Chapter 32: Strategy Set on the Sand Table

In the council hall, after everyone finished reading the military report, they fell into a deathly silence.

Except for Wang Jin, everyone's eyes were fixed on the report, their faces grim with solemnity and shock.

A 100,000-strong allied army! Their spearhead points straight at Chengdu Prefecture!

This is no longer a mere local barbarian rebellion; it is practically a war capable of shaking the very foundations of the state.

"Insolent brat!" a bearded general slammed the table, shouting, "Prince! I beg to lead the vanguard, take five thousand iron cavalry straight to Yao Prefecture, and tear Mo Zhe Nian limb from limb!"

"Impossible!" another steady-minded general immediately retorted, "In the southwest, the mountains are high and the roads heavy, making cavalry difficult to deploy. Moreover, the enemy numbers 100,000; our troops, after a long march, would risk walking into an ambush if we advance rashly."

"What then? Are we just supposed to watch them march right up to the walls of Chengdu?"

"The urgent priority is to immediately reinforce troops, hold firm at strategic passes like Sword Gate Pass, and simultaneously memorialize the court to ask Your Majesty to dispatch more troops for support."

In an instant, the council hall erupted into chaos. The generals split into pro-war and pro-defense factions, arguing endlessly, yet nobody could produce a foolproof plan.

Zhang Jianzhi sat in the chief seat, brow furrowed, silent. He knew both sides had merit, but also drawbacks: an all-out attack would be too costly and the outcome uncertain; mere defense would be overly passive, emboldening the rebels' arrogance.

At that moment, the ever-silent Wang Jin slowly set the military report back on the table.

He rose and walked to the center of the council hall, before a huge sand table depicting the entire southwest terrain.

As he moved, the hall's arguing ceased eerily; all eyes turned to this young "Pacification Commissioner of Annan".

"Prince, generals," Wang Jin's voice was calm yet clear as it reached everyone's ears, "may I speak a few words?"

Zhang Jianzhi lifted his eyelids, looking at him: "Go ahead."

Wang Jin's hand lightly swept across the sand table, his fingertip landing on the rebel stronghold—Yao Prefecture.

"The report says the rebels claim a force of 100,000, gentlemen—but have you ever considered whether this 100,000-strong army is a monolith?"

At those words, all the generals were taken aback.

Wang Jin didn't wait for their reply, continuing: "Mo Zhe Nian is merely a tribal chief of Yao Prefecture. What gives him the sway to command the chiefs of the Seventy-Two Caves? Nothing but promises of great profit, coupled with the righteous pretext of 'executing corrupt officials'."

"Such an allied force may look formidable, but inside it is riddled with contradictions, each harboring ulterior motives—some want money, some want land, some are merely coerced; how many truly wish to fight the Tang Dynasty to the death?"

His finger moved across the sand table, marking several tribes far from Yao Prefecture that had likewise joined the alliance.

"Take these tribes, for example—they lie hundreds of miles from Yao Prefecture, and ordinarily they are at odds with Mo Zhe Nian's tribe, even feuding. They joined only to profiteer from the chaos; should the tide turn, they'd be the first to defect."

"And here," his finger pointed elsewhere, "this tribe is the strongest among the Seventy-Two Caves; its chief, ambitious as he is, would he willingly submit to Mo Zhe Nian?"

Wang Jin's analysis, like a sharp knife, dissected the seemingly mighty "100,000-strong allied army," laying bare its internal fragility.

The generals' expressions in the hall shifted from initial disdain to surprise, then to solemnity. They realized this young man was looking not at troop numbers, but at people's hearts!

"Then, according to your view, what should we do?" Zhang Jianzhi's voice carried a hint of gravity.

"Divide and dismantle, strike the point to break the whole," Wang Jin uttered in eight characters.

"My strategy remains 'punishment and pacification combined.' But punishment is not a full-on assault, and pacification is not mere appeasement."

He picked up a small red flag representing the Tang army, not planting it before the rebels' front, but instead placing it on the flank of the rebel alliance—on an insignificant little tribe.

"First step: kill the chicken to scare the monkey!"

"We will not move our main forces; we will send only a select elite detachment, strike with thunderous force, pick the weakest yet most eager tribe, and wipe it completely off the sand table overnight!"

"Strike hard, strike total! Let everyone see what happens when you oppose the Tang Dynasty!"

These words, reeking of bloody slaughter, made every martial officer present feel a shudder of dread.

"Second step: lure them with profit."

"Having crushed the weakest, we must win over the strongest. We will send emissaries to secretly contact the tribe that is both the strongest and most ambitious. Tell its chief that if he turns his arms and helps the Tang suppress the rebellion, then after Mo Zhe Nian's death, the entirety of Yao Prefecture, together with all the grain and supplies we capture, will be his! The court may even enfeoff him as the new 'King of Yao Prefecture'!"

"Hiss—"

In the council hall rose a chorus of sharp intakes of breath.

"To enfeoff a king! This plan is far too grand!"

"Third step: widely bestow imperial grace."

"As for those coerced and wavering small tribes, we will dispatch many pacification commissioners to tell them that the court punishes only the ringleaders and inquires not into the coerced; if they immediately quit the alliance and return home, the court will not only pardon their crimes but also exempt them from taxes for three years."

"One hand is thunder, one hand is gold, one hand is imperial grace."

Wang Jin lifted his head, his gaze blazing as he looked at Zhang Jianzhi.

"With three prongs working together, within two months the so-called 100,000-strong allied army will collapse of its own accord, crumbling without attack! By then Mo Zhe Nian will be a lone widower, and our advancing army will take his head as easily as reaching into a bag!"

"By then we will not only have quelled the rebellion, but without shedding a drop of blood we will reshuffle the entire southwest's power structure! The most disobedient will be reduced to ashes, the ambitious will be made to serve us, and the fence-sitters will be utterly subdued."

"This, then, is the true strategy for pacifying the borders and securing the south!"

"Boom!"

Wang Jin's words struck like a thunderclap out of clear sky, exploding in every general's mind!

They stared, dumbfounded, at the young man standing before the sand table, speaking fluently.

"How could this be any mere pacification plan?"

"This is clearly a scheme that takes the whole southwest as a chessboard, the chiefs of the Seventy-Two Caves as pieces, a plan with no omissions, ruthlessly extreme… a grand stratagem!"

Even Zhang Jianzhi, that veteran minister who has weathered decades of officialdom, now looked at Wang Jin with eyes filled with unprecedented shock… and admiration!

He remained silent for a long while, then a spark of sharp light burst from his cloudy eyes.

He abruptly rose to his feet and struck the final note.

"Good!"

"Just as you propose!"

"From today onward, I, the Prince, grant you full authority as Pacification Commissioner of Annan! All pacification commissioners in the army, as well as the three-thousand-strong detachment, shall be at your command!"

"I, the Prince, shall see how you, for the Tang Dynasty, finish this great game of chess!"