Chapter 262 An actor’s self-cultivation

Chen Jinghe and others could not see any game interface, and they did not think that the Black Flag Camp would be able to find similar people in a short period of time.

Unless it is the legendary disguise technique, find a strong man with a similar physique to the prince and change his face.

But the degree of similarity is too shocking. Where did the commander of the Black Flag Camp find such extraordinary talents? They can play music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and can fight as foreign soldiers and barbarian soldiers. They can even disguise themselves and make them look real!

It's so scary.

Great figures from ancient times to the present, both in China and abroad, like to choose substitutes as their "meat shields", which is equivalent to picking up a life for free.

Of course, it is not uncommon for a stand-in to replace the real person. For example, the real prince and his wife have been replaced by a "stand-in".

Chen Jinghe didn't know much about the situation in Korea, but he knew that the King of Korea now had three sons who had lived to adulthood.

The eldest son died in the battle to recapture Shenyang, so the second son will sooner or later become the crown prince, that is, the heir to a country.

No.

It should be said that with the full support of the Black Flag Camp, the second-in-command must become the leader of North Korea, or even become the leader in advance.

As for the internal coup in Korea, the Ming Dynasty would not ask about it as long as the new king had no "anti-Ming tendencies".

The current King of Korea came to power more than ten years ago by overthrowing his uncle through a coup. It feels like Zhu Yunwen overthrowing Zhu Di.

Once the Black Flag Camp supports a substitute to take power, all the resources of the entire country of Korea will belong to the Black Flag Camp, and the plan to overthrow the Ming Dynasty can be greatly advanced.

Although the "substitute cat for prince" scheme is good, how can we control the "substitute" to be obedient?

The Stand's abilities are too poor, making it easy for the Korean nobles to see through it, causing unnecessary trouble.

But if his abilities were too strong and he developed ambitions after being in a high position and wanted to become a real king, he would definitely not be willing to be a puppet of the Beiwei Army and would definitely join forces with the Ming Dynasty to create trouble for the Beiwei Army.

Chen Jinghe truthfully conveyed his concerns and received high praise from Governor Li.

"The strategy of substituting a cat for a prince is temporarily on hold. Everyone, go back and reorganize your troops. Whether to march to Liaobei, Liaodong, or Korea, how many troops to deploy for battle and how many to leave behind to garrison the city requires careful consideration..."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the Liao generals and officers took their leave.

As long as we follow Marshal Li’s Beiwei Army into the pass, three generations of our family will be rich and prosperous!
They returned to the camp with a happy feeling of having the mountains behind them, and even the bodyguards felt that their generals had encountered some great fortune.

Of course, the stand-in plan could not be shelved. Faced with the "flaws" arising from the stand-in, hundreds of "deputy commanders" present began a heated debate.

The poor prince and his family of three could only huddle against the wall and shiver, thinking they had accidentally entered the scene of a mutiny.

"At that time in Korea, only interpreters of Chinese descent could communicate fluently in Chinese because of their profession. Ordinary nobles had no motivation to speak Chinese, nor did they have the environment to use it, but they could indeed communicate in Chinese characters."

"So the stand-in has to be able to speak Korean and write beautiful calligraphy?"

"I don't think it's necessary. Let's just say the second son witnessed the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter, which caused him to lose important memories. He can't speak or write."

"Then this character is useless. Who would support a useless person who can't speak or write to be king? You know, we plan to take the throne early, so we have to get a few loyal ministers to pledge their allegiance to us. We can't just stay in Korea for a few years and wait for the old king to die, right?"

"What are you afraid of when you have a knife in your hand? We say the stand-in is the king, and whoever disobeys will be killed."

"If a king who is loved by the people comes to power and carries out reforms, causing civil unrest, and then spends money to ask for help from the Beiwei Army, that is suppressing a rebellion. But if a useless person who is known to have no chance of rising to power carries out reforms and sends wealth to Liaodong, that is a puppet, and everyone will know that we are interfering in Korea.

By then, the Ming Dynasty will know that your Beiwei Army has invaded Korea and will declare you a rebel. You will have no choice but to rebel in advance before you have even completely taken over Liaodong. The people of Liaodong may support you in your rebellion against the Ming Dynasty, but they will never support you in fighting a war that has no benefit.

"Fighting the Ming army in front and being stuck in the Korean quagmire in the back, not only has the righteousness been lost, but the fighting is tiring and boring. It's not playing the game, it's the game playing you."

"Then don't attack North Korea."

"Don't fight? Let the Tartars consume Korea and become another little Tartar to backstab you? Why not kill the remaining Tartars now and puppet Korea to kill two birds with one stone? Do you have to wait until the monsters are fattened up before fighting?"

"It's not impossible, just make it a little more difficult for us."

"Don't get off topic."

Li Mu immediately deducted reputation and honor points from the speaker, thinking that now is the time to conquer North Korea, why should he fatten up the enemy and cause trouble for himself?
Some players want high difficulty and excitement, which is fine if you think about it, but it’s better not to do it as it will only bring you trouble.

At least he doesn't eat it.

"I think what the elder brother said makes sense. We should build up enough momentum for the double to get through the early stages. When we have the righteous cause and recruits, we can form a military and political committee and delegate the king's power to the committee. The new king will be the real puppet, and we can just pick an 'actor' to show up occasionally."

"Why don't we change the name of the new king to Park Ka Ka."

"The last name Quan is more interesting."

"So where can we find someone who speaks Korean and knows calligraphy? The Ming Dynasty will probably be preparing to take over Liaodong in a few months. They won't have time to train people on short notice, right?"

"Hey!" Ajie raised his index finger proudly. "A talented person recently joined our guild. He's good at calligraphy, knows several languages, and knows a lot about history!"

"There's someone in my guild who knows calligraphy!"

"I also have someone here who is well versed in North Korean history."

"Is it possible for a macho prince with back muscles so strong he can squeak out the word '德'?"

"The more substitutes we have, the better."

"We can definitely set up a stand-in training class to learn the Korean accent, the royal manners, the close relationships between royal family members, and the intimate memories between family members, striving to make it flawless. If the actors get tired, they can take turns."

"Good boy, you're planning to form a stand-in team, right? Dozens of people in the team all have the same face."

"What kind of stand-in team is this? It's clearly an army of clones!"

"Oh, I suddenly thought of something very interesting. If all mortals were replaced by stand-ins, wouldn't it become a 'conquest' game where the stand-ins take over the world?"

"Great! Military victory is nothing. The victory of the fake people is the highest achievement!"

"Good fellow, a good farming and fighting game has been turned into a horror game with just a few words from you guys."

Li Mu was shocked when he heard this, and silently added a rule to the system that no character without permission was allowed to have his face pinched.

Although white-name and green-name players are not allowed to offend interests from the beginning, adding one more rule makes him feel more at ease.

Whether characters outside the core territory can be replaced by “pseudo-people” will be discussed later.

"Then when will we puppet North Korea? Oh no, save North Korea... I can't wait to spread happiness to those North Korean women. I want to create an idol girl group for this era!"

"You're overthinking it. Even among the Korean noble women, there aren't many who are good-looking unless you spend time and energy cultivating them. But if you have that energy, why not go to Jiangnan?"

"It's better to act sooner rather than later. Let's march to Korea in a few days. We don't have much time left to revive the battle flag. The vanguard will go first, carrying the battle flag. The central and rear armies will follow behind, escorting the baggage."

"How can this be enough for the doubles to train? It's impossible to bring the real master with us, right?"

"You're stupid! The battle flag still has a few days left. If it's almost over, tell the brothers to 'flip' over. The time spent walking up the mountain can be saved so you can train at home."

"Well, even if the Stands set out and encounter some difficult problems, they can still ask the Prince at home how to deal with them."

"Then how many troops should be dispatched?"

“It’s impossible to accurately predict the number of combat players, but over 2,000 people have volunteered to become civilians or instructors, and at most 7,000 players will go on the expedition.

As for the rest of the troops, we can bring as many as we want, and 30,000 will be enough, so the supply pressure won't be too great."

After some in-depth research and discussion, the top leaders of the Black Flag Army interest group decided to send more than 30,000 troops to invade Korea.

Among them are 6500 players, 10000 Korean soldiers, 5000 baoyi prisoners, and 10000 Liaodong Ming troops.

Li Mu also personally led 40,000 Black Flag Battalions and troops from other garrisons south, and stayed in Dengzhou, Shandong for some time in the name of assisting immigrants in land reclamation.

The Southern Army would launch its attack in a few days, while the Northern Army would postpone its move for ten days. The Eastern Army's operation would be temporarily suspended until the situation in North Korea became clearer.

Just as the entire Liaodong was undergoing military mobilization, the court's reward plan for recovering Liao and rescuing the emperor came.

Li Mu was granted the title of Earl, but was only entitled to the hereditary title of a hundred-household officer of the Imperial Guard. Zhang Xianzhong received a hereditary position in the Guard, but was not even entitled to the seal of a general, meaning that he could not formally command the entire Liaodong army.

This is not called a reward, it is simply not rewarding the merit.

Li Mu and Zhang Xianzhong didn't care. They were on the verge of falling out anyway. Even if he was granted the title of Marquis or Duke, the extra salary would be meaningless. On the contrary, the Liaodong army and people were indignant and had a deeper understanding of the court's unfair rewards and punishments.

Liaodong has not been completely stabilized yet, but the court is eager to divide the military power of the meritorious officials. How can this court have any conscience at all? It directly "beats" those wavering neutral factions into the ranks of the Black Flag Camp.

They couldn't help but think in their hearts that even the soldiers of the Black Flag Camp and the Beiwei Army, who had dedicated their lives to the country and the people, ended up without being rewarded. Could ordinary generals like them be spared?
At the same time, in a ravine on the east side of Liaoyang, a group of newly built buildings rose from the ground.

These buildings have a simple exterior and a simple interior structure. The necessary decorations are all painted with oil paints. They are scaled-down versions of the Joseon royal palace.

A man and a woman dressed in formal attire stood in the middle of the "palace", demonstrating etiquette movements such as sitting, walking, saluting, and entering the palace, and then moved to the side to witness the performance of the "students".

"let's start."

Following a notice from the North Korean interpreter, dozens of young men of similar physique began to walk in a standard manner. As they walked, they turned into a march of brave soldiers, and then began to laugh and joke with each other.

The man could only wave his hands helplessly, and even communicated through the Korean interpreter beside him, "Gentlemen, please stop. Now we will practice calligraphy."

As soon as these words were spoken, the thirty-nine men turned around and faced the man.

More than thirty identical faces looked over, some smiling, some serious, and some annoyed. The eerie atmosphere in the silence frightened the prince and his wife, the interpreter, the maid, the medical officer...

Even though they had experienced such scenes several times, they still couldn't help but feel scared.

What a superb disguise skill it takes to make anyone's face look the same!

What’s even more amazing is the body proportions.

The arms, legs and eye distances of the thirty-nine stand-ins were exactly the same as the prince's. They were like monsters incarnated from mirrors, without any errors caused by mirror reversal.

The powerful military force displayed by the Beiwei Army and its superb disguise "magic" completely impressed the prince and his entourage.

They never dared to hope to escape from control, and only hoped to have a good life under the control of the Beiwei Army - the generals of the Beiwei Army promised that after a few years when the world was settled, they would give them a piece of land and allow them to live in peace as small landlords.

If anyone has family members left in North Korea, they will be brought over as well.

"Start calligraphy practice."

The thirty-nine people seemed to have returned to their student days, shouting "Hello, teacher" sparsely, then sitting down on small stools, taking out their brushes and writing and drawing on paper.

Some people wrote casually, while others copied the poems carefully.

Mashed Potatoes wrote one piece of calligraphy after another with ease, and even the prince who came over couldn't help but sigh that Mr. Thirteen wrote so well.

It’s just that the handwriting is not similar, and needs to be corrected in some places.

Besides calligraphy, there is language. The accent of the language is relatively difficult.

Even though the Korean language at that time was not too different from the Korean language of later generations, the pronunciation and some grammar had changed a lot.

For example, the grammatical differences between "I love you" and "I love you" are easily noticed as problems as soon as they are spoken.

So the prince laid out all the conversations he had encountered and practiced speaking them out one by one.

But the players found it boring and tedious, and began to role-play each other.

Sometimes they played the role of Li Shimin forcing his father Li Yuan to become the emperor, sometimes they played the role of a fallen prince who killed his father while holding Frostmourne, and some even staged the coup d'état of Zhu Qizhen.

Then ask the Korean prince and the interpreter to translate them one by one, and the player will memorize them by "empty ear" with the same pronunciation so that he can reproduce the classic scenes at any time.

Even though we are both gamers, Mashed Potato couldn't help but sigh that they were really a group of restless monkeys from Mount Emei.

From time to time, they spoke to the prince in Korean with a very heavy accent and incorrect pronunciation. As they spoke, they changed to Japanese, and then began to intersperse Chinese and English, which made the prince confused.

After several days of emergency training, the day finally arrived when we had to graduate.

As the top student with the highest overall score, Mashed Potato successfully won the honorary title of "Number One Stand-in". He was also nicknamed "Fake Leader" and "Fake King" by other jealous players...

The remaining thirty-eight will serve as her substitutes, occasionally making a cameo appearance as the Joseon prince.

The jump that players often talk about is also very simple. Just commit suicide. The battle flag scenery of the Southern Army has been set up, waiting for all brothers to jump in at any time.

Of course, according to the player's sand sculpture personality, suicide is something that must be tried——

Someone dug a square pit for himself, weaved a flower out of hay and placed it on his chest, then lay down in the square pit filled with sharp stakes and was killed by a single blow.

Someone changed into pale yellow clothes, donned a straw crown, and climbed up a man-made old crooked tree. An assistant held the "crown" for him and took photos of him while screaming, "Send the crooked-necked monster off!"

Then the two switched roles and asked the other person to feel the sensation of swinging in the cold wind. In the end, both of them were hanged.

Some people held wooden swords and sticks and staged a slave fight to the death in the arena.

Both men brought to bear the experience accumulated from over a year of battle, leaving blood splattering and flesh crackling. If the Ming army or Bayala had seen this, they would have marveled at the ferocity of their fighting skills.

"Up! Up! Left hook!"

"Master Chen, attack his bottom lane!"

"Oops, I was too slow to draw my sword!"

Even some players who hadn't yet fully died from suicide attempts couldn't help but be drawn into the deathmatch, vomiting blood or hanging in the air to cheer.

This forced the two players who were fighting to the death to stop and yell at the onlookers, "If you can do it, come on."

The whole thing was a ridiculous and absurd stage play.

"Hahaha, even suicide has to be played for fun."

Mashed Potato thought to himself that this group of stupid players really made people love and hate them.

Perhaps it is precisely because of the colorful gameplay of this group of idiots that this game has produced so many popular videos and attracted her to join?
Although Mashed Potatoes doesn't do any fancy tricks, she can't help but imagine herself as a princess, slowly lying in a dense flowerbed, surrounded by cats, dogs and other things, guarding her until the end of the world.

While lying there, she called out the system and clicked the "XXXX" option five times.

As the "Confirm to Give Up" pop-up window appeared, she clicked to confirm. She felt that the connection between her soul and body was severed, and she was floating thousands of feet in the sky, overlooking the earth.

The vast territory of China appeared before her eyes like an ink painting, and she clearly saw two flashing golden lights appearing before her.

One in southern Henan, the other in southeastern Liaoning.

Other areas in the field of view include options such as "Modify physique", "Change name", and "Exit game".

When her gaze moved over, the resurrection location in southeastern Liaodong seemed to be magnified and marked by a semi-transparent circle, and then a "Confirm Resurrection" button popped up.

She casually clicked the confirmation button, and felt as if her whole body was pulled by a hook at her belly button, and she fell to the ground at a rapid speed. A wonderful feeling of shuttle flooded her mind.

She closed her eyes and opened them again, and suddenly found herself standing in a large military tent, just like the first time she entered the game.

But this time she didn't have the weapons distributed when she first entered the game, and only had random, simple clothes to wear.

The guards outside the tent were mostly players. A stranger approached, saw the name and honorary title above her head, and immediately said to the brother behind him, "That's him. Take him to change clothes."

"what?"

"The NPC sees your newly shaped face. Remember your identity. For quite a while, you'll be playing as the second son of the King of Korea. Completing tasks will earn you rewards. If you ever feel like not wanting to play, tell others so they can fill your shoes. Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Mashed Potato looked at the polished bronze mirror handed to her by her teammate, and at the familiar yet unfamiliar man in the mirror, she made up her mind and said, "I am the Joseon prince - Li Hao!"

……

The originally fast-flowing Yalu River was frozen by the low temperature, like a thick white wall connecting the ravine between the Ming and Chao banks.

Aisin Gioro Abai, who was in Yizhou City, looked north. All his family members died in Shengjing.

And all these tragedies are caused by the Han dogs!
"Bring Aha up!" Abai bit his worry and anger in his mouth, and then exhaled a mouthful of strong steam.

Ten Han slaves who were transporting grain with the army were escorted to the foot of the city wall. He walked out of the city and raised his sword, hanging it above the heads of the Han slaves.

(End of this chapter)