A Textbook Besiege-and-Ambush, Part 3

Lei Nuo was sweating bullets, exchanging helpless glances with his deputy commander, neither of them able to find the words.

Once he realized his self-serving plan had been completely wrong, he had actually anticipated that Moye and Cimei would come looking for payback eventually—he just hadn't expected it this fast.

After all, this was only a five-point fortress. By common logic, they should have gone after Dongwen and Zhicheng first.

Lei Nuo let out a sigh. He had no idea how many they'd sent, but no matter how many it was, his heart was already in his throat. Even with a hundred men, their individual combat ability was what it was. Even with the Energy Shield as protection, if the enemy's numbers exceeded seventy, Lei Nuo had zero confidence.

"Commander…" his deputy hesitantly started.

"Don't say it." Lei Nuo waved a hand. He knew exactly what he needed to do now, and immediately sent a communication channel request to Xu Lingqu.

Meanwhile, at Dongwen's fortress point 2, the defenders had finally mustered the courage to gamble on a miracle. The moment they poked their heads out, thirteen of their forty men were gone.

The deputy commander, having narrowly escaped death, managed to lead the rest back inside and frantically reactivated the Energy Shield, screaming into the comms for Yetai Yangquan.

Xu Lingqu sat in the command vehicle, the roar of artillery raging outside. She had Cimei's forces take the lead in testing the Energy Shield's firepower tolerance. Once they could accurately measure it, the shield would be like a lightbulb to them from then on—turn it off whenever they pleased.

Yun Yao sat beside her, letting out a sigh of admiration. "Good thing we came to support you back then. If we were the ones cooped up in a fortress getting bombarded like this, I'd die of frustration."

"If you hadn't come, we wouldn't have been the ones doing the bombarding either," Xu Lingqu stated matter-of-factly.

"That's not necessarily true. I feel like your three-against-one was like the Three Heroes versus Chen Bu…"

"Who?" Xu Lingqu's heart jolted as she cut Yun Yao off. "Chen Bu?"

"Yeah, Chen Bu. What's wrong?" Yun Yao was curious.

"…Then who were the Three Heroes?" Xu Lingqu asked, suppressing the shock in her chest.

"The Three Heroes… nobody ever told me." Yun Yao faltered, then found it strange. "Huh, now that you mention it, something does seem off. Who is this Chen Bu anyway? I've never even heard of him. Why would the saying use him like that…"

Xu Lingqu fell silent. The people of the interstellar era didn't know the story of the Princess and the Pea, yet they knew the Three Heroes versus Lü Bu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms—except they'd somehow mangled the surname, and didn't even recognize Liu, Guan, and Zhang.

Was this a quirk unique to the Empire? Or was it like this across the entire galaxy?

She wanted to ask more, but right then, Lei Nuo's communication request popped up on her screen.

Exactly as expected. Xu Lingqu accepted, and Lei Nuo's hesitant, faltering voice came through.

"Commander Xu, I'm sorry."

Xu Lingqu said nothing. Lei Nuo grew even more flustered.

"I had my head on backwards from the start. I figured we couldn't help you all anyway, so we just left. I've already realized my mistake—I'm sure a lot of people hate me right now." Lei Nuo gave a bitter laugh. "But my original intention was just to keep Situke from finishing last. I never meant any disrespect toward Moye…"

Xu Lingqu listened quietly to his confession, the sound of artillery outside filling the pauses. Lei Nuo talked until his mouth went dry, finally finishing, and the gunfire he could hear on Xu Lingqu's end only made him more uneasy.

So they really hadn't let up on Dongwen and Zhicheng either!

The artillery fire outside conveniently stopped at that exact moment—they'd already calculated the firepower needed to break through the Energy Shield. Yun Yao, feeling mischievous, changed her voice and pretended to be reporting to Xu Lingqu.

"Congratulations, Commander. The fortress point has been taken."

Lei Nuo's heart nearly pounded out of his chest.

"So, since you came to apologize and beg for mercy, shouldn't you show me your attitude and sincerity?" Xu Lingqu finally spoke.

Hearing this, Lei Nuo's heart twisted with conflict. "We only have a five-point fortress."

Xu Lingqu said it straight. "If you want us to stand down, fine. I want seventy of Situke's soldiers plus eighty percent of your heavy firepower."

Lei Nuo's heart jolted. Xu Lingqu was completely asking for the moon. What difference was this from handing themselves over to her as indentured servants? The final score was based on occupation points plus personnel points—how was this any different from her demanding their very lives?

"That's way too much. It's practically conscripting us outright. We need points for our final ranking too." Lei Nuo said agonized, and he knew full well that Xu Lingqu would probably use Situke's soldiers as frontline cannon fodder.

But he couldn't exactly stand on the moral high ground to accuse her—he himself had dragged all of Situke's students into playing deserter.

"You think I'm asking for too much, but this is already the lowest I'm willing to accept after careful consideration." Xu Lingqu said flatly. "If you don't want to give, then I'll just have to take it by force. For me, eliminating one academy at a time is fine—just not finishing last. That's what you were thinking too, isn't it?"

"Uh…" Lei Nuo wiped at his sweat in a panic.

"You think that sending your men to help attack Dongwen and Zhicheng is me using your soldiers as bullet sponges. But actually, you'd be the one benefiting, wouldn't you?" Xu Lingqu continued. "From your perspective, you just don't want Situke to finish last. That means the main opponents you've set for yourself are Dongwen and Zhicheng—you have to beat them."

"Every time I eliminate someone from Dongwen or Zhicheng, I'm shrinking the gap between you and them. That simple desire to not finish last will be fulfilled before you know it." Xu Lingqu switched off the private channel and opened a general one, notifying the soldiers preparing to assault the fortress: "Once you enter the fortress point, maintain absolute vigilance until every last Dongwen defender is eliminated."

She then switched back and replied to Lei Nuo: "Finally, in my plan, I can give you a ten-point fortress for free. Whether this deal is worth making—you know the answer."

Lei Nuo certainly did know the answer. He sighed and ultimately agreed to Xu Lingqu's outrageous demands, telling his deputy to muster the troops and count the heavy weapons before sending this "gift" over to the wandering Cimei-Moye forces.

On this side, Lei Nuo had finally caved. Xu Lingqu immediately notified Jin: "Your turn now. Wait for Lei Nuo to hand over the men and weapons to your command."

"Mm." Jin paused. "Wait, seriously? What did you even do? Lei Nuo just handed over his weapons and his men like that?"

"Said a couple of things," Xu Lingqu replied. "Move fast. We're launching the next offensive."

Yun Yao was confused. "This time—are we pretending to siege but actually attacking, or really besieging and faking the attack?"

"At this point, it's Tansen Meilin's turn to guess."