Liu Wei patiently waited as the other elders continued to talk, until their debate had mostly lost steam. With arguments mostly exchanged and ideas proposed, it was on him as the debate leader to move on.

  “I’d like to thank everyone for contributing their insights to this debate. Since there are now a lot of interesting ideas on the table, I believe it is time to start thinking about a full plan making use of them. If you all don’t mind, I do have one to propose.”

  He paused and waited for a moment. Then, since there was no objection, he continued.

  “Very well, let me lay out my thoughts. The Roaring Thunder Sect’s entire strategy seems to be built on splitting up their forces. While that has been working splendidly for them, it does mean that they don’t have one massive army that we have to be on guard against, so there is nothing preventing us from doing the same.

  “I believe that the best way to combat the Roaring Thunder Sect is to strategically distribute our capabilities on three separate operations, all of which benefit from one another’s success but none of which are dependent on the others. I envision these operations as follows:

  “First, we will form an elite team of fast responders. They will focus on intercepting the attacks on the remaining friendly sects, preventing further losses on the part of the alliance and gradually weakening the enemy forces in the process. This group will need to be able to move faster than the Roaring Thunder Sect’s horses, so it will be exclusively made up of Dao Contemplation Cultivators. This limits its strength in confrontations with larger armies and leaves it especially vulnerable should it meet Xing Zhou. To compensate, all of our strongest warriors will be here. Patriarch Zhao, Elder Liang, Elder Zhong, and myself are who I would personally allocate.”

  The greatest difficulty in formulating a plan like this was giving all elders satisfactory roles. The powerful specifically would always demand to be put in properly influential and honorable positions of command. By necessitating many of them to be in this group, Liu Wei was circumventing this problem and sparring himself the headache of trying to create enough influential positions just so they could fill them.

  “Second, we will send a relief force to meet up with Patriarch Ye’s army. They still have plenty of powerful cultivators with them, we just need to aid them in stopping the bleeding. To this end, this group will transport supplies and be primarily made up of healers and alchemists, led respectively by Elder Xia and Elder Ma Rong. Tending to their wounded and resupplying them will increase their current fighting force, minimize damage incurred by further raiding attacks and massively improve morale. If possible, you should also see if you can get Matriarch Liqiu back on her feet faster. Her presence would be a massive boon to our side.”

  This group’s success would depend on them slipping through mostly unnoticed. To ensure this, his own team would need to make as much noise as possible from the very beginning. Truthfully, this was the riskiest part of his plan and Liu Wei was also not entirely comfortable in letting Meixiu Xia get out of his sight. The potential reward was great though and he trusted Ma Rong to keep Lady Xia in check. The man had been taking on the pillar families for centuries without losing his footing, if there was anyone with sufficient experience in handling her schemes, it was him.

  “Third, we will spend some time gathering the forces of our subordinate sects who will group up with the majority of our remaining fighting forces and board our fleet, headed by the Tidebreaker. The Roaring Thunder Sect has no way to oppose us on the sea and their raiding tactics will not help them here either. Their sect is only three or four days of march from the coast, so we will sail directly into the heart of their territory and land there with a massive force. Elder Bai would be perfectly equipped to coordinate this attack.”

  This last part was a gamble: Ning Bai was indeed a skilled strategist and experienced in leading large forces. He did, however, suffer from the massive handicap that was his own inflated ego, so having him lead this operation unsupervised was risky.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The reason Liu Wei was suggesting him was tied into this: he hoped that it would stroke the man’s damaged pride enough that he wouldn’t cause further problems with petty revenge actions and instead devote his attention to proving his skill by flawlessly executing his operation. In the worst case, there would still be a great number of powerful cultivators around to stop him from behaving too recklessly and Liu Wei would personally provide some of them with guidance on how to handle him.

  “Their tactics failing and their core territory under threat, they will be left with no choice than to return to their sect to defend it. With their momentum reversed, the morale of those they forcefully brought under them will be completely destroyed. Whenever possible, we will make them offers to rejoin us in return for lenience with regard to their punishment for betraying their allies. If it is even still necessary by then, we will force a decisive battle in a direct assault on the sect with both Patriarch Ye’s and our force present.”

  With that, Liu Wei ended his presentation, leaving the others to ponder in silence for a while. Ning Bai was the first to speak up.

  “An interesting plan. If it were to work out as you have envisioned, it would be a safe and sound way to defeat the Roaring Thunder Sect. There are a lot of moving parts though, all of which could run into problems.”

  “You are right, Elder Bai. No plan ever plays out as smoothly as it is envisioned beforehand. War is inherently risky, and the enemy will of course do their best to keep things from going our way.

  “However, as I have pointed out in the beginning, no single operation in this plan is load bearing. Should the relief force be intercepted on its way to Patriarch Ye’s army, we will still be able to land an army in the Roaring Thunder Sect’s backyard and keep them from making any further progress in their attacks. They will be forced to withdraw and Patriarch Ye’s army, even in its weakened state, will be able to aid us in the final attack. Similar things apply for the other scenarios. I’d rather work around possible troubles like this than bet on a plan with a single point of failure that can cost us the campaign on its own.”

  “I understand your thinking. Thanks for addressing my concerns.”

  Next, Patriarch Zhao spoke up.

  “Elder Wei, I too must commend your plan. One thing that caught my attention is that while your plan accounts for most of our most powerful elders, you have failed to mention Elder Yuan at all. As one of our sect’s two elders at the seventh stage, I assume that you haven’t simply forgotten him?”

  “Of course not. One thing that we ought to keep in our minds is that with our participation in the war, our own territory becomes a possible target for attacks. To prevent making the same mistake as Patriarch Ye, I believe that it is vital that we keep a defensive army stationed here that will dissuade any such attempts. As one of our strongest elders and a trusted neutral party, I believe Elder Yuan to be the perfect choice to lead this army.”

  Protecting their territory was extremely important to keep morale high, especially amongst their subordinate sects. It was also an important selling point to the pillar families, since they certainly didn’t want to see their assets endangered.

  “I see. And are you certain that Elder Yuan alone will be enough to defend us? What if the Roaring Thunder Sect mounts a larger scale attack?”

  “To do so would require them to give up their current positions, taking the pressure off of Patriarch Ye, which would be a major strategic mistake. And in the time they would require to get to our territory, our own response team could return to help fend them off.”

  “I see. Elder Yuan, are you okay with taking that position?”

  “I am honored to protect our sect from all threats. That goes for this war as much as it goes for any other time.”

  The Patriarch took a moment longer to contemplate.

  “Does anybody else have any concerns they’d like Elder Wei to address or does anybody here want to make a counterproposal?”

  Nobody spoke up.

  “Well then, I suppose it is time to vote on Elder Wei’s proposed plan. Everybody in favor, please raise your hands.”

  The vote was an easy one. With Liu Wei’s successful defense of his plan and without any other plans, most elders were satisfied to vote in favor. The only ones to dissent were Zheng Rong and Sun Liang. The former was probably dissatisfied with how Ma Rong was given the leadership of the sect’s alchemists but knew that trying to fight it in the debate would only lead to his embarrassment, while the latter had simply made it a point to never vote for any proposal made by Liu Wei, no matter what, especially when his vote didn’t have the potential to tip the scales.

  With a majority of thirteen to two, the decision was finalized: The sect would move ahead in joining the war against the Roaring Thunder Sect. following following the strategy proposed by Elder Liu Wei.

  northern sect alliance after all. Will fix when I got time.