The Red Phoenix [Concluded]

[Askthepizzaguy]

Edit: Nevermind!!!

[Sprig]

ahhaahhah, I was right. DIY is Pang Tong !!!

ATPG your assumption at there being two mafia is wrong, afaik.

The unnamed person in the write up was me. I was investigating DIY last night and followed him into ATPG's tent.

Vote: DIY

[Askthepizzaguy]

Ah, Okay... the write-up was impressively long and confusing.

Vote: Death is yonder

I should have followed my instincts and acted on my scumdar which you kept triggering in the early game, instead of trying to read too much into Khaan being lynched when he could have been saved. Overthinking again.

[Beskar]

Well, I got no abilities, so it wasn't me.

Vote: Death is Ponker

[FactionHeir]

Hmmm I thought Sprig could only investigate once? Wouldn't it be rather powerful to have 2 investigators?

I would also like to claim Xu Chu, I figured I ought to give ATPG some love

vote: abstain

[Sprig]

Hmmm I thought Sprig could only investigate once? Wouldn't it be rather powerful to have 2 investigators?

I had to protect myself somehow. Saying that I could only do it once seemed the best idea. Not only that, it was sort of true.

I would also like to claim Xu Chu, I figured I ought to give ATPG some love

This was not needed.

If I am right about there only being one mafia left, then this doesn't matter but if I am wrong...

[Joooray]

Alright, interesting scheme you got there Sprig and Atpg.

I'll trust you on this one and Vote: Death is yonder.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I had to protect myself somehow

I hope my lies about being an investigator helped out.

[Yaropolk]

Hmmm I thought Sprig could only investigate once? Wouldn't it be rather powerful to have 2 investigators?

I would also like to claim Xu Chu, I figured I ought to give ATPG some love

vote: abstain

You can't be Xu Chu because I'm Xu Chu! Butt stomp!

[A Very Super Market]

Vote: DiY

[Jolt]

The Red Phoenix - Night 7

Night came and as soon and tonight it was New Moon, thus most propitious for a kill. A person as soon as he had returned to the tent, donned his armor and dressed a black robe on top of it, sneaking out of the tent afterwards. The inner courtyards were becoming reduced, cortesy of the many executions and deaths of the past days, as a result, the distance travelled by the man was rather little until he arrived at Yaropolk's tent. The attacker had prepared in the last day some small darts with a potent tranquilizer made of some herbs only found in the region, that had medical appliances and thus could be found aplenty in Cao Cao's camp. He quickly darted both Yaropolk's guards, and rushed inside. After what happened in the two previous nights, the attacker was now quite wary of failing to succeed in his assassinations. The hastiness of the attacker alerted Chen Qun, who was already asleep. As he turned around, from his bed to see what was all the fuss, he was horrified to see the dagger of the intruder pierce through his throat. Gasping for air, Chen Qun died seconds later.

Chen Qun, Chancellor's Assistent, has been assassinated.

The attacker wasted no time. Fear for Xu Chu had overtaken his every move, and he quickly took the dagger and cleaned the blood, before hastily exiting the tent, and quietly retreating back to his own. For the first time, there was a quiet kill where not even the attacker was spotted.

Once Chen Qun was found dead and Cao Cao warned, he stamped his foot to the ground in rage. "All the men of good quality are disapearing before my very eyes and I can do little to stop it!"
Chen Qun was then sent to the Imperial Capital Xu Chang and buried there.

The council was then summoned to proceed with the deliberations to who was assassinating other people and bring him forth to be executed.

"You are my most trusted men." Exhorted Cao Cao "Without all of you, my task to invade Sun Quan and Liu Bei will surely fail. But if you do not find whoever is killing your colleague, we will all suffer the ultimate price. Set your minds to the crucial task. Whoever of you who finds the assassin will have done an immense favour towards restoring order in the Empire. So gentlemen, begin." By then Cao Cao, down to his last 4 most important people in aiding him in helping conquer China, knew not on who to trust anymore.

The advisors looked with somber mood, depressed to see how little people remained on the council. The scene resembled much more some sort of secret conspiracy ring than a War Council of an Imperial Army. Even Cao Cao was unsecure by now. But he knew he could not afford to retreat now that he seemed so strong. Doing so would ensure that he would be the laughter of the entire China.

Alive (4):
A Very Super Market
Beskar
Joooray
FactionHeir

Executed (6):
Centurion1 - Mao Jie
Yaseikhaan - Xu Shu
Paulus Tertius - Xun Yu
Death is yonder - Pang Tong
Sprig - Sima Yi
AskthePizzaguy - Liu Ye

Assassinated (3):
Diana Abnoba - Xiahou Dun
atheotes - Jia Xu
Yaropolk - Chen Qun

WoZJ'd (1):
Subotan - Yang Xiu


Day 7 votes are due in 8 PM GMT / 3 PM EST, 6th of December.

[Jolt]

The Red Phoenix - Day 7

The already small number of men in the council was further distressed by the fact that failure to kill the stubborn attacker would put Cao Cao, every other advisor, and even the entire camp at risk. As heads were paraded daily around the massive several miles long fortifications, the results did not seem to change and the killings continued. Surely because of the crucial part that one council took on the affairs on China, each and every advisor argued and acused and analyzed each other with greater intensity than ever before. In the end, Xun You, Xu Chu and Cao Ren decided that Beskar was undoubtedly the guilty one.
Cao Cao only nodded with a sigh. "Man Chong, you have stood resillient, and you and your companions have suceeded in killing China's brightest minds and now you yourself go to the afterlife. How will you bear to look on the face of your ancestors after the crimes you committed towards the people, who will now ultimately be devoid of such virtuous talents that those men possessed, which were vital in maintaining the happiness amongst humanity?" Cao Cao only sighed once, clearly unsure whether or not Man Chong was the right man to execute. Cao Cao had lost his sense of direction days ago.

Man Chong, General Who is Mighty, has been executed.

He motioned his hand towards the guards, who picked Man Chong and separated head from torso once outside the tent. Following previous examples, his head went 'round the camp as warning towards conspirators. Cao Cao sighed as he dismissed his meagre council of now three men.

The Red Phoenix - Conclusion

And lo!, several days passed and there was no assassination attempts on any of the remaining council members. Cao Cao finally began regaining his self-trust, and set about to prepare for the attack against Sun Quan and Liu Bei.

A very small fraction Cao Cao's Imperial Han troops, present Dynasty whose Imperial Symbol was Fire, taking the last drills, days before the attack. Cao Cao's army boasted 800,000 men, all posted on the Northern bank of the Yangtze river, only awaiting the Prime Minister's orders to embark in the fleet and proceed to attack Sun Quan's and Liu Bei's 50,000 troops, posted on the Southern shore and downstream of the same river.

As Cao Cao's troops trained, the Prime Minister sent for his Surpreme Naval Admiral, who came with all haste to Cao Cao's tent, where he layed reviewing some papers, with his trusty Xu Chu by his side. Saluting his Lord, Yu Jin inquired "Greetings, Prime Minister. What is it?" Cao Cao smiled at his General and revealed to him "Glad you are here Yu Jin. Look at this sight." Pointing his whip towards the window from his tent, and into the training most of the army was then undertaking. "I see you have intensified close combat training, Lord Cao. I take it we are to attack shortly?" Cao Cao nodded "Correct. I have been consulting with my advisors, namely Xun You, which had given the great idea of using the cover of the night to conceal our movements and take them by surprise. I want you to start preparing and stocking the fleet itself in every provision needed for the attack. It should come within days." Yu Jin nodded in compliance "As you wish, Prime Minister." said he before turning and going to begin the preparations. Soon enough, soldiers were being ordered to load the ships with thousands of carts with a myriad different military and naval utilities. Such a thing could not be kept from sight, and quickly the camp buzzed with rumors and conversation over the iminent attack.

Cartloads of a myriad different supplies, ranging from common bolts for marine crossbowmen to ropes and other provisions began being stocked into Cao Cao's navy.

Cao Cao knew that with 800,000 talking about the same thing, news as to the incoming offensive would rapidly travel the dozen miles between both armies, and since Cao Cao could not afford to lose the surprise effect, an edict was spread at dawn prohibiting any and all conversation, rumor or hear-say about attacking, advancing or going on the offensive, under the harshest military penalty for offenders. In the morning, and to reinforce this aspect, he ordered Cao Ren to summon all military officers and order them to closely inspect and warn their men against talking about it. The conversation quickly died down, and while inspecting around the camp, Cao Cao happily noted that no incident had occurred, except for two soldiers, who were exactly caught talking about attacking, and were thus put to death. At night, orders were issued for part of the navy and the army to border ships during the very next morning for "major naval exercices". Cao Cao was aware that moving hundreds of thousands of men and board them in ships would take several hours, and these movements could be noted by spies, especially if these were in the river and on the shores. As such, Cao Cao ordered the pre-emptive boarding of part of the navy to clear the river off fisherman or any other vessel which could sight the troop movements of Cao Cao. The very next day, during the morning Cao Cao was already up and went off to see the soldiers border the ships, a total of 60,000 of them.

Han Prime Minister Cao Cao inspecting the troops embarking on war vessels.

At the seventh watch, all soldiers were told to eat a double meal and remain on full alert and prepare to board the ships on the following watch. Once the appointed time had arrived, the legions rounded up and started boarding the ships. As predicted, the logistics behind putting 280,000 other men into ships took several hours and once the sun had set, the navy was in place. Before embarking, Cao Cao had given Cao Ren the task of leading the Vanguard of the navy against the enemy. Xun You went with Cao Cao in the flagship while Xu Chu led a squadron of ships alongside the Southern bank of the river. There were other worthy and famous generals in the attacking navy, such as Xu Huang, Zhang Liao, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, Cao Hong, Zhang He and Xiahou Yuan, each leading their own squadron.

Cao Cao, however, was not expecting that genius strategist Zhuge Liang, was seeing through his intentions.

Zhuge Liang, the Sleeping Dragon. He was undoutedly one of the greatest military strategists of all times. He served Liu Bei, who had previously been defeated by Cao Cao and had now joined forces with Sun Quan to prevent Cao Cao from conquering Southern China, and Zhuge Liang had been sent to conjoin efforts with Sun Quan's Commander-in-Chief, Zhou Yu, also a great strategist.

Zhuge Liang warned fellow strategist Zhou Yu, who commanded the troops of Sun Quan, that Cao Cao's attack was imminent, and that he would try to make a surprise attack at night, but not before first attempting to find some way of allowing his troops to board his fleet without the knowledge getting to Cao Cao's enemies. He specifically said that Cao Cao would attempt to give us a false sense of security before launching an attack. The next day, once Zhou Yu heard the drums from afar*, Zhou Yu called Zhuge Liang once again. Zhuge Liang arrived smirking, and after salutations were exchanged, Zhou Yu could not help but praise his colleague, despite the gravity of the situation. "They must be trying to trick us into that they shall only train today. You are indeed right, Master Zhuge." Said Zhou Yu, rather concerned "Still, Cao Cao has not chained his ships together as Pang Tong was supposed to have convinced him do!"

Zhou Yu in the middle, put before the dillemma of how to proceed before Cao Cao's attack.

Zhuge Liang could only smirk. "Indeed. Cao Cao shall surely order his navy to silence the drums as to give the impression that they have retreated back to the naval yards before setting out." Still, Zhuge Liang looked confidant that they could beat back Cao Cao. "Cao Cao's men are still poorly trained, and despite their huge numbers, our men and our ships are vastly better and well trained in naval warfare. Still, to have any chance we shall have to use it." Zhou Yu nodded nervously. He knew the crucial confrontation was about to begin. "I shall have my men get ready for battle." Zhuge Liang also betrayed some signs of nervousness. Despite his unparalelled skill in the Art of War, he was known to be an extraordinarily cautious man. Unhappily for him, the odds were vastly in favour of Cao Cao, and there was little he could do. He went to send for Liu Bei's navy to join up with Sun Quan's navy. Liu Bei's navy arrived at dusk, led by Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun. Their combined navies boasted a total of 70,000 men, which was vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao's navy of 350,000 men.

As the night arrived, Cao Cao ordered his massive navy first to silence the drums, a ploy to make his enemies believe that they had retreated back to camp. One hour later, the general order to advance along to full width of the river downstream towards Sun Quan's naval base was given. As Cao Cao beheld his force gliding through water and comtemplated the lamps of his ships which stretched as far as his vision could reach, he became elated at the sight and very confident in his success.

Cao Cao's immense navy stretched along the river like a dragon's body.

Cao Cao's navy progressed across the river, unwary of its opponents scheme to upset the invasion. Departing from Chaisang, Sun Quan's and Liu Bei's joint navy as not so small on its own, and contained large and sturdy warships, far bigger and better in size and armament than Cao Cao's gigantic but hastily assembled fleet. Further it had a van assembled of very special ships, which Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang hoped with turn the battle around. It was to Cao Cao and his soldiers utter shock that the met the full enemy navy midway of their path towards their base at Chaisang. More than that, at the front of the Allied navy came some small but very distressing ships.

These small boats were filled with combustible objects, which would be set on fire while the occupants of the ship abandoned it, boarding smaller boats.

The enemy ships quickly caught flames and sped up towards Cao Cao's fleet. There were dozens of them, since they were but small in size and easily manned by a few members. Cao Ren's ability and wit managed his vanguard to dodge the fire ships, which slipped through. Unfortunately, Cao Cao's fleet was so big that it occupied the full width of the river, and thus the ships behind the vanguard did not have the freedom of movement that Cao Ren's men had.

The result was that, with the eagerness to try to avoid the incoming fire vessels, several of Cao Cao's own ships manouvered and rammed against each other clogging up the passage for ships behind them. Even more, some of these ships here hit by the fire boats, and thus began burning. Fuelled by the winds, and since the vessels behind the ones already caught in flames had great difficulty manuevering past the stranded and burning ones, the fire began spreading to other mobile Cao Cao's ships. In addition, the rest of the allied navy came behind and began smiting Cao Ren's vanguard.

Cao Cao was utterly shocked at the change of events and he was immediatly to call a retreat, but Xun You calmed him down and pointed towards Cao Ren's ships in the vanguard which were at great cost holding back the Southern navies. Though fire spread from ship to ship, many other ships eventually took risks and passed through to aid Cao Ren's struggle. With Cao Cao's navy split in two, the Southern navy eventually the vanguard of Cao Cao's navy, still a good part of Cao Cao's was still intact. In plain night, both navies met around the site of where the ships burnt, many of Cao Cao's ships who manuevered badly by passing too close to the burning ships were themselves caught on flames, and that coupled with the difficulty of Cao Cao's ships in getting in range to attack or board the Southern navy, made the battle extremely confusing and lengthy.

As the night passed and the sun came up, and more and more ships on each size were taken or sunk, both Cao Cao, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang began seeing that despite the fact that the Han Navy had lost a gigantic amount of ships, its sheer size allowed it to gain advantage over the specialized but outnumbered Allied Navy. By day time, most of the fire had already died down as most ships had sunk, and the river look much more like a charred plank road than anything else. And the battle was only decisively terminated as Xu Chu's squadron did a bold encirclement over an Allied squadron which was defending the Southern flank of the river, ramming through some ships, and decisively defeated it, driving forward and attacking the main center of the Allied Navy, which routed and fled downstream towards their base.

The last part of the battle, occurred already during the morning, as one of Xu Chu's ship smashes through an enemy vessel.

At the end, Cao Cao was astonished at the losses. Of the 350,000, initial estimates by his secretaries based on the number of sunken ships reports that the number of casualties could go as high as 300,000 men, the vast majority of the navy. Out of the fleet of 500 ships, only 46 remained in good shape. Thus, Cao Cao was put forth with the question whether to press and attack the retreating enemy or head back to his own camp. Before Cao Cao could answer, Cao Ren arrived from the shore, where he had been ever since his vanguard collapsed and his own ship was boarded by Sun Quan's marines, under gigantic pressure for the entire Allied Navy.

He came quickly, asking for the advancement of the navy and to finally destroy the Allied few remaining ships. Xun You, however advised a retreat back to the main camp, where Cao Cao still had half a million soldiers posted, as in the current situation of the navy, they were in no shape to make a successful invasion. Cao Cao nodded, and issued an orderly withdrawal back to the Naval Yards upstream, in Jiangling where Cao Cao's camp was located.

The next day, while Cao Cao still thought on which course of action to follow next, an emmissary from Sun Quan was announced. Before the conflict, Zhou Yu had ordered Cao Cao's messenger demanding Sun Quan's surrender to be executed, so Cao Cao was immediatly inclined to make Sun Quan's messenger of an example. But Xun You quickly dissuaded him from it "Do not do it Cao Cao. Sun Quan has just suffered a great defeat. He probably wishes to surrender. Pray listen to what the messenger has to say. If it does not please you, then kill him afterwards." Cao Cao nodded and granted the messenger an interview. After being granted entry, Cao Cao spoke, plainly irritated. "Zhou Yu has recently killed a messenger of mine. How does your Lord dare to send you here, if not for you to be put to death?" The messenger quickly replied. "But your Excellency is surely made up of lofty ideals, and it is only because of your superior inclination that my Lord he has thus sent me to speak to you." Cao Cao began smiling and nodded towards the messenger. "It appears Sun Quan knows me thouroughly." Said Cao Cao "But what has your defeated Lord to say to me?"
The messsenger promptly retorted "As my Lord as tried to settle scores with you through the force of arms, the Prime Minister and his valiant generals had shown why your is so magnificent and wise in warfare that the entire Empire is what your feet, and since your Excellency has won, Sun Quan shall not reject surrender before a superior man." Once the Messenger had finished speaking, Cao Cao got up from his chair with a wide grin on his face. It appears he had just won the war.

He rewarded the messenger lavishly, and sent him back with Xun You to accept his surrender.

Once arrived there, Xun You quickly demanded to know the whereabouts of Liu Bei, to which Sun Quan replied that Liu Bei and his officers including Zhuge Liang, were back in Jiangxia. After Xun You accepted the Seal of Authority from Sun Quan as a formal way of surrender, he went back to Cao Cao and informed him that Liu Bei, his final enemy was isolated in Jiangxia. Cao Cao quickly led his navy downstream and disembarked in the outskirts of the city, besieging it.
Liu Bei had too few men to oppose Cao Cao. He and his brothers tried a few sorties to break away from the city, but they all failed, and Liu Bei lost yet more men. Seeing all hope of escape over, and looking at the misery of the people of Jiangxia, Liu Bei and his brothers, together with Zhuge Liang, decided to put an end to their lives. Liu Bei ordered Liu Qi to surrender the city after he had died. However, Liu Qi, knowing the fate of his familly at the hands of Cao Cao**, killed himself as well, ordering Mi Zhu, one of Liu Bei's most loyal and senior officer, to formally surrender the city to Cao Cao.

6 years later...

When the South was firmly under Cao Cao's control, his supporters at the capital pressed the Han Emperor to name Cao Cao as "Prince of Wei", due to his vast services in reunifying the country under "Han" control. That was 4 years ago. 2 years after the South was conquered, Cao Cao launched the attack on the final region still left unconquered: The West. In a lightning invasion, city after city surrendered before Cao Cao's surpreme might. The West's most powerful warlord, the Governor of Yi, Liu Zhang, surrendered after Cao Cao demanded it so. Liu Zhang knew he could not resist the mighty Prime Minister.

So, now, two years after the reunification of China, the Han Emperor has finally acknowledged the superior virtue and skill of Cao Cao, and that he that rendered such good service to the Han and his equally skilled children, are the most fit clan to lead China into another thousand years of peace of prosperity of for all!!!

Cao Cao is acclaimed as Emperor of Wei!

(*- Ancient Chinese armies used drums and small explosives, like firecrackers when executing attacks as a way to cause confusion and anxiety among the enemy while at the same time spurring their own men forward. When training, armies did the same.)
(**-Before the battle this write up is depicting, Cao Cao had just conquered the province of Jing. Jing had been ruled by Liu Qi's father, which had died shortly before Cao Cao's invasion. After his father had died, Liu Qi's younger brother, Liu Cong, took over the governorship of Jing, and Liu Qi was "exiled" to govern Jiangxia. When Cao Cao invaded Jing, Liu Cong surrendered the entire province -except Jiangxia, which Liu Qi did not yield-, and Cao Cao ordered Liu Cong to depart away from Jing to Northern China. After Liu Cong had departed, Cao Cao ordered his troops to persue Liu Cong and kill him along with his familly.)

WEI (魏)/CAO CAO (曹操) (TOWN) VICTORY!

Thank you all for participating!

[Askthepizzaguy]

*phew* nice job team. Congrats, Wei. Cheers to all.


Nice game, Jolt, thank you for hosting.

[Yaropolk]

Awesome rewrite of how the battle of Red Cliffs could've turned out. Can you please post roles publically, particularly Beskars?

[Death is yonder]

Good game Jolt, thanks for hosting.

Congratulations, especially to ATPG who picked out both Khaan and me.

I must admit I was a little frustrated when khaan read my pm, but otherwise had zero communication with me. Eventually after he died, I decided I'd just play for fun, to amuse the town, unfortunately my plans of sowing discord with random kills did not succeed as ATPG was protected and I was converged upon.

The reason for the lack of kill N1 was me investigating Diana, subsequently, killing her, then killing Atheotes.

Apparently Khaan had the same abilities as me, so this game might have gone much differently if more kills were present.

The emergent mafia really rode on our boat, the town had overextended themselves and nearly revealed all in the do-or-die process of eliminating us, most of your tricks were spent, but I congratulate the town on snatching victory, good game.



And contrary to your belief, I don't know whether the emergent mafia had a cover role, but we sure didn't

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Greetings, Death is yonder!

Congratulations! You are Guest Advisor Pang Tong

Pang Tong, Guest Advisor of the Han Army

You are a man of vast intellect, far superior to all in Cao Cao's camp. You dominate the Art of War and every form of deception, truly you are Zhang Liang's second. However, to save the empire, you have taken upon yourself to do the more difficult task of assassinating Cao Cao and his staff, but you have put rumors circulating in his camp to make all advisors doubt of each other but you. With your friend Xu Shu's (Yaseikhaan) assistance, you may very well succeed in your quest to eliminate Cao Cao and break his army apart. But to do that you must act with the utmost caution and discretion, and must convince the other advisors that neither you nor Xu Shu are guilty of starting a bloodshed, phreaps pointing out to other men within Cao Cao's staff. Doing so, you might have a chance of success and saving the dynasty.

Abilities: Assassinating (You have the ability to kill one person per night. That person will surely be murdered unless something unexpected happens.)
Spying (You have the ability to spy someone at night. Not only is this useful as you are undetected for activity for that night, but you also find if the spied target is useful to be killed first or not.)

Victory Conditions: Kill everyone except Xu Shu to win

Have fun! :P