Ling Zhang was inclined to go to the mountain pass to take a look when he recovered well enough to get out of bed because he wanted to check the lay of the land in person one last time.

“You’re in no fit state to make a trip that long, considering your injury.” Yuwen Tong disagreed.

Ling Zhang said, “I’m just going there to have a look at the terrain. I’m not going to do anything else.”

He was worried that there might be some slip-ups that would compromise their operations if he did not go there to check the lay of the land in person. This was no laughing matter.

Yuwen Tong knew what he meant. After a few moments’ silence, he said, “I’ll go.”

Ling Zhang demurred without a second thought, “No!”

Yuwen Tong was the emperor. How could he go to a mountain pass under the enemy’s control in these circumstances? What if he was injured or caught?! On no account would he allow Yuwen Tong to take that risk!

“Then you are not going either. Given your injury, it’s sure as hell inadvisable for you to make a long trip. This is a fact you cannot deny,” said Yuwen Tong.

Ling Zhang, “…”

“You’ve had your bodyguards reconnoiter that place several times in the past couple of days. Surely you don’t doubt their competence?” added Yuwen Tong.

Ling Zhang heaved a sigh, regretting having had the Gu worm eliminated from his body so soon. He would have paid a visit to the mountain pass first had he known beforehand things would come to this.

“I need you to tell me the details about the Formation you want to deploy there, along with how you want my men to cooperate. After we finish discussing it, I will not dispatch my troops immediately. I’ll have to send some men there to do some more recon. Besides, this mountain pass is different from the others we’ve seen. The terrain there is very steep. There’s no way we could make enough progress to ensure our victory in the first engagement, so our first round of attacks would be aimed at getting the enemy’s measure. You’ll need to give the Formation a test run, and our army need to put out feelers to see how strong the enemy’s defense is and get some information about their battle plans,” Yuwen Tong continued.

After Ling Zhang, who had little acquaintance of this kind of things, heard Yuwen Tong’s explanation, the light dawned on him, and he had an idea of what to expect. “Okay. Let’s do it your way,” he said.

Ling Zhang had Yuwen Tong bring him the Formation diagrams on the table which he had drawn, then said to Yuwen Tong, “The terrain in this place is precipitous. It’s a natural barrier of Jifang City, easy to hold but hard to attack. This is one of their advantages, but people capable of deploying Formations could also take advantage of this kind of terrain. Taking into consideration the terrain alone, I could deploy many kinds of Formations in that place, but there are mainly four of them that could be useful for carrying out our plan of attack. I’ve finished the diagrams of them, and I also wrote their respective functions on the diagrams. You may take a look first, seeing as you’ll be the one directing the troops. It must be my Formation facilitating the execution of the attack plans, not the other way around.”

Yuwen Tong inclined his head, studied the diagrams for a while and eventually selected one – an Illusion Formation.

Ling Zhang was somewhat surprised. “You want an Illusion Formation?”

He had thought that an Illusion Formation was the least likely to be chosen. In fact, at first he had ruled it out, and the reason why he had put it back on the list was because he had recalled the battle outside Haizhou five years ago.

Yuwen Tong said, “This mountain pass is different. If the Wan army do everything they could to defend it, we wouldn’t be able to get an inch closer to the city, so they don’t even need to come out of the city to fight us. It’ll be no good to lay any traps or deploy a Misguidance Formation or a Smokescreen Formation outside the city. If we are to deploy a Formation there, it has to be one that could help with our attacks. This Illusion Formation is a very good choice. If things go smoothly, we’ll be able to distract the enemy and buy our troops precious time to attack the mountain pass.”

Yuwen Tong was also adept at various kinds of Formations. Previously, in terms of Formation prowess, Ling Zhang had stood no comparison with Yuwen Tong. It was after diligently learning from his grandfather for five years that Ling Zhang had narrowed the gap and was now almost as good as Yuwen Tong. Ling Zhang had always fully trusted Yuwen Tong’s judgement. However, there was something about the Illusion Formation that concerned him. “The Illusion Formation won’t last long, and when it wanes, the enemy would become suspicious. It’ll last an hour at the most.”

Yuwen Tong smiled, “An hour will be more than enough.”

There were many things an army could do within an hour. This was like a godsend, and it would put them at a great advantage.

Yuwen Tong told Ling Zhang in general about his plan of attack. Ling Zhang’s eyes grew progressively brighter as he listened. “All right. I’ll be in the tent the next time you discuss the battle plans with them.”

Yuwen Tong nodded. This was Ling Zhang’s first time offering to attending a meeting about battle plans. There had been some occasions when Yuwen Tong had invited Ling Zhang to attend similar meetings, but Ling Zhang had always declined, saying that he knew too little about war to be helpful in that kind of meetings.

Yuwen Tong was aware of Ling Zhang’s misgivings, which were, in his eyes, totally unnecessary, but Ling Zhang could be quite a piece of work when being intransigent. This time around, as Ling Zhang had offered to attend the meeting on his own initiative, Yuwen Tong was determined to have Ling Zhang show those officers his flair for military strategy.

…

The next day, Ling Zhang, after getting out of bed, went into the conference tent with Yuwen Tong. The officers were all somewhat surprised at Ling Zhang’s arrival. Yuwen Jin called happily, “Brother Zhang!”

Yuwen Tong shot him a forbidding look. “Show some respect.”

Yuwen Jin flinched and then hastened to deferentially address Ling Zhang as “Your Highness”.

Ling Zhang inclined his head. Since he was here to discuss battle plans with them, he appeared very serious, looking nothing like the person who was normally mild to Yuwen Jin. He always had a commanding air about him, especially when he was intentionally being serious, so at this time hardly anybody in the tent dared look him in the eye or risk being impertinent.

Xiao Jiangyue and the others reverently paid their respects to Ling Zhang. There were a couple of newly appointed officers present, but all the others were familiar faces. They all had some acquaintance with Ling Zhang and was fully aware that although Ling Zhang had scarcely participated in politics, he knew about the political landscape better than any of them did. Leaving aside his strong marital bonding with the emperor, his intelligence network alone which covered the whole Great Wen and even the other two countries guaranteed that he could keep abreast of the latest developments of the situation in almost every area. Jiang Ke and Jiang Xi, who had once fought side by side with Ling Zhang, knew this fact better than anybody. Xiao Jiangyue and a couple of other experienced officers, who had fought their way northwards to this place with Yuwen Tong, during the smooth process of taking those cities along the way, had all found quite some traces of what that intelligence network was capable of, and they all knew without a shadow of a doubt that although Ling Zhang had not been in the army, his influence had been everywhere. Apart from them, the couple of newly appointed officers did not dare take Ling Zhang lightly either. It was true that they did now know about Ling Zhang as well as the others did, but because of the fact that Ling Zhang, when standing beside Yuwen Tong, emanated an air just as commanding as Yuwen Tong’s, they all sensibly chose to adopt a reverent attitude towards Ling Zhang.

“I’m here because I’ll participate in the offensive operation aimed at taking the mountain pass as well, and I’ll deploy a large-scale Formation to assist you in the attacks,” said Ling Zhang.

A large-scale Formation? The couple of officers who had some acquaintance with Ling Zhang’s skill set had thoughtful expressions on their faces at these words. Those who had no knowledge of what Ling Zhang was capable of, however, were baffled as to why Ling Zhang wanted to deploy a large-scale Formation. How was that supposed to help with their attacks?

Ling Zhang said, “The deployment of the Formation consists of two steps. The first step is to lay the foundations under the cover of night; the second step is to have our troops create a distraction during the first engagement in which we’ll try to get the enemy’s measure. If successfully deployed, the Formation will buy our troops at least an hour to advance without the enemy noticing.”

It would buy them an hour to advance without the enemy noticing?! Everybody present except for Yuwen Tong was shocked.

“Are you sure it’ll buy us an hour, Your Highness?” Even Xiao Jiangyue, who had always been a poised man, couldn’t help but be the first to ask.

Ling Zhang nodded. “I promise it’ll buy us an hour if it’s successfully deployed.”

Xiao Jiangyue immediately said, “Okay! Even a quarter of an hour would put us at an advantage, not to mention one solid hour. If there’s anything you need us to do to help with the deployment of the Formation, all you have to do is ask. I promise I’ll do everything I could to get the job done!”

When Xiao Jiangyue had unhesitatingly expressed his support for the plan, the others immediately came to themselves. Yuwen Jin, Jiang Ke, Jiang Xi and He Xiao all hastened to follow suit.

“Brother Zhang … Your Highness, please don’t prolong the agony – just tell us what kind of Formation it is,” urged Yuwen Jin.

The other newly appointed officers, though bemused, were all smart enough not to raise any objections at this point in time. Two of them were a little overcautious, but they merely said they wanted to hear more details about the Formation first.

Ling Zhang did not take offence. Xiao Jiangyue, Yuwen Jin and a couple of others had quickly expressed their support because they knew him well and trusted him. The others, however, did not know him as well as they did, and neither did they have as much trust in him. They were reserving their judgement instead of immediately expressing their support because of their awareness of their responsibilities, which was exactly what competent officers were supposed to do.

“It’s an Illusion Formation, the successful deployment of which requires the right terrain and the cooperation of soldiers. Some kung fu masters with powerful internal energy are supposed to be at the Eyes of Formation. Its function is to distract the defenders’ attention, temporarily deceive their eyes and make it difficult for them to figure out from which direction the attacks come,” explained Ling Zhang.

When he said these words, all the others listened attentively.

Next, Ling Zhang expounded to them what they were supposed to do, and how the Formation was going to work. After that he deployed a miniature Illusion Formation on the sand table and demonstrated its function. The officers were all amazed as they saw the model army suddenly disappear and then materialize elsewhere. They even felt that the terrain was no longer what it had always been.

Not until Ling Zhang unmade the Illusion Formation did they find that the model army was still in its original position, that the terrain had not changed a bit. All of them were astonished.

“I can’t believe this is really happening!” said one of the officers, astounded.

Ling Zhang said, “This is just a simple demonstration. For the Formation to serve its purpose on the battlefield, I’ll need everybody’s cooperation. And, it’ll be best if we create a spurious impression to mislead the enemy when we try to get their measure during the first engagement.”

A spurious impression? A couple of quick-witted officers immediately cottoned on, their eyes twinkling with excitement. Jiang Ke and Xiao Jiangyue exclaimed at the same time, “What a masterstroke!”

And with that the two of them exchanged a glance and dissolved into chuckle in unison. Then they hastened to look at Ling Zhang. “Your Highness, are you saying that when putting out feelers in the first engagement, we should attack the mountain pass as the illusory army in the Illusion Formation would? So that the enemy would get a false impression, and when we launch a full-on attack later, the fake army displayed in the Illusion Formation would cause them to drop their guard and mislead them into believing that the army was real?”

Ling Zhang smiled with a head bob, “Exactly. It’ll help with the successful deployment of the Illusion Formation, which would in turn better serve the purpose of deceiving the enemies.”