Chapter 62: Crossing the River by Fumbling for Stones, Only to Grab the Brother-in-Law! Heavenly Fire Consuming the City, Zhang Yun is Utterly Bewildered!

"Military Strategist, please wait here and watch us accomplish a great feat!"

Wei Yan flipped onto his horse, summoned his long saber, and commanded:

"Brother Gong, take your archers and lamp oil, sneak close to the west gate of Rang County, and fire your flaming arrows the moment you see our beacon lights rise!"

"Brother Hu, you and I will command four thousand infantry and cavalry to set an ambush outside the south gate, ready to intercept the fleeing Jingzhou army!"

"Each unit act according to plan. Tonight, we are going to turn this place upside down!"

Gong Du and Hu Che'er readily and boldly accepted their orders.

Without delay, Gong Du first led one thousand archers, carrying barrels of lamp oil, toward the west gate.

Wei Yan and Hu Che'er commanded the infantry and cavalry respectively, using the cover of night to approach the south gate of Rang County.

Xu Chu led three hundred elite tiger warriors to guard the raft boats along the riverbank while protecting Xiao Fang.

"Ah-liang, I'm a bit hungry."

"Warm a pot of wine and roast a few sesame flatbreads. Let's enjoy our midnight snack while watching the fireworks."

Xiao Fang rubbed his belly and instructed with a smile.

"Fire... fireworks?"

Zhuge Liang looked bewildered.

After a moment of dazed hesitation, he snapped out of it and hurriedly called the personal guards to get busy.

A moment later, bonfires were lit, fine wine was warmed, and sesame flatbreads were being roasted, releasing an appetizing aroma.

"In this freezing cold weather, drinking a pot of warm wine and chewing on a piece of flatbread is simply wonderful~~"

Xiao Fang leaned back in his bamboo chair, fine wine sliding down his throat, wearing an expression of utter contentment.

Zhuge Liang gazed in the direction of Rang County, recalling what he had just witnessed, as well as Wei Yan's successive military orders, trying to figure out what kind of strategy Xiao Fang intended to use.

Connecting various clues, with his natural aptitude, he naturally figured out the mystery very quickly.

"Brother-in-law, Liang understands. Are you planning to attack Rang County with fire?"

"Our army will use archers to shoot flaming arrows into Rang County, burning the city and plunging the Jingzhou army within into panic."

"Once the enemy troops fall into chaos, they will inevitably try to escape through the south gate. Then Wei Wenchang will use four thousand ambushing troops to intercept and slaughter them on the momentum!"

"In this way, our army can defeat a larger force with a smaller one, crushing an enemy three times our size with just five thousand troops?"

Zhuge Liang's tone carried a hint of excitement as he deduced the full picture of Xiao Fang's strategy.

Xiao Fang looked at him with an appreciative gaze, nodding slightly to show his approval, clearly very satisfied with Zhuge Liang's quick reflexes.

"It's just that, brother-in-law, perhaps Liang is worrying too much, but I have a few slight concerns about this strategy."

After the excitement passed, Zhuge Liang's tone suddenly shifted as another thought occurred to him.

Xiao Fang seemed to have anticipated that he would have questions, so he gently waved his wine cup, signaling him to continue.

"Burning Rang County is indeed an ingenious strategy to defeat a superior force with an inferior one."

"However, I am somewhat worried whether merely using flaming arrows can start a massive fire throughout the city."

"Furthermore, the Jingzhou army is not a mob of unorganized rabble. Although the enemy commander Zhang Yun is mediocre, Wen Pin is a veteran general."

"If we cannot set the entire city ablaze, Liang fears we may not be able to disrupt the enemy forces enough to throw them into complete confusion and panicked flight."

Zhuge Liang voiced the concerns lingering in his heart.

Xiao Fang's eyes lit up. He raised his head to look at Zhuge Liang and praised heartily:

"You're quite something, Ah-liang! To be able to see the most crucial point of this strategy so quickly—it seems you are not far from standing on your own and taking on major responsibilities."

Encouraged by Xiao Fang's affirmation, Zhuge Liang felt a surge of secret delight while self-consciously scratching the back of his head with some embarrassment.

Then, a sudden shock hit his heart, and he looked up at Xiao Fang in astonishment.

Judging by Xiao Fang's words, it was clear he already knew that flaming arrows alone would not be enough to ignite the entire city and plunge the Jingzhou army into collapse and chaos.

If that was the case, why did he still order Wei Yan to execute this fire attack?

Wasn't this an exercise in futility?

"Brother-in-law..."

"I know what you want to say. Don't rush; all will be revealed shortly."

Seeing through Zhuge Liang's thoughts, Xiao Fang interrupted his question with a mysterious smile.

A deeper cloud of doubt gathered in Zhuge Liang's eyes, and he turned back to gaze at the city of Rang.

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"Ah-liang, you are at an age where you're still growing, you need to eat more."

"Here, catch."

Xiao Fang tossed a freshly roasted sesame flatbread straight at Zhuge Liang.

Before he could react, Zhuge Liang instinctively reached out and caught it, immediately crying out, "So hot!" as he blew on it and shifted it rapidly from his left hand to his right, flustered for a moment.

While Xiao Fang was sipping wine and eating flatbread, Wei Yan had already led the four thousand infantry and cavalry to their designated position.

Looking into the distance, he saw that at the south gate of Rang County, the Jingzhou soldiers maintained posts every five steps and sentries every ten steps, keeping a strict and rigorous watch.

Such an array clearly indicated that there were experienced generals among the enemy forces, guarding against a sudden counterattack and a night raid on Rangyang.

"Zhang Yun is nothing more than a embroidered pillow; anyone capable of such tight precautions must be Wen Pin."

"What a pity, Wen Pin. How could you possibly guard against Military Strategist Xiao's unfathomable stratagems..."

A flash of mockery crossed Wei Yan's eyes before he raised his long saber:

"The time has come. Light the beacon fires!"

With the order passed down, three beacon fires shot straight up into the night sky from the rear of the military formation.

The signal was given.

A moment later, from the direction of the west gate, over a thousand flaming arrows soared into the air, raining down into the city of Rang County.

The rain of arrows landed.

The next instant, hundreds of pillars of fire suddenly burst into flame.

As the flaming arrows continued to rain down, column after column of fire rose continuously in their wake.

After just a few volleys, fire was raging on all sides of Rang County, with houses blazing across the entire city.

The entire city was now engulfed in a sea of flames.

Gongs clashed frantically within the city, wailing broke out abruptly, and the guards on the city walls fell into utter panic.

"It worked!"

"The strategist's plan to burn Rang County has actually succeeded!"

Wei Yan looked up at the blazing Rang County, unable to suppress his ecstatic joy.

At that very moment,

Zhuge Liang, who was eating flatbread by the riverbank, wore a look of profound shock and astonishment as he gazed at the burning city of Rang.

"Brother-in-law actually pulled it off? He really managed to ignite Rang County using just flaming arrows?"

"This, this..."

Zhuge Liang muttered to himself, absolute disbelief written across his face.

After remaining in shock for a long time, he suddenly snapped his head back to look at Xiao Fang:

"Brother-in-law, how on earth did you pull this off?"

Xiao Fang no longer kept him in suspense and laid out the entire mystery to his young brother-in-law.

When he had ordered Wei Yan to evacuate all troops and civilians from the city, he had also had large quantities of firewood, lamp oil, niter, and other flammable materials hidden on the roofs of the houses throughout the city.

Xiao Fang had wagered that even if the enemy thoroughly searched the city, they would only look for hidden internal agents and would never think to search the roofs.

Tonight, when Gong Du's archers shot flaming arrows onto the roofs of the city's houses, upon encountering the flammable lamp oil and firewood, the arrows instantly ignited into a raging inferno.

That was why those thousand archers were able to effortlessly set the entire city of Rang County ablaze and turn it into a sea of fire.

Zhuge Liang had a sudden flash of enlightenment and looked back once more at Rang County, now shrouded in a blinding glare of fire.

"No wonder brother-in-law was so confident before our lord, daring to vow that with five thousand troops, he would break an enemy force three times our size within four days!"

In

"So brother-in-law had already figured out this strategy to defeat the enemy back when we were in Yuyang."

"No wonder he insisted on evacuating the city's common folk as well—it was to prevent them from being harmed by the fire attack."

Understanding everything, Zhuge Liang's look of astonishment transformed into one of deep, profound admiration.

Recovering his composure slightly, he bowed deeply to Xiao Fang:

"Brother-in-law's use of strategy is truly as unbound as clouds and as unpredictable as spirits."

"Today, Liang's eyes have truly been opened once again!"

Seeing his young brother-in-law's adoring gaze, Xiao Fang actually felt a bit guilty.

To be honest, his plan to burn Rang County was actually inspired by Zhuge Liang's famous strategy of burning Xinye.

Regardless of whether that event belonged to historical fact or unofficial lore, it was indeed the source of Xiao Fang's inspiration.

In truth, Xiao Fang knew well that his greatest advantage was possessing nearly two millennia of hindsight.

Just as before Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, no one knew how to deal with the nomadic tribes of the grasslands; yet after Wei and Huo, everyone knew that stronger cavalry was needed to counter grassland cavalry.

Similarly, before the Qin and Han dynasties, no one knew how to unify the empire; yet after the Qin and Han, everyone knew they had to first capture Chang'an, use Guanzhong as a base, and then plot for the empire.

Xiao Fang's advantage lay in having over two thousand years of historical battles—numbering in the hundreds—and a boundless ocean of stratagems and tactics stored in his mind.

Therefore, he only needed to match the current conditions against the database of battle tactics and strategies in his head to select the one that best fit the present circumstances, naturally yielding the desired result.

In this battle, after analyzing the relative strengths and weaknesses of both sides, Xiao Fang had decided to cross the river by feeling for Zhuge Liang's stepping stones.

As it turned out, his footing was accurate.

Of course, crossing a river by feeling for stones also required a certain amount of talent.

Otherwise, it would simply amount to empty talk on paper, turning him into a second Zhao Kuo.

In the art of feeling for stones, Xiao Fang evidently possessed considerable talent—one might even call it stunning talent.

"Ah-liang, come, brother-in-law proposes a toast to you!"

Pulling his thoughts back, Xiao Fang filled a cup of wine and pressed it into Zhuge Liang's hands.

Zhuge Liang blinked, his eyes growing blank once again as he wondered why on earth his brother-in-law was suddenly toasting him out of nowhere.

Without offering any explanation, Xiao Fang tilted his head back and drained his cup in one go.

With no other choice, Zhuge Liang harbored lingering suspicions as he too tilted his head back and drank it down.

"Brother-in-law's strategy is truly breathtaking; I must write this down..."

Setting down his wine cup, Zhuge Liang hurriedly took out his brush and wooden slips, earnestly and meticulously recording the details.

Meanwhile, inside Rang County, utter chaos had erupted.

Awakened from their sleep, the Jingzhou soldiers ran about in all directions, screaming and clutching their heads like startled birds.

Within the prefectural office, Zhang Yun, who had been fast asleep, was rudely woken up by his personal guards without a word, then dragged and half-carried out into the courtyard.

"What are you doing? How dare you disturb this general—"

Before Zhang Yun's angry curse could escape his lips, his sleepy eyes suddenly bulged wide open.

Raging flames filled his vision; the entire city of Rang County had seemingly been transformed into a city of fire.

"Th-this... what is going on here?"

Zhang Yun's voice trembled, his body freezing instantly as his eyes dilated as if he had seen a ghost.