Chapter 360: A Stalemate
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Fang Zhengzhi didn't know whether Nangong Hao seeked stability or disdained moving. However, he was absolutely sure that the path from the wind valley to the Icy Monkey Settlement…
Would definitely not be an easy path to walk.
Initially, Fang Zhengzhi indeed planned to send a surprise force to launch a sneak attack after defeating the wind valley. However, once the wind in the valley stopped, Nangong Hao would definitely receive intelligence about it.
The outcome of sending a surprise force at such a time wouldn't be bad, however, it wasn't the best.
However, Fang Zhengzhi had the advantage in numbers, hence he didn't bother too much about how good the outcome was. However, Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu evidently both felt that now was the best time to send a surprise force.
Entering the wind valley to take a look.
Only Heaven would know if that was just an excuse.
The internal political struggles within the Imperial Government wasn't something Fang Zhengzhi was very familiar with. However, there was one thing which the Imperial Governments of the ancient past did most commonly that Fang Zhengzhi knew very well of.
That was...
Snatching credit!
Something like snatching credit was difficult to describe. However, it wasn't too hard to actually carry it out. In conclusion, it all boiled down to one sentence, do the right thing at the right time, and the achievements would naturally fall upon oneself.
Of course, before that, it is essential for one to be able to discover the right time and the right thing to do.
Wu Feng had this ability. Chen Feiyu had it too.
Once Fang Zhengzhi defeated the wind valley, both of them abnormally charged into the wind valley with an extremely fast speed and without obeying military orders. The method they employed was to act first and report their success, a bold move.
Seeing the wind?
Did the wind need to be seen?
Even taking a million steps back, if they really wanted to see, reaching the entrance of the wind valley would allow one to have a sufficiently clear view. Yet, why did they still have to continue their advance and charge directly towards the Icy Monkey Settlement.
Hence, seeing the wind was only an excuse.
The purpose of Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu was to become a squad of surprise troops, quickly making the greatest accomplishment in this battle before Nangong Hao had the time to react.
As for why they were in such a rush?
The reason was too simple. In Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu's hearts, the battle between Fang Zhengzhi and Nangong Hao was the last battle of the combat examination.
Furthermore, now that the wind valley had already been broken by Fang Zhengzhi, if they didn't take advantage of this opportunity, Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu would miserably fall behind the curtains in this combat examination.
"Charge!" Fang Zhengzhi lashed out crisply at his stallion with a whip. Instantly, the stallion he rode on let out a long bray and shot forwards.
When the military commanders saw this, their eyes instantly lit up.
After taking his own sweet time for so long, he finally increased the movement speed!
Under Fang Zhengzhi's lead, forty-over thousand soldiers advanced rapidly, and the sound of fighting beside their ears gradually became clearly. After some time, Fang Zhengzhi raised his hand once again, and the forty-over thousand troops instantly stopped.
Because, the exit of the wind valley was right in front.
However…
At this moment, the exit of the wind valley was in a huge chaos.
"It was indeed placed at this area." When Fang Zhengzhi saw the chaotic scene in front, the edges of his mouth curled into another faint smile.
The wind valley was a natural barrier.
At the same time, the wind valley was a natural defence. Because, the width of the wind valley only enabled ten people to advance together under normal circumstances. Hence, in a way, the exit of the wind valley was the best location for defence.
In his previous world, Fang Zhengzhi used to watch a movie called The 300 Spartans. It more of less described three hundred fearsome Spartans defending against ten attacks by tens of thousands of soldiers at an entrance that only allowed a few people to pass through.
At this moment, Nangong Hao seemed to be using the same method.
However, his method was the opposite of that used in the movie. After the exit, it was a vast, open patch of land. This also enabled him to plant any ambushes he wished to.
And now…
Wu Feng, Chen Feiyu and the group of scholars evidently charged right into it.
Over ten scholars, all of them of the Heavenly Reflection Peak Stage and above. Yet, when these ten scholars faced with an ambush by almost a thousand people, sweat soaked their bodies.
It seemed as if they were suffering.
"General Fang, should we provide them support?" A commander walked to Fang Zhengzhi's side at this moment and said somewhat worriedly.
"Do you know what is the most fundamental thing people must have between one another?" Fang Zhengzhi didn't reply the commander's question immediately, instead, he shot another question back with a faint smile on his face.
"This… General Fang, please explain." The commander replied, confused.
"Trust."
"Trust?"
"That's right. Look at the geography of this landscape. At the very most, only ten people would be able to walk in a row. Hence, are you able to find ten heroes who can compare to Young Master Wu and Young Master Chen?" Fang Zhengzhi pointed at the two walls, then pointed at the scholars who were desperately involved in a messy fight with the soldiers and said loudly.
"This… I fear that I can't!" When the commander heard, he immediately shook his head.
"Hence, all we can do now is to trust Young Master Wu and Young Master Chen. If even they aren't able to overcome this small ambush with their abilities, what is the point of sending more people in?"
"General Fang, your words make sense!" When the commander heard this, he instantly understood. However, he still felt as if there was something wrong with this.
"Don't worry, as long as we completely trust Young Master Wu, Young Master Chen and the rest, any ambush would be like smoke to us, all we have to do to disperse it would be to wave our sleeves." Fang Zhengzhi continued to explain.
"Roger!" The commander acknowledged and withdrew respectfully.
On the other hand, Fang ZHengzhi continued to maintain his trust in Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu. He sat leisurely on his horse and quietly spectated the fierce struggle between the evenly matched forces in front of him.
After spectating for a while.
Fang Zhengzhi understood something.
What is Nangong Hao!
The ambush in front of him was clearly a mini army formation. Military formations were not a problem to Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu.
This was even more so for Nangong Hao.
This formation that Nangong Hao had set up…
After a detailed scrutiny by Fang Zhengzhi, he more or less managed to understand a few parts of it. Even though he didn't know the exact name of this formation, he could infer from the way it was set up that it contained two different concepts within it.
One was the Big Dipper, the other was the Eight Diagrams.
In other words, there were two formations. Or, it could also be said that it was a grand formation formed by two formations.
The Eight Diagrams took the lead while the Big Dipper followed behind.
It wasn't difficult to understand this placement. Because, the essence of the Eight Diagrams had always been defence. In Fang Zhengzhi's previous world, there was a very famous person called Zhu Geliang.
By using the Eight Diagrams as a foundation, he managed to conjure up a formation that was claimed to be the strongest formation for defence, the Eight Front Strategy!
Legend claimed that one Eight Front Strategy was able to defend against a hundred thousand troops.
Whether or not that was true, Fang Zhengzhi didn't know. However, it was recorded that the military chief Lu Xun of the Three Kingdom's Wu army had almost been trapped to death within the Eight Front Strategy.
It's power could easily be inferred from that.
On the other hand, the Big Dipper Formation was usually evolved into sword formations, spear formations, blade formations and so on. The essence of the philosophy behind it was one word. Offense.
Of course, this offense was an ordered form of offense.
Using the seven positions of the Big Dipper to surround and attack a certain point.
First defend, then attack!
From the positioning of the two formation groups, Fang Zhengzhi could more or less understand Nangong Hao's thought process when dealing with military matters.
Of course, it was naturally impossible that Nangong Hao setting up such a formation formed by two different formations at the exit of the wind valley was as simple as defense followed by offense.
The Eight Diagrams was a defensive formation. In order to defeat the Eight Diagrams, one had to locate the life gate of the Eight Diagrams.
That was the most fundamental thing people had to know.
Fang Zhengzhi understood this point. It was also naturally impossible that Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu didn't understand it at all. But, understanding was understanding. There was no way of defeating the formation in front of him based on this concept alone.
Because…
Nangong Hao only left one death gate open.
It could be imagined how big was a formation consisting of almost a thousand people. It also could be imagined how small was the exit of a wind valley that only allowed ten people to pass at once.
The method Nangong Hao was said to be simple yet direct.
However, it was a method that caused the greatest headache and greatest problem for people.
Placing the death gate at the exit of the wind valley meant that if one wanted to leave the valley, one had to pass through the death gate. It was either that or not exiting from the wind valley at all.
"Cruel!" Fang Zhengzhi could only use this term to describe the method. After all, shameless was a word specially reserved for him, it definitely couldn't be used on Nangong Hao.
At this moment, Wu Feng ,Chen Feiyu and the rest of the scholars who were engaged in an intensive battle with the soldiers finally noticed that within the wind valley, Fang Zhengzhi was riding on his horse and 'leisurely' watching the show go on.
"Why isn't this guy coming to attack?" A scholar couldn't contain himself anymore.
"Don't tell me this guy wants to watch us die!" Another scholar also couldn't contain himself anymore and swore when he heard this.
When Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu heard their words, both of them grasped the weapons in their hand tightly and gritted their teeth somewhat miserably. Surprisingly, they remained silent and didn't speak a single word.
The biggest difference between them and those scholars were that they were well-versed with military tactics.
From an emotional point of view.
Fang Zhengzhi's actions were undoubtedly burning the bridge after crossing, or it could also be leaving them in the lurch.
However, from a logical point of view, they understood that even if Fang Zhengzhi sent soldiers to save them, the most it would achieve would be to decrease the pressure on them by a tiny bit. Fundamentally speaking, it wouldn't provide any significant help.
After all, once the Eight Diagrams Formation was placed in action, everybody within the formation would be separated virtually. The more people that came, the more separations there would be.
All they could do was to hate themselves for being too reckless.
In order to snatch credit, they actually dived head-in into Nangong Hao's "ambush".
Of course, this was something they understood only after diving in. As for why they dived in, this was another thing that caused them misery.
The reason was…
Nangong Hao had placed an illusionary formation at the exit of wind valley.
An illusionary formation that consisted of only dozens of soldiers, one that used the Dao of All Creation and dozens of soldiers to completely conceal the ambush behind.
Wasn't a wind valley exit guarded by dozens of troops a great opportunity for a surprise squad to dive straight into?
Wu Feng felt somewhat suspicious. However, he wasn't able to resist such a Heaven-given opportunity. Hence, when Chen Feiyu and himself led the charge into it…
Everything was too late.
Fang Zhengzhi didn't know that Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu had faced this brief interlude before landing into the ambush. Of course, even if he knew, it still wouldn't affect his current show-watching mood.
"Come, give Young Master Wu, Young Master Chen and the rest some encouragement!" Fang Zhengzhi ordered.
"Roger!"
Instantly, a few soldiers acknowledged the order and following which, carried out a few large drums. As they drummed on furiously, they also shouted out loudly.
The power of the drums!
When Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu heard the loud commotion behind them, they wanted to cry.
With such a huge commotion, how could the Icy Monkey Settlement not know that Fang Zhengzhi had led an army to attack? The surprise force plan that he and the rest had planned for so long was now officially foiled.
Furthermore, they even landed inside the formation.
…
Within the Icy Monkey Settlement, an urgent military report was once again passed into the huge stone house. Finally, a middle-aged man presented it in front of Nangong Hao.
Nangong Hao, who was wearing a white scholar robe, sat behind the study table and placed down the ancient book he held in his hands. He took up the urgent military report and slowly opened it up. After glancing through it, he quickly placed down the report.
However, his dark pair of eyes lit up faintly, just like the first rays of light from the rising sun in the morning, bright and enchanting.
"Young Master Nangong, is it that the formation we placed at the exit of the wind valley had trapped Fang Zhengzhi?" A middle-aged man asked somewhat enthusiastically.
"No." Nangong Hao shook his head.
"No? That's impossible. We had already set up the illusionary formation, as the commander of the army, Fang Zhengzhi would definitely walk right at the front. Don't tell me he can still cowardly hide behind?" The middle-aged man was somewhat confused.
"Even though this Fang Zhengzhi is shameless, but, he isn't a coward. He would not do something like hiding behind an army. If I didn't guess wrongly, he indeed walked in front of the army. However, he exploited Wu Feng and the scholars' depressed mood and hence eagerness to win honour and glory and turned them into a surprise force!" Nangong Hao shook his head once again and replied.
"Surprise force?" The middle-aged man seemed to have not understood.
"Yes, a surprise force to search and uncover ambushes."
"Isn't this a little too shameless? No matter what, Wu Feng and the rest are all scholars and examinees who had entered the roll. Even though they are already eliminated, they should still be treated like commanders of a thousand-solder strong army. It is somewhat cruel and inhumane to treat them like commando troops and even more so for them to uncover ambushes." When the middle-aged man heard this, anger was somewhat evident in his eyes.
"In a battle between two armies, there isn't such a thing as humane anyway. Fang Zhengzhi isn't familiar with the geographical landscape of the wind valley, hence using Wu Feng to spearhead the attack is still a logical thing to do. Furthermore, if it wasn't for Wu Feng and the rest to want to do this on their own, it would be impossible for Fang Zhengzhi's authority alone to make them budge." Nangong Hao explained calmly.
"Then… based on Wu Feng and the rest's abilities, would they be able to defeat the formation Young Master Nangong had set?"" The middle-aged man nodded. After which, he asked again.
"They cannot."
"Looks like Young Master Nangong had thought of this outcome a long time ago?" When the middle-aged man heard this, the worry on his face slowly began to dissipate as he heaved a sigh of relief.
"Yes, and no. Now, it would be about how Fang Zhengzhi deals with this." After Nangong Hao finished his sentence, he didn't speak further and instead lowered his head and continued to read the ancient book in his hand.
...