Half a Spoiler Chapter 112

The scouts sent by Shi Zhuhe brought news from Gufeng – both good and bad. The good news was that they were indeed growing restless and seemed to want to contact Dayi to encircle and swallow up Shi Zhuhe’s troops in one stroke.

Hearing this, the advisor also looked pleased. “If Gufeng can take the initiative to contact Dayi, it would save us more trouble than deliberately engineering such a move ourselves.”

Yet, just as the atmosphere in the tent began to ease slightly, the scout reported the following bad news – although Gufeng had repeatedly hinted, there was no clear response from Dayi’s side.

If it had been anyone else, Shi Zhuhe and his advisors would have pondered over the person’s true intentions. However, considering that General Zhang Ji truly lacked the skill to lay deliberate traps, they concluded that, in all likelihood, he was genuinely hesitant and unable to make up his mind on how to respond to the situation in Gufeng.

Apart from these two pieces of news, the ambush Shi Zhuhe had set up earlier also yielded no results whatsoever.

Shi Zhuhe was meticulous and cautious in his actions, rarely broadcasting his plans openly. In fact, more than half of the advisors present today were unaware of the ambush arrangement.

Shi Zhuhe explained, “At the time, I was concerned that the rebels might seize the opportunity to raid our grain supplies, so I arranged an ambush along the grain transport route.”

They were fighting far from home, with no fortified city to rely on, which placed extremely high demands on keeping their rear routes clear. To sustain the siege on the city, they would inevitably need to continuously transport grain from the rear. In other words, once their army’s provisions were exhausted, they would collapse without even engaging in battle. Under such circumstances, how could the enemy resist the temptation to cut off their retreat route?

If Shi Zhuhe were in the enemy’s position, even considering the possibility of an ambush, he would still have sent troops to probe the defenses. Even if they couldn’t destroy the grain supplies, they could at least harass the enemy and tie up some of their forces.

Yet, Zhang Ji, who commanded sixty thousand troops and could call upon support from other rebel forces, truly remained completely unmoved.

After a moment of silence, Ren Feihong quietly remarked, “I once heard people speak of those in this world whose great folly masquerades as wisdom, but it wasn’t until today that I truly witnessed such a sight with my own eyes.”

Zhang Ji would never know that as a commander whose military capabilities fell far below the average, he ultimately managed to evade numerous hidden traps precisely because of his exceptionally poor military instincts.

Just then, a personal guard came to inform them that an envoy from Jianping had arrived outside.

Shi Zhuhe did not go out to greet him in person. Instead, he had the envoy brought to his location – in order to uphold military discipline, the commander of an army was expected not to be overly formal with etiquette while within the camp. Moreover, there was no imperial decree to be conveyed this time, only a private letter.

The other advisors naturally withdrew, but Ren Feihong remained where she was, appearing completely unconcerned. Knowing that she was on good terms with the emperor, Shi Zhuhe did not conceal anything and shared the contents of the letter with her.

“…It seems Her Majesty had already anticipated this.”

The contents of the letter were related to the current situation. Shi Zhuhe calculated silently in his mind: even with the fastest horses and lightest riders, sending news from the frontlines to the rear and receiving a reply would take a considerable amount of time. Yet, the Emperor’s letter had arrived at precisely the right moment. This meant that the Sovereign had already formed a clear judgment regarding the affairs in the East before the events unfolded.

Whether it was transmigration or a game panel, both exceeded the knowledge boundaries of the current era. No matter how intelligent Shi Zhuhe was, he could never guess that Wen Yanran’s ability to provide timely advice relied not only on Tao Jia diligently sending battle reports to Jianping but also, to a large extent, on the guidance of the [War Sandbox].

In truth, Wen Yanran initially felt she was too far from the frontlines and didn’t intend to intervene. However, day after day, she received messages like “[Battle] [×× Battle] Failed…” which, aside from reinforcing her ingrained impression that Shi Zhuhe was inept at warfare, also stirred her thoughts on the ongoing conflict.

Wen Yanran didn’t do much – she merely sent information about Zhang Ji and offered some opinions on future strategy.

Shi Zhuhe’s expression turned subtle. “Her Majesty remarked that Zhang Ji is adept at leveraging his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses.”

How Zhang Ji avoided his weaknesses was clear enough, but the mention of “leveraging strengths” was undoubtedly the Emperor’s subtle jest.

Ren Feihong couldn’t help but laugh. “Her Majesty truly is youthful and mischievous.”

Sharing information obtained from the comment section with others was, in fact, an excellent opportunity to verify the accuracy of a player’s statements. However, as two young ministers with exceptional interpretive skills and a strong personal bias in favor of the emperor, they both unanimously believed that the so-called “leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses” was a sardonic reference to the established fact that Zhang Ji, due to his hesitant and timid nature, had unwittingly evaded numerous traps laid by the enemy in a state of ignorance.

Following the evaluation of Zhang Ji, Wen Yanran wrote only one simple line: “Use the affairs of Jianping to recruit him into surrender.”

Wen Yanran didn’t genuinely believe she could persuade Zhang Ji to surrender. Instead, she drew inspiration from the enemy’s earlier superstitious activities, such as sticking pins into effigies and performing ritual dances. Since they engaged in such practices, it was likely they placed considerable faith in these beliefs. She could leverage the public sentiment that the Great Zhou emperor was protected by divine mandate to unsettle Zhang Ji in return.

Ren Feihong paused briefly before remarking, “Zhang Ji is inherently indecisive. Such individuals can easily be swayed with words.”

Having spent too long playing high-stakes games, she had nearly forgotten which tactics were most effective against people like him.

Shi Zhuhe also added, “This person cannot be guided by the flow of circumstances, but he can be pressured from within.”

As a disciple of Great Master Xuanyang, Zhang Ji was naturally a firm believer in destiny. After occupying several prefectures in the Eastern Rebellion, his confidence in this belief swelled to an almost inflated level. He genuinely believed that the Emperor had been forsaken by fate, and upon hearing of Wen Yanran’s illness, he was overcome with delight, convinced that news of the Emperor’s demise would arrive within days.

However, his joy did not last long. Zhang Ji began to feel that his luck had taken a turn for the worse. Since settling in Dayi, he had been unable to repel the imperial troops besieging the city for an extended period. Then, starting from a certain day, the imperial generals – who had previously refused to retreat yet provided him ample opportunities for achievements – ceased their provocations. Instead, they began sending out soldiers with booming voices each day. These men, using the local dialect, loudly announced surrender terms at the city gates, publicly proclaiming that anyone who delivered Zhang Ji’s head would be rewarded with millions in cash and recommended in writing to serve as a regional governor. They emphasized that the emperor, currently in Jianping and having recovered his health under the protection of his ancestors, was the true holder of the Mandate of Heaven. They warned that the actions taken in the East would inevitably lead to their own downfall, which was why they had been unable to repel Shi Zhuhe all along. Now that some had already defected, they urged the remaining rebels not to be so foolish as to refuse this opportunity.

Since Zhang Ji was an inherently indecisive person, the mere knowledge of the Emperor’s recovery was enough to unsettle him for quite some time, let alone the fact that Shi Zhuhe had openly laid out a scheme to sow discord. For a while, Zhang Ji grew deeply suspicious that those around him might collude with the enemy for personal gain.

Within an army, if the commander-in-chief was so filled with dread, the soldiers below could hardly remain calm and composed. Zhang Ji now faced only two paths: either continue to lie low, which would inevitably lead to a mutiny within his increasingly restless troops sooner or later, or rely on a decisive victory to reestablish his authority.

His deputy general also urged him, “Many of our soldiers have been swayed by that General Shi’s provocations. I implore you, General, to take to the field and restore the prestige of Great Master Xuanyang!”