Most people imagine war as follows: first a declaration of war is issued, then troops are mobilized on a large scale, then the front line encounters the enemy, and finally a bloodbath.
The actual monk war: rivers of blood.
Without any declaration of war or large-scale mobilization of troops, nearly a hundred demon cult members quickly infiltrated Guanzhong from the Heluo area and raided twenty-four Kunlun mines in succession within a few days.
In the main hall of Kunlun, many high-level officials have gathered together, and Qiu Changtian also quickly proposed a response plan.
The first step was to send several elders to the Guanzhong area to guard the area and be ready to deal with the sudden attacks of the Demon Cult at any time.
The second is to improve the defense of the mines. Each mine must be guarded by a real person, and every ten mines will have a team of real people to provide support to build a sufficiently strong dynamic defense line.
"Although this strategy is good, is it too conservative?" Master Yun Hong raised an objection. "The Guanzhong area is more than a thousand miles deep. Even if we send a hundred or a thousand times the number of people to build a defense line, it is still impossible to completely stop the infiltration of the Demon Cult."
"Why not draw out the best forces to launch a surprise attack on the headquarters of the Yin Ghost Sect in Beimang Mountain? As long as the Demon Cult comes to rescue, we can push the battle line forward to the Heluo area, and the initiative will be in our hands."
To be fair, Master Yun Hong's plan is indeed good, and is more proactive and flexible than the strategy formulated by Qiu Changtian.
However, the more proactive the strategy, the greater the loss after being targeted. On the contrary, Qiu Changtian's open strategy of "building a strong camp and fighting a stupid battle" would be difficult to target even if the Demon Cult knew about it.
"Brother Yunhong, this is a very good plan." Qiu Changtian smiled slightly, "However, Beimang Mountain is the home of the Yin Gui Dao, and everyone in the world knows it. Would the Demon Dao not expect that we will use the decapitation tactic?"
"If they set an ambush in Beimang Mountain, the surprise attack force will suffer heavy losses. As the coordinator of this operation, I cannot sit idly by and watch the Kunlun monks walk into danger."
"Brother Chang Geng, what you said makes sense, but haven't you heard that 'if something is empty, then make it real, and if it is real, then make it empty'?" Master Yun Hong disagreed. He just turned his head to look at Elder Jiu Ce and continued, "Looking back at the past years of fighting between Kunlun and the Demon Sect, we have always been mainly passively defensive, which has also left the Demon Sect with the impression of being conservative and rigid. It is precisely because of this that the Yin Gui Sect certainly could not have imagined that we would take such a radical approach this time."
"In my opinion, we should do two things at once. On the one hand, we should implement Chang Geng's strategy and strengthen the defense in Guanzhong to prevent the mines from being lost. At the same time, we can also confuse the Demon Cult and make them think that we are still planning to take the defensive position."
"On the other hand, we will select capable forces from among the elders and real people to launch a surprise attack on Beimang Mountain and force the Demon Cult to come back for rescue."
"If this plan succeeds, not only will the danger in Guanzhong be resolved immediately, but it will also be able to contain and injure the frontline forces of the Demon Cult."
"Master Yunhong is right." Elder Jiuce nodded and said in a pretentious manner, "Master Changgeng, as a general, you must make decisions when necessary and not be indecisive."
Who are you scolding, you bastard? Qiu Changtian was secretly angry.
Elder Jiuce openly supported Master Yunhong's proposal, and this four-character comment of "indecisive" was undoubtedly a major blow to the prestige of Qiu Changtian, who was coordinating the war for the first time.
The key point is that no matter in terms of seniority or qualifications, Qiu Changtian cannot directly refute this Nascent Soul Elder.
Even if the other party said "I think Kunlun should surrender", Qiu Changtian could only say "Haha, the elder is really humorous", and he must not directly deny or belittle the other party, otherwise he would inevitably give the other Nascent Soul elders a bad impression that "the young generation is too aggressive and domineering."
So Qiu Changtian smiled and explained tactfully:
"It's not that I'm indecisive, but Chang Geng is in charge of the war. If I'm not careful, my fellow disciples will die. So I can only be cautious and tread on thin ice, fearing that I might make a mistake."
"Master Chang Geng is indeed kind-hearted." Another Yuanying elder stepped out, smiling kindly, "But kindness does not make a good army. If you are afraid of this and that, how can you defeat the Demon Sect?"
Qiu Changtian kept smiling, with a thousand curse words in his heart.
Looking at Master Ziwei again, this master also had a cold expression on his face, realizing that these elders who jumped out to make "sharp comments" actually represented the Luo family and the Zhao family who had joined forces.
However, these people seemed to be discussing the matter at hand and were blameless. Even if they were to report to the Immortal, given the Immortal Chisong's character, he would not speak out for such a dispute of opinion.
Soon, the elders present expressed their opinions.
The elders of the Luo and Zhao families believed that Master Chang Geng's strategy was too conservative and could not deter the Demon Cult.
The elders of the Xu and Ge families all defended Master Chang Geng, believing that war was a dangerous matter and that it would not be wrong to be cautious.
As for the largest number of neutral elders, most of them stood on Zhao Jinghong's side.
The reason is simple. If Zhao Jinghong's plan succeeds, the strategic advantage it will bring to Kunlun will be obvious.
As for Qiu Changtian's strategy, it can only be said to be mediocre and cannot bring about fundamental changes to the situation... After all, everyone is still immersed in the glory of "our Kunlun is the number one sect in the world", so they are unwilling to let the Demon Cult get in trouble for too long, and the majority of people hope for a quick victory.
Thinking of this, Qiu Changtian sighed.
Alas, I'm sorry to Kunlun, but Wei Dongliu really can't lose this time.
He still kept smiling, without any annoyance, and just said to Master Ziwei:
"In this case, let's follow the advice of the elders and adopt a two-pronged strategy."
"That's right." Master Ziwei nodded.
So Kunlun began to mobilize manpower... At the same time, a rumor that "Zhenren Chang Geng was publicly criticized by the elders for being too indecisive" began to spread within Kunlun.
There were many Nascent Soul elders in the main hall of Kunlun that day. Although given their current status, they would definitely not betray Kunlun and leak the final plan, it is not impossible for them to mention the sharp comments of the Nine Strategies Elders to their juniors after returning.
Therefore, although he knew that the Zhao family must be behind this, Qiu Changtian had no way to deal with it. After all, Elder Jiu Ce did say so.
"This is outrageous!" Qiu Changtian was not very angry (in fact, he felt guilty for what was about to happen to him), but Xu Yinglian was furious and rushed to find Elder Xu who was in charge of the Sutra Library and questioned him:
"They are taking advantage of this situation to slander our senior brother. Are we just going to stand by and watch?"
"This is a matter of public opinion," Elder Xu consoled her, "but as long as the war goes smoothly, even a little slander will be refuted on its own."
The so-called "public discussion" refers to the discussion of the majority of people.
Although the Tiannan Xu family is powerful in Kunlun, it is impossible for them to shut up all the Kunlun cultivators and prevent anyone from criticizing Qiu Changtian.
After all, there are neither online courts nor essays that confuse right and wrong in this world. It is impossible to use a team of dozens of people to create a scene of thousands of troops clearing the ground.
The only good thing is that everyone forgets quickly. As long as Qiu Changtian remains the commander-in-chief and the war goes smoothly, the final credit will still go to him.
The evaluation of being "indecisive" is nothing more than some clowns making shocking remarks, and it won't last long.
Xu Yinglian knew this, of course, but he was simply infuriated by the sarcastic remarks of certain cultivators, so he returned to Jinling in a depressed mood.
Qiu Changtian even comforted his wife and told her not to bother with those people, which made Xu Yinglian both angry and amused.