With wealth, it was natural to recruit many soldiers. However, due to limited population, each city could not recruit too many people. But for defending the city, it was already sufficient.
Using some territorial soldiers to lead these new recruits to guard the city was completely enough, allowing Zhou Yan to free up a large number of soldiers to attack other countries.
Zhou Yan had now resolved a potential threat from one direction. The border there would not face significant crises for the time being, and Zhou Yan did not believe anyone possessed the strength to build ships and attack.
Zhou Yan still had three directions adjacent to other countries: the west, south, and north. As for the Qing Kingdom to the east, it had already been eliminated, so there was no need to worry about enemies from the east crossing the river to attack for now.
He had to eliminate one more country as quickly as possible before these enemies could develop.
This way, he would avoid a multi-front war.
Looking at the map, to the north of the Zhou Kingdom was the Yuan Kingdom.
Behind the Yuan Kingdom were two more countries. Attacking from the north would require eliminating three countries to secure his northern border. However, after eliminating those countries, they too would face threats from other nations.
As for the west, there were even more enemies, completely out of consideration.
However, the south could still be considered.
To the south of the Zhou Kingdom lay a place called the Golden Bull Kingdom. The Golden Bull Kingdom bordered both the Zhou Kingdom and the Qing Kingdom. The current Zhou Kingdom had already formed a pincer attack against the Golden Bull Kingdom.
To the west of the Golden Bull Kingdom was the Xuan Kingdom. To the south of the Golden Bull Kingdom was a natural mountain range, requiring no soldiers to guard it.
As long as the Golden Bull Kingdom was captured, the southern part of the Zhou Kingdom would also be much safer. The reason for not choosing the Golden Bull Kingdom before was that the roads there were difficult, and the geographical environment was very poor, which would waste a lot of Zhou Yan's travel time.
Now was not the beginning; the current Zhou Yan had enough time to deal with this Golden Bull Kingdom.
Ouye Zi and others were very fast at forging equipment. After all, they were top-quality blacksmiths. With the hundredfold amplification, they had already successfully forged several thousand weapons in such a short period.
At this stage, Zhou Yan only needed weapons.
Besides weapons, there were also several thousand arrows.
Zhou Yan checked the time and decided to launch a two-pronged attack with Chen Qingzhi. The Golden Bull Kingdom and the Zhou Kingdom had several adjacent cities. They decided to attack one city each and then attack the city in between from both sides.
After discussion, they each led fifteen thousand soldiers and set off.
…
Outside the competition space.
Seeing Zhou Yan mobilizing troops again, and this time unlike before, Zhou Yan already had some weapons and arrows. Great Wind Novel Network.
"The blacksmiths in his territory forge equipment too quickly!"
"Even with the hundredfold bonus, the blacksmiths in his territory are indeed fast, tens of times faster than ordinary blacksmiths. This advantage is too great."
"The forging level of these blacksmiths is very high. I really wonder how Zhou Yan cultivated them."
"He is going to attack another country this time, and the chosen country is the Golden Bull Kingdom."
"Have you noticed? The student from the Golden Bull Kingdom is actually another student from Sheng Yang Academy."
Zhou Yan, with the advantage of equipment, was once again preparing to attack other countries, and this time the target was a student from Sheng Yang Academy.
Many people unconsciously looked towards the teachers of Sheng Yang Academy. Seeing the teachers of Sheng Yang Academy's faces darken again, for some reason, it felt as if the students of Sheng Yang Academy and Zhou Yan were natural enemies.
The teachers of Sheng Yang Academy, seeing so many eyes looking at them, were also very speechless.
Why were they looking at them?
The competition between students had nothing to do with them teachers.
They were just the leaders. Any matter, any action, any strategy of the students had nothing to do with them.
Zhou Yan spent a considerable amount of time from gathering troops to setting off, and he also needed to eat in between. This time, they really had to cook their own food.
They were capable of this. After finishing everything, Zhou Yan reached a city in the Golden Bull Kingdom and suddenly had a bold idea.
Although he didn't know if it would succeed, Zhou Yan felt it was worth a try.
"Follow me," Zhou Yan said with a smile.
Then he began to prepare. He ordered a portion of the army to lie in ambush outside, and took two thousand men to sneak around to the back gate of the enemy city, pushing carts.
The carts were loaded with weapons and arrows.
Then, Zhou Yan swaggered, lit torches, and walked towards the enemy city walls.
Those outside the competition area were very confused by Zhou Yan's actions and speculated what he intended to do.
"What is Zhou Yan doing? Isn't he going to attack the city of the Golden Bull Kingdom? Why is he swaggering over!"
"Damn! This Zhou Yan is really insidious. He actually wants to trick the enemy into opening the city gate!"
"Such a cunning old schemer. This guy can even think of this. What a cunning old fox."
"It seems this city is also going to fall into his hands."
…
The enemies on the city walls soon discovered Zhou Yan. When they approached, the soldiers stopped Zhou Yan and his group and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Our lord sent us to deliver equipment to you," Zhou Yan shouted.
"Equipment! Why has it been delivered so quickly?" the guards on the city walls were surprised.
"Isn't it better to be fast? Don't you want weapons and equipment to deal with the enemy sooner?" After speaking, Zhou Yan deliberately used a torch to illuminate the weapons on the carts so that the enemies on the city walls could see them clearly.
"It really is equipment. It seems the blacksmiths in our territory are quite efficient." The soldiers on the city walls immediately shouted, "Open the city gates, everyone come to get equipment!"
"We have equipment."
"As long as we have equipment, how can we fight if we don't have weapons on the front lines?"
"The lord should think of us first."
A group of people immediately came down from the city walls, happily opened the city gate, and welcomed the soldiers outside with smiles.
They didn't doubt the identity of Zhou Yan and his group at all, because they themselves lacked equipment, and it was perfectly normal for their territory to send them equipment.
Moreover, Zhou Yan arrived from the rear of the city. If there were enemies, they would only appear from the front.
Furthermore, they never suspected that enemies would attack them at this time.
It was precisely by exploiting this that Zhou Yan successfully tricked the defenders into mistaking them for allies.
Seeing that Zhou Yan had so easily tricked the defenders into opening the gate, it made countless people outside marvel at Zhou Yan's resourcefulness.
Although they could have captured the city walls through direct combat, it would have resulted in heavy losses. However, by opening the gates in this manner, it was not only fast but also reduced losses to the absolute minimum.