Chapter Sixty-Five: Night Ambush
Yin Mountain was very tall. Even standing on the slopes, the stars above were many tis larger than in Changling. They looked like pearls that were within reach.
Many of the parts of the Yin Mountain were natural borders between the Qin and Chu dynasties. This slope was closer to the Chu side, and belonged to the Chu Dynasty. But at this ti, it was the Qin army stationed on the slopes. The black tents were crowded on the slopes and ford a camp.
Below the slope was twenty miles of river valleys and desert. The bonfires were more closely packed together than stars in the sky. The black tents and the red bonfires rged together and stretched out of sight like a hell river of legend.
In the central tent of the Qin army, felt made from the hair of black yaks ford an enormous tent with a black ceiling. There were dozens of thick can candles used to illuminate a sand table.
The sand table was sothing that was used by almost all generals starting many dynasties ago. It could be used to directly see the geography where the army was, the movents of each army, and to judge the details even better.
Two enormous dynasties were fighting at close distance with an unprecedented military power. As a result, the sand table in the tent was enormous, and the small flags that represented the armies were packed among the mountains and rivers.
They had finished discussing the deploynt of the units. When the sun rose tomorrow, so of the small flags on here would move to new positions, or disappear.
In the enormous tent, only Sima Cuo and Fu Su were left.
Standing amid the flickering shadows, these small flags had so marks. These little flags that looked so insignificant on the sand table represented many lives. Thinking of how these small flags would disappear, and the corpses piled up on the true battlefield, Fu Su could not calm down, and his breathing was heavy.
Sima Cuo looked at him like this, and a slightly scornful smile appeared at the corners of his lips.
“What is this?” he pointed at a part of the enormous sand table in front of him and asked.
Fu Su shook slightly, and instinctively responded, “This is the life and death of countless people.”
Sima Cuo’s scorn grew. He shook his head, and said, “This is the entire world, all of the Qin Dynasty.”
Fu Su was stunned, and could not understand the aning in Sima Cuo’s words.
“Most generals may be powerful cultivators, but powerful cultivators may not beco generals.” Sima Cuo looked at him and said coldly and slowly. “What is different between a general and powerful cultivators is that they look at things from different heights. You are the imperial son that the Holy One and the empress value the most. If you do not make great mistakes, the throne of the Qin Dynasty will naturally be given into your hands. So you must look at things from the position of a general, from the position of the country.”
“What this sand table shows now is war, but this great war is with the power of the entire dynasty. The result of the war will decide the fate of the country. Compared to the country, each of the flags here, while representing the deaths of tens of thousands of people, blood in rivers, and piles of bones, they are nothing.”
Sima Cuo’s gaze moved from Fu Su’s face and the sand table to the night sky outside the tent. He stopped for a long mont before he slowly said, “From a certain point of view, Zhao Mu is the opponent that I am most worried about. Because only he cares about winning and losing, and not the process. Tang i is similar to you in personality, he cares too much about the life and death of these people.”
“Each dynasty will have nurous powerful cultivators, and fierce generals skilled in battle. As the commander-in-chief, and in the position that you are in, what you have to grasp is the state of the general situation. These people will fight the battles.”
Sima Cuo laughed. “Like right now. You just have to confirm what problems the Chu Dynasty armies will have with Tang i leading them, are you able to see with him leading the army, in the overall situation, the Chu armies already have a fatal weakness? If you cannot see, then there is no aning in being the commander-in-chief, and your orders have no aning. Maybe armies represented by these flags will win most of their battles, but in the end, you will find that you have inexplicably lost.”
“Weakness?”
Listening to Sima Cuo’s lecture, Fu Su looked dazedly at the sand table. He could not see where the fatal weakness that Sima Cuo said the Chu armies had.
“The more complex the front line, the more ti it takes, and the more variables there are. As the Yan, Qi, and Ba Mountain Sword Field join in, the more disadvantageous it will beco for us. Zhao Mu stayed behind in Chu to steady the rear, and recomnded Tang i as the commander. Tang i’s fighting style will naturally achieve this.”
Sima Cuo’s smile faded. He said darkly, “But when he leads the armies like this, their fatal weakness is food. The Chu army has prepared an entire winter, but they will still not have enough food. The finer the battle, the more routes to transport grain and equipnt, and the more places where problems can occur. If you find this, all your orders just have to be targeted at this.”
Fu Su stopped breathing. He finally understood so.
Sima Cuo said coldly, “Grain and grass, both are needed. Of all of the orders sent tonight, the fifty thousand Bright Tiger Army that Lian Bo is leading seems to have moved the most. But in reality, this is just to contain the main Chu army. The key is those small flags. Much of the fodder that the Chu has prepared will be burned. Even Wei Wu Jiu leading the army to advance to the Green River adow is just a lure. The use of many powerful cultivators in a war is mostly to contain and protect so generals. Sotis, what decides victory is not the battles between these people, but the victories gained by so inconspicuous armies.”
Xuegu Pass.
An inconspicuous part of the sand table.
A mountain valley of the Yin Mountain reached this place. Because sunlight never reached here, even at the start of the sumr, this valley was covered in white snow. This pass was in the north of Daliang Commandery. Because it was so remote, it only guarded against bandits from outside the passes. So there had been a stone city built at the entrance of the pass, and there were only four hundred soldiers stationed here. Yet many days ago, so of the nobility of the Chu Dynasty and their entourage arrived here. Adding on the soldiers that ca, there were seven hundred people.
These nobilities ca from the Chu capital and surrounding areas, and belonged to powerful families. But they were not strong enough for Consort Zhao Xiang to have rcy. All the people among them who could fight were reorganized into the army. Only the old and weak that could not follow the army were left in the capital and “cared for”.
Before they were sent to the front lines, the armies made from these nobilities were split up and sent to different places. In the end, the combat power of the group sent to Xuegu Pass was very weak, much weaker than the four hundred soldiers stationed here.
The soldiers stationed here did not have good feelings towards the nobility, and feared that they would desert. So when these people arrived, they were grouped into five person teams and led by veterans. Many of the ordinary soldiers here imdiately beca “captains”.
The “captain” in charge of the sentry tonight, Song Wei, was such a veteran.
The sentry was just a hidden tent on the side of the slope that just allowed six people to sit together. In order to fend against the cold, the six people were squeezed together, relying on body warmth. But Song Wei could clearly sense the hostility of the five people he was leading.
“If we are quiet, the wind in the valley can cover our voices, and powerful cultivators cannot hear us. How about we talk about sothing, it is easy to fall asleep, so why not talk?” the old soldier whose skin was leather like due to the wind and sunlight of the mountains rubbed his hands and said.
No one answered.
Song Wei did not care and said, “I know that you are discontent. Everyone wants to live good days. Who wants to co here to suffer? Not just you think this, so do I. I am not a cultivator, I do not have the assets to get military rit.”
“Then why did you join the army?” Many monts later, a voice sounded.
“No choice, ” Song Wei laughed self-mockingly. “My father had two sons. I am the older one. My younger brother was of a weak body from birth and learned better at school than . My family is poor, we do not have any farmland. Based on the Chu laws, if you cannot pay the military tax, you must have soone join the army. If I do not co, then who?”
“You are not the sa as , but you also do not have a choice.” Song Wei turned to look at the people squeezed in with him. He said seriously. “I an, since you ca here, then settle. If there is no choice, the only way is to think of ways to survive. Living is better than dying here. Anger is not of much use. Here, everyone is at peace. We will be fine after this war.”
The tent grew silent.
Seeing that his words were accepted, Song Wei smiled, and said, “Luckily, we are remote here, not so important place to be fought over. The Qin army should not make an ambush here. Our chances of surviving~”
He wanted to say that their chances of surviving would be higher, but then he stopped. His throat choked up, expression froze, and his pupils contracted.
So different colored white appeared on the white snow. Many white figures silently appeared in the mountain valley like ghosts.
Then more white figures spread towards the back of the valley.
Reviews
All reviews (0)