Chapter 152

The atmosphere of Helian Cheng and Cui Zui's meeting was quite friendly. After exchanging names, Helian Cheng even took the initiative to encourage Cui Zui, saying, "I have witnessed your martial arts skills. You are very talented in this area. I look forward to your performance in commanding battles."

"I will do my best, please wait and see." Cui Zui took a deep breath, and the last bit of tension in his heart disappeared. He even joked, "My master said that since I can't win anyway, I might as well show all my skills and make a good show."

Helian Cheng knew that Cui Zui had become the Seventh Prince's disciple. Perhaps when they first met, he intended to take "Long Aotian" as his last disciple. However, before the door was closed, as he gained a deeper understanding of "Long Aotian," he found that he didn't have much to teach him.

Long Aotian is a true genius. As long as he stands on the battlefield, all information about both sides seems to be exposed. It is precisely because of this that his tactics can always effectively target the enemy's weaknesses, achieving his goals with the fewest troops and the fastest speed, thus winning the victory.

During the practice battle, Xue Jin'an mainly focused on scheming against Helian Yong. He used a series of schemes to gradually exploit Helian Yong's weaknesses, subtly leading him to be controlled by greed and delusion and bring about his own demise. Although Xue Jin'an was also behind the encirclement and pursuit of Helian Cheng, he only controlled the general tactical situation. As long as the outcome remained the same, he did not interfere much, allowing his subordinates to have a good time.

Therefore, at that time, Helian Cheng had already realized that Xue Jin'an was not simple. He believed in his heart that Xue Jin'an had a high level of tactical expertise, but he did not have much real feeling about it. It was not until the great victory in the all-out war against Rong Di that Helian Cheng carefully studied the entire nesting of tactics. The tactics that were interlocking and intertwined with the real and the unreal were dazzling. Helian Cheng had to admit that even he could not do better than the Seventh Prince.

From that time on, Helian Cheng never mentioned the matter of "closed-door disciple" or "successor" again. The emperor was not dead, so Helian Cheng could not place Xue Jin'an in the position of emperor for the time being. However, in the Northwest Army, Helian Cheng had already placed Xue Jin'an in the same position of respect as himself.

Cui Zui spoke without thinking, but Helian Cheng listened with interest. The implicit praise from Xue Jin'an in his words made his ears burn with a rare warmth.

"Seventh Prince, you flatter me." Helian Cheng coughed, his voice slightly strained.

Cui Zui was already mentally rehearsing the tactics he would use in the upcoming battle and didn't notice anything unusual about Helian Cheng's voice.

Xue Jin'an, who was standing not far away, "saw" it. He really saw it. His view had already switched to the game interface. Just as they were talking, their conversation was scrolling quickly across the top voice channel. After each sentence, there were also words, emoticons, and expressions that could express the speaker's emotions.

When Helian Cheng said this, a shy emoji appeared behind the scrolling text on the channel.

It's impossible for Xue Jin'an not to be seen.

After Helian Cheng and Cui Zui met, they were guided to ascend the command platform. Around the platform stood people holding small red and green flags, who were responsible for relaying commands to those below. In addition, there was a long table on the platform with some seemingly inexplicable things carved on its surface, as if craftsmen had scribbled them on a whim.

However, this table actually contains a hidden mechanism. If you find the mechanism and press it, the tabletop will pop up, revealing a small sand table and a box of parts. By using these parts to carve blueprints on the tabletop, you can create some useful items for command.

This is something Minister Zuo could create to make things difficult for the commander. He felt that the commander couldn't just sit idly by and do nothing; he should also take some action. Of course, this was the stated reason. In reality, Minister Zuo was more and more satisfied with Jili's construction, but the thought that half of it would be used by the army made his heart ache, and he wanted to give the commander some trouble.

When Zuo Mengchang recalled the origin of the table, an embarrassed expression appeared on his face. He almost scratched the soles of his shoes with his toes. At this moment, he really wanted to ask Feng Yinshou how he could remain calm even when faced with a major crisis.

Xue Jin'an thought that Minister Zuo's tripping was quite effective. The most basic quality of a commander is to be meticulous and observant. If one cannot even understand a small command platform, then there is nothing to expect from commanding operations.

Fortunately, Helian Cheng and Cui Zui were both intelligent and patient. They quickly opened the table and discovered the clues. After carefully studying the drawings on the table, they immediately identified the one that caught their attention the most.

"A telescope!" Both of them were taken aback.

This thing is also from the sandbox game, and it only appears in airdrops. They never expected that the Ministry of Industry could actually replicate it!

Without saying a word, the two of them rummaged through the parts box and found the box containing the lenses. They picked it up and tried it out at the same time. The penetrating effect of the glass was not as clear as in the sandbox game, but in the present day when the entire battlefield is viewed by the naked eye, it was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.

Both men knew the destructive power of binoculars on the battlefield. They were so excited that they almost abandoned their men to fend for themselves, becoming completely absorbed in piecing together the blueprints. Fortunately, reason prevailed in time and stopped them.

The clanging of hinges and gears echoed throughout Jili. In front of each room's turntable, three or four people were pulling on the chains, straining with all their might to pull the carriages out. Four cables lifted four hundred carriages into the air.

If Feng Yin were here, he would surely exclaim in amazement and deeply understand Zuo Mengchang, realizing why this man didn't want to take the money even when it was right in front of him.

There was no other reason than that Zuo Mengchang had truly devoted too much energy to achieving good fortune.

The replica weapons go without saying, and the one-to-one recreation of the terrain in each room is also worth mentioning. The meticulous attention to detail in the human-powered cable car alone is enough to make people take notice, which is also because he heard that the sandbox game allows players to choose their own landing location at the start.

He was obsessed with how to take humans into the sky so that they could descend from the sky into the battlefield. He pondered for a long time before finally coming up with the idea of ​​this human-powered cable car and investing heavily in its construction. At that time, nearly half of the huge expenditures that made Feng Yinshou curse were spent on the construction of the human-powered cable car.

To be honest, this human-powered cable car isn't perfect. First of all, its distance from the ground is limited, only about two stories high. As long as an ordinary person who doesn't know martial arts doesn't land on the back of their head or neck, they basically won't get hurt.

Moreover, the cable car is supported by numerous hinged turntables and requires manual pulling to lift it into the air. In order to successfully lift people into the cable car, the entire mechanism is very long and complicated, with countless gears meshing and disengaging. The clattering sound of the machine is so loud that it constitutes noise.

Xue Jin'an stood close to the massive mechanism, effectively blocking out all other sounds.

For the first time, Xue Jin'an didn't find it noisy. Instead, he closed his eyes with some curiosity and listened carefully to the sound of the gears turning. Then, by listening to the sound and locating the source, he quickly figured out the general composition of the mechanism.

“It’s very cumbersome,” Xue Jin’an said.

"What?" Minister Zuo didn't hear clearly and leaned closer to listen.

Xue Jin'an didn't say anything more. He directly took out a stack of papers and exported a greatly reduced version of the drawing. He removed the redundant gears and adjusted the other gears to their most efficient and effortless positions.

This change transformed the cable car, which previously required several people to operate the gears, into one that could be pulled by just one person.

“Machines powered by hand are not as good as those powered by foot, which can be pressed down by its own weight.” Xue Jin’an meant to suggest that Zuo Mengchang add a footrest to the human-powered cable car. He paused and then added, “This machine can only be modified up to this extent at present.”

"You mean it can be revised further?" Zuo Mengchang swallowed hard, his eyes filled with a dreamy look.

"It can be changed later, but not now," Xue Jin'an answered honestly.

Further modifications would not be a technical issue, but rather a matter of the fact that science at that time had not yet reached that point; there were no steam engines or electric motors. This was the most ideal state that Xue Jin'an calculated could be achieved.

Zuo Mengchang stared blankly at Xue Jin'an, tears streaming down his face. His fragile, dead heart, broken by rejection, seemed to be rekindling.

"Seventh Prince, is it really true that you can't come to our Ministry of Works?" Zuo Mengchang earnestly advised, "The Ministry of Works is a good way out. As long as you come, no matter what troublesome things happen in the future, I will follow your lead. As long as I live, Your Highness will never have any worries!"

"Or, or you can be of the same generation as my father and call me Mengchang!" Zuo Mengchang gritted his teeth and decided to follow the Third Prince's shamelessness.

The Ministry of Works really wanted the Seventh Prince's brilliant and genius mind, and he was willing to take a huge gamble for it.

Unfortunately, Xue Jin'an doesn't go back to someone who's been offered a free meal.

Zuo Mengchang clutched his chest, heartbroken, and began to wonder if kneeling down, hugging the Seventh Prince's leg, and wailing would be enough to get the Seventh Prince into the Ministry of Works.

As the two were talking, the sound of cable cars opening and people descending came from the four rooms one after another. The height above the ground was not high. These people all possessed internal strength, and even if it was not very profound, they could easily avoid falling.

The landings on Cui Zui's side were very irregular; basically, whoever wanted to land could land wherever they wanted. Nearly half of them crowded into the areas marked on the map where there were plenty of weapons. Before facing the Northwest Army, they would have to fight over the area among themselves.

Cui Zui reacted quickly, immediately putting down the binoculars he had just pieced together and ordering people to use flag signals to spread out and jump, so as not to consume all their supplies at once. Most people subconsciously followed the orders, but Cui Zui did not give a precise plan on how to jump, so they hesitated and missed several suitable opportunities to jump. Finally, when the bell rang in the room announcing that the cable car was about to stop, they panicked and jumped down in a rush.

Fang Heshang was the last to jump, but he was different from the others. It wasn't because he was panicked and didn't know where to jump that he hesitated. He simply wanted to take advantage of the cable car to overlook the entire battlefield and take advantage of the terrain. However, he was unlucky and was assigned the rainforest map, where the towering trees blocked part of his exploration.

Under Helian Cheng's arrangement, the Northwest Army was organized into squads, dispersed across various locations. Furthermore, he consciously divided the map into several equal parts, assigning each squad to sweep through a specific area, memorize its terrain features, and constantly relay messages to the command center via flag signals to report their safety. Helian Cheng would then adjust his tactical plans based on their on-site reconnaissance reports. Each squad had one member who would remain airborne for a longer period, using the high vantage point to survey the surrounding area; they often only used their light-footed skills to evade the enemy just before touching down.

This was undoubtedly a very dangerous act. One person didn't control the distance well and accidentally hit his leg. He had to walk with a limp for the rest of the journey, and his combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. It was equivalent to losing a member of the team. However, this daring act also brought great benefits to the team's survival.

Of course, it wasn't all good. As mentioned before, the terrain of each room also had its own traps and mechanisms. The people from Helian City deliberately explored and triggered many traps and mechanisms, such as the mud pit in the rainforest map. Unfortunately, that team fell into it at the beginning and almost lost the whole team. They suffered a lot.

The mud pit was the most basic trap inside. Xue Jin'an had initially presented this project proposal with a new method of military training, which was what moved Minister of War Xu Pingchuan to help him make connections. In return, Xue Jin'an naturally reciprocated by providing Xu Pingchuan with a comprehensive improvement to the training method.

Xue Jin'an searched out all the relevant information in the database, from ancient cavalry training to modern special forces training; she didn't miss anything that was in the database.

Therefore, it's normal for there to be huge pits where you'll be splattered with water if you fall in and can't get out, iron nets that you have to crawl across, and artificial rivers that require armed swimming, etc.

A game can last for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and eliminations happen very quickly.

Neither Helian Cheng nor Cui Zui expected that their first enemy after entering the battle would be each other, but rather terrain traps. However, both sides quickly adapted to the traps, displaying the fortitude of soldiers. After another short while, no more members were killed by traps.

Not only that, they even started using traps to harm their opponents. The first to do this was one of Cui Zui's soldiers, who was also an old acquaintance, Prince Zhang.

Zhang Shizi was the one who fell into a big pit and was splashed with water in his face for a long time without being able to climb out. In the end, he also went all out. Since he couldn't use his lightness skill to put weight on his feet, he poured his internal energy into his hands and relied on brute force and willpower to grit his teeth and forcefully climb out.

Almost as soon as he stepped up, the gushing water stopped. Zhang Shizi was both furious and curious. He studied it for a while and discovered that the Ministry of Works had buried a mechanism at the bottom of the pit. Once someone stood on it, their weight would press down and trigger the mechanism, causing the pipes buried nearby to draw groundwater and spray it into the pit in a wide-ranging, thorough manner, leaving no stone unturned.

The groundwater can seep back from the mud pit and be used repeatedly, so it can be said to be inexhaustible.

Prince Zhang felt he couldn't suffer this misfortune alone, so he restored the pit to its original state, making it completely undetectable as a trap. Then, he ran out and used his poisoned mouth to successfully lure a group of enraged enemy soldiers. He provoked them and then pretended to be defeated and fled, leading them into the pit. The group fell in unsuspectingly, getting drenched in water, and could only move their limbs pitifully like turtles whose shells had been flipped over.

Prince Zhang wouldn't let them climb out easily, so he squatted by the pit and used his newly found halberd to poke them, eventually driving them from rage to helplessness. Some tried to escape using their arm strength, but with Prince Zhang watching them closely, they failed. In the end, the entire group was eliminated. By the time the rescue team arrived, they were almost completely submerged.

Helian Cheng was quite farsighted, having each team communicate with the command post by using flag signals at any time. Therefore, he was unable to quickly learn the cause and effect of this matter. He immediately retaliated in kind, sending his men to retaliate against the Imperial Guards through the iron net.

The iron net was set low, only about the height of a person lying down and crawling. Logically, those of them with light-footed skills should have been able to pass through it directly. However, Xue Jin'an had already thought of this and made the area covered by the iron net very large. He also stuffed very small thunderbolts into the gaps in the iron net. These thunderbolts were filled with medicine that would make people feel numb and weak all over and seal their internal energy.

Lightness skill is not about flying; it requires leverage. They couldn't just fly over such a large area of ​​iron netting; they would have to step on it once or twice. And each time they stepped on it, they would trigger an opportunity: the Thunder Egg would explode upon landing, and the medicine sealed inside would also explode, ensuring that everyone within a five-kilometer radius would suffer this deadly attack.

If they wanted to get over the iron fence, the only way was to crawl on the ground.

Even with the Northwest Army's rigorous training, they still found crawling on the ground to be torture. Not a single person who crossed the iron fence could do so without grimacing. If they were like this, one can only imagine how much more the Imperial Guards, whose training was far from adequate, suffered.

Upon receiving Helian Cheng's orders, the Northwest Army launched a coordinated attack on the Imperial Guards in the arena. They herded the guards like sheep to the vicinity of the iron fence, then surrounded them on three sides, leaving one side open so the fence would allow the Imperial Guards to escape.

The Imperial Guards, unwilling to be eliminated, had no choice but to crawl. The Northwest Army, unwilling to crawl, could only watch from the outside. Whether they could escape or not depended entirely on their abilities.

Many were eliminated in this round, but two actually managed to escape. The long crawling on the ground made their muscles uncomfortable, and their final escape was a chaotic tumble and crawl, quite pathetic.

As the battle progressed, the Imperial Guards realized that fighting alone was useless and that they had to unite. The most disobedient people were the Rainforest Map members, after all, there were two troublemakers here, Monk Fang and Prince Zhang. But now, they were also the first to realize the need to unite.

Cui Zui had been observing through the assembled binoculars, watching the Imperial Guards disobey his orders and act without authorization. Cui Zui was naturally very angry, but after his anger subsided, he quickly calmed down and waited patiently for an opportunity. Now that opportunity had arrived, and he seized it.

Cui Zui gave a signal, and someone immediately used flags. The Imperial Guards looked at each other, and finally all looked at the leaders, Monk Fang and Prince Zhang.

Monk Fang was silent for a moment, then looked at Prince Zhang and said firmly, "I don't want to lose like this."

Upon hearing this, Prince Zhang knew that he already had a plan, so he didn't object. Instead, he curled the corners of his lips and said, "That's exactly what I wanted."

He said, "To be chosen by our commander to be parachuted into the position of commander-in-chief and lead the battle, this young master of the Cui family must be quite capable."

At this moment, the disorganized Imperial Guards finally managed to connect their limbs and brains, and began a stiff but powerful counterattack.

There weren't many pieces left on the sand table that the side could use. Cui Zui had indeed taken Xue Jin'an's words to heart before the battle. All the tactics he specified were ingenious schemes. He used all sorts of dirty, rotten, and unacceptable tactics. He even had the reeds specially planted on the lakeside for armed swimming injected with medicine. Many of these tactics were beyond Helian Cheng's expectations and caught him off guard.

Helian Cheng quickly adjusted his strategy, and the tricks of Cui Zui and his scoundrels became less effective.

He couldn't help but rub his temples in frustration, muttering, "How exactly did the Seventh Prince teach his disciple?"

Xue Jinan said: I really didn't teach him this. He is purely self-taught.

The Third Prince also turned to Xue Jin'an and asked, "Seventh Brother, are you sure he's your disciple, using such dirty methods? Why don't you just expel him from the sect? It wouldn't be good if he were implicated and ruined in his later years."

Xue Jin'an reminded him, "I'm nine years old this year." He hasn't even passed away yet, so how could he have any regrets?

Before the Third Prince could say anything more, Xue Jin'an, who had anticipated that he wouldn't say anything decent, ruthlessly kicked him away. "Third Brother, it's your turn."