zhu was thinking about this, Liu Ye on his side could see what Mi Zhu was thinking about.

Liu Ye could see the potential it had on the market as a hot commodity, but he wouldn't allow it to be sold in the market because the chances of it falling into the hands of their enemies would be very high.

Something that could be an edge for their army at first, would slowly spread to be a normalized thing for the army of other warlords which then wouldn't give an edge to Lie Fan's Army as everyone had it at a certain point, even though they don't have the means to produce it, they could procure it from black market.

So Liu Ye told Mi Zhu what he thought to stop Mi Zhu's mind from spinning about ways to sell the telescope in the market, and when Mi Zhu heard what Liu Ye said he stopped thinking about ways to market the telescope.

He feels what Liu Ye has just said makes sense and the plan he has for asking Lie Fan's permission for the Mi Clan to have the rights to sell the telescope, he decides to shelve the plan until further notice.

After both of them were satisfied trying the telescope, they put it down gently and gave their complemented about it as well alongside the mirror, where Mi Zhu highlighted to them that not only the mirror could help in military uses, but it also could become a hit commodity.

Liu Ye then continued by describing the defect he noticed on the telescope, which is more or less the same as what Lie Fan had just said.

When everything was said and done, Lie Fan then told Liu Ye to take out the schematic he had for the Climbing Tigers and present it to the specialist groups, to let them see if it could be made or not.

Listening to Lie Fan's order, he took out the schematic he had kept inside the compartment box he brought with him, and showed it to the head of each specialist group for them to see if they could make it.

Each head of the specialist group took turns looking at the Climbing Tigers schematic that Liu Ye created, and each of them concluded that in theory, they could make it, and was easy to do due to some of the technologies that were used they have experience in.

Hearing this good news Lie Fan and Liu Ye both rejoiced, because if they managed to make this then Lie Fan's Army capability in siege would rise massively with the new type of Siege ladders.

While in Huai'An Secret Base everything was going smoothly for Lie Fan, far from his location to the northwest at Chang'An, the Ma Clan was defending Chang'An to the best of their abilities.

During the first confrontation where Cao Ren led his army to absorb the entire firepower of Ma Teng's Army, Zhang Ji and Xu Huang set out from the left and right flanks respectively leading their army to attack Chang'An.

Ma Teng and Ma Chao who were guarding their respective front, were surprised by the sudden movement of Cao Cai's left and right flank, as they thought that only the main formation did the assault.

So while they were scrambling to hold the defenses of Chang'An, both Zhang Ji and Xu Huang led their army to attack Chang'An from the left and right sides, completely splitting the concentration of The Ma Clan.

Without any capable general left to assign command, Ma Teng decided to let his vice general lead the defense of the Eastern Wall, while he and Ma Teng went to the northern and southern wall of Chang'An.

This was a gamble that Ma Teng decided to make and fortunately for him, it paid off, where he managed to push back Cao Cao's army but at a large cost as his army suffered numerous casualties, especially at the Eastern Wall.

Cao Ren had managed to inflict large damage, using his superior tactical mind and experience he managed to almost overwhelm the defenses there, but due to Zhang Ji and Xu Huang being pushed back, he retreated.

Ma Teng had around 85,000 men before and after the defensive battle, he lost around 20,000 men leaving him with only around 65,000 men left, causing Ma Teng and Ma Chao to hold an emergency meeting with the Ma Clan's retainers.

They held the meeting at night after the battle ended to also prepare their strategy for the next battle that would happen tomorrow, and before they could hold the meeting they received a report that Pang De alongside his men had arrived.

This news caused both Ma Chao and Ma Teng to immediately head toward the Northern gate, where Pang De and his army managed to enter unnoticed.

When Ma Teng and Ma Chao both met Pang De, they saw the haggard look on Pang De and his men, and Pang De seeing Ma Teng immediately headed toward him and after greeting him, he reported to Ma Teng.

Pang De: "My Lord! We finally met! I managed to escape Han Sui's pursuit, but we suffered a large amount of casualties around 10,000 men and I'm sure that Han Sui was on his way here to regroup with Cao Cao's Army."

Ma Teng: "As long as you're safe Pang De, the number of casualties we suffer is nothing. Let's discuss our next move inside, I'm sure Han Sui and his army needed some time before they could reach Chang'An."

Pang De: "No My Lord! He isn't far from us, so I suggest that we retreat from Chang'An and head toward Tianshui and regroup there My Lord."

Ma Chao: "What?! We shouldn't do that Father! If we abandon Chang'An, it would allow Cao Cao's Army to gain a foothold in Liang Province to invade us!"

Pang De: "We don't have other choices Young Lord! If Han Sui managed to regroup with Cao Cao's Army, we could retreat from Chang'An as we are surrounded and that would be the end for us! My Lord, please reconsider my suggestion!"

Ma Teng: "Okay you two stop! It's unbecoming for men of your stature to debate in front of your men! We will decide this in our meeting with the others, let's go everyone is waiting for us."

Ma Teng scolded both Ma Chao and Pang De who were arguing with each other due to differences in their opinion, as he felt that they shouldn't show this in front of their soldier as it could lower their morale.

Being scolded by Ma Teng, both Ma Chao and Pang De stop talking and follow Ma Teng to head toward the Palace in Chang'An, which had become the Governor's Castle due to the capital of Han changing to Luoyang.

In the main hall, Ma Teng continued the meeting to discuss their next move in Chang'An. Pang De immediately advocated the idea of retreating from Chang'An and regrouped at Tianshui with the rest of Ma Teng's Army there.

Ma Chao immediately opposed Pang De's plan to retreat, by saying that they would lose too much by abandoning Chang'An and that Cao Cao's Army would use Chang'An as a foothold to invade the rest of Liang Province, as they have open access to send supplies to Anding Han Sui's capital.

Ma Teng's Court was split fifty-fifty, with half supporting Pang De and the other half supporting Ma Chao, as both sides had their own benefits and losses causing Ma Teng to have a headache about which side to choose.

He actually agrees with both sides, because retreating from Chang'An needs to be done if he doesn't want to be surrounded from all sides by Cao Cao and Han Sui's Army, leaving him no room to retreat but on the other hand he doesn't want to abandon Chang'An, Ma Chao's reason see true and he also doesn't want to abandon Chang'An which are the vein of Liang Province, these two choices cause him to have a dilemma.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu

Age: 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