Chapter 86: Field Training – Strike First To Gain The Advantage
Young people always have an extraordinary interest in new things, especially when they can actually use these new things.
Although this Thirty-Six Stratagems is technically an old antique. Xiang Chuan sat by the tent thinking.
At this time, Class Eight students were gathered in the center of the camp, full of excitement, while in the center of the camp six people were sitting on the grassland with unpleasant expressions; these were exactly the Class Ten patrol squad they had just captured in the woods using the Secretly Cross the Chencang Pass stratagem.
“It’s just a flanking tactic, is it that rare?” Xiang Chuan didn’t quite understand why everyone was excited about such a simple tactic of luring the enemy to a specific location and then flanking from both sides. “Weren’t there many tactics in previous class competitions?”
“This is the only victory achieved in all previous class competitions without direct conflict,” the Class President said excitedly. “In past confrontations, although the confrontation methods varied wildly, everyone competed head-on; I’ve never heard of using bait and… tactics? to achieve victory like this.”
“Really? This confrontation happens every year; surely someone uses tactics or something?” Xiang Chuan said incredulously.
It was no wonder, really; this involved Xiang Chuan’s knowledge blind spot.
After entering the Tianyuan Era, humans’ ways of struggle basically went in the direction of “brute force and flying bricks” and never returned.
About to enter the airspace of many asteroids? Just move the military escort ship to the front and blast them with a cannon to solve it.
Attacked by uncommunicative lifeforms? Use an antimatter device or proton pulverizing laser to blast them and be done with it.
Tactics, stratagems, strategies—the things 21st century history buffs loved to talk about—had vanished without a trace twelve thousand years ago with the Dark Virus Crisis and the development of stellar-level weapons.
Influenced by this, in previous years first-year high school students participating in class competitions liked to go head-on; Xiang Chuan had heard from others that some fancy strategies from past first-year high school classes ultimately won victory through direct confrontation.
So this Thirty-Six Stratagems really opened everyone’s eyes; the thrill of implementing tactics for the first time and the satisfaction of tactical success were filling Class Eight students’ minds.
And in places they couldn’t see, their discussion of tactics, execution of tactics, and achievement of first victory were being transmitted via camera to Xiang Xue’s live stream room, fully seen by five thousand viewers and Xiang Xue’s small team.
“Wow, that was really thrilling just now.” Xiang Xue rubbed her eyes.
When Class Eight students executed the tactic just now, she didn’t even dare blink, afraid of missing any screen; the camera transmitted the screen from mid-air, so from above they could see how Class Eight students step by step lured Class Ten’s patrol squad to the designated location. When the student responsible for luring the enemy accurately led them to the destination, Xiang Xue nearly hugged Lin Yu beside her and let out an excited scream; Lin Yu was also tense and holding his breath, the fork in his hand nearly snapped by him.
In the end, Class Eight people struck at the right moment when the patrol squad split into two groups, directly rushing out of the grass, throwing binding rope rings at them in one smooth motion, making the streamer and the co-streamer beside her (the viewers’ name for Lin Yu) involuntarily exclaim “Whoa—”; when the other team also packaged and brought back the two-person group that went to search for traces, the comment section’s text refresh speed reached an unprecedented peak.
“This is the ancient… tactic, right?” Lin Yu recovered, returning to his usual cool demeanor, stroking his chin as he looked at the Class Eight students on the screen who were excitedly opening the light screen to view other tactical content. “Gotta say, this antique is really useful in a high school class competition with restrictions. I wonder if we’ll each get a copy of ancient tactics when we advance to high school?”
“What do you mean ‘we’ advance to high school? Are you planning to stay here until university? Not planning to go back to the First Fleet?” Xiang Xue couldn’t help but complain.
“Research from the Second Fleet shows that a person’s social circle is basically established with a foundation between ages fifteen to eighteen, and formally shaped between nineteen to twenty-four. I’ve already come to your fleet to attend junior high; if I go back for high school, how many familiar old classmates will I have around? Might as well keep studying here. No worries, my dad gave me plenty of living expenses; it’ll last until I go to university. Once I’m an adult, I can pay your rent myself.”
“No no no, our family can afford to support one more like you, but you’re really not going back? Even university here?” Xiang Xue looked at him in surprise.
“Of course.” Lin Yu speared a potato wedge with his fork and dangled it in front of her. “If I go back, where would I get all these delicious things to eat?”
This made all the viewers fall silent: This kid really loves food!
Seeing the topic veering off, the maintenance team nearby quickly inputted on the reminder light screen beside them: “Turn the topic back to the class competition!” Xiang Xue blinked to indicate received.
“You’re just coveting my sister’s cooking; don’t rob with me when the time comes.” Xiang Xue huffed. “Speaking of sister, this Thirty-Six Stratagems she recommended to Sister Manman and the others—what impact will it have on our current military affairs?”
“Hard to say; after all, we haven’t encountered any opponents we couldn’t beat in direct combat yet, right?” Lin Yu stated the current situation.
“Yeah… but the program effect is pretty good. I wonder what expressions sister and Sister Manman will have when they come back and find out we saw them arranging tactics.” Xiang Xue chuckled.
On the other side of the screen, the six-person group gathered together again as usual—or more accurately, five people gathered around Xiang Chuan.
“Will this Thirty-Six Stratagems have any impact on modern military?” Liang Gong raised the same question as Xiang Xue. No way around it; this was the first time everyone had personally felt ancient culture in a non-diet and art field, and in the military aspect that’s basically untouchable in daily life—impossible not to worry.
“This was just something ancients invented in an era of undeveloped technology. Now military technology is advanced and has filled that gap; we probably won’t need such an old thing, right?” Chou Manman said; this was also the thought of most other viewers.
“Not necessarily?” Nancy smiled. “The tactical ideas written in the document Xiang Chuan gave aren’t just applicable to military; they can be used in everyday commerce, R&D, agriculture, or even our daily studies or club activities.”
Huh? Chou Manman, Liang Gong, and the watching Class President nearby were stunned; Ouyang Yating fell into thought; Ainuo, whose mind turned at about the same speed as Nancy’s, nodded beside her; the person involved, Xiang Chuan, looked disinterested.
“For example, the second stratagem’s ‘Besiege… Rescue… Zhao’?” Nancy looked at the light screen, reading a bit haltingly.
“Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao.” Xiang Chuan helped supplement.
“Right, this Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao; the explanation says ‘When the enemy’s strength is strong and hard to withstand, if you want to avoid direct battle with a strong enemy, take circuitous tactics to force the enemy to disperse forces.’ This is a very valuable tactic in commercial competition. Imagine multiple companies competing: Company One wants to defeat Company Two but lacks strength; at this time, support Company Three that’s evenly matched with Company Two, forcing Company Two to spend more energy dealing with Company Three and neglecting other arrangements—then Company One can take advantage to attack, even possibly turning defeat into victory.”
Oh—
With her explanation, Liang Gong and Chou Manman got it; the classmates passing by who were drawn in by Nancy’s explanation also understood. When they looked back at the Thirty-Six Stratagems on the light screen, their eyes had changed.
“When Xiang Chuan officially releases this ancient record, the Third Fleet will probably get lively.” Nancy said, couldn’t help reaching out to ruffle Xiang Chuan sitting at the tent edge, then looked at Ouyang Yating and Ainuo. “Your family is gonna be busy.”
“Doesn’t matter; challenges are opportunities. Maybe our family can go even further.” Ouyang Yating smiled indifferently. “This suits Father’s intentions.”
Watching the increasingly heated discussion and gathering students, the person involved Xiang Chuan still looked bewildered: Can Thirty-Six Stratagems be used like this?
one.sheep readers have caught quite a few bugs for me recently; thank you very much!
Really happy to receive chapter comments on the V-entry chapters; I thought no one read those parts (.)
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