https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-1364-Refining-the-Heavenly-Destiny-Dragon-Qi/13050757/
Chapter 1365: The Invasion of the Southern Barbarians
Chapter 1365: The Invasion of the Southern Barbarians
January 15th, 2018
The system prompt arrived as scheduled, but Lu Hai Kong did not immediately proceed with nation-building after receiving it.
For Lu Hai Kong, nation-building and quests were not conflicting, but he prioritized them differently.
Lu Hai Kong had already transcended the stage of merely completing quests for their sake. Even if he had planned to establish a nation early on, he wouldn't have rushed into it as soon as the system prompt appeared. He would wait until he was fully prepared before attempting nation-building.
Moreover, Lu Hai Kong believed that since it was a quest, the system's nature would likely differentiate between a 100% completion rate and an 80% completion rate. If he was going to do it, he wanted to achieve perfection.
Thus, he ignored the system prompt for a while.
With this mindset, Lu Hai Kong, after successfully refining the Heavenly Destiny Dragon Qi, immediately devoted all his energy to state affairs, aiming for a 100% completion rate.
However, it seemed that fate was against Lu Hai Kong. Before he got involved in state affairs, there were no issues, but on his very first day, he was stunned by a system prompt.
[Your control over the Great Han Empire has decreased from 80% to 72%.]
As soon as Lu Hai Kong arrived at the Northern Defense Tower, the system prompt appeared, leaving him dumbfounded.
"Do I have the potential to be an incompetent ruler who ruins his nation? I haven't even started yet, and my control has already dropped by 8%. If I take charge, will the country be doomed?"
Despite his words, Lu Hai Kong knew that something unexpected had happened. Indeed, before he could question Jia Xu, the latter arrived with some intelligence.
Upon reading the intelligence Jia Xu brought, Lu Hai Kong's face darkened.
"It's easier to provoke the King of Hell than to deal with these petty ghosts. I didn't expect that after dealing with Liu Cao Sun, someone else would dare to cause trouble for me, Lu. It's as if they're testing the sharpness of my blade!" Lu Hai Kong's gaze turned murderous as he finished reading the report.
A few minutes later, several stern political decrees were issued from the Northern Defense Tower.
...
Three Kingdoms World, Outside of Shu State, in the Southern Barbarian Region.
The Southern Barbarian Region refers to the land west of Yizhou.
In people's traditional perception, this land was considered uncivilized and backward. However, in reality, while the Southern Barbarian Region might be culturally and economically less advanced than the Central Plains, it was not as primitive as imagined. In fact, some areas were not far behind the Central Plains.
The development of the Southern Barbarian Region began with one person, none other than the Southern Barbarian Meng Hu, who had briefly appeared during the campaigns against Dong Zhuo and Lu Hai Kong.
Despite his unremarkable performances in those campaigns, where he seemed weak and insignificant, Meng Hu was an extraordinary individual.
Not only did he possess exceptional martial arts talent, making him one of the few Outsiders to reach a strength of 99, but he also had remarkable strategic prowess.
Over ten years ago, Meng Hu rose to power in the Southern Barbarian Region, displaying exceptional skills.
Instead of focusing on strengthening his own tribe, he spent more than a year uniting the various Southern Barbarian tribes into a massive alliance and proclaimed himself the leader.
This was just the beginning of his remarkable strategies. After forming the alliance, Meng Hu truly began to showcase his abilities.
This man began to develop the Southern Barbarian region, utilizing the millions of Southern Barbarian commoners under his command. He simultaneously focused on agricultural development and various handicraft industries, and by trading specialties like Vine Armor, he opened up trade channels with Yizhou and Jingzhou.
Within a few short years of his development, the Southern Barbarian population skyrocketed from a few million to over ten million. Additionally, he constructed hundreds of majestic and well-defended cities in the Southern Barbarian region, effectively establishing a formidable Southern Barbarian kingdom.
After achieving such success, Meng Hu naturally wanted to take things further.
Having arrived in the Three Kingdoms world, he also aspired to contend for dominance in the Central Plains, hoping to shine in this legendary era.
It was for this reason that he had intervened in the affairs of the Central Plains twice, during the Warlords' campaigns against Dong Zhuo and Lu Hai Kong. On one hand, he wanted to stir up trouble, but more importantly, he sought to gauge the strength of the Central Plains to lay the foundation for his future ambitions.
However, both times Meng Hu ventured into the Central Plains, he gained little. Well, perhaps that's not entirely accurate. At the very least, these two ventures made it crystal clear to him that the strength of the various warlords far exceeded his expectations.
Despite Meng Hu's considerable power, he still fell short when compared to the other warlords.
With his strength, not to mention vying for dominance in the Central Plains, it was likely that even if he dared to make a move, Liu Bei and Liu Biao could suppress him.
This realization became even more profound after the campaign against Lu Hai Kong.
...
After the campaign against Lu Hai Kong, Liu Biao was directly killed by Lu Hai Kong, leaving Jingzhou without a clear leader. Liu Bei took advantage of the situation and invaded Jingzhou, leading to intense clashes with the four major families of Jingzhou.
Upon witnessing this, Meng Hu took decisive action and dispatched troops to Jingzhou, swiftly capturing several county towns.
However, before Meng Hu could even celebrate, Liu Bei was already displeased.
In Liu Bei's eyes, Jingzhou was his territory, and he would not tolerate Meng Hu's intrusion. Without hesitation, he launched a series of attacks, with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as his generals and Dantai Mingjing as his strategist. In less than a few months, they forced Meng Hu to retreat back to the Southern Barbarian region.
After being driven back by Liu Bei, Meng Hu was filled with resentment. He did not want to spend his life confined to the Southern Barbarian region, so he constantly sought opportunities to counterattack.
However, no matter what opportunities he sought, they were of no use. Liu Bei was like a towering mountain, relentlessly suppressing him and preventing him from making any headway.
Just as Meng Hu was suffocating under this enormous pressure, an opportunity presented itself. The mountain that had weighed on his mind was suddenly removed!
Now, the chance had come right before his eyes.
Of course, Meng Hu was well aware that this opportunity came with significant risks.
Initially, he did not take action, or at least not openly. During those four months, he secretly contacted a group of loyal officials and generals under Liu Bei.
Through their clever planning, it took four months until recently for Meng Hu to finally make his move.
When he did, he seized Jingzhou in one fell swoop!
(End of Chapter)
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