Chapter 647: Chapter 647: The Wondrous Scene

“Then I won’t be polite, thank you for the General’s appreciation.”

While saying this, Yang Yu turned off the prize-drawing interface; he hadn’t realized how his collection of trinkets in the system had piled up again.

Since most of it already had channels for disposal, there was no problem leaving them be. Taking the opportunity, Yang Yu smoothly transitioned to the next topic.

“General, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go take a look at the bell-ringing place.”

Putting down his smoking pipe, the Lu Hua Army exhaled a cloud of smoke. “That’s possible, but why so suddenly?”

“After inspecting the cannons, I believe that the sudden ringing of the bell may be related to the substandard cannonballs. There’s someone in my team who can sense extraordinary presences; visiting there might lead to some discoveries.”

After reflecting for a moment, the Lu Hua Army responded, “Well, I also feel something odd about that place, and I’ve already sent people to guard the scene. If you can discover something, that would be best.”

A while later, the Lu Hua Army seemed to remember something and said,

“Right, at three o’clock this afternoon, we will convene a meeting about future operations.

The location is at the Lord’s castle in East View City; if you can’t find it, just head towards the tallest castle in the center.

I have to get going now. I will organize personnel to secure these cannons.

If you find anything new, remember to report it to me.”

“Take care, General.”

Lifting his hand, Yang Yu watched the Lu Hua Army depart, then he and his team immediately sprang into action.

The Command Bell of the Luo Ze Empire was not far from the city walls.

After leaving the walls, a twenty or thirty-minute walk would bring them there.

During large-scale operations, the noises of the battlefield are extremely loud, making it a difficult task to issue unified commands at the same time.

The Wansheng Country Army used drum signals for communication, while the Luo Ze Empire had adopted the use of clear-sounding copper bells, even building special bastions for housing these bells.

The bastion had three floors in total, all made from sturdy stone blocks and roughly shaped like winter bamboos, each floor featuring several large windows.

Stepping inside, one would find a round hole at the center of each level; looking up, the giant hanging copper bell could be seen overhead.

This bastion was specially designed.

Once the bell was rung, its sound would be amplified several times through the structure, ensuring that the troops could hear it within a radius of ten miles.

Military orders are as weighty as mountains, so the location for transmitting these orders is of crucial importance.

This bastion goes without saying, with soldiers guarding it in layers on the inside, and the military camp was nearby on the outside.

Sneaking into it to ring the big dull bell and transmit incorrect orders to the Luo Ze Empire was almost an impossibility.

Normally, one would not expect to find any dead inside this bastion, but when Yang Yu and his team ascended to the third floor, they discovered bodies had started to accumulate there.

Numerous corpses maintained positions as if they had impaled each other, frozen in place by the cold weather without any sign of movement.

It seemed that the Luo Ze officers had turned on each other here.

Most bizarre of all was a man standing beside the bell-ringing post, his hands tightly grasping a sword, with the sharp blade pointed at himself, piercing through his chest.

Even a fool could see that this man had committed suicide.

He might also have been the very last person to ring the bell.

While on the walls, Yang Yu had considered many possibilities but finally confirmed, with Iyas’s perception of darkness, that spiritual bodies had taken residence within the cannonballs.

Not every shell was affected, the ratio was about one in five.

No matter how many, as long as one “faulty” shell was loaded into the cannon, it would cause the cannon to temporarily malfunction.

Another point, the spiritual bodies Iyas sensed were all incomplete and slowly weakened over time. If left unattended, the evidence would completely vanish.

The person manipulating the spiritual bodies—Yang Yu’s first thought was the Curse Sect, but Gordon had taught him a hard lesson: not all Spirit Manipulators belonged to the Curse Sect.

It was still unknown whether it was the Curse Sect or a Spirit Manipulation Master from the Luo Ze Empire’s Peace Faction helping them.

Yang Yu had Iyas and Lotcar thoroughly search every corner of the parapet room, but they found nothing.

No traces of spiritual bodies or any suspicious odors.

Emptying his mind, Yang Yu hypothesized the actions of both the Curse Sect and the Peace Faction to try to understand what had happened at the scene.

However, no matter the scenario, the probability that the last Bell Ringer committed suicide was very slim.

After all, at the time the bell sounded, the troops were in disarray and wouldn’t specifically check on the parapet room, especially since it was the appropriate signal for retreat.

If Yang Yu were the last surviving Bell Ringer, he would pretend to be oblivious and blend into the main force amidst the chaos.

When asked by a superior, he would claim ignorance.

If suspected, committing suicide later to prove innocence was always an option.

Suicide was a terrible choice unless staying alive might reveal more information.

In this way, the option of suicide could turn the situation around, becoming the best choice.

Since no clues could be found to trigger a Hidden Task, Yang Yu could only jot down the incident in his notebook before leaving the parapet room and, after resting a while, he headed to the war conference.

The central Lord’s castle, adorned with sky-blue glazed tiles, had been gradually transformed into a war conference room during the Luo Ze Army’s occupation of East View City.

When the Luo Ze Army retreated, they took all important documents with them, leaving only chaos behind.

Fortunately, many tools the Luo Ze Army did not take could be cleaned up to provide a better meeting environment than tents.

Every time they met in tents, Yang Yu stood until his feet were numb; now, he could sit in a chair.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, the Lu Hua Army immediately started the meeting.

Having easily taken East View City, the West Fifth Army now had more tactical options. They were faced primarily with two combat plans:

First, to continue advancing westward to recover the Long Boots Region in its entirety before launching targeted attacks on unrecovered cities.

Second, to turn eastward, capturing the bypassed cities to eliminate any threats to the rear, and then pushing westward to reclaim the remaining areas.

Regardless of the operation chosen, the ultimate goal was to fully recover the Long Boots Region and attempt to attack the Feng Mang Region to exert defensive pressure on the Luo Ze Empire.

The first operation was more aggressive and carried certain risks but could gain a significant time advantage.

The second operation was more cautious but might take more time, and the enemy might construct new defenses as they moved east.

The officers in the meeting room had differing opinions on which plan to execute.

In the end, the West Fifth Army passed the second operation by a narrow margin, attacking the previously bypassed cities.

Yang Yu supported this second plan.

This was not only over concerns that the Luo Ze Elite, who had previously harassed from behind, might be hiding in those unconquered cities; but also over worries that if the front was stretched too thin, it could lead to overextension and vulnerability to new tactical maneuvers by the enemy.

Additionally, executing the second operation would allow for a quicker union with the West Fifth Army’s third division, reducing unnecessary casualties for the third division and enhancing the overall strength of the military.