Chapter 102 is finished. The Old Man's Le Army is now equipped with Sun Tzu's Art of War!

Half a month later, at the southwest border, the Sanbianpo region.

Night fell, and the damp rainforest was shrouded in a layer of mist, the air filled with the mixed scent of rotting leaves and soil. In Kun Sha's fortress-like mountain stronghold, the atmosphere was incongruous with the silence of the primeval jungle, filled with the restlessness and fanaticism preceding a volcanic eruption.

In the center of the stronghold, on the massive open ground originally used for military parades and executing traitors, fifty brand-new top-tier black tortoises were lined up in a uniform phalanx under the glare of searchlights. Their matte dark green composite armor reflected a cold, hard luster under the lights, brimming with a sense of power.

Kun Sha stood on a high platform, overlooking this private legion of small tanks that belonged solely to him. He felt his blood boiling, his breathing becoming heavy with extreme excitement. His confidants and leaders behind him were all staring wide-eyed, their gazes filled with greed and awe.

"Xuanwu... Xuanwu Legion!" Kun Sha murmured to himself. He felt that this name from the great Eastern Country was filled with a mysterious and powerful force. "From today on, you shall be called the Xuanwu Legion! You are the sharpest blade in my, Kun Sha's, hand!"

"The General is mighty!"

"The Xuanwu Legion is invincible!"

The soldiers below erupted in thunderous cheers. Looking at these steel monsters, they seemed to see a beautiful future of unifying the Sanbianpo, with wealth and women within easy reach.

...

Unlike the fanatical atmosphere in the stronghold, the Punk Elder Zhao Dezhu, who was treated as an honored guest but kept under house arrest in the best stilted building by Kun Sha, was currently lying bored on a bamboo chair, feeling like he was about to grow mold.

Good wine and meat were provided in abundance, and Kun Sha had even thoughtfully found several of the most beautiful local girls to serve him. However, as an old-timer nearing seventy whose spirit was willing but the flesh was weak, he really had no interest in these things. His only thought now was fishing.

He hadn't touched a fishing rod in nearly a month and felt out of sorts all over.

Kun Sha came to pay his respects every day, his attitude as respectful as if he were treating his own father, constantly trying to probe him for more information about that Li Family Toy Factory. But Zhao Dezhu was either drunk and talking nonsense or remained silent, leaving Kun Sha scratching his head in frustration.

After dismissing a smiling Kun Sha once again, Zhao Dezhu pulled an old, dog-eared ancient book with yellowed pages from his worn-out luggage bag.

It was that pirated copy of The Art of War he had bought for fifty cents at a street stall when he was young.

He had read this book for decades, and its contents were long since etched into his heart. Now, bored out of his mind, he took it out again and began to savor it word by word, accompanied by the top-grade civet coffee Kun Sha had provided.

[At this point, I hope readers remember our domain name. For reading, 101 Reading Net, 101kks.com is the first choice, enjoy at any time.]

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near..."

He recited it while swaying his head, looking like a scholar preparing for an exam.

This scene happened to be seen by the young lackey who knew how to use a smartphone and had come to deliver fruit. He looked at that simple thread-bound book and the ghost-like Eastern Country characters on it, muttering to himself.

'This old man is mumbling every day. What on earth is he reading? Is it some mysterious scripture from the East?'

...

A few days later, Kun Sha encountered a big problem.

His arch-rival, another warlord named Nong La who occupied Eagle Sorrow Cliff to the north, relied on the treacherous terrain that was easy to defend but hard to attack. He had repeatedly provoked Kun Sha and seized several of his territories. Kun Sha had sent men to storm the place several times, but they were all beaten back at the foot of that cliff, which looked as if it had been carved by a knife, suffering heavy losses.

This evening, Kun Sha lost his temper again at the war meeting, tearing up the maps. He paced irritably in his room and finally, as if possessed, went to Zhao Dezhu's stilted building.

He originally wanted to try and get closer again, but as soon as he entered, he saw Zhao Dezhu with his legs crossed, sipping wine while reciting something about surrounding the enemy but leaving an outlet and not pursuing a desperate foe.

Kun Sha was full of anger and couldn't help but vent his frustrations about the inability to take Eagle Sorrow Cliff.

After listening, Zhao Dezhu glanced at him with bleary, drunken eyes and curled his lip in disdain: "Stupid! Your way of fighting is just a bunch of idiots gathered together to see whose head is harder! There's no technical skill involved at all!"

"For a place like Eagle Sorrow Cliff, if you attack head-on, aren't you just throwing lives away?"

He let out a wine burp, pointed his finger at the simple map hanging on the wall, and said with a slurred tongue: "The Art of War says to engage with the ordinary and win with the extraordinary! Use a feint at the front to draw all his attention. Then, send a small elite unit from a place he would never expect, for example..."

His finger pressed heavily on the hundred-meter-high sheer cliff behind Eagle Sorrow Cliff on the map, which was marked as a dead end.

"...From here, climb up and give him a 'blossom in the center'! Isn't that it?"

Kun Sha and the leaders behind him looked in the direction he was pointing, their mouths twitching.

Go up from there? That's a vertical cliff! Forget humans, even monkeys can't climb it!

'This old man is talking nonsense because he's drunk,' Kun Sha thought, speechless.

However, just as he was about to dismiss it as a joke, the four huge tires of the black tortoise, with their eerie grip, uncontrollably surfaced in his mind.

A crazy thought emerged in his heart.

'Perhaps... it's actually possible?'

Kun Sha decided to take a gamble.

Late that night, at the foot of Eagle Sorrow Cliff, Nong La's troops were waiting in full battle array, preparing for another of Kun Sha's suicidal charges.

However, at the very rear of the base, which was considered absolutely safe, beneath that cliff that they couldn't see, ten black tortoises silently turned off all their lights, like giant beasts lurking in the darkness.

At the Commander's order, the ten black tortoises simultaneously pressed the button with the gecko pattern.

[Van der Waals Force Adsorption All-Terrain Tires] activated!

In the next second, these ten steel monsters, in a posture that completely defied common physical laws, silently and steadily adhered to the nearly ninety-degree vertical rock wall and began to climb upward. The scene was so bizarre that it made the scalps of all the soldiers involved in the operation tingle.

Half an hour later, this small squad, appearing like divine soldiers from the sky, appeared behind Nong La's least-guarded headquarters.

The result of the battle was without suspense.

When Kun Sha received the news that Nong La had been captured alive and Eagle Sorrow Cliff had been successfully taken, he was stunned on the spot.

He looked at the Eastern Country old man who was still fast asleep in the stilted building, muttering, "What Art of War? It's just teaching people how to be devious," and his gaze completely changed.

It was a gaze mixed with shock, awe, and fanaticism.

Early the next morning, Kun Sha bathed and changed his clothes, then led all his core leaders to Zhao Dezhu's bedside with the utmost respect.

While Zhao Dezhu was still half-asleep and in a dazed state, Kun Sha fell to his knees with a thud, performed a grand salute, and shouted in an incredibly devout tone:

"Please, Master... teach me!"

Immediately after, he had several large chests brought up, filled with gold bars, US dollars, and countless jewels. There were also a dozen or so beautiful women of various types standing to the side, looking at Zhao Dezhu with deep affection.

"If you are willing to come out of seclusion, Master, and serve as the strategist for my army to help me unify the Sanbianpo, everything here will be yours!"

Zhao Dezhu looked at the mountains of gold and silver and the beauties before him, then at Kun Sha, who was kowtowing like a woodpecker. His old-timer heart, which had been silent for decades, was instantly ignited.

Fishing? What fishing? Is it as interesting as commanding thousands of troops and having beauties on both sides?

"Ahem," he cleared his throat, trying his best to put on the indifferent air of an otherworldly master, and slowly nodded. "Very well, seeing your sincerity, I shall reluctantly come out of seclusion to lend you a hand."

Thus, the Punk Elder Zhao Dezhu, who only wanted to go wild fishing, began his career as a military strategist in the Golden Triangle, finding it too pleasant to leave.