Mythical Three Kingdoms

Cui Jun had some speculations in his secret letter; however, since he had not been in contact with Tian Feng for long, many of these could not be confirmed. Still, even so, it provided Chen Xi and Guo Jia with plenty of precautions; otherwise, encountering Tian Feng without any prior knowledge would have been truly surprising if they did not end up with a bruised and bloody head.

After receiving this secret letter, Chen Xi took a deep breath of relief, thankful that he had not directly plotted against Yuan Shao previously; otherwise, he really would have been asking for trouble.

”It seems that Tian Feng’s spiritual talent has quite a big loophole,” Chen Xi analyzed the entire scheme and then said, ”Perhaps he can predict the outcome of a conspiracy, but a reverse spy strategy is still effective.”

”Human hearts are always the most elusive,” Guo Jia said with a smile, ”Without clear insight into human emotions, he can’t be sure who the enemies are. In such a case, the simplest method against Tian Yuanhao is to sow discord: a righteous cause for insubordination.”

”Indeed, that’s true, but even so, defeating the enemy on the battlefield is not an easy task,” Chen Xi nodded, ”so Xu You will be left to you to deal with, and I will take on Tian Yuanhao.”

So far, Chen Xi had not seen a perfect spiritual talent. Either it focused on one aspect or covered all, but with weak effects. Once the effect was astounding, there was bound to be a downside; up to this point, Chen Xi had not seen a genuinely well-rounded and flawless spiritual talent.

Of course, even if some spiritual talents had modest effects or focused on one side, their wielders were almost always prodigies among prodigies; to this point, everyone had made full use of their spiritual talents to great effect.

Some people, upon identifying their spiritual talent, kept digging positively into its potential. Take Cheng Yu, for example, who successfully transitioned from a strategist to a commander-in-chief, fully demonstrating the effects of his spiritual talent.

Then there were others who, after determining the effects of their spiritual talent, began to round out their abilities, using their spiritual talent as support to fully wield their actual hard power.

It was clear that Tian Feng belonged to the second category; because he could know the outcomes of enemy schemes, avoiding or resisting others’ plots was relatively simple for him.

This is why Tian Feng devoted all his energy to how to completely defeat the enemy head-on; that is, all his strategies revolved around large-scale combat maneuvers, how to crush the enemy straightforwardly, how to achieve victory when forces were evenly matched.

As for counteracting the enemy’s schemes, Tian Feng, through prolonged research, found that some plots, even knowing the outcome, were still beyond countering. Sometimes, while you were busy figuring out what exactly the enemy’s conspiracy entailed, they took the opportunity to eliminate you.

Having realized this, Tian Feng no longer wasted his time. He shifted all his focus on how to overpower others, how to triumph in direct confrontation, and how to strategically corner the adversary step by step until their defeat.

This was also why Tian Feng had a good relationship with Ju Shou. Besides having similar temperaments, Ju Shou’s spiritual talent could amplify Tian Feng’s strengths, enriching Tian Feng’s already abundant experience even further.

In other words, when Tian Feng and Ju Shou worked together, they were almost impervious to any conspiracy, leaving only the option of a head-to-head confrontation, and what was more concerning was that both Tian Feng and Ju Shou were experts in frontal military engagements, with abundant experience in military formations, troop dispatch, and relentless pressure.

This was why Chen Xi asked Guo Jia to take care of Xu You and decided to confront Tian Feng himself; after all, as long as Tian Feng was not dead, they could only clash head-on.

If it’s a head-on clash, then Chen Xi taking command himself might be even more advantageous. Direct comparisons of brute strength between huge armies negates the effects of strategy and personal martial abilities almost entirely.

No matter how formidable Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun are, in a large-scale battle involving hundreds of thousands, individual valor hardly holds value, especially when the soldiers on both sides are equally fierce. Without the power to disregard Cloud Qi, even Lyu Bu might be killed in such a scale of battle.

This is just like the stories from before, where if Xiang Yu faced Hann Xin head-on with a hundred soldiers each, Hann Xin would simply be courting death. With a thousand men each, Hann Xin would still die. Escalating to ten thousand, Hann Xin might struggle a bit but would still die. At a hundred thousand, it would either be a draw or one would die. If the numbers increased further, Xiang Yu’s chances of winning would drastically decline.

This is the difference between martial might and command. To some extent, martial might can replace command, and sometimes in smaller-scale conflicts, martial might is even more critical than command. But as the scale of war increases, the significance of individual martial might diminishes without limit, while the effect of command becomes increasingly amplified.

Up until now, most generals have commanded troops through martial force, and the strength of their martial force directly impacts the combat power of their soldiers.

That’s also why, early in the Late Han period when the population was still quite large, it was rare for generals to command more than ten thousand soldiers—their troop numbers tended to cap at around three to four thousand. Conversely, in the later period when the population dropped, many generals commanded tens of thousands of soldiers.

In the early Han Dynasty, most commanded through martial might rather than by orders and dispatch. Having too many subordinate soldiers could lead not only to excessive military authority but also to chaos due to the inability to manage such large numbers effectively.

Naturally, someone like Second Brother, who studied Military Strategy occasionally, would command more and more soldiers over time and gradually transition from leading through martial force to leading through orders; from Charging General to General Commander and even Commander-in-chief.

After pondering Chen Xi’s proposal for a while, Guo Jia spoke up, ”I’ll deal with Tian Feng. Xuu You handle him for now; after all, if you stay put in Linyi, Xuu You can’t do anything to you, so it’s better for me to size up Tian Feng first.”

Chen Xi frowned, puzzled by Guo Jia’s suggestion. Attacking the enemy at their strong point is not the action of a sage, especially when there are better measures available. Why charge in and create chaos?

”I know you’re confused, but I want to see what this Spiritual Talent of Tian Feng is all about. Can it really evade all strategies?” Guo Jia said earnestly to Chen Xi, ”The intelligence from Cui Zhouping is not complete, let me test the rest; what if some of it isn’t accurate?”

”Even if some details are off, the overall direction is definitely correct,” Chen Xi sighed and said, ”Charging in like this could easily put you at a disadvantage.”

”Not necessarily, let me try first,” Guo Jia shook his head, ”I suspect Tian Feng’s Spiritual Talent has some other weaknesses, otherwise, some things shouldn’t have happened.”

”Lyu Fengxian’s forceful assault on Jizhou is equivalent to a strong attack,” Chen Xi shook his head, ”It’s completely overpowering through martial force, but it was Chen Gongtai who created a good opportunity for Lyu Bu...”

As he spoke, Chen Xi suddenly looked up, and Guo Jia stared back at him.

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian ) with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can read at m.qidian.com.)