Chapter 11 Eighteen Touches
Looking at the dense, speeding black dots in the distance, Instructor Hall felt as though he had swallowed a fly. He never expected that fatty, the one who wanted to surrender at the beginning, could break through the defenses of ten thousand troops in just a few short dozen minutes.
It's worth noting that even Duke Hale, whose ace was focused breakthroughs, could probably only achieve such a level. There was a strange feeling inside. Three generations—grandfather and grandson, father and son: Duke Lionheart, Earl Hale, and the fatty fleeing in the distance. Instructor Hall had deep respect for the first two generations and was even willing to go through fire and water under their command. However, he could not respect this fatty in front of him at all, despite the fatty now demonstrating considerable artistry in command.
Initially, Instructor Hall couldn't understand why, but gradually, he seemed to comprehend a bit. It wasn't an issue of command ability; it was an issue of character.
If the duke and earl were upright and noble, then this fatty in front of him was cowardly, timid, and afraid of death... and so on. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to apply all these negative adjectives to the fatty.
There was just one deep疑惑 lingering in Instructor Hall's mind: how did that dead fatty suddenly become so clever? He witnessed the formation change of the wedge formation during the final breakthrough moment, the moment he arrived. Such complex changes were definitely not something a young person could easily accomplish.
Even Earl Hale might not have done better than this dead fatty. Of course, there were significant oversights in the fatty's arrangements, namely underestimating the soldiers' combat effectiveness. This became evident later. Clearly, the blade tip formed by dozens of soldiers was enough to break through the defense, but they insisted on switching to dozens of guards. Clearly, three guards could rip a hole in the defense line, but they instead used hundreds of infantry to break through, along with archers and crossbowmen shooting arrows... These were all incredible things.
Because almost all students who want to enter the Strategy Department of the Royal Academy learn about the combat effectiveness of different troops on the first day. This common sense is widely known to anyone with a slight understanding of the military and war.
A genius commander on the battlefield and an idiot commander who knew nothing about the combat effectiveness of soldiers and relied solely on intuition—Instructor Hall couldn't reconcile these two identities.
But now, all of this was happening right before his eyes. A thought kept flashing through Instructor Hall's mind: if the fatty could now exert a combat effectiveness of six stars with the wedge formation, what would happen when he mastered the basic combat effectiveness of different troops? This thought flashed through Instructor Hall's mind briefly. He didn't continue thinking about it because he felt deeply frustrated and gritted his teeth, wanting to swallow the fatty whole.
The plains, which were originally a favorable terrain for him, had now become the biggest obstacle in eliminating the fatty. That dead fatty was leading him to run in circles on the plains.
He dare not split his forces to intercept the fatty now. The fatty's command ability on the battlefield was there for all to see. Who knows if the separated troops would be swallowed up by the fatty in one gulp.
So, he could only engage in a stalemate with the fatty.
As for the fatty now, he was overjoyed, extremely so. Riding on his warhorse, he couldn't help but hum a little tune.
"Beat the drums tightly, strike the gong slowly, stop the gong and drums to listen to the song, all kinds of idle chatter also become songs, listen to me sing the Eighteen Touches. Reach out to touch the silk on the side of your sister's face..."
※※※
It's over, everything is over. When he saw the fatty leading Instructor Hall around in circles on the vast plains, Instructor Cangfeng knew that this war game could not continue any longer.
At Instructor Cangfeng's gesture, the aged mage stopped releasing his magic, and both the fatty and Instructor Hall regained consciousness from the magic circle.
The fatty, now awake, had a smug look on his face, his smile spreading across his cheeks, still humming the tune of the Eighteen Touches. On the other side, Instructor Hall's facial expression was already severely distorted, his teeth gritted, fists clenched, staring deadly at the fatty. From his appearance, he seemed ready to snap at any moment.
"Alright, you can go back now," Instructor Hall said lightly to the fatty, the gloom between his eyebrows suddenly disappearing.
"Goodbye, Instructor." The fatty smiled innocently and, dragging Qingyin who seemed to want to say something, walked proudly towards the exit of the Lianjin Space.
After the old mage walked out of the alchemical space, Instructor Cangfeng shook his head helplessly and said to Instructor Hall, "Now we're in trouble."
Instructor Hall naturally knew what Instructor Cangfeng was referring to. His distorted expression eased slightly as he said to Cangfeng, "What should we do now? The result seems unexpected."
"Unexpected? More than just unexpected. With a combat effectiveness of six stars, even Hale wouldn't necessarily do better than him. If this result spreads, it will immediately cause a sensation in the capital and throughout the empire," Instructor Cangfeng said with a bitter smile to Hall.
Hall's face twisted slightly, but then quickly relaxed: "Isn't this good? The empire has produced a genius who will someday make it onto the list of famous generals?"
"Good? Good my foot..." Instructor Cangfeng couldn't help but swear, but then seemed to realize that the person in front of him was a comrade-in-arms who had gone through thick and thin with him, realizing his own sense of duty as a knight. He said with a stern face, "He did well tactically, but strategically? Have you ever seen a famous general who surrenders right away and sets his strategic intention as escaping? It was indeed a dead end. If he didn't escape, death was the only option. But often, the worst environments best reflect a person's sense of duty to their army, family, and country. The duke was right. If the current fatty enters the military, he will be a disaster, and a disaster even greater if he is a general with genius-level command skills."
Listening to Cangfeng's words, Hall fell into deep thought.
To describe the fatty as elated would be an understatement. Beaming with pride was a more accurate description. Normally speaking, after creating so many miracles in his previous life, growing step by step from a mere soldier to the most powerful governor-general, he should have looked down on these small victories by now. But in reality, the fatty was becoming even more pleased with himself.
In the fatty's words, if one didn't act calmly after winning, it was just showing off. The fatty was a pure person, so he wanted to fully express the emotions flowing from his heart.
"You..." Since leaving the alchemical space, Qingyin's gaze had been constantly on the fatty. At this moment, she seemed to have returned to seven years ago, following the fatty like a little shadow, timid and shy, but never afraid because the fatty was protecting her.
"What's wrong with me?" The fatty turned his head with a smile and looked at Qingyin. His two fat hands tightly gripped Qingyin's jade-like right hand, and it was unclear whether he was gripping it too tightly because of his excitement over the victory or if it was just his nature.
To put it simply, was it intentional or unintentional?
"Have you recovered?" Qingyin said to the fatty with a slightly blushing face, losing her usual composure at this moment. All that could be seen was a shy girl.
"Recover?" Listening to Qingyin's words, the fatty hesitated slightly but then quickly nodded, because he clearly saw a hint of expectant look in Qingyin's eyes. At this moment, the fatty had some strange thoughts. He didn't want to disappoint the girl in front of him.
In an instant, a bright gloss like morning dew appeared in Qingyin's eyes. Her eyes reddened again, her red lips slightly parted, revealing her pearl-like white teeth.
But just then, a noisy sound drowned out everything, making the fatty only able to see Qingyin's lips moving slightly, but unable to hear anything clearly.
"Dammit..." The fatty couldn't help but swear.
Accompanied by the noisy sound, people streamed past the fatty and Qingyin, converging towards the gate of the academy. From afar, they could see the crowd gathered around something.
"Senior Heir is coming to our academy..." Two figures hurried past the fatty.
"Senior Heir?" The fatty furrowed his brows slightly. He didn't have a good feeling about the person who had disturbed the peace between him and Qingyin.
However, the only thing the fatty could be sure of was that this so-called Heir was definitely not a simple person. This could be seen from the excitement and enthusiasm on the faces of the people passing by.
When most of the crowd had gathered at the gate of the academy, it became quieter. Then the fatty whispered to Qingyin, "Who is Heir?"
Qingyin looked at the fatty in surprise and said to him, "Heir is the only Warlord in the Aral Ace Empire."
"Warlord?" The fatty rolled his eyes. His intuition told him that the Warlord must be very powerful, but he couldn't imagine how powerful exactly.