Do you have the strength to force me to join the Liangshan bandits?

Chapter 590 Zong Ze: Your Majesty's thoughts are dangerous! [1st update]

"hiss--"

The eight finalists all gasped in surprise:
To launch a surprise attack on the Jin army...isn't that a betrayal of trust?
Seeing the eight finalists speechless, Cai Fu smiled and stroked the ghost head on the ghost-head broadsword:

Please begin your performance!

Yang Zaixing replied without hesitation, "Your Majesty..."

Zong Ze replied without hesitation, "Your Majesty..."

They spoke in unison, then simultaneously fell silent and looked at each other.

Yang Zaixing gestured for the elders to go first.

This child is quite polite; his father must be a gentleman as well!
Zong Ze smiled and nodded to Yang Zaixing, then clasped his hands in a fist salute to Cai Fu.

"Your Majesty, the Jin Kingdom and the Song Dynasty are in an alliance of offense and defense!"

"The Jin state has not broken the alliance, so how can our army launch a surprise attack on the Jin soldiers?"

"I believe this must be a Liao Kingdom's scheme. If our army launches a surprise attack on the Jin army, the Liao Kingdom's siege will be lifted immediately!"

"Not only that, it will also lead to war between the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, so that the Liao Dynasty can reap the benefits!"

"Therefore, the villains will ignore this and continue their attack on Jizhou!"

Cai Fu chuckled and looked at Yang Zaixing: "And you?"

Yang Zaixing clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Your Majesty, I will obey your orders!"
"Immediately abandon the attack on Jizhou and launch a surprise attack on the Jin troops who are currently attacking Tanzhou!"

Zong Ze frowned: "Aren't you putting the King in an unjust position?"

"A soldier's duty is to obey orders!"

Yang Zaixing said firmly: This is the principle my father taught me!

"But……"

Zong Ze wanted to argue with Yang Zaixing, but Yang Zhi glanced at Cai Fu's expression and interjected:
"Please calm down, both of you. This is not a debate. Please also listen to the opinions of the other contestants."

Zong Ze then shut his mouth, but kept shaking his head angrily, as if he had taken some kind of poison.

With those two as the starting point, no matter what, the other contestants can't really escape these two choices.

Wang Zuo and Wu Shangzhi exchanged a glance and decisively chose to obey orders.

Zhuge Ying, however, chose to ignore it.

Cai Fu neither commented on nor confirmed their choices, nor did he reveal the correct answer. He then moved on to the next question:
"If you were to be attacked by Jin soldiers while you were attacking Jizhou, what would you do?"

Zong Ze subconsciously looked at Yang Zaixing, who then gestured for him to proceed.

Zong Ze nodded his thanks to him and said, "If the Jin soldiers are in a position of power, I will try my best to escape unscathed!"

"If the Jin army is numbered ten thousand, I am willing to defeat them for Your Majesty!"

No, do your family members know you're bragging like this outside?

The other contestants were stunned, but Cai Fu pressed for details: "Explain in more detail."

The other contestants laughed: Serves you right! You bragged so much, let's see how you explain it now!
Zong Ze calmly replied, "When I'm in battle, I send out scouts to investigate the enemy's situation within a fifty-mile radius."

"If the Jin soldiers launch a sneak attack, unless we kill all of my scouts, I will definitely be able to find out in advance."

"Our army has only five thousand men. It would be unwise for us to fight against more than ten thousand Jin soldiers in the field."

"Besides, the battlefield is in the Liao Kingdom, so our army has no reason to fight them to the bitter end."

"It would be better to preserve our usefulness, make a strategic retreat first, and then plan a counterattack."

"If the Jin army is numbered less than ten thousand, I will feign defeat and flee, abandoning small amounts of supplies along the way."

"When we pass through a favorable location, we can leave all the gold and silver here, and our army can lie in ambush and wait for the enemy to tire themselves out."

"When the Jin soldiers arrive and start looting gold and silver, our army will suddenly attack, and the Jin soldiers will surely be thrown into chaos."

"Taking this opportunity, I have gathered a hundred elite daredevils to attack the Jin army's central camp, kill their generals, and seize their flags."

"Then the army will be leaderless, the Jin soldiers will be scattered, and the overall situation will be settled."

Aze, are you serious?
The other contestants were stunned: No, you're really going to do this, what are we supposed to do?
"Okay." Cai Fu smiled and looked at Yang Zaixing, who clasped his hands in a fist salute.

"This humble servant is willing to slay generals and seize flags for Your Majesty!"
"Jin soldiers? Hmph! We'll make sure they never return!"

Seriously, are you all such good at bragging?
The other contestants were stunned: Was the playoffs about who could boast the most?

Cai Fu: "Explain in detail."

Yang Zaixing glanced at Zong Ze and said firmly:

"Even a lowly person like me will send out scouts to investigate the enemy's situation!"

"Once we discover the Jin soldiers' whereabouts, we will cease our attack on Jizhou, rest and recuperate on the spot, and wait for them to tire themselves out!"
"While the Jin soldiers arrived and were still establishing themselves, I personally led my cavalry to attack the Jin army's central camp, beheading generals and seizing their flags!"
"Once the enemy general dies, the Jin army will collapse on its own!"

Crazy?
The other contestants were staring at Yang Zaixing as if he were crazy:
As the commander-in-chief, you actually personally killed enemy generals and seized their flags?

Even Wu Shangzhi, who considered himself to be invincible, felt that Yang Zaixing's plan was too reckless.

But Cai Fu knew that Yang Zaixing could do it.

In the original story, if he hadn't been unfamiliar with the terrain and mistakenly entered the Xiaoshang River, he and his horse wouldn't have fallen into the river and been riddled with arrows by the Jin soldiers...

Therefore, even though Cai Fu knew that Yang Zaixing had the ability to solve the problem, he still did not support him in doing so.

After listening to Yang Zaixing's speech, Cai Fu remained noncommittal and then asked the other contestants.

The other contestants' answers were unoriginal, until Wu Shangzhi.

Wu Shangzhi put forward a bold idea:

"Your Majesty, I will retreat and avoid their sharp edge!"

"At night, I gathered all the horses I could find nearby, poured pine resin and asphalt on their tails, and took them to the vicinity of the Jin army camp!"

"Light the horse's tail, and the horse, in pain, will naturally gallop forward!"
"Once the fiery horses rush into the Jin army camp, the Jin army camp will surely erupt in chaos!"
"I led my troops, following behind the fire horses, and stormed into the Jin camp, shouting that the King of Qi had broken in, and headed straight for the central command tent..."

Wang Zuo put forward an even bolder idea:
"Your Majesty, I can feign surrender!"

"First, pretend to surrender to the Jin soldiers, then give the Jin general false information, and plan an ambush on the king!"

"But before that, I had already sent my trusted confidant to convey the plan to Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty can turn the tables and ambush the Jin army, then the Jin army will surely be defeated!"

"You are all very nice."

Cai Fu nodded in satisfaction; there were indeed quite a few capable people among them. He then posed his third question:

"After I conquered Jizhou, I divided my troops into two routes. You will lead one detachment to attack Zhuozhou."

"You encountered a formidable enemy in Zhuozhou and were engaged in a fierce battle."

"But for some reason, the grain supplies were delayed in being delivered."

"Your supplies are exhausted, what are you going to do?"

"hiss--"

The eight finalists couldn't help but gasp in surprise:
Good heavens, this is a life-or-death question!

As is well known, the imperial court was responsible for supplying the Qi army during this campaign against Liao, and the supplies were not escorted over...

Does the imperial court want the Qi army to die?

Three questions in a row, all targeting either allies or the imperial court—Your Majesty's thinking is dangerous…

Zong Ze wiped away a cold sweat and calmly said:

"The grain supplies were not delivered; perhaps they were intercepted by the Liao soldiers along the way!"
"With our supplies exhausted, we can no longer fight and our army has no choice but to retreat!"

"But since they are a formidable enemy, they will surely pursue our army. Our army can choose to withdraw overnight!"

"Or they could pretend to retreat overnight, but set up an ambush along the retreat route, and then strike the Liao soldiers head-on when they come to pursue them!"

"Once we defeat the Liao troops, our army can retreat at our leisure..."

[Writing battle chapters is still easier; these kinds of chapters are tiring and slow to write (_)]

(End of this chapter)