Theory of Ten Victories and Ten Defeats!

The advisers under Yuan Shao all began clamoring along with him.

"Exactly!"

"This Yang Feng is such a damn poser!"

"How dare he say in Yizhou that our lord can't beat Cao Cao?"

"Who the hell does he think he is?"

Shen Pei's face was full of disdain, his voice dripping with contempt for Yang Feng.

"That's right!"

"We'll slap him in the face right away!"

Yan Liang stepped forward, thumping his chest as he promised.

"We'll send Cao Cao, that descendant of a eunuch, flying!"

"What does Cao Cao have?"

"Nothing but those two lousy patches of land, Yuzhou and Yan Province!"

"He has fewer than a hundred thousand soldiers, and he's desperately short of provisions. What does he have to fight us with?"

"My lord, victory is ours!"

As Yuan Shao listened to his subordinates' flattery, the smile on his face grew even smugger.

"Exactly!"

He slammed the table and rose to his feet, brimming with confidence.

"Cao Cao is nothing but dry bones in a tomb!"

"I will crush him!"

Meanwhile, far away in Yizhou, inside the government residence in Chengdu.

Li Yan and Fa Zheng were utterly dumbfounded.

They looked at each other, both wishing they could give themselves a couple of hard slaps!

What had they just been doing?

They had actually been questioning Yang Feng!

Good heavens!

How humiliating!

We actually dared to question Emperor Yang Feng, our unparalleled emperor through the ages!

It turns out Emperor Yang Feng had foreseen everything long ago!

We were just eating salty radishes and worrying about thirst for nothing!

"Zhengfang, I..."

Li Yan opened his mouth, his face burning, but could not get out a complete sentence for a long while.

Fa Zheng's face was also filled with shame. He said to Li Yan with utmost seriousness, "From now on!"

"We must never act like this again!"

"We must believe in Emperor Yang Feng unconditionally!"

"Emperor Yang Feng is invincible!"

His eyes were filled with fanatical worship.

"Think about it. What kind of person could create a superweapon like the Heaven and Earth Cannon?"

"He isn't even human!"

"He's an immortal!"

"Definitely an immortal!"

Hearing Fa Zheng's words, Li Yan nodded repeatedly.

"Exactly, exactly!"

"Lord Yang Feng is simply incredible!"

But once their excitement subsided, a huge question mark rose in both their minds.

They truly were a little puzzled.

Would... the coming Battle of Guandu between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao really turn out as Yang Feng had said?

Would Yuan Shao really fail to defeat Cao Cao?

It seemed impossible no matter how they looked at it!

Cao Cao's generals and soldiers, his advisers, his territory, his military strength, his reserves of talent-how could any of them compare to Yuan Shao's?

They really had no idea what that fellow could win with!

This was practically a hell-difficulty start!

But at the thought of Yang Feng, at the thought of that heaven-destroying, earth-shattering cannon blast, the doubts in their hearts were instantly suppressed again.

Who cares!

As long as Lord Yang Feng said so, victory was certain!

Certain!

Meanwhile, in the imperial palace in Shouchun, Yang Feng looked at his ministers' worshipful faces and listened to the sickening flattery pouring into his ears, feeling utterly miserable.

"Your Majesty's calculations are truly divine!"

"Without taking a single step beyond the palace gates, you secured victory a thousand miles away, devising strategies within your command tent and frightening off Cao Cao's army of three hundred thousand!"

"Such a feat has never been seen before and will never be seen again!"

The words made Yang Feng's scalp prickle.

He hurriedly waved his hands and spoke to Ji Ling, Yan Xiang, and the others with utter sincerity.

"Everyone, everyone!"

"This really wasn't my achievement!"

"The credit belongs to all of you!"

"If you hadn't built the Heaven and Earth Cannon, how could I have frightened Cao Cao off?"

"So the credit belongs to everyone-to you!"

At these words, Yan Xiang, Ji Ling, and the others were even more deeply moved.

Good heavens!

Look!

Look at our emperor!

He had accomplished such an unparalleled feat, yet remained so humble!

He even gave all the credit to us, his subjects!

What magnanimity!

What breadth of vision!

Yan Xiang was so moved that his eyes reddened. He dropped to his knees, his voice thick with tears.

"Your Majesty!"

"Please don't say that!"

"Had Your Majesty not proposed the concept of the Heaven and Earth Cannon, we could never have built it, even if we had racked our brains to pieces!"

"This tremendous achievement belongs to you alone!"

Ji Ling knelt as well, loudly agreeing, "Exactly!"

"Your Majesty is far too humble!"

"Such extraordinary breadth of vision!"

"To be able to follow Your Majesty is truly the good fortune of three lifetimes!"

Yang Feng looked at the ministers kneeling below, each moved to a blubbering mess, and was utterly speechless.

He truly had nothing to say.

I meant every word!

What the hell are you all so moved about?

These people fill in more blanks in their heads than novelists do!

Yang Feng ranted furiously to himself.

How did I become some incredible figure whose plans never fail and whose calculations are divine?

When did I ever say the realm would be divided into three?

Wasn't I just getting drunk and talking big, reciting things from my school history books?

How did that become my prediction?

This is such a damn trap!

It made him feel miserable enough to die.

He really did not want to be emperor or get involved in these power struggles!

He just wanted to retire!

But now, he had been hoisted onto the pedestal of an "unparalleled emperor through the ages" and could not get down.

Good heavens, when will these days ever end?

Yet just then, the Heavenly Screen stirred once more.

Images shifted across the Heavenly Screen.

Lines of golden text emerged.

[As the story goes, outside the city of Yizhou, Cao Cao was frightened off by the might of the Heaven and Earth Cannon wielded by Yang Feng, emperor of the Great Yang Empire.]

[To display his divine might while avoiding harm to the innocent, the benevolent Emperor Yang Feng specifically ordered the Heaven and Earth Cannon to bombard an uninhabited hill. With a single shot, the hill was leveled and the earth split apart.]

[Cao Cao and his army of three hundred thousand fled in panic, and from then on, could no longer muster any desire to attack the Great Yang Empire!]

[Next, Cao Cao heeded the advice of his chief adviser, Guo Jia, and decided to postpone his southern campaign, unify the north first, and build up his strength before sweeping away the Great Yang Empire foretold in the great prophecy!]

The scene shifted.

Clouds churned across the Heavenly Screen as the view moved directly to Guandu in the north.

[The Battle of Guandu!]

[This was a fateful battle that would decide who ruled the entire north!]

[On one side stood Yuan Shao, whose family had held the Three Excellencies for four generations, with four provinces under his control, seven hundred thousand troops, fierce generals as numerous as clouds, and advisers as plentiful as rain!]

[On the other stood Cao Cao, who held the emperor to command the lords, occupying only Yan Province and Yuzhou, with fewer than a hundred thousand troops!]

[The disparity in strength was as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth!]

[Yet before the battle began, Cao Cao's chief adviser, Guo Jia, presented his lord with something that could lay the foundation for victory-the Theory of Ten Victories and Ten Defeats!]

Golden light blazed across the Heavenly Screen!

Guo Jia's confident figure emerged, his voice seeming to cross time and space as it rang in everyone's ears.

"Yuan Shao has ten defeats, while my lord has ten victories!"

"Yuan Shao is mired in elaborate formalities: this is his defeat in the Way! My lord follows what is natural: this is his victory in the Way!"

"Yuan Shao moves against the tide: this is his defeat in righteousness! My lord reverently welcomes the emperor: this is his victory in righteousness!"

"Yuan Shao is indecisive: this is his defeat in strategy! My lord makes decisive judgments at critical moments: this is his victory in strategy!"

Point by point, item by item, Guo Jia's "Theory of Ten Victories and Ten Defeats" stripped Yuan Shao bare, leaving him without even his underpants, while displaying Cao Cao's advantages to the fullest!

This analysis rekindled hope in Cao Cao's army, whose morale had been low!

[The war officially began!]

[However, the course of the battle did not proceed as smoothly as Guo Jia had expected.]

[Relying on their overwhelming numerical superiority, Yuan Shao's forces pressed forward step by step, pinning Cao Cao's army firmly in the Guandu area.]

[Cao Cao's army was about to run out of provisions. Morale wavered, and it was already on the verge of collapse!]

[Countless officers and soldiers were filled with despair!]

[Cao Cao seemed to have reached a dead end!]

[Yet at this most critical moment, the greatest turning point of the Battle of Guandu appeared!]

The image on the Heavenly Screen suddenly froze on a scene late at night.

A bedraggled figure fled Yuan Shao's main camp under cover of night and came over to Cao Cao's camp.

[This man was none other than Xu You, an important adviser under Yuan Shao!]

[His arrival would introduce the final variable into this war whose outcome seemed already settled!]