Gan Wei stayed anxiously in his tent. He knew that something would inevitably happen in the camp that day, and despite being aware of how things would unfold, he remained uneasy in his heart.
Sure enough, before long, clamorous shouts erupted from outside. As Gan Wei hesitated about whether to go out and assess the situation, a close attendant who had accompanied him stumbled in, immediately prostrating himself and wailing, “My lord, a grave misfortune has struck! General Shi learned of the surprise attack on the camp and has already made preparations to retreat!”
Gan Wei was stunned speechless. If he hadn’t already been sitting, he might have collapsed on the spot.
Before making contact with Shi Zhuhe, many in the eastern faction had fervently hoped that this young man – newly promoted by the Emperor to command the Eastern Camp – would turn out to be utterly incompetent. Even disciples of Great Master Xuanyang, such as Dian Wue, had specially lit incense and prayed for just such an outcome. Now, it seemed Great Master Xuanyang truly possessed some divine power – Shi Zhuhe was indeed a thoroughgoing coward and a fool. Yet, in this very moment, Gan Wei found himself sincerely wishing that the man were a bit braver, that aside from hunting and indulging in leisure, he had occasionally spared some thought for leading troops and waging war. This way, the eastern faction’s plans wouldn’t be doomed even before they could begin.
With the situation growing critically dire, Gan Wei could no longer afford to hesitate. He immediately rose to seek out Shi Zhuhe, hoping to persuade him to put up at least some resistance. If only Shi Zhuhe dared to fight, Lujia City’s forces would deliberately lose to them. But when he found him, Shi Zhuhe had already mustered his personal guards and was preparing to flee with the camp’s elite troops.
For a moment, Gan Wei was at a loss for words. He hurried forward and desperately seized the reins, pleading, “General, please wait before you depart…”
It was utterly beyond his expectations that, as one of the traitors who had long harbored rebellious intentions, he would one day find himself urging a Great Zhou officer to fight courageously.
Before he could finish, one of Shi Zhuhe’s personal guards struck Gan Wei unconscious with a swift blow to the neck. Then, lowering his voice, he warned Gan Wei’s attendants, “Out of respect for our shared noble lineage, General Shi is willing to spare your lord’s life. Stop making a scene, lest you further disrupt the army’s morale!”
The attendants who had come with Gan Wei wore peculiar expressions. They longed to mock Shi Zhuhe but dared not, and with their lord unconscious, they could receive no further instructions. In the end, they had no choice but to reluctantly cup their hands in acknowledgment.
Shi Zhuhe’s personal guards laid Gan Wei over a horse’s back, provided a few more horses for Gan Wei’s attendants, and with decisive efficiency, swept them all away in a rush of hooves.
Among the prominent clans around Lujia City were the Ge, Gong, and Gan families. That night, the one leading the “mountain bandits” to attack Shi Zhuhe was a young man from the Gong family. Charging ahead of his men, he was still three hundred meters away from Shi Zhuhe’s troops when he saw the torches ahead collectively moving backward – clearly in retreat. Instantly, his chest tightened as if blood were clogging his throat.
Long before taking action, they had agreed on how to proceed. The original plan was to engage Shi Zhuhe’s forces first, then feign defeat and retreat, luring the achievement-hungry General Shi into the eastern territory. Yet tonight, Shi Zhuhe had left them no room to perform. Without exchanging a single blow, he had fled at the mere sight of the enemy.
Had they known the man was this useless, why would they have gone to such lengths?
However, while Shi Zhuhe could retreat, the “mountain bandits” could not. To avoid revealing any flaws, the young Gong clansman gritted his teeth and ordered his soldiers to continue charging with him, determined to catch up with the fleeing government troops.
Three hundred meters away, scattered torches could faintly be seen moving, with a large banner bearing the character “Shi” fluttering in the air. Clearly, even though the young general was cowardly and avoided battle, having spent some days in the front camp, he had at least managed to maintain some semblance of order during the retreat.
Some in the eastern faction had previously speculated that Shi Zhuhe himself possessed some capability but, to please Jianping’s young emperor, claimed that the previous pacification strategies came entirely from the Emperor, not from his own merit. Yet, judging by today’s performance, while this man could not be called humble, he had at least retained a trace of aristocratic integrity in his honesty.
Hooves pounded the ground, crushing withered grass into dust. While fleeing the camp, Shi Zhuhe personally led several dozen riders charging ahead, flanked by his personal guards and Gan Wei’s group. The guard who had struck Gan Wei earlier hadn’t used excessive force, and after being jostled on horseback for some time, Gan Wei had now regained consciousness. However, thrown sideways across the horse’s back, he found it difficult to make any significant movements for the moment.
He struggled to discern the situation around him, only to feel the night wind rushing past, torchlight flickering chaotically, and the sounds of hooves and armor blending into a disorienting clamor that set his heart racing. As for Shi Zhuhe, the commanding general, he was utterly derelict in his duty, remaining silent the entire time as he simply pressed forward with his head down.
It wasn’t that Shi Zhuhe had nothing to say – rather, he feared that the soldiers around him were too well-trained. If he were to speak, he might inadvertently boost their morale on the spot.
“General, General Shi – could I please ride a horse on my own?”
Having regained his senses from the dizziness, Gan Wei struggled to speak, pleading with Shi Zhuhe to give him a mount. His current position was causing considerable discomfort in his abdomen, and he also hoped to delay the march a little, so he made his plea.
Shi Zhuhe replied in a hurried tone, as though greatly impatient. “Then give him a horse.”
The vanguard’s retreat indeed slowed slightly due to this minor episode, but before Gan Wei could feel any relief, an enraged roar echoed from far behind. “The soldiers of Great Zhou are loyal and brave – how dare they flee without a fight!”
The words struck like thunder, shattering the night sky and startling Gan Wei rigid. He glanced around and, by the torchlight, suddenly grasped the current situation – Shi Zhuhe had fled without fighting, leaving many soldiers unable to keep up and still stranded at the camp, while the “mountain bandits” led by the young Gong clansman had now also become entangled within the camp itself.
Though Shi Zhuhe himself was incompetent, the individual quality of his soldiers was remarkably high. Once organized, they could unleash tremendous force. Sure enough, after that unknown junior officer’s shout, he immediately led his men forward in a spear-wielding charge. Inspired, other soldiers also rushed ahead bravely, surging forth like a sharp blade. The one at the forefront was Chen Ming. Hailing from the Chen clan of Qing Province, a family known for producing generals, she herself was accomplished in both civil and martial arts. With a single thrust of her spear, she unhorsed the young Gong clansman who had been charging at the front.
To make the subsequent retreat appear sufficiently plausible, the forces led by the young Gong clansman were neither too few nor too many. He hadn’t intended to charge too close, but Shi Zhuhe’s premature retreat left him unable to halt his momentum in time, plunging him into the camp. With horses hindered, movement – whether forward or backward – became nearly impossible. Seeing their commander suddenly unhorsed and left in an unknown state, while the Great Zhou soldiers, led by Chen Ming and Ren Feihong, closed in from both flanks, the troops’ morale instantly collapsed. They were swiftly overwhelmed, shedding armor and fleeing in disarray.
Mounted on his horse, Gan Wei felt his limbs turn cold. They had overestimated Shi Zhuhe’s capability, only to find that he couldn’t even control his own officers and men. During the retreat, his junior officers disobeyed orders and launched an attack on their own, while the Gong forces, focused solely on pursuit, overlooked the soldiers left behind. This ultimately led to the complete annihilation of the entire force intended as bait.
Seeing the situation take a favorable turn behind him, Shi Zhuhe no longer continued his flight. Reining in his horse in the middle of the path, he felt somewhat relieved that the dim light, unlike the clarity of day, prevented Gan Wei from observing the surroundings closely even if he wished to. This spared Shi Zhuhe from any further test of his acting skills.
With the death of their commander, the troops led by the young Gong clansman were wiped out in a single battle by Chen Ming and her companion. The soldiers accompanying him numbered around two thousand five hundred, originally intended to give Shi Zhuhe the illusion that “with less than a thousand men, he could easily repel an enemy force two to three times his own.” Now, “repelling” had turned into “annihilation.” The Gong commander himself naturally perished, and about half of the soldiers brought with him became Shi Zhuhe’s prisoners.
Witnessing this, Gan Wei gasped for breath, then toppled straight from his horse. By the time he opened his eyes again, it was already daylight the next day.
Without bothering to wash up, Gan Wei hurried to Shi Zhuhe’s main camp – since the enemy had been eliminated, Shi Zhuhe naturally had no reason to leave and had swaggered back to his original camp with his troops.
Looking haggard, Gan Wei cupped his hands in greeting. “General Shi.”
Shi Zhuhe, his expression somewhat displeased, furrowed his brow but ultimately motioned for Gan Wei to sit.
Gan Wei wanted to inquire about the previous night’s events. After hesitating a few times, he finally spoke, “General Shi, about that junior officer who led the troops to repel the enemy last night…”
Before he could finish, Shi Zhuhe’s face suddenly flushed with anger, and he raised his voice to cut him off. “What junior officer repelling the enemy? Last night, it was I, Shi Zhuhe, who led the soldiers in a fierce charge and drove back the attacking bandits in their entirety!”
Gan Wei was dumbfounded, his face as pale as paper. It had never occurred to him that the young general before him, already incompetent and cowardly, would also dare to claim credit for his subordinates’ achievements!
How could someone like this be chosen to command a camp?
A nearby advisor stepped in to smooth things over, mediating, “General, the soldiers in the camp all witnessed your contribution firsthand. When it is reported to the Emperor, you are certain to be enfeoffed as a marquis. Master Gan has just awakened and may still be somewhat disoriented. We hope you will not take it to heart.” He then shot Gan Wei a meaningful glance, his eyes filled with the unspoken warning, “Do not provoke this incompetent commander,” before having Gan Wei escorted out.
Nearly driven out, Gan Wei stumbled back to his own tent. The moment he entered, he collapsed weakly to the ground. An attendant came to help him change clothes, but just as the garment was halfway on, the disheveled Gan Wei – as if startled from a dream – violently shoved the attendant aside, overturning the water basin. Then, pointing toward Shi Zhuhe’s tent, he wept and cursed, “What kind of man is this? What kind of man is this!”
His heart truly ached as if pierced. Had the failure been due to miscalculation or an overwhelmingly strong enemy, Gan Wei might have grudgingly accepted it. But this time, Shi Zhuhe was clearly the most utterly incompetent fool, yet through sheer luck, he had inexplicably defeated Lujia City’s forces. How could Gan Wei possibly accept such a reality?
It seemed that Shi Zhuhe’s previous achievements in suppressing bandits in the north were also accomplished through deception and manipulation. His earlier claim that the strategies came from the Emperor was simply because he couldn’t appropriate the Emperor’s credit for himself.
Clutching his chest, Gan Wei bitterly denounced Shi Zhuhe for his vile character – fleeing without a fight and claiming his subordinates’ merits as his own. Chen Ming, who happened to pass by discreetly outside, unexpectedly witnessed this scene. She couldn’t help but feel that, based on what she saw, it was genuinely difficult to judge which side was truly the loyal subject of the Great Zhou…
Just as Gan Wei temporarily set aside his loyalties, weeping in despair over Great Zhou’s flawed talent selection system, inside the main command tent belonging to Shi Zhuhe, Chen Ming and the other two were discussing their next tactical moves.
Ren Feihong cupped her hands and smiled, “Congratulations! After this battle, they will likely underestimate you even more.”
Shi Zhuhe offered a faint, bitter smile. For the sake of pacifying the east, bearing such a tarnished reputation was ultimately trivial. And fortunately, while the act of feigning incompetence and greed was embarrassing, at least the Emperor and his colleagues hadn’t witnessed it firsthand.
In truth, while his colleagues hadn’t seen him flee, the Emperor herself – equipped with the cheat-like game interface – had clearly and immediately grasped the situation when Shi Zhuhe led his troops in the opposite direction of the battlefield
In the Western Yong Palace, Wen Yanran watched the changes in the distribution of her own forces on the [War Sandbox] and nodded slightly.
The situation unfolded exactly as she had anticipated. The summaries from enthusiastic netizens in the comments section of Monarch’s Conquest were indeed correct and useful. Although Shi Zhuhe himself was no strategist, when it came to competing for the title of “most incompetent person on the battlefield” against enemy forces, he didn’t need to put on much of an act. Simply by standing there and displaying his usual, everyday level of ability, he could make people utterly convinced that the Great Zhou was doomed.
