Surprise Troops, What Matters Is Who Rides Within

King Zhou—now the New Emperor—was obsessively tracking Eastlyn’s every move. The moment the war chariots were hauled out from Night City, the New Emperor received word immediately.

Of course, this wasn’t due to Eastlyn’s lack of secrecy or any failure on Dou Dou’s part. The war chariots were simply too massive to hide; it was only natural for the New Emperor to detect their movement.

“Is Ninth Royal Uncle planning to use these war chariots to attack Chu City?” The New Emperor frowned, finding himself unable to read Ninth Royal Uncle’s intentions at all.

These war chariots were indeed formidable weapons, but they’d be better suited against Northlyn than Chu City.

“I doubt it. The mountain roads around Chu City are treacherous, and while the war chariots are powerful, they’re not suited for that terrain. If Ninth Royal Uncle intends to attack Chu City, there’s no way he doesn’t understand its geography.” Charlotte Chu was intimately familiar with the lay of the land, and knew both her strengths and weaknesses inside out.

“Could Ninth Royal Uncle be thinking of using the war chariots to cross the deadly stretch at Heaven-Maiden Peak?” Charlotte immediately hit upon the possibility, but after a moment’s thought, dismissed it: “Impossible. No matter how strong those chariots are, they can’t scale cliffs and rooftops. If the chariots can’t even reach the defenders, they’re useless as weapons.”

“Whatever the case, caution comes first. Ninth Royal Uncle would never make pointless preparations. Let’s stockpile extra boulders on the mountain—when the war chariots pass through, we’ll smash them with rocks.” The New Emperor insisted on caution: whatever the chariots were for, destroying them first was the safest bet.

As long as they never reach Chu City, the war chariots are powerless, no matter how strong they are.

Ninth Royal Uncle and Serena Feng had already anticipated this, and were studying countermeasures: “When the war chariots pass through Heaven-Maiden Peak, we must guard against stone attacks. The chariots may be impervious to blades and arrows, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune to crushing boulders.”

“Heaven-Maiden Peak’s twin summits are steep and high. Even if Chu City uses local resources, there’s no way they could dismantle the peaks in a short time. The boulders they can haul up the mountain are limited. As long as we exhaust their stone supply, the war chariots will pass safely.” Ninth Royal Uncle pointed at the terrain: “There’s no natural quarry around Heaven-Maiden Peak. To attack with boulders, Chu’s army has to haul them up from elsewhere.”

But this was no simple task; even with plenty of troops, Chu’s army couldn’t devote everyone to hauling rocks.

“It’s not hard to wear down their stone supply—we just need to play along a few more times.” Serena recalled the story of the boy who cried wolf.

That story taught us: if you tell enough lies, no one believes you when you finally tell the truth.

“If Chu’s troops want to play games, we’ll play along. The best time to cross Heaven-Maiden Peak is at night. They’re ambushed up high and can’t see clearly below. We can build a few fake war chariots.”

“All we need is an iron shell. If we can’t manage that, wood will do—just slap some paint on it so it looks convincing from above.”

“As for the inside… We’ll collect live pigs and sheep along the way—or maybe leopards, tigers, rabbits, whatever we can find. With the Snow Wolf helping, we won’t have to worry. Once we reach Heaven-Maiden Peak, we camp outside and send these animals inside the fake chariots to charge through the pass at night. Chu’s troops will hear the commotion and launch their attacks. Once… twice… After enough rounds, when Chu’s vigilance drops and their boulders run low, we’ll send in the Black Riders.”

Serena’s scheme was straightforward, but undeniably effective. Every night, when the chariots passed through, even if Chu’s army realized they were fake, the next night any sign of movement below would force them to react—just in case a real chariot slipped through. But if they attacked, they’d burn through resources too quickly.

Once or twice was manageable, but after dozens of rounds, even if Chu’s troops didn’t collapse, they’d be worn out and lose their fighting spirit.

Night after night, battling a bunch of livestock, they’d suffer heavy losses while Eastlyn’s army remained untouched. Just thinking about it was enough to make Chu’s men frustrated. By the time Eastlyn’s real war chariots came through, they’d probably assume it was another fake and only put up a token resistance.

For now, this was the plan Serena and Ninth Royal Uncle considered most feasible. Until something better came along, they’d prepare for it.

Dou Dou lost quite a bit of time on the road, coming and going. Ninth Royal Uncle and Serena had to catch animals and order local officials to build fake war chariots along the way, which also took time. Even moving faster, they only arrived at Heaven-Maiden Peak two days ahead of Dou Dou.

During those two days, neither Ninth Royal Uncle nor Serena was idle. Serena ran sand-table simulations of every possible scenario, while Ninth Royal Uncle covertly approached Heaven-Maiden Peak to scout Chu’s troop movements and fighting strength.

The New Emperor and Charlotte Chu were deeply wary of Ninth Royal Uncle. With only 150,000 troops, they’d stationed 30,000 just to ambush at Heaven-Maiden Peak. Their aim was to exploit the terrain’s danger to ‘soft-kill’ as many Eastlyn soldiers as possible, while also undermining Ninth Royal Uncle’s reputation and aura.

Just as Serena and Ninth Royal Uncle had predicted, the New Emperor ordered both sides of Heaven-Maiden Peak piled with boulders. As soon as the war chariots passed through, they’d be crushed flat.

“Good thing we planned ahead, or our losses would’ve been devastating.” Serena felt no pride in foreseeing this; after all, any commander with a brain would’ve figured it out.

“Chu’s troops have more boulders than arrows. We need to exhaust as many of their weapons as possible.” The ambush force at Heaven-Maiden Peak was stretched thin, with almost no way to resupply from the rear.

“Once Dou Dou brings his men, we’ll sleep by day and act by night. To wear them out, as soon as they clear the road, we send more fake chariots. Even during the day, we’ll stir things up now and then—keep them from resting.” With 100,000 troops, they could rotate in three shifts to torment Chu’s army.

“Child’s play,” Ninth Royal Uncle couldn’t help but laugh.

Serena’s unconventional approach was a true surprise—no one would expect such a scheme from a commander leading an army.

“So what if it’s child’s play? As long as it works. Unless you’ve got something better?” Serena challenged. Since they couldn’t attack directly, what other way was there to harass Chu’s troops?

“There are better ways, but none with less loss. Your plan is actually pretty good.” Ninth Royal Uncle said it so seriously that Serena could only roll her eyes. “Is that supposed to be a compliment or not?”

“...Does this king have another choice?”

Nope!

Ninth Royal Uncle and Serena had sketched out their plan for the Chu City campaign. They’d meant to wait for Dou Dou to arrive and discuss it further, but before Dou Dou could get there, urgent news arrived from Jiangnan—so serious that they had to consider leaving Chu City’s siege to Dou Dou and handling the crisis themselves.

After all, Chu City could be entrusted to their subordinates, but some matters had to be handled personally...