Chapter 518 - A Mountain Pass, an Illusion Formation and a Battle Plan (1/2)
Ling Zhang was inclined to go to the mountain pa.s.s to take a look when he recovered well enough to get out of bed because he wanted to check the lay of the land in person one last time.
“You’re in no fit state to make a trip that long, considering your injury.” Yuwen Tong disagreed.
Ling Zhang said, “I’m just going there to have a look at the terrain. I’m not going to do anything else.”
He was worried that there might be some slip-ups that would compromise their operations if he did not go there to check the lay of the land in person. This was no laughing matter.
Yuwen Tong knew what he meant. After a few moments’ silence, he said, “I’ll go.”
Ling Zhang demurred without a second thought, “No!”
Yuwen Tong was the emperor. How could he go to a mountain pa.s.s under the enemy’s control in these circ.u.mstances? What if he was injured or caught?! On no account would he allow Yuwen Tong to take that risk!
“Then you are not going either. Given your injury, it’s sure as h.e.l.l inadvisable for you to make a long trip. This is a fact you cannot deny,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang, “…”
“You’ve had your bodyguards reconnoiter that place several times in the past couple of days. Surely you don’t doubt their competence?” added Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang heaved a sigh, regretting having had the Gu worm eliminated from his body so soon. He would have paid a visit to the mountain pa.s.s first had he known beforehand things would come to this.
“I need you to tell me the details about the Formation you want to deploy there, along with how you want my men to cooperate. After we finish discussing it, I will not dispatch my troops immediately. I’ll have to send some men there to do some more recon. Besides, this mountain pa.s.s is different from the others we’ve seen. The terrain there is very steep. There’s no way we could make enough progress to ensure our victory in the first engagement, so our first round of attacks would be aimed at getting the enemy’s measure. You’ll need to give the Formation a test run, and our army need to put out feelers to see how strong the enemy’s defense is and get some information about their battle plans,” Yuwen Tong continued.
After Ling Zhang, who had little acquaintance of this kind of things, heard Yuwen Tong’s explanation, the light dawned on him, and he had an idea of what to expect. “Okay. Let’s do it your way,” he said.
Ling Zhang had Yuwen Tong bring him the Formation diagrams on the table which he had drawn, then said to Yuwen Tong, “The terrain in this place is precipitous. It’s a natural barrier of Jifang City, easy to hold but hard to attack. This is one of their advantages, but people capable of deploying Formations could also take advantage of this kind of terrain. Taking into consideration the terrain alone, I could deploy many kinds of Formations in that place, but there are mainly four of them that could be useful for carrying out our plan of attack. I’ve finished the diagrams of them, and I also wrote their respective functions on the diagrams. You may take a look first, seeing as you’ll be the one directing the troops. It must be my Formation facilitating the execution of the attack plans, not the other way around.”
Yuwen Tong inclined his head, studied the diagrams for a while and eventually selected one – an Illusion Formation.
Ling Zhang was somewhat surprised. “You want an Illusion Formation?”
He had thought that an Illusion Formation was the least likely to be chosen. In fact, at first he had ruled it out, and the reason why he had put it back on the list was because he had recalled the battle outside Haizhou five years ago.
Yuwen Tong said, “This mountain pa.s.s is different. If the Wan army do everything they could to defend it, we wouldn’t be able to get an inch closer to the city, so they don’t even need to come out of the city to fight us. It’ll be no good to lay any traps or deploy a Misguidance Formation or a Smokescreen Formation outside the city. If we are to deploy a Formation there, it has to be one that could help with our attacks. This Illusion Formation is a very good choice. If things go smoothly, we’ll be able to distract the enemy and buy our troops precious time to attack the mountain pa.s.s.”
Yuwen Tong was also adept at various kinds of Formations. Previously, in terms of Formation prowess, Ling Zhang had stood no comparison with Yuwen Tong. It was after diligently learning from his grandfather for five years that Ling Zhang had narrowed the gap and was now almost as good as Yuwen Tong. Ling Zhang had always fully trusted Yuwen Tong’s judgement. However, there was something about the Illusion Formation that concerned him. “The Illusion Formation won’t last long, and when it wanes, the enemy would become suspicious. It’ll last an hour at the most.”
Yuwen Tong smiled, “An hour will be more than enough.”
There were many things an army could do within an hour. This was like a G.o.dsend, and it would put them at a great advantage.
Yuwen Tong told Ling Zhang in general about his plan of attack. Ling Zhang’s eyes grew progressively brighter as he listened. “All right. I’ll be in the tent the next time you discuss the battle plans with them.”
Yuwen Tong nodded. This was Ling Zhang’s first time offering to attending a meeting about battle plans. There had been some occasions when Yuwen Tong had invited Ling Zhang to attend similar meetings, but Ling Zhang had always declined, saying that he knew too little about war to be helpful in that kind of meetings.
Yuwen Tong was aware of Ling Zhang’s misgivings, which were, in his eyes, totally unnecessary, but Ling Zhang could be quite a piece of work when being intransigent. This time around, as Ling Zhang had offered to attend the meeting on his own initiative, Yuwen Tong was determined to have Ling Zhang show those officers his flair for military strategy.
…
The next day, Ling Zhang, after getting out of bed, went into the conference tent with Yuwen Tong. The officers were all somewhat surprised at Ling Zhang’s arrival. Yuwen Jin called happily, “Brother Zhang!”