Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Therefore, many people in later generations believed that Shan Xiongxin was a double-dealer.

However, he was not Wang Shichong's double-dealer, but rather, he wanted to take revenge on Li Mi. After all, it was Li Mi who had killed Zhai Rang to ascend to power, and Zhai Rang was Shan Xiongxin's former lord.

Whether Shan Xiongxin was simply incompetent or truly harbored ulterior motives, only he knew.

In any case, in history, this great battle failed due to the repeated instigations of Chen Zhilue, Fan Wenchao, Shan Xiongxin, and others.

In this plane of existence, even though the Wei Zhen played by Lu Heng did nothing, he could still reproduce this scenario, but he still made some arrangements.

It was to ensure Li Mi's defeat as well as to further strengthen Wang Shichong's trust in himself.

To maintain influence over Wang Shichong, the Wei Zhen played by Lu Heng had already stayed by Wang Shichong's side and did not go back to Li Mi.

But he continued to keep contact with Yun Ying and Li Hongyun.

He instructed Yun Ying, posing as Qin Shubao, and Li Hongyun, posing as Cheng Zhijie, to also vehemently coax Li Mi into battle. Li Mi, who had never seen such a formation, decided to go all in.

Thereafter, the Wei Zhen played by Lu Heng continuously offered several small schemes, such as finding a wizard to perform a ritual to boost soldiers' morale before deployment or secretly selecting hundreds of cavalrymen to infiltrate Mang Mountain as a surprise force, and so on.

Among these, the most important was to have Wang Shichong find someone who closely resembled Li Mi, and during the assault on the camp, publicly execute him, while letting all soldiers shout together: "We've caught Li Mi!"

Sure enough, Wang Shichong won the battle in the end, Li Mi's army collapsed instantly, and a large number of generals, with no way out, surrendered to Wang Shichong.

In fact, these strategies are all recorded in historical texts.

They might have been conceived by Wang Shichong himself, or perhaps by other strategists in his camp.

But it doesn't matter, now they are all ideas thought by Wei Zhen.

Lu Heng copied the standard answers, and immediately gained Wang Shichong's complete trust.

Wang Shichong was astonished to find that this Wei Zhen was simply prescient! Could this be the heaven-sent aid to pacify the realm?

From the Luoyang coup to the great defeat of Li Mi, Wang Shichong had only two reactions when he heard Wei Zhen's strategies.

The first was: Yes, why didn't I think of that before?

The second was: Yes, that's exactly what I thought too!

Therefore, after the great defeat of Li Mi, the Wei Zhen played by Lu Heng wholly won Wang Shichong's trust and could even influence most of his actions.

Meanwhile, the battle of Qianshui had already begun in Liang.

In history, the battle of Qianshui almost caused the collapse of Liang; it was ultimately saved by Lord Qin's efforts.

But for the players, this was a question they had answered countless times, what difficulty could it pose?

Taking advantage of Xue Ju's death, they went straight in with an all-out assault.

However, when the news reached Wang Shichong, he didn't take it too seriously.

After being brainwashed by Lu Heng, Liang in Wang Shichong's eyes was just like Xiao Xi in the south, a fat sheep with a large territory but not much prowess in battle.

What if he had won against Xue Ju? Xue Ju was just a pushover!

Moreover, in this battle, players took advantage of Xue Ju's death, which made Wang Shichong feel that Liang had no real warriors, only good luck.

Furthermore, the prophecies Lu Heng gave him didn't mention Xue Ju at all but said that Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang would fiercely attack Liang and cause great trouble for it.

So, Wang Shichong still focused his attention on Dou Jiande in Hebei.

In the decisive battle against Li Mi, Wang Shichong became utterly convinced that Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie were sincerely willing to defect to him.

Because in this decisive battle, Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie first persuaded Li Mi to fight, and then, after deployment, they slacked off and refrained from action, accelerating Li Mi's downfall.

This perfectly matched what the letter brought by Wei Zhen said.

And their motives were logical: it was both to avenge Zhai Rang and because they felt Wang Shichong had a better chance of uniting the realm.

So, after this battle, Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie took their remnants to defect to Dou Jiande, continuing to serve as undercover agents for Wang Shichong.

Then, after continual instigation by Lu Heng, Wang Shichong finally made up his mind to launch a campaign against Dou Jiande.

...

Having Wang Shichong campaign against Dou Jiande was a highly difficult task.

In real history, after defeating Li Mi, Wang Shichong devoted himself entirely to scheming for usurpation.

From March in the second year of Wude until March in the third year of Wude, Wang Shichong was basically pondering on bestowing the Nine Bestowments, asking Emperor Huang Tai to abdicate, and suppressing rebellions.

Although there were some military actions, they were minor skirmishes without any clear battle plans.

Sometimes he would strike west and occupy a few enclaves of the Liang, and sometimes he would strike east, encountering friction with Dou Jiande.

Focusing on internal affairs, the result of his governance was that many of Li Mi's generals saw through him, recognizing he was completely incompetent, and they defected to the Liang Dynasty.

In real history, at this point in time, it was practically impossible for Wang Shichong to attack Dou Jiande.

On the one hand, he was busy plotting to usurp the throne, intent on deposing Emperor Huang Tai and becoming emperor himself, and on the other hand, he had no confidence in winning against Dou Jiande.

Dragging things out, Lord Qin took the initiative to attack him.

Yet, Lu Heng, through his own golden tongue, managed to change Wang Shichong's mind.

During that year, Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang launched an attack on Jinyang.

In fact, given the level of the players, they could have easily repelled Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang outside the walls of Jinyang City.

After all, they had Yuchi Jingde, the inside man and one of their own, played by Fan Cun.

Yet the players chose to hold their position steadfastly, presenting a stance of being afraid to fight and gearing up for a drawn-out conflict.

Time just dragged on like this.

Meanwhile, Cheng Zhijie and Qin Shubao, after defecting to Dou Jiande, indeed received important positions. They continued to send letters, delivered to Wang Shichong by Lu Heng, who was playing the role of Wei Zhen.

Originally, Wang Shichong didn't want to fight Dou Jiande because he felt he didn't have much chance of winning.

And Dou Jiande himself had other things to attend to, with enemies to the north and south, so attacking Wang Shichong wasn't a high priority.

But now, with Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie as internal allies, Wang Shichong's chances of winning against Dou Jiande were great!

As for the Liang Dynasty, since they had already taken a stance of a prolonged standoff with Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, Wang Shichong wasn't worried about them attacking him in the short term.

Lu Heng swayed him again, telling Wang Shichong, "Sir Zheng, right now bestowing the Nine Bestowments is far too risky, and lacks long-term vision. If you could defeat Dou Jiande in one battle, then whether it's from the standpoint of moral righteousness, legitimacy, or power, the matter of abdication will proceed much more smoothly."

Maybe it was Lu Heng's talents at effect, or perhaps because he had already established a reputation as a master strategist in Wang Shichong's mind by playing Wei Zhen, or maybe because Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie acting as inside allies gave Wang Shichong tremendous confidence...

In any event, Wang Shichong decided to set aside the matter of the Nine Bestowments and instead mobilize his forces to campaign against Dou Jiande.

Aiming to conquer Dou Jiande within a year, and then march westward to extinguish the Liang Dynasty, head south to pacify Xiao Xi, and unify the world.

The plan was perfect.

But as Wang Shichong resolved to do battle with Dou Jiande, the Liang Dynasty got wind of it immediately.

On the surface, the Liang Dynasty had no intention of attacking eastward against Wang Shichong, deciding first to tackle the northern threats of Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang.

But in reality, the players left only Xia Ruoling to defend Jinyang.

Meng Yuan and Chu Ge were responsible for logistical support in Chang'an, while Zhao Haiping, playing Prince Qi, Luo Ying, playing Lord Wei, and Li Weiyi, playing Yan Lide, secretly led a large army to gather, ready to strike out to the east.

In Jinyang, the Liang Dynasty's military strength was already superior, and with Fan Cun playing Yuchi Jingde as an inside man for Liu Wuzhou's side.

This battle could not be lost.

The goals for Zhao Haiping, Luo Ying, and the others were also clear.

While Wang Shichong was engaged with Dou Jiande, they would make a sudden move east and fiercely attack Wang Shichong's rear!

Even if they could not take Luoyang in a short time, they could still turn Wang Shichong's base upside down.

At that time, Dou Jiande would certainly pursue Wang Shichong, and with Wang Shichong retreating while caught between two forces, he would surely collapse quickly.

The players would then continue to go after Dou Jiande.

Dou Jiande might be confident, but the betrayal at a critical moment by Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie would cause his army to disintegrate instantly.

And so, the players would easily achieve the feat of unification by the third year of Wude!

This was a full two years earlier than actual history.