In the distance, more hoofbeats sounded, growing more chaotic.
“That must be the enemy’s reinforcements, right?” Qin Yu said. “Let’s quit while we’re ahead and pull back.”
“Agreed.” Luo Shangyu swung her long halberd, cutting off the enemy commander’s head, then led the troops back toward camp alongside Qin Yu.
Although this reconnaissance hadn’t yielded much valuable intelligence, they’d killed a major enemy general at nearly zero cost. The victory greatly boosted the morale of Qin Yu’s soldiers.
Emboldened by the success, every soldier became eager for battle, impatient to clash with the enemy and earn merits immediately.
“What should we do next?” Qin Yu and Luo Shangyu stood before the sand table, pondering the question.
On the table lay a miniature model of the surrounding terrain.
“We should…” Qin Yu pushed the piece representing their forces forward. “Based on the speed and sound of their advance, about five thousand enemy soldiers have come to reinforce.”
“In that case, the enemy’s five thousand must be camped not far from the previous battlefield. We should press the attack!”
“No.” Luo Shangyu spoke slowly. “There are many hills ahead. The enemy can easily set up an ambush there. If we charge in rashly, they’ll be hidden among the hills, and we’ll be easily defeated.”
“Well…” Qin Yu hesitated. “We should send more scouts to observe their movements before making a decision. Maybe the main enemy force isn’t even there!”
“Not there?” Luo Shangyu let out a chuckle. “When Chen Yufei escorted you back last time, she already knew the location of our camp. She’s had people watching us ever since. She knows our every move!”
For the first time, Qin Yu realized she might have made a serious mistake.
Now the enemy was hidden while they were exposed. Chen Yufei had plenty of time and intelligence to set a trap, waiting for her and Luo Shangyu to fall into it.
“Look here.” Luo Shangyu pointed a wooden stick at a spot on the sand table about a dozen miles west of their camp.
“See? Hills cluster here, forming a circle around this open field.”
“This is the perfect place for Chen Yufei to lay a trap. She’ll definitely station troops on the hills, lure us into the open center, then spring the trap and annihilate us!”
“Even if it’s a trap…” Qin Yu said slowly, “if we lead seventy thousand troops into her ambush, even if she wants to kill all seventy thousand, it’ll take her some time to finish them off, right?”
“So?”
“So we send those seventy thousand troops to pretend to fall into the trap. To crush them, Chen Yufei will have to concentrate her entire force. Then we dispatch another unit to strike her from behind.”
“That would create a two-pronged pincer. We’d win a decisive victory!”
“So you mean to use one force to tie up Chen Yufei and then hit her rear with a flanking attack?”
“Exactly,” Qin Yu said.
“That might not work…” Luo Shangyu hesitated. “What if the enemy is too strong and just wipes out the seventy thousand outright?”
“I’ll personally lead those seventy thousand. I can definitely hold them off!” Qin Yu grabbed Luo Shangyu’s shoulder. “Trust me, we can do this!”
“But…” Luo Shangyu still felt uneasy, sensing some flaw in the plan.
“Then do you have a better idea?” Qin Yu countered. “If we try to take each hill one by one and dismantle their traps, every hill has at least a few thousand soldiers defending it. They’d be attacking us from above—we’d never break through.”
“And since the hills support each other, we’d have to achieve breakthroughs on all fronts simultaneously, so each hill is too busy to help the others.”
“If we try to starve them out, that’s even more impossible. This hill region is too vast. We can’t form an effective encirclement.”
“What about using fire?” Luo Shangyu muttered to herself.
“Fire? The whole area is forest. That would kill a thousand of our enemies at the cost of eight hundred of our own!”
“It seems that’s the only way…” Luo Shangyu thought for a long while before speaking slowly.
Though they could simply stall and wait for a turning point, Luo Shangyu worried that the enemy held the positional advantage and controlled the initiative. A prolonged battle would favor the opponent.
“Alright, then let’s advance quickly!” Qin Yu heard the concession in Luo Shangyu’s tone and knew it was finally time to prove her own strength. Her heart raced with joy.
That afternoon, after the entire army finished lunch, they marched out.
This time, the force was split in two. One side was Luo Shangyu’s elite unit of twenty thousand; the other was Qin Yu’s main force of seventy thousand.
“Stay safe,” Luo Shangyu said, grasping Qin Yu’s hand firmly as they parted.
Qin Yu stared deeply into Luo Shangyu’s eyes for a long moment before replying, “I will.”
Along the way, the soldiers were still excited about the earlier victory, their spirits high, itching to engage the enemy.
Qin Yu slowed the march to give Luo Shangyu enough time to circle around.
It was still early—just past noon—as Qin Yu led her troops through the dense forest. Perhaps because of their recent triumph, she didn’t spot a single enemy soldier.
A dozen miles—not far, not near. Qin Yu and Luo Shangyu intended to turn the coming battle into a decisive one, so they had the troops travel light. The distance took just over an hour to cover.
Qin Yu’s force was mainly infantry; out of seventy thousand, only ten thousand were cavalry. She armed the cavalry with swords, spears, and halberds to leverage their speed and cut down enemies.
The infantry, meanwhile, carried magic guns, enabling them to kill cavalry.
As they marched, Qin Yu suddenly felt her vision brighten. The canopy above ended, and sunlight poured down.
Before her lay a meadow surrounded by hills, spanning nearly a thousand square miles. Wildflowers of every color dotted the grass, stunningly beautiful.
Several streams wound through the meadow.
Beyond the ring of hills stood towering forests. If she wanted to advance quickly, Qin Yu would have to cross the meadow.
At the meadow’s entrance, a small enemy force was visible, and on the nearby hilltops, enemy banners fluttered faintly.
‘How ingenious!’ Qin Yu thought.
Chen Yufei had chosen a point that was a mandatory passage for Qin Yu and Luo Shangyu.
Crossing the meadow would trigger an ambush. Going around it would let Chen Yufei order an all-out charge from the high ground, inflicting heavy losses. Stalling in place would let Chen Yufei’s troops occupy the heights, sitting pretty while sending raiding parties to harass and ambush before retreating to the hills—leaving Qin Yu helpless, able only to watch as Chen Yufei launched an offensive she couldn’t counter.
The only option was to go around the meadow.
That would exhaust Qin Yu’s army, and Chen Yufei could defeat them while fresh and waiting.
But Qin Yu was relieved: she and Luo Shangyu had a way to break the deadlock, turn the tables, and even turn the fight back on Chen Yufei.