The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 501 The Best Military Base
When the Five Elements Camp saw Fang La's uprising, they took the initiative to join him, hoping to work together to achieve great things. However, their outstanding strength and tactics aroused Fang La's covetousness, and in the end, most of them were killed by Fang La's betrayal.

Having suffered such a great loss and then endured humiliation for a century, it's natural that they would be highly wary, learning from past mistakes.

Just when a young man suddenly appeared and said he would help them avenge their deaths, how could the Five Elements Camp easily believe him, even if he was a top expert?

Their foundation was already very weak. Excluding women and children, the Five Elements Battalion only had about 2,500 soldiers who could fight. Among them, some were actually technical soldiers, various craftsmen, whose combat strength was not outstanding.

Therefore, if they were to get involved in someone else's ambitions again, the Five Elements Camp's resources would be wiped out in an instant. Neither Pang Kun nor the leaders of the other four banners would dare to act rashly; they could not afford to lose.

Wu Chengyu understood this very well. If it were him, and a stranger suddenly came up to him and tried to get him to join a rebellion, and if they failed, they would lose their entire family, no matter how eloquently the stranger spoke, Wu Chengyu would not agree.

Therefore, Wu Chengyu never intended to persuade the Five Elements Flag with just words from the beginning; it would be a waste of breath and simply unrealistic.

So his first priority is to convince Pang Kun that he is not a member of the Ming Cult, or at least not an enemy.

Pang Kun was certain of this after Wu Chengyu revealed his true identity. After all, Wu Chengyu had just killed Fang Yu a few months ago. The leader of a sect died at Wu Chengyu's hands, so the Ming Cult and Wu Chengyu were definitely not friends.

With this understanding, Wu Chengyu possessed the basic conditions for cooperating with the Five Elements Camp, but he did not choose to establish cooperation immediately.

He wouldn't make any demands on the Five Elements Camp; he just wanted them to watch how Wu Chengyu stirred up trouble and caused the Ming Cult to plummet.

Pang Kun is right. The Ming Cult is, in essence, a sect with a strong religious character. Even if all the leaders, left and right envoys of light, and the four great Dharma Kings are dead, as long as there are still six or seven thousand followers, the Ming Cult will at most be weaker, but it will still continue to exist.

This is the vitality brought about by religious brainwashing; even the Beggars' Sect cannot match this level of cohesion.

So Wu Chengyu's first task was to incite internal strife within the Ming Cult, causing various internal factions to distrust each other, and ideally, to trigger a civil war.

When the various factions within the Ming Cult are locked in fierce fighting and ultimately both sides are severely weakened, Wu Chengyu will bring Hong Niangzi's troops over.

After years of lying low and secretly training, Hong Niangzi had gathered a total of 80,000 troops under her command, of which 30,000 were considered elite. To be regarded as elite by Wu Chengyu, the minimum standard was to reach the level of the main force of Yue Fei's army in those days.

Meanwhile, within the Song Kingdom, Wu Chengyu continued to train new troops on Xishan Island and Dongshan Island in Taihu Lake. Some of these new troops would be assigned to the Pingjiang Prefecture garrison, led by Gusu. In any case, those troops were heavily involved in embezzlement and had enough to accommodate at least 20,000 men.

The remaining portion was to be sent to the Jin territory to replenish the rebel army and facilitate the transition between old and new forces.

However, the rebel army within the Jin territory has now encountered a bottleneck in its development. An army of 80,000 people means that it needs more territory and more family members for logistics, and it cannot attract the attention of the Jin or reveal the location of its territory.

The rebel army's existing troop-hiding caves and other bases in the Qinling Mountains were no longer sufficient to accommodate so many people.

For the past few years, Hong Niangzi has been trying to establish new bases, but large-scale personnel mobilizations are hard to avoid revealing their true intentions. The bases she had previously established had attracted the attention of the Jin Kingdom, and the two sides fought several battles. The rebel army did not suffer any losses, but the bases she had established were no longer needed.

Some within the rebel army were urging them to simply go to war with the Jin Dynasty. They had been holding back for too long and could no longer contain themselves, but Wu Chengyu and Hong Niangzi joined forces to suppress their urges.

The main force of the Jin Dynasty is still intact. Even if its combat strength is not as good as it used to be, its numbers far exceed those of the rebel army. If the rebel army were to fight the Jin Dynasty now, even if they won, it would be a Pyrrhic victory.

Influenced by Wu Chengyu, and with her own forward-thinking strategic vision, Hong Niangzi has kept her eyes on the Mongols for the past few years after learning about the situation on the Mongolian grasslands and the Mongols' horsemanship and archery skills.

After Temujin's death, the steppe, which was about to be unified, immediately fell into disarray. Jochi, Chagatai, and Ögedei, Temujin's three eldest sons, each became their own forces.

The four heroes and four mastiffs under Temujin either belonged to the three princes, or simply started their own forces like Borchu and Muqali, as well as the remnants of Wang Khan and Sangkun's forces.

None of the factions were willing to submit to the others and each wanted to annex the other. However, apart from Wang Hansangkun, who had always been the one being beaten, the other factions were evenly matched.

In the two years that Wu Chengyu led Guo Jing and the others away from the Mongolian grasslands, the grasslands were in chaos. Compared to the time of Temujin, the strength of the Mongols was reduced by at least 30%, and it was impossible for them to ever regain the strength they had when Genghis Khan unified Mongolia and marched south.

But today, the battle situation on the Mongolian steppe has gradually stabilized, and each side is accumulating strength and playing the game of alliances and counter-alliances.

Ögedei and Chagatai joined forces to confront Jochi's army. Borchu and Jochi were on the same side, while Muqali was hesitant about whether to surrender to Ögedei after being persuaded by him.

Once Muqali makes up his mind to surrender, the strength of Ögedei and Chagatai will immediately surpass that of Jochi. Jochi is arrogant and impatient, and in the end he will definitely not be a match for Ögedei and Chagatai.

After Jochi's fall, Chagatai and Ögedei will continue to fight amongst themselves. However, Wu Chengyu believes that Ögedei, who is more shrewd and strategic, will ultimately defeat Chagatai, after all, Ögedei was the second Great Khan of the Mongols in history.

Without historical precedent to draw upon, Hong Niangzi, based on the Mongolian intelligence she possessed, gained a more macro-level understanding of the Mongolian situation. According to her prediction, in at least five years, and at most ten, the Mongolian steppe would likely be unified again, and the Mongols would ultimately have to move south.

At that time, the Jin Dynasty would be the first to face the Mongol army's advance. Only the Jin Dynasty could temporarily hold back the Mongols' southward advance with its military strength in the early stages of the war.

However, if they were to lead the rebel army to counterattack the Jin Dynasty now, the Mongols would ultimately be the ones to benefit from the conflict between the two sides.

By then, the rebel army would have suffered heavy losses and would no longer be able to resist the Mongols. The Southern Song Dynasty, which was in a precarious state, would be spineless, and the Mongols would eventually unify the country.

Therefore, the rebel army is now facing the challenge of accumulating strength and continuing to lie low, but unfortunately, there is no longer any territory within the Jin Kingdom that can accommodate these forces.

Wu Chengyu had been troubled by this for a long time. This time, after arriving near Bright Peak and observing the terrain, Wu Chengyu seemed to have discovered a geomantically auspicious place.

Although the Ming Cult emphasizes martial arts, it is not actually a martial arts sect. At least during the Legend of the Condor Heroes period, the Ming Cult had virtually no connection with other martial arts forces.

They were professional rebels, and they were essentially the same as the White Lotus Sect, which was overused in many martial arts novels.

Therefore, after a century of construction, especially with professional engineering troops like the Five Elements Flags, the Ming Cult's base near Bright Peak was actually built entirely according to the model of a military base, making it very suitable for stationing troops.

Moreover, over the past century, the hundreds of square kilometers of land surrounding Bright Summit have formed a complete ecosystem. Many river valleys have been reclaimed, with large tracts of mature farmland and villages built along the rivers that support the farmland, making it basically self-sufficient.

Therefore, the foundation that the Ming Cult established at Bright Peak over the past century can be seamlessly transitioned into a new base for the rebel army, saving a great deal of time and manpower and resources.

After learning about the current state of the Ming Cult and its feud with the Five Elements Camp, Wu Chengyu naturally regarded Bright Peak as his future base.

However, Wu Chengyu and the Five Elements Camp couldn't handle such a large area alone, so they had to bring in external forces. Coincidentally, the rebels within the Jin Kingdom, who had been training hard for many years and had nowhere to vent their energy, finally had a place where they could put their skills to use.

A year ago, after confirming that it was no longer possible to establish new bases within the Jin Kingdom, Hong Niangzi relocated some of the elderly, infirm, and their families to the Song Kingdom, which could be considered a streamlined and efficient administration.

On the other hand, after Xiao Lu led the 100 Beiwei soldiers to join Western Xia, they had other opportunities and gradually gained some power. They secretly opened up a hidden passage from Jin to Western Xia, and Hong Niangzi had already set her sights on establishing a base outside of Jin.

Wu Chengyu could have sent Hong Niangzi with a righteous army through the secret channels of Western Xia to Kunlun Mountain, where they could launch a full-scale attack on the Ming Cult if necessary.

Once the Ming Cult is taken over and its territory seized, the area around Bright Peak will be sufficient to support tens of thousands of elite troops and have a complete logistical base. The territory problem that Hong Niangzi had been struggling with before will be solved immediately.

When the Ming Cult is fighting to the death and the rebel army led by Hong Niangzi is at the city gates, the Five Elements Camp will not hesitate to join the army to overthrow the Ming Cult and cooperate from within and without.

At that time, there would be no need for Wu Chengyu to go through the trouble of persuading them. Such a good opportunity for revenge is something the Five Elements Camp would be hoping for but never want to miss, and they would be unable to stop them.

Therefore, Wu Chengyu's current strategy towards the Five Elements Banner is to let you know that I am here to cause trouble for the Ming Cult, but I will not make any demands on you, and I will not ask you anything. I will never let the Five Elements Banner feel that Wu Chengyu wants them to be cannon fodder.

The Five Elements Camp only needs to continue to endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens. When the time comes, you will take action on your own without me having to say anything.

Of course, having Hou Tu Qi help Wu Chengyu cover up for him and make things easier for him is not even a request. The Five Elements Banner currently has no banner leader, and the highest-ranking one is the deputy banner leader Zhou Dao.

Pu Zhishen, who was responsible for relaying messages to the Ming Cult's upper echelons, had completely surrendered. Coupled with Pang Kun, who controlled the Five Elements Camp's core forces and was deeply entrenched, it would be easy for the Thick Earth Banner to conceal Wu Chengyu's whereabouts.

"Is it really true that the Hou Tu Camp doesn't need to do anything else besides this?"

Wu Chengyu suddenly scratched his head, picked up the map of the Ming Cult's secret passage, and pointed to the entrance outside Bright Peak, which was the one Cheng Kun used for his affair.

"There's something else. I really can't read the map, so could you please lead the way and help me find this entrance?"

Furthermore, since this secret passage was built by your great-grandfather, I imagine Brother Pang would also like to see its true appearance.

Fang Yu died at my hands, without even having time to leave any last words. As far as I know, Yang Xu also doesn't know the location of the secret passage, so this secret passage can now be completely considered ours. I believe that this secret passage is not just for the sect leader to use in seclusion.

When Fang La's rebellion failed, he fled here, and he certainly didn't come empty-handed. Therefore, this secret passage must contain many secrets. I, Wu Chengyu, have never kept things to myself; I am willing to share them with the Five Elements Camp.”

(End of this chapter)