103: Chapter 103 Literary and Military Strategies

The old master was on the podium, speaking with such enthusiasm that spittle flew, never pausing for breath.

But beneath the podium, these Top Scholars of the Martial Examination, who were long accustomed to wielding blades and spears, were listening until they were drowsy, feeling as if they were sitting on pins and needles.

For them, this dry and boring geographical knowledge was even more torturous than practicing the most painful Cultivation Technique.

Gao Feng also felt an unprecedented headache.

In his previous life, he was an orphan who had barely read a book for a few days.

In this life, he had devoted his entire heart and mind to martial Dao Cultivation.

As for these flowery, scholarly things, he was completely clueless.

Soon, the class ended amidst the torment of most people.

The old master seemed to know the nature of this group of rough men; he snorted coldly, left a quiz paper, and flicked his sleeves as he departed.

"Hand in your papers within half an hour! The results will be posted on the academy's bulletin board and counted towards the final written examination assessment!"

At this, everyone was dumbfounded.

Looking at the strange questions on the paper, such as "Discuss the pros and cons of the three major granaries of Hanyang Prefecture" and "On the strategic value of Black Wind Gorge," they stared at each other with wide eyes, looking at one another in dismay.

What on earth were these things?!

Gao Feng also looked at the paper in his hand with a helpless expression.

He raised his pen and thought for a long time, but in the end, he could only write a few crooked, large characters on it.

"Don't know."

Half an hour later, the results were posted on the bulletin board.

Undoubtedly, Gao Feng's "shocking and world-astonishing" answer sheet allowed him to "honorably" take last place in this quiz!

And Liu Xuanfeng topped the list with a near-perfect score!

"Hahahaha! This is hilarious! 'The ignorant are not guilty,' is that it?"

"Is this the barbarian from the North who punched a force-measuring stele to pieces? Truly simple-minded and physically developed!"

"Even not knowing the most basic geographical common sense, what is the use of such a person even if their martial arts are high? Just a brute!"

Unconcealed roars of laughter erupted in front of the bulletin board.

Liu Xuanfeng stood in the center of the crowd, enjoying the adulation of the crowd, with a smug smile of revenge fulfilled on his face. He looked at the expressionless Gao Feng not far away, his eyes full of contempt and provocation.

Gong Qianxue's pretty face flushed with anger, and she wanted to step forward to argue, but was held back by Xu Changqing.

"Miss Gong, please stay calm." Xu Changqing shook his head and said in a low voice, "Verbal disputes are meaningless. We must speak with facts."

That night. Gao Feng's courtyard was brightly lit.

Xu Changqing was spreading out a more detailed map of Hanyang Prefecture that he had drawn himself, speaking eloquently to Gao Feng and Gong Qianxue.

"Brother Gao, Miss Gong, look." He pointed at the map and said, "What we learned today is actually not simple geography, but the art of war!"

"The so-called art of war is a major matter for the state; it is a ground of life and death, the Dao of survival or extinction, and it cannot be ignored."

"Every mountain and every river in this Hanyang Prefecture could become a future battlefield! Understanding them is equivalent to mastering the initiative in war!"

He did not use the old master's boring way of preaching.

Instead, he combined those obscure and difficult-to-understand principles of the art of war with the specific geographical environment.

He used vivid and interesting historical battle cases to explain them.

"For example, this Black Wind Gorge has a dangerous terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If we have five hundred elite soldiers set an ambush here, it is enough to withstand the attack of three thousand or even five thousand enemy troops! This is 'using geographical advantages to overcome human factors'!"

"Take these three seemingly parallel grain routes, for example. Only the middle one has flat terrain, which is most suitable for a large army to pass through. But precisely because of this, it is most susceptible to enemy ambushes. Therefore, a true master of troops would instead choose the most rugged and difficult northern route to win by surprise! This is 'war is deception'!"

Under Xu Changqing's profound yet simple and easy-to-understand explanation, Gao Feng felt as if he had opened the door to a new world!

His extraordinary martial Dao Comprehension Ability played an unimaginably huge role at this moment!

He began to verify and integrate his own incredibly rich combat intuition with these systematic military theories!

The rapidly changing situation on the battlefield, personal martial prowess, and military formations were constantly colliding and deducing in his mind!

Drawing inferences from one instance! Mastering through a comprehensive study!

In the following days. During the day, Gao Feng was still the reticent "poor student" at the bottom of the class, letting others mock him.

But at night, he would thirstily absorb the knowledge taught by Xu Changqing.

His progress could be described as advancing by leaps and bounds!

From being completely clueless at the beginning, to later being able to ask some insightful questions, and finally even being able to draw inferences and engage in fierce sand table deductions with Xu Changqing!

This made Xu Changqing feel incomparably shocked!

He had never seen someone with such a terrifying learning ability!

He even felt that he had nothing left to teach Gao Feng.

It was more like they were two evenly matched opponents, discussing, verifying, and progressing together!

A month's time passed in a flash. This day was the day of the final written examination at Tingfeng Academy.

All the Top Scholars of the Martial Examination were gathered in the largest examination hall of the academy.

The chief examiner was that old master with the goat beard.

His serious gaze slowly swept over everyone present.

Finally, it rested on Gao Feng for a moment without a trace, and a trace of imperceptible disappointment flashed in his eyes.

"Time is up, distribute the papers!"

The test papers were soon handed to everyone.

When everyone saw the only question on the paper, they all gasped!

The question was:

"If the hundred thousand army of the Western Yao Race splits into three routes to raid our Hanyang Prefecture. The prefecture city garrison only has thirty thousand, and the grain and grass are only enough to support for one month. The fastest reinforcements will take two months to arrive."

"Ask, in this desperate situation with no internal grain and no external reinforcements, how should you break the deadlock?"

A dead end! This was a complete and utter dead end!

Everyone's foreheads oozed with fine cold sweat.

Even Liu Xuanfeng, who had always been full of confidence, was now furrowing his brows, his face becoming incomparably grave.

He racked his brains and wrote down various strategies on the draft paper, such as "strengthen the defenses and clear the fields," "divide troops to harass," and "place oneself in a desperate situation to survive."

But every time he wrote one, he overturned it himself.

Because in the face of absolute inferiority in troops and logistics, any conventional art of war seemed so pale and powerless.

The entire examination hall fell into a depressing silence.

One could only hear the "rustling" sound of pen tips sliding across paper, and the increasingly heavy breathing of the candidates.

However, just at this moment. A discordant sound broke this silence.

It was Gao Feng. He actually stopped his pen first while everyone else was still racking their brains.

Then he stood up calmly. Holding his answer sheet that only had a few hundred words written on it, he walked straight to the podium.

"Handing in the paper."

He gently placed the answer sheet in front of the master.

Everyone looked at him with the eyes of someone looking at a fool.

"Has this guy completely given up?"

"What kind of strategy to break the deadlock can be written in a few hundred words? How ridiculous!"

Liu Xuanfeng's mouth curled into a sneer of contempt.

In his view, this barbarian from the North had finally revealed his true colors.

The old master also frowned tightly.

He picked up Gao Feng's answer sheet, intending to glance at it casually and throw it aside.

But when his gaze fell on the first line of words on the paper, his cloudy eyes suddenly shot out two beams of unprecedented, brilliant light!

I saw that at the beginning of the answer sheet, eight wild, large characters were written with iron strokes and silver hooks, piercing through the back of the paper!

"The Emperor guards the national gate, the monarch dies for the country!"

Just these eight words made the old master feel an indescribable iron-blooded heroic spirit rush straight to his crown!

He suppressed the excitement in his heart and continued to read down.

"...The enemy is many and we are few; to defend is to surely fail. The only way to break the deadlock is to attack!"

"Send ten thousand elite troops, led by the commander himself, carrying three days' worth of grain, to go north out of the city and feign an attack on the Yao Race's left army camp!"

"This is a feint. The Yao Race will surely think that our army wants to concentrate its forces and break them one by one. Their middle and right armies will definitely accelerate their encirclement, wanting to annihilate our army outside the city!"

"However, this is also our army's only chance of survival!"

"Our army only needs to make slight contact with that left army, and then immediately abandon all supplies, turn west, and use the fastest speed to cut through and maneuver, heading straight for the Yao Race's grain camp that everyone would never expect!"

"Cut off their grain! Burn their rear!"

"The hundred thousand Yao army will collapse without a fight!"

"This battle seems extremely dangerous, but it is actually a desperate gamble! Without the determination to break the cauldrons and sink the boats, and to live by facing death, it cannot be done!"

"..."

In just a few hundred words, every word was a pearl! Every sentence hit the mark!

A strategy to break the deadlock that was daring, crazy to the extreme, yet reasonable, leaped onto the paper!

"Slap!"

The old master was so excited that he slammed the table and stood up abruptly!

His old face turned bright red due to excessive excitement!

He looked at the calm back that had already turned to leave, his cloudy eyes filled with endless shock and disbelief!

"Genius! Truly an unprecedented military Genius!"

He couldn't help but exclaim!

His shocking shout made the entire examination hall instantly silent.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at the old master, who looked like a madman, and at the mysterious back that was slowly walking out of the examination hall under everyone's dull gaze.

In an instant, Liu Xuanfeng felt that the smug smile on his face was so stiff and ridiculous.

The old master's shocking exclamation was like a boulder thrown into a lake, stirring up a thousand waves in the entire examination hall!

Everyone stared dumbfounded at the old master, who was flushed and trembling slightly from excessive excitement, their brains falling into a blank space.

An unprecedented military Genius?

Who is the master talking about? That barbarian from the North who just handed in his paper and left, Gao Pan?!

How is this possible! This must be an illusion!

Liu Xuanfeng felt that the smug smile on his face was as stiff as a mask, extremely ridiculous. He even couldn't help but pinch himself hard, wanting to wake up from this absurd nightmare, but the clear pain was ruthlessly telling him—all of this was true!

The old master completely ignored the candidates who had already been scared out of their wits.

In his cloudy, aged eyes, a brilliant light, unprecedented, was now shining! He carefully held Gao Feng's answer sheet, which consisted of only a few hundred words, in both hands as if it were a priceless treasure, muttering to himself incessantly:

"Wonderful! Truly wonderful!"

"To seek survival by placing oneself in a desperate situation! Finding a glimmer of hope within a hopeless predicament! Such courage, such insight, I have only seen in my entire life!"

"What is even more rare is that the strategy, while appearing crazy, is actually calculated and methodical, with every step linked to the next! It applies the Dao of void and reality, extraordinary and orthodox, courage and cowardice, strength and weakness in military strategy to the extreme!"

"If this child becomes a general, he will surely be an unparalleled military talent like the Marquis of Champion!"

The more he spoke, the more excited he became. In the end, disregarding his status as a Great Scholar, he clapped his hands and laughed aloud!

These heartfelt words of extreme praise were like bolts of thunder from the Nine Heavens, striking hard at the hearts of everyone present!

The Marquis of Champion!

That was the undefeated Military God of the Great Qian Dynasty, who had achieved illustrious battle merits and awed the world during the founding of the dynasty! To think the Master would compare that barbarian from the North to such a legendary figure?!

This was no longer a simple compliment; this was a god-like evaluation!

Liu Xuanfeng felt his vision go dark, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood. He had studied military treatises painstakingly for over a decade, priding himself on having unparalleled strategy among the younger generation, and today, he had considered his own answer sheet to be perfect.

Yet in the end, all his pride and confidence seemed so childish, ridiculous, and vulnerable before the other's mere few hundred words of earth-shattering strategy!

This was the ultimate humiliation of being completely crushed in terms of intelligence!

...

The one-month training session soon came to an end.

The final written examination results were posted on the bulletin board that had once made Gao Feng "famous."

Without a doubt, the three large, gilded, sweeping characters at the top of the list were none other than—

Gao Pan!

What was even more shocking was that after his name, there was a vermilion comment that had no predecessor and might never have a successor.

"In literature, he can bring peace to the nation; in martial arts, he can stabilize the country!"

At the bottom were the joint seals of the Headmaster of Tingfeng Academy and all the teaching Masters!

Once this evaluation was released, the entire Tingfeng Academy erupted in a frenzy!

If, during the previous classroom tests, Gao Feng had been a "literary illiterate" who made a fool of himself, then at this moment, he had transformed into an unfathomable Prodigy, skilled in both literature and martial arts, in everyone's hearts!

Those who had once mocked and ridiculed him now felt as if their faces were being repeatedly slapped by an invisible pair of hands, burning with pain!

Especially Liu Xuanfeng.

When he saw his name firmly pressed beneath Gao Feng's, forcing him into second place, he could no longer suppress the jealousy and resentment in his heart and crushed the folding fan in his hand to pieces on the spot!

"Gao Pan... I, Liu Xuanfeng, will not share the same sky as you!" He roared like a beast in his heart.

In stark contrast to the clamor and shock outside, Gao Feng's courtyard was peaceful and serene.

He was playing chess with Xu Changqing at the stone table in the courtyard, while Gong Qianxue was brewing tea on the side, occasionally refilling their cups with fragrant tea. After a month of getting along, the relationship between the three had become incredibly close.

"Brother Gao, you have truly opened my eyes." Xu Changqing held a black piece, looking at the man opposite him whose expression remained calm and indifferent, and sighed sincerely, "I thought I had already overestimated you, but I didn't expect to have underestimated you by far. I have also read your answer sheet. Frankly speaking, even if I were to rack my brains, I would never be able to come up with such a shocking yet flawless strategy to break the stalemate. You were born for war."

Gao Feng smiled faintly at this, placed a piece, and said softly: "It is nothing more than armchair strategy. The real battlefield is far more complex and cruel than this. Moreover, without your unreserved teaching over this past month, I would be nothing more than an illiterate who cannot even recognize all the characters. Therefore, this credit is half mine, and it must also be half yours."

These heartfelt words made Xu Changqing's eyes heat up, and his heart was filled with endless emotion.

A scholar will die for one who appreciates him! He knew he had not followed the wrong person!

"Brother Gao!" He stood up abruptly and bowed deeply and solemnly to Gao Feng, "I, Changqing, am untalented, but I am willing to follow by Brother Gao's side and serve as your loyal dog and horse! I will not refuse even if it means death!"

Gong Qianxue, who was on the side, saw this and hurriedly stood up as well. Her heroic eyes looked at Gao Feng, filled with firmness and determination.

"Brother Gao! Count me in too! I, Qianxue, am also willing to follow you! Although I do not have the vast knowledge of Brother Xu, the bow in my hand can at least shoot down the birds in the sky for you, and it can also pierce the throats of your enemies!"

Facing their solemn declarations, Gao Feng slowly stood up.

He did not refuse, but reached out, helped them both up, and a heartfelt smile appeared on his face.

"Good."

He only said one word.

But this one word was heavier and firmer than any thousand words!

From this moment on, this "Iron Triangle" trio, destined to shake the entire world in the future, was officially established!

...

Three days later, all the Top Scholars of the Martial Examination who had passed the written test packed their bags, ready to set off for [Wangjiang City], the capital of Hanyang Prefecture, to participate in the final and most critical martial test of the Prefecture Examination!

The academy arranged carriages and guards for them. A massive convoy consisting of dozens of luxurious carriages and hundreds of elite guards drove grandly out of the gates of Tingfeng Academy.

However, strangely enough, Gao Feng, who was the first place in this written examination and should logically have enjoyed the top-tier treatment, did not appear in this magnificent convoy.

"Hmph, where is that Gao Pan? Could it be that he has become a tortoise hiding its head and dare not go?" In the convoy, Liu Xuanfeng lifted the carriage curtain, looked at the empty lead carriage, and could not help but mock.

A lackey beside him immediately smiled obsequiously: "Young Master Liu, you may not know. I heard that Gao Pan disliked the carriages arranged by the academy for being too slow, so early this morning, he took his two guards and that pair of newly recruited lackeys and set off in advance!"

"Oh?" A flash of sinister, fierce light flickered in Liu Xuanfeng's eyes, "Set off in advance? Heh, truly, there is a path to heaven he does not take, and he comes knocking on the door of Hell on his own!"

He lowered the curtain and whispered to another trusted subordinate: "Send a pigeon message immediately to notify our Liu Family's men stationed at 'Luoma Slope'! Tell them that the big fish has taken the bait! This time, I want him to die without a burial place!"

...

On the official road, dust billowed.

Five fast horses were galloping at lightning speed towards Wangjiang City; it was none other than Gao Feng and his party who had set off early.

"Brother Gao, why are we in such a hurry?" Gong Qianxue asked, somewhat puzzled, "Wouldn't it be safer to go with everyone else?"

Gao Feng did not answer directly but cast his gaze towards Xu Changqing beside him.

Xu Changqing understood immediately, smiled slightly, and explained: "Miss Gong, you may not know, but this is exactly Brother Gao's brilliance. Think about it: if we go with the main group, the target is too large, and with so many people, it is not suitable for us to act freely. By setting off early, we can disrupt any potential arrangements others might have made, and we can choose the battlefield in a place we want. Turning passive into active—this is what military strategy refers to as 'controlling the enemy rather than being controlled by the enemy'!"

Gong Qianxue listened, confused and only half-understanding. Gao Feng, however, gave Xu Changqing an approving look; this scholar was indeed quick to grasp things.

Just at this moment, Wulu, who had been responsible for scouting at the very front of the team, suddenly pulled on the reins and slowly raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.

"Lord," his voice became incomparably grave, "Ahead, there is Killing Intent."

Everyone followed his gaze and saw a huge three-way intersection appearing on the official road not far ahead. And in the center of the intersection, a person was standing all alone.

A mysterious person dressed in black, with a tall stature and wearing a ferocious evil ghost mask on his face.

He had no weapons in his hands and just stood there quietly. But the cold, dead, and terrifying aura emitting from him, devoid of any trace of life, made the surrounding air seem as if it had frozen!

"Who... is this?" Gong Qianxue felt a chill all over her body and involuntarily gripped the Star-Chasing Divine Bow on her back.

Xu Changqing was even more frightened, his face turning pale, and he hid behind Big Fool's sturdy frame. Even Big Fool, who was always fearless, now had an unprecedented look of gravity on his honest face. He could feel an extremely dangerous and lethal threat from that masked man!

Only Gao Feng remained as calm as ever on his face.

His gaze pierced through the distance of several hundred meters and met the ghost-masked man's in the air. He could feel that all of the opponent's aura and all of his Killing Intent were firmly locked onto him alone.

This person had come for him!

Gao Feng dismounted, stuck his iron spear into the ground, and walked forward slowly, all by himself.

"You all, step back." His voice remained calm.

"Brother Gao! Don't!" Gong Qianxue cried out involuntarily.

But Gao Feng did not look back, walking step by step until he reached a spot ten zhang in front of the ghost-masked man, where he stopped.

"Who are you?" He asked.

The ghost-masked man did not answer but slowly raised his right hand. It was a withered hand, like an eagle's claw, but it was wrapped in a layer of heart-palpitating, jet-black Qi.

"Under orders, to take your life." His voice was hoarse and grating, like two rusty iron plates rubbing against each other, carrying not a trace of human emotion.

"Whose orders?" Gao Feng continued to ask.

"Dead people do not need to know too much."

The moment the words fell, the figure of the ghost-masked man suddenly disappeared from where he stood! The next moment, he appeared in front of Gao Feng like a ghost! That terrifying ghost claw, wrapped in black Qi, carried the death aura of tearing everything apart and fiercely clawed towards Gao Feng's heart!

Fast! Too fast! It was so fast that even Wulu and Gong Qianxue could not react in time!