Meanwhile.
The Qin Army's main encampment, a hundred miles away from Yiyang City.
Inside the central Commander's Tent, the atmosphere was solemn.
On the enormous sand table, black small flags representing various strategic passes and military towns of the Zhao State were densely stuck everywhere.
An old general with a white beard and hair, yet whose physique remained as upright as a pine, stood with his hands behind his back in front of the sand table. He wore heavy dark commander's armor, and his face was covered with knife-like wrinkles, yet a pair of murky old eyes seemed capable of piercing people's hearts and foreseeing the future.
He was the commander-in-chief for this campaign to destroy Han and attack Zhao, the High General of Great Qin, Meng Wu.
"The terrain of Jingxing is too complicated. If Li Mu holds the dangerous terrain to defend and our army makes a forced attack, casualties will definitely be heavy."
Meng Wu's voice was hoarse and steady, every single word carrying the sound of metal and stone.
"The momentum of our army's feint attack must be made grand enough, grand enough to make the King of Zhao think that we are truly going to fight a decisive battle to the death with Li Mu regardless of the cost."
"Only in this way can all of Zhao State's attention be attracted to the northern front."
Standing beside him was a tall and straight young general.
The youth had a heroic face, sword-like eyebrows, and starry eyes, and a suit of silver armor made him look all the more imposing. The gaze with which he looked at the sand table was sharp and focused.
He was Meng Wu's son, the vanguard commander-in-chief for this surprise attack on the Han State, Meng Tian.
"What Father says is true," Meng Tian replied in a deep voice. "I have already dispatched three groups of decoy troops to move toward the direction of Handan respectively. Zhao State's scouts should have already passed the news back by now."
Meng Wu nodded in satisfaction.
As for this son, he had always felt very at ease.
Right at that moment, a hurried sound of footsteps came from outside the tent, along with a high-pitched shout.
"Report--!"
"An eight-hundred-li urgent military dispatch from the southern front vanguard camp!"
The tent flap was violently jerked open.
A scout drenched in blood and with his face full of the colors of smoke and fire stumbled and crawled in, falling to his knees with a thud.
He held a bamboo scroll sealed with sealing wax high up with both hands, his voice trembling due to extreme exhaustion and excitement.
"A... A great victory!"
"High General! A great victory!"
Meng Tian's gaze sharpened, and he immediately stepped forward, taking that heavy bamboo scroll from the scout's hands.
Meng Wu, however, still kept his back to them, his gaze not leaving the sand table by even a fraction.
He spoke indifferently, his tone calm and undisturbed.
"What are you panicking about."
"It's nothing more than fighting a few Han scouts, or wiping out an outpost."
"Tell Shi Meng to hold steady and not advance rashly. Our task is to attract the attention of the Zhao State, not to genuinely risk our lives fighting the Han people to the death."
In his view, the ten-thousand-man troop led by Shi Meng had its greatest use in creating chaos and making the Han State run around in exhaustion.
The true decisive battle would have to wait until he completely bogged down the Zhao State on his side before it began.
However, he did not wait for Meng Tian's response.
The entire Commander's Tent fell into a bizarre silence.
Meng Wu finally sensed that something was amiss.
He slowly turned around and saw a scene he would never forget in this lifetime.
His son, that Meng Tian who could remain expressionless even if Mount Tai collapsed before him no matter what military situation he faced, was at that moment staring fixedly at the bamboo scroll in his hands.
His lips were slightly parted, and within that sharp, eagle-like pair of pupils, four characters were written.
Unbelievable.
"Tian'er?" Meng Wu's brows furrowed.
Meng Tian acted as though he had not heard his words; he raised his hand, rubbed his eyes, and then read that roll of bamboo scroll carefully from start to finish all over again.
"Impossible... How can this be..." He muttered to himself.
"What on earth is written!" Meng Wu's voice sank.
To be able to make Meng Tian lose his composure like this, could it be that the entire vanguard camp was annihilated?
Meng Tian abruptly raised his head, looking at his father, and the expression on that heroic face was complicated to the extreme.
It was shock, wild joy, perplexity, and even a trace of... absurdity.
"Father..."
He took a deep breath, trying to steady his voice.
"The vanguard camp, at the hour of zi last night, launched a surprise attack on the Han army's main camp in Yiyang."
"This battle..."
He paused, seeming to search for a suitable word.
"Completely annihilated the defending garrison of thirty thousand, captured over twenty thousand, and beheaded... beheaded the High General of Han, Bao Yuan!"
"What?!"
This time, the one who lost his composure was Meng Wu.
His calm and unruffled old face instantly filled with shock. He rushed over to Meng Tian in one stride and snatched the bamboo scroll away!
Inside the Commander's Tent, several other deputy generals who were discussing matters also stood up in shock, each of them stretching out their necks with faces full of incredulity.
Meng Wu scanned the text on the bamboo scroll ten lines at a time.
Those battle achievements written one by one in cinnabar were like heavy hammers, fiercely smashing into his heart.
"Night raid on Yiyang, broke their camp..."
"Beheadings exceeding ten thousand, captives twenty thousand..."
"Our army's casualties... less than five hundred?!"
Meng Wu's hands began to tremble.
He had fought a lifelong military career and fought countless fierce battles, yet he had never seen such an exaggerated casualty ratio!
At the cost of five hundred men, he crushed a camp of fifty thousand?
This was no longer a great victory! This was a myth!
When his gaze landed on that very last line of words, his pupils violently contracted to the size of needle tips.
"...Beheaded the enemy chieftain Bao Yuan, the enemy troops surrendered at the sight of the wind, and the military vanguard has already reached the foot of Yiyang City."
"Good! Good! Good!"
After a brief, dead silence, Meng Wu fiercely slammed the bamboo scroll onto the desk and threw his head back in roaring laughter!
"Hahahaha! What a Shi Meng! What a good Shi Meng!"
The laughter reverberated inside the Commander's Tent, filled with boundless delight and complacency.
"The old man knew that this foul and stubborn stone would be reliable at a critical moment!"
He turned around, facing the generals inside the tent, and said with high-spirited vigor.
"Did you all see this? This is the old general of my Great Qin!"
"Quietly, a single battle chipped open the national gate of Han for my Great Qin!"
"Pass down my military order! The first merit of this battle is recorded on Shi Meng's head! When this battle ends, the old man will personally request credit for him from the Great King and grant him a marquisate!"
The generals inside the tent also chimed in one after another.
"General Shi's bravery surpasses three armies! Truly the model of our army!"
"Congratulations, High General! Felicitations, High General! With a fierce general like General Shi, why worry that the Han State will not be destroyed!"
Amidst a chorus of flattery, only Meng Tian stood silently to one side, the expression on his face growing increasingly bizarre.
Meng Wu noticed his son's abnormality.
"Tian'er, this is a heaven-sent joyous occasion, why are you not smiling?"
Meng Tian raised his head, meeting his father's gaze, his eyes exceptionally complex.
"Father, you... look closely at this battle report again."
"Hmm?"
Meng Wu furrowed his brows and picked up the roll of bamboo scroll once more.
This time, he looked more closely.
Soon, the smile on his face froze, bit by bit.
Because he saw that at the end of the battle report, Shi Meng used a nearly fanatical brushstroke to describe another person.
"...Tiger and Wolf Army acting thousand-man commander Wei Zhe, leading a hundred elite soldiers, descended like divine troops, cutting through the enemy formation amidst ten thousand troops to take the headquarters directly..."
"...fiercely snapping over a dozen spears and halberds, beheading four Han soldiers with a single blade..."
"...fighting the Han personal guards single-handedly, slaying over a hundred, with no one able to block him..."
"...turning into a flash of lightning, leaping dozens of paces, under the gaze of ten thousand troops, beheaded the enemy chieftain Bao Yuan, and shouted to make tens of thousands of enemy troops surrender..."
Meng Wu's breathing grew rapid.
His eyes stared fixedly at that name.
Wei Zhe.
He repeatedly looked at these two characters, feeling only incomparable unfamiliarity.
This battle report was written by Shi Meng.
He knew Shi Meng's character very well; upright as an ox, he was definitely not the kind of person who would exaggerate and claim credit for others.
Yet what was written on this battle report...
It was too freakish!
This was no longer something humanly possible to accomplish!
"Father," Meng Tian's voice sounded faintly from the side, "Shi Meng said at the end of the battle report that in this battle, he dared not claim credit."
"He said the true first merit belongs to someone else."
"Without this person, the best outcome for the vanguard camp in this battle would still have been a pyrrhic victory. There is absolutely no way they could have achieved such a mythical battle result at such a tiny cost."
Meng Wu put down the bamboo scroll. He closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time.
Inside the Commander's Tent, it was so quiet you could hear a needle drop.
When he opened his eyes once more, those murky old eyes were left with only icy gravity.
"This Wei Zhe..."
He spoke slowly, his voice hoarse.
"What is his background?"
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