Chapter 383: Overwhelming Strength (2)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
If Qin Jiang had won two rounds in a row, Emperor Jing Xuan would not have let out a fart.
Cough cough, this is too much. They couldn’t be so disrespectful to His Majesty, even in their hearts…
But then again, Emperor Jing Xuan did not do a good job.
Su Cheng was Qin Canglan’s biological son. He was originally qualified to inherit everything, but someone else had impersonated him for twenty years.
It was already miserable enough for him to be stranded among the commoners and grow up stumbling. Now, he had to take back what belonged to him in such an unfair way.
It wasn’t easy for him to win, but Emperor Jing Xuan did it again.
Some neutral officials could not stand it anymore.
This Su Cheng was really miserable. Too miserable.
But what could they do? Oppose Emperor Jing Xuan?
There were some things that they could fight for, but there were some things that they could not.
It was the same for Emperor Jing Xuan. There were some things that he could be shameless about but not for others.
In this world, no one could be always stubborn. It all depended on who grasped the ingenious balance first.
Emperor Jing Xuan slowly picked up his teacup and gently stirred the tea leaves with the lid. He asked, “Is the result out?”
Eunuch Fu quickly sent someone to ask.
Not long after, the young eunuch returned and reported the results of the military strategy examination.
Emperor Jing Xuan suspected that he had heard wrongly. “Say it again. Whose paper is better?”
The young eunuch trembled. “Su… Su Cheng…”
Seeing the emperor’s gloomy face, he did not know what he had done wrong. He could only make wild guesses and change his words, “Qin Che! Qin Che’s exam responses were more outstanding! ”
He said Qin Che twice in a row. It seemed that it was indeed not Qin Jiang.
At this moment, Qin Jiang, who was placed on the ground, slowly woke up.
The first thing he heard when he woke up was that Su Cheng had defeated him in the military strategy exam. His blood and Qi surged, and his vision went dark as he fainted again!
This time, the Ministry of War and the Hanlin Academy reviewed the papers together. After that, the three dukes reviewed the results. The degree of importance and rigor was not inferior to those of the imperial examination.
Not only that, Wei Ting even swaggered over to the location.
Naturally, Emperor Jing Xuan did not ask him to go. He was so thick-skinned that no one could chase him away.
Emperor Jing Xuan still did not want to believe it, so he asked someone to bring their exam papers over.
He glanced at the name on the paper and immediately wanted to scold him for making a mistake. After all, Su Cheng’s big and clumsy handwriting was worlds apart from Qin Jiang’s handwriting. How could he win?
Emperor Jing Xuan had personally come up with this test question. It was not based on the memorization of all kinds of military books by rote. Instead, they had to express their opinions on a battle of the navy.
They had a navy of 1,000 men and 20 warships against an enemy of 10,000 men and 200 warships.
They only had one night. At dawn, the enemy would capture the island.
The cliffs on three sides of the island were a natural barrier that prevented the enemy from going ashore. Only the east side allowed the enemy to go smoothly ashore.
Qin Jiang gave two strategies.
The first was to defend the east bank to death, using the terrain to block the enemy in the water and use the smoke to request reinforcements from the nearby navy.
It would take two days for the nearby navy to arrive, and the various defensive measures of Qinjiang’s formation could last for three to five days.
It could be said to be a very successful defense.
His second strategy was to sacrifice 30% of his forces to break out with the ships, in exchange for maximum evacuation at the least cost.
He even described clearly how to arrange troops, how to set up formations, and how to launch a surprise attack.
If they had to forcefully break out of the encirclement, this was indeed the method with the least casualties.
Emperor Jing Xuan was very satisfied. As expected of someone who had been in the Qin family’s army for 20 years. His train of thought was clear and his use of the art of war was very mature.
Then, he looked at Su Cheng’s exam paper—
Emperor Jing Xuan frowned. “He handed in a blank paper?”
The Hanlin Academy scholar whispered, “…It’s on the back.”
Emperor Jing Xuan flipped the paper over. What greeted his eyes were not dense words, but paintings with clear lines.
Compared to words, it was more intuitive and clear at a glance. A battle filled with smoke seemed to leap onto paper.
As night fell, the soldiers on the island began to modify the ship overnight under the command of their commander.
At 1:00 p.m., twenty warships would enter the night in an orderly manner. The soldiers on the warships would beat the war drums, and their robes fluttered in the sea breeze like life-threatening ghosts.
The enemy’s alarm would ring. They did not expect the other party to launch a night attack.
This was simply courting death!
The night blocked their vision, but the enemy could accurately determine the direction of the warship through the beating of drums.
“Fire!”
Countless swords shot over.
The drumbeats gradually weakened, followed by the sound of the soldiers falling into the water.
“We hit them! Charge! We must kill them all tonight! Leave no one alive!”
The enemy warships swarmed forward.
However, when they got closer, they gradually realized that something was wrong.
It was too quiet.
Everyone on the ship seemed to be dead!
No, they were all standing, but why… didn’t they counterattack?
When they saw that the scarecrow standing on the ship was not a real soldier, they finally realized that they had been tricked.
On all the warships, only the soldiers who were beating the drums were real. And now… those soldiers had long been shot by them…
No, those people were not shot into the water by them. They jumped into the water themselves.
However, the enemy still did not understand the meaning of the other party’s actions.
At this moment, a burning arrow sped over from afar and pierced through a wooden barrel on the warship.
The wooden barrel lit up with a bang!
The kerosene on the 20 ships exploded and burned on the surface of the sea. The entire enemy warship fell into a sea of flames.
They won without expending a single soldier!
If he wasn’t a general, who could be?
Like Emperor Jing Xuan, the grading officer first looked at Qin Jiang’s paper. At that time, he felt that no one could surpass him, but after reading Su Cheng’s paper, everyone seemed to have experienced it personally.
His blood was boiling!
Emperor Jing Xuan clenched his fists and could not say a word for a long time.
The exam papers were sent down for the officials to read.
After the officials finished reading, their admiration for Su Cheng reached its peak.
There were two reasons. The first was that this method was indeed unexpected and could be said to be perfect. The second was that everyone’s expectations for Su Cheng were too low.
Even if Su Cheng only scored three out of ten, they would still be surprised and amazed. However, Su Cheng scored nine out of ten. How could this not make people applaud?
Emperor Jing Xuan said in a deep voice, “Did you really answer this yourself?”
Su Cheng said, “That’s right! If you don’t believe me, I can draw it for you again.
Eunuch, can you lend me a pen and paper?”
Eunuch Fu looked at Emperor Jing Xuan nervously.
Emperor Jing Xuan said coldly, “No need!”
He stood up and glared coldly at the unconscious Qin Jiang.. “Qin Che, victory!”
