Chapter 310 - 158: Besieged on All Sides [Thanks to "Jia Ling" the Alliance Master]

"What did you say?"

General Fan snatched the letter and as he read, his pupils visibly shook, "True, truly surrendered? They didn’t even put up any resistance?"

"None!"

The subordinate spoke firmly, "The brothers at the front all saw it with their own eyes. The Xuanjia Army only needed to stand outside the city gates with the General’s Banner for a while, and the city would open on its own!"

"Good, good..."

Meng Quji was relieved that he had heeded advice and hadn’t rashly ordered the troops to be called back.

He looked toward the silent green-robed scholar at his side, "General Fang, you must tell everyone, how did you do it?"

"..."

Fang Qingyun silently stared at the sand table, motionless like a rooted tree, for a long time.

"General Fang?"

Zhan Taoming cautiously interrupted, "What is this?"

"I got it."

After a long while, Fang Qingyun suddenly spoke up, his voice clear and filled with surprise, akin to a seasoned mathematician finally solving a puzzle or a master craftsman discovering the method to unlock a complex contraption.

"I know how Vice General Chen did it."

"Oh?"

Meng Quji couldn’t wait, "Tell us, let’s hear it!"

"Commander Meng."

Fang Qingyun asked with a smile, "I’m asking you, what is your path?"

"My path? You mean my proficiency in military tactics, right?"

Meng Quji promptly replied, "Then my path, naturally, is the path of invincibility. For all great military families, one must first ensure an invincible position for oneself, to await the enemy’s defeat."

Fang Qingyun turned to the next person, "And you, General Fan?"

"Me?"

General Fan proudly claimed, "What I believe in is the king’s way, the way of the king being to follow the Heavenly Son’s mandate, to dispatch a righteous army. Wherever it goes, it is aided by heaven and is bound to be unstoppable, winning the hearts of the land."

"I’m not worthy to discuss paths."

Zhan Taoming said candidly, "I am a deputy under Commander Meng. If I had to speak of a path, my preference in everyday matters is the dominating path most favored by General Ji. Of course, compared to General Ji, I’m merely a poor imitation."

"General Ji is the true embodiment of military dominance. Wherever he goes, the enemy trembles with fear, and once he seizes the advantage, there’s no stopping him. The enemy is sure to be routed!"

"Ming State was just like this! Zhong Wuxin is a Martial Saint as well, and what became of him? His army of eighty thousand, under General Ji’s pursuit, ended up with only a little over ten thousand returning alive. I heard many were so frightened they were paralyzed with fear, some even died on the spot from terror."

"General Ji is indeed a role model for our generation!"

The court had intended to arrange it this way. As the deputy general alongside Meng Quji, one steady and the other dominant, the goal was to create a complementary effect in critical moments, achieving unexpected results.

"To tell you the truth, our understanding of military tactics is not as profound as yours, General Fang."

Meng Quji lamented, "Our respective ’paths,’ whether they be the king’s way, the dominating way, or even the stable way, are all about finding the methods that suit us in the Military Books and then expanding on them. But you, General Fang, you are the founder of ’Deceit,’ a true master of the ’path,’ and you will certainly be enshrined in the Martial Temple one day."

Fang Qingyun did not show modesty or boastfulness, but at this moment, he changed his approach: "Do you gentlemen know which ’path’ General Chen’s military tactics follow?"

"That..."

Meng Quji stroked his short beard and soon declared, "Deceit!"

"I think the same."

Zhan Taoming agreed, "Now it seems, without a doubt, that General Chen’s path is Deceit! Actually, I have carefully reviewed Vice General Chen’s battle records. Back in Po Yang, when a mere thousand remaining troops crushed a twenty-thousand-strong barbarian army, he used strategies like feigning attacks and striking from unexpected angles, fitting with Deceit."

"Yes."

Even General Fan agreed, "The Four Crossings of Hongze River, moving around within the small territory of Ming State, and then, without running away, directly striking at Meishan Prefecture, isn’t it all just like what General Fang originally wrote, ’The military, too, is based on deceit’? Truly worthy of being General Fang’s junior, he might surpass you in Deceit."

Fang Qingyun just smiled and said nothing.

"Oh?"

Meng Quji became interested, "General Fang, don’t hold back, is it another ’path,’ perhaps Benevolence, Madness, or even the rare Art of Crossing?"

"None of them."

Fang Qingyun shook his head, "You are misunderstanding. If you look at Vice General Chen’s records, at first, there certainly are elements of Deceit, but if you look further, you’ll know it’s not merely Deceit."

"I don’t know who he learned his military tactics from, but it definitely wasn’t me."

"And now, at this point."

"No matter who he learned from before, or how many people he learned from, it has all merged thoroughly, transformed into his own ’path.’"

"His own ’path’?"

Meng Quji discerned the underlying meaning, "General Fang, are you suggesting..."

"Exactly!"

Fang Qingyun waved his sleeve and announced loudly, "Gentlemen, prepare yourselves. Before long, the Eight Volumes of Military will become the Nine Volumes of Military, a path that belongs solely to Vice General Chen, a path that has always been there, yet it is also a completely new ’path’!"

"This path’s name is—Momentum!"

"The military is about momentum!"

...

Changting Prefecture.

"General!"

"All our brothers in the north have surrendered!"

"There’s no more food in the city!"

"Let’s surrender too!"

"Surrender? We still have four thousand brothers, and you tell me to surrender?!"

"General! General Chen is only giving us three hours to consider! It doesn’t bother you, you’re camp soldiers transferred from elsewhere, even if the city falls you’re just losing your own life, eighteen years later you’ll be a man again! But we are the local garrison, our wives and children are inside the city, if we continue to resist, once the city breaks, they will suffer the consequences!"