"Hahahaha!"
A strange, unrestrained laugh suddenly burst out, shattering the uneasy silence hanging over the group of new students.
Flat Rabbit straightened his back and spoke with great confidence, his voice ringing loudly. "Why do we need to think up plans in advance? This Rabbit Lord possesses unparalleled wisdom and boundless strategy. When the battle begins, I can produce ten thousand brilliant plans on the spot. Now that the Tongguan Pass garrison has arrived and we finally have proper weapons in hand, why waste time racking our brains? Tongguan army, come with this Rabbit Lord. We charge straight in, smash through head-on, storm into the rebel camp, and slaughter them until not a single one is left alive. As for tactics, this Rabbit Lord will think of them while we fight."
For a moment, no one said a word.
The Tongguan Pass commander reacted first, his face stiff as he answered without hesitation, "I must respectfully decline."
Sun Chuanting turned his head toward the cluster of new students and smiled faintly. "You see?" he said calmly. "Senior Flat Rabbit has just given you a live demonstration. Do not restrain yourselves. Speak boldly, whatever ideas you have. Even if you are wrong, it does not matter. The Tongguan commander is perfectly sane and will simply reject any proposal that makes no sense."
Those words immediately loosened the tension among the new students.
If Flat Rabbit could put forward something so wildly reckless without shame, then what were they afraid of? At worst, their ideas would not be adopted, and no matter how poor their thinking might be, it surely could not be more embarrassing than Flat Rabbit's grand charge-and-slaughter plan.
They quickly crowded around the map, voices overlapping as they began to talk all at once, excitement and nervousness mixing together.
At present, Chuǎng Wang's army was camped in Black Pool Ravine, southeast of Zhougou.
This sort of terrain was exactly what rebel forces favored. Rolling hills rose and fell without end, ravines cut across the land like tangled veins, and even someone familiar with the area could easily lose their way. An ordinary person might wander for days without finding a way out.
With rebels hiding in such country, it was nearly impossible for government forces to encircle them completely. Even the fearsome firearm troops from Gao Family Village would find it difficult to sweep such an area clean.
At that moment, Huang Long slipped in from outside and reported in a low voice, "I met a local hunter in the mountains. He told me about a path called Sanyuan Ravine. It can bypass Miaogou and lead directly to the foot of Mount Hua."
Chuǎng Wang let out a soft sound of surprise. "Oh?" He smiled faintly. "To meet a hunter who points out the way in these deep mountains. Indeed, Heaven favors me."
Huang Long continued, "If we go through Sanyuan Ravine, we can avoid Miaogou entirely. But that Flat Rabbit fellow's words are irritating. If we bypass him like this, it will look as though we are afraid of him."
Liu Zhe immediately joined in, a sly smile on his face. "We bypass Miaogou first, then raise our banners and shout insults from afar. He will surely abandon his ambush and come chasing after us. When he enters the valley, we spring our own ambush. Hehehe. Once we wipe him out, who would dare say that we were afraid of him?"
Huang Long's eyes lit up. "Exactly!" he exclaimed. "We are not afraid. We are simply using a superior strategy to defeat him."
Chuǎng Wang nodded in satisfaction. "Well said."
He raised his hand and issued the order. "Very well. The entire army will detour through Sanyuan Ravine. Once we are behind Miaogou, we will wave our banners and shout to provoke that Flat Rabbit. He will certainly come after us. We lure him into the valley and annihilate him there, letting him see the might of the Chuǎng army."
After saying this, he suddenly paused.
A strange realization crept into his mind. Although Chuang Jiang was not present, the decisions of the army were still not truly being made by him. Instead, they had been discussed and settled by Liu Zhe and Huang Long. He was merely repeating the strategy they had already agreed upon.
What was going on?
After a brief moment of confusion, he quickly found an answer that satisfied him. Could it be that I am broad-minded and virtuous, a leader who truly listens to his subordinates? Yes, yes, that must be it. This is exactly the bearing of a Heaven-destined ruler.
What he did not know was that the hunter who had just guided Huang Long had already circled twice around the northwestern slope. Once out of sight, he removed his hunting clothes and put on the uniform of the Tongguan Pass garrison. Returning to the army, he saluted a new student.
"I have done as instructed," he reported. "I told the rebels about the Sanyuan Ravine path. I wonder whether they will take the bait."
The new student was so excited that his face flushed. "It's done," he said eagerly. "They will definitely take it. Order the entire army to move immediately and set up an ambush at the mouth of Sanyuan Ravine."
Sun Chuanting nodded slowly. "Regardless of whether this plan succeeds," he said, "I have already decided to award you extra academic credit. Whether a strategy works depends on the intelligence of the enemy. But for you to conceive of this plan at all, you are already an excellent student."
The new student was overjoyed. "Thank you, Headmaster!"
Soon after, half of the new students split off, each leading half of the new recruits and half of the Tongguan Pass garrison. They arrived at the mouth of Sanyuan Ravine, a perilously narrow passage squeezed between two mountains. Following what they had learned, the students directed the troops to spread out along the slopes, arranging them in layered, staggered positions, orderly and precise.
As the sun sank, dusk slowly enveloped the land.
Far away, Li Daoxuan squatted in front of his diorama box, a bowl of egg-fried rice cradled in his hands.
He was carefully studying the area that had just come into view.
Recently, construction on Zhoushan Island had progressed smoothly, and the livelihoods of the Yinchuan border army in the northwest had finally been secured. Both developments had contributed a large amount of Salvation Index, allowing the box's field of view to expand a little deeper into central Henan.
Naturally, he intended to examine this newly revealed region thoroughly.
Switching on careful observation and focus, he scanned inch by inch, missing nothing. Before long, he discovered a small, impoverished village. Its people were just like the original forty-two villagers of Gao Family Village in its earliest days, poor to the bone and struggling at the edge of survival.
Li Daoxuan happened to be holding a bowl of egg-fried rice. Without any hesitation, he gently picked up a small clump with the tips of his chopsticks and slowly lowered it toward the center of the village.
The villagers below were scavenging for tree bark and wild vegetables when they suddenly saw the clouds above part. A gigantic pair of chopsticks descended from the sky, frightening them into shrill cries of terror. In the next instant, they noticed that the chopsticks held a clump of rice.
Small only in comparison to the chopsticks.
To them, it was unimaginably enormous.
A single cooked grain of pure white rice was as tall as half a person and probably weighed over a hundred jin. Clinging to it were several yellow pieces of egg.
To Li Daoxuan, they were merely fragments. To the villagers, they were massive chunks of golden yolk.
"Is that egg-fried rice?" someone whispered in disbelief.
"Heavens, how could such a huge pile of egg-fried rice descend from the sky?"
"It didn't fall," another murmured, voice trembling. "The Old Man in the Sky placed it here with his chopsticks."
"The Heavens bless us!"
Tears streamed down their faces as they kowtowed fervently toward the sky. Then they swarmed around the mound of rice and began to eat.
The fragrance was overwhelming. Premium white rice, egg, sesame oil, and salt blended together into a taste so rich that they could not stop themselves.
Li Daoxuan did not linger to watch. He shifted his perspective back to Luoyang and gave instructions to Bai Yuan. "Southeast from here, roughly XXX li away, there is a small village. Dozens of people there are barely surviving. I have given them food that should last a few days. Organize a rescue team immediately."
"Understood," Bai Yuan replied.
Li Daoxuan continued, "The main government forces have moved north. As for the rebels remaining in Henan, only our militia can keep watch over them. Bai Yuan, this responsibility rests heavily on your shoulders."
"I understand," Bai Yuan said solemnly.
After a brief pause, Bai Yuan added, "Your subordinate has recently received news. The Chuǎng army has split into several groups, and one of them appears to be preparing to return to Shaanxi."
Li Daoxuan raised his brows slightly. "Oh? Is that so?" He nodded. "Then I will go and take a look."