All of them were seasoned veterans who had spent years on the battlefield. From orthodox strategies employed by regular troops to the trickiest unorthodox tactics seen in the wilds, they had encountered it all.
Yet nothing they had seen could compare to what the Crown Princess had just pulled off.
No wonder Her Highness was able to create something as divine as a glider. She was not just unconventional, she was the kind of wild that could soar straight into the heavens.
The soldiers stared in stunned silence, overwhelmed by the brilliance of the strategy, one crafted through the data-forged guerrilla Simulation and calculated by the computer through an intricate web of data. They wracked their brains trying to come up with a countermeasure, scratching their heads in frustration.
Even the usually composed Marquis Wei Yuan had his brows tightly furrowed. It was plain on his face that he, too, was at a loss.
Though Yun Chuhuan could not follow the details of the sand table, he could read the expressions of those around him. Seeing that every single general and strategist was completely stumped by his Fifth Elder Sister filled his face with smug pride, a pleased gleam in his eye.
"Before I came here, Father Emperor kept nagging at me, warning that the military camp is a place of utmost importance, not somewhere for idle play. He told me over and over to obey Fifth Sister and the General in all things," Yun Chuhuan said, lifting his chin.
"But now, look at this. It doesn't seem all that difficult, does it? Back in the Imperial Academy, when the Grand Preceptor was teaching military theory, Fifth Sister's scores weren't that far from mine."
He gave a meaningful pause, then grinned.
"If none of you can best Fifth Sister, doesn't that mean you wouldn't fare any better against me either?"
The soldiers: "…"
Is the Sixth Prince serious?
The same boy who had been staring at the sand table like it was made of star charts was claiming he was on par with the Crown Princess?
If that were true, then the Grand Preceptor in the Imperial Academy must not be worth much at all.
Most likely, he was the type who taught strictly by the book, quoting from the military classics without any real-world flexibility. That would explain why someone as unconventional as the Crown Princess only managed to score as well as the Sixth Prince.
Otherwise…
With Her Highness's uncanny talent for deploying troops in such unpredictable ways, there was no way they could be ranked equally.
"I have it!"
Just as the tension stretched to its limit, Marquis Wei Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up. Without hesitation, he seized a flag and planted it firmly on a spot no one had anticipated.
"We could send a thousand-man unit under the cover of chaos, circling from here to reach the hillside. Using the terrain to their advantage, they could remain hidden and then—"
Though Yun Shu had used her calculations to push him to the brink, the fundamental reality remained unchanged: Annan's forces were far weaker than those of Tian Sheng.
After a grueling match of strategy and countermove, she had ultimately achieved a narrow defeat—three losses for four kills.
She used thirty thousand soldiers from Annan to take down forty thousand from the Yongzhou army.
But in the end, it was still a loss.
"Marquis Wei Yuan is truly a seasoned general with decades of battlefield experience. This Princess is in awe."
"Please, spare me!"
The Marquis, still staring at the sand table, felt his heart bleed. If the real battlefield had played out like the simulation, it would have been a tragedy.
Now, hearing the Crown Princess offer such genuine praise only deepened his mortification.
"Even with every advantage, I still lost more men than Your Highness. If not for Tian Sheng's superior numbers, I would have surely been defeated under equal conditions.
To think I've lived so long only to be shamed like this—what a waste of all these years!"
"General, you must not undervalue yourself so!"
If anyone ought to feel embarrassed, it was her.
After all, her entire strategy had been built on an overwhelming cheat—formulated from a godlike perspective through the computer's calculations, a cheat within a cheat.
Even with such an absurd advantage, she still failed to defeat the General outright. That alone was proof of his real talent.
More importantly, her intent was never to one-up the General. It was to help refine their overall plan, ensuring that if anything unexpected arose on the battlefield, they would be prepared to respond.
Yun Shu quickly clarified,
"This Princess merely had the benefit of hindsight, having heard all your deliberations beforehand. That gave me a flash of inspiration, nothing more.
Were this a real battle, even a hundred of me combined would not compare to the General."
"That, Your Highness, is what I call true modesty!"
Marquis Wei Yuan's eyes widened.
"Your Highness is only seventeen and has never set foot on a battlefield before. Yet you conceived a tactic so brilliant it could be called heaven-sent. To call you a once-in-a-century genius would not be an exaggeration."
Yun Shu: "…"
"Please, stop praising me. I really feel guilty."
It took quite some effort for her to steer the General, who was still absorbed in the sand table simulation, back toward proper military discussion.
By the time Yun Shu finally exited the command tent, she let out a long breath of relief.
She had no idea that after she left, Marquis Wei Yuan remained seated at the sand table for quite some time. The longer he stared, the more excited he became. Eventually, he could not restrain himself and wrote an urgent memorial to Emperor Xuanwu, dispatching it with an eight-hundred-li fast courier.
Three days later, as the Yongzhou army prepared for their final assault, the imperial courier bearing the letter burst into the early morning court.
"Report! A great victory in Yongzhou!
The Crown Princess constructed a glider, enabling our scouts to fly directly from the cliffs into the forest that the Annan army had long considered an impenetrable natural barrier. That same night, our forces annihilated five thousand enemies with only one hundred wounded!"
"…"
The moment the announcement fell, silence blanketed the Xuan Zheng Hall. Not a single voice echoed in celebration.
Emperor Xuanwu, seated high upon the dragon throne, blinked for a moment in stunned confusion before finally asking,
"What did you say the Crown Princess made?"
"Your Majesty, a glider!"
The courier had seen it with his own eyes back in Yongzhou. At the memory, his voice trembled with awe.
"It can carry a person down from a cliff and into flight!"
"…"
Absurd. Utterly absurd.
Was his precious daughter a divine maiden descended from the heavens to perform miracles?
She could even fly now? What else was there that she could not do?
Emperor Xuanwu took a moment to collect himself, then burst out laughing, clapping his hands in delight.
"Excellent! We knew it. Our Crown Princess would never disappoint Us!"
He reached out and took the letter from Li Dehai. His eyes skimmed across the words at lightning speed.
As he read, the joy on his face grew strange for a moment… but then bloomed into an even brighter grin.
"Li Dehai!"
"This servant is here!"
Li Dehai hurried forward, only to see Emperor Xuanwu hand him the letter with great enthusiasm.
"Read this aloud. Let everyone hear it."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Seeing the Emperor so pleased, Li Dehai also smiled broadly as he accepted the letter.
The first half merely repeated what the courier had just reported.
But the latter half…
As Li Dehai scanned its contents, a wide grin tugged further at the corners of his mouth.
Now he understood why His Majesty was in such high spirits.
The Crown Princess had once again… delivered one surprise after another.