Chapter 357: When in doubt, divine and follow the will of Heaven!

"What strategy?"

Wu Zhao asked.

Gao Yang's expression was calm, a hint of madness welling up in his eyes.

"Since there is no path to take, then do not take one."

"If you are unwilling to sacrifice the child, you will not catch the wolf. Your Majesty can throw open the nine gates of Changancheng to tempt the Chu army, and in a battle that seems impossible, defeat the Chu army head-on. This situation can be resolved!"

As this strategy was proposed, the Imperial Study fell into silence.

Everyone looked at Gao Yang with stunned expressions; it was so quiet that they could hear each other swallowing.

The next second, a clamor suddenly erupted, resounding through the Imperial Study.

"Great Chu has one hundred thousand troops, plus the armies of Wu Wang and Xue Yi. Even with the losses from the siege, they still have at least one hundred and twenty thousand. How can we fight this?"

"Changancheng has no more than thirty thousand soldiers. If you count the commoners, you might scrape together fifty or sixty thousand. Defending the city is fine, but once we leave the city, wouldn't we just be slaughtered by the Chu army?"

"Lord Gao, are you sure this is a method to defeat the enemy, and not a method to destroy the nation?"

The ministers spoke up one after another, and the pot directly exploded.

Wu Zhao had not expected Gao Yang's method to be leaving the city to lure the Chu army into a head-on battle.

For a poisonous strategist to be forced into fighting outside the city, and even to stake everything on it, this in itself represented the urgency of the situation.

"Is there no other way besides fighting outside the city?"

Wu Zhao asked in a deep voice, her eyes fixed on Gao Yang.

Gao Yang spread his hands, his face helpless. "Besides this, there is no other way."

"The sophistication of that Chu commander and her methods of using troops are top-tier!"

"Once they truly cut off the grain supply to Changancheng, they will drive a large number of commoners toward Changancheng."

"At that time, Your Majesty will be caught in a dilemma!"

"If you let the commoners into the city, you accelerate the consumption of grain; if you do not let them in, you incite public anger, and may even cause them to fight for the Chu army, consuming the wood and arrows within Changancheng!"

"As time passes, even the commoners originally within Changancheng will waver and fall into panic."

Lu Zhen and Qin Zhenguo's expressions flickered.

They instantly thought of the siege methods Gao Yang had mentioned earlier.

If that Great Chu Second Princess truly did this, Da Qian would undoubtedly be in big trouble!

The officials were also silent.

With hundreds of thousands of elite Chu troops outside the city, how could they fight this battle relying on the soldiers within Changancheng?

Gao Yang continued.

"The Chu army was ambushed by Old General Lu last night, and their morale is low. Combined with some special methods within Changancheng, our army is not without a shred of a chance of victory."

"But if Your Majesty still cannot make up your mind, I also know a bit of the art of divination!"

"My art of divination, used to judge good and bad fortune, has a one hundred percent success rate!"

As these words were spoken.

The officials and Wu Zhao were all filled with surprise.

"You even know divination?"

Wu Zhao did not know why, but after hearing these words, she felt a sudden sense of calm in her heart.

When in doubt, divine and follow the will of Heaven!

Gao Yang straightened his waist and said, "I am extremely proficient in the art of divination."

"I ask Your Majesty to lend me a tortoise shell!"

Wu Zhao thought of what Gao Yang had said earlier about eight hundred fighting one hundred thousand being a form of metaphysics.

At this moment, she also needed a bit of metaphysics.

"Fetch the sacrificial tortoise shell!"

Wu Zhao gave the order.

Soon, an old eunuch brought over a massive tortoise shell; one look at its age showed it was not short.

The structure of the tortoise shell on the back was peculiar, with three large grids in the center, ten large grids further out, twenty-four small grids, and twelve grids at the bottom.

These corresponded to the three talents of Heaven, Earth, and Man, the ten Heavenly Stems, the twenty-four mountains, and the twelve Earthly Branches, which coincided with the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Eight Trigrams in divination.

To this day, sorcerers who divine with tortoise shells in Da Qian are still sought after by the powerful!

Soon, Gao Yang took the tortoise shell and began the divination.

Divining with a tortoise shell is not complicated; it mainly involves roasting it over a fire until cracks appear, and then pouring cold water over it. ===== CHAPTER 359 =====