The novelty of the new toy in his hand suddenly lost its charm.
Yun Chuhuan looked as if he had been dealt a heavy blow.
"Are you telling me this thing has existed for ages already?"
"Not that long ago," Yun Shu replied calmly.
She pulled out her water flask and took a sip.
"It was something I created on the side while making the glass for the steam carriage. It was only completed a couple of days before the Seven Kingdoms went to war."
"Then why did I not know about it?" Yun Chuhuan glared at Yun Shu, fuming. "Am I not your favorite younger brother?"
"The main reason is that there weren't many made."
Yun Shu shrugged lightly.
"And the war broke out not long after. I had just gotten the telescope when I distributed them to a few generals. Shortly after, I was deployed to the battlefield myself."
"But I've been on the battlefield for days now, and I never heard a word about this!" Yun Chuhuan remained unconvinced. "You all clearly kept this from me on purpose!"
"I honestly forgot."
These past few days, she had been dragged by General Wei Yuan day and night to help plan military tactics. In order not to raise suspicion, Yun Shu had no choice but to throw herself into the role.
By day, she sat in the main command tent with the generals, vice generals, and strategists, dissecting troop formations and enemy patterns.
By night, she retreated to her villa space, poring over the strategy simulator on her computer.
Living in this cycle without rest, it was entirely reasonable that such a detail slipped her mind.
Yun Shu smoothly shifted the blame.
"As for General Wei Yuan and the others, perhaps they feared that if word got out, His Highness the Sixth Prince might try to demand one of their precious tools, relying on his royal status.
After all, this telescope is genuinely useful to them."
"So it was General Wei Yuan who deliberately kept me in the dark!"
Sure enough, Yun Chuhuan's outrage instantly changed targets. He huffed and plopped down beside Yun Shu with a scowl.
"Do I look like the kind of person who throws tantrums over trivial things?"
"You are," Yun Shu replied earnestly.
"Fifth Sister!!"
Yun Chuhuan bristled. "Whose side are you even on?"
"…"
While Yun Shu continued to tease Yun Chuhuan, far away in the Annan camp, the commanding general had just received urgent news from his scouts.
He shoved aside the concubine in his arms in a panic, hastily pulling on his clothes as he rushed outside.
"What is going on? How could the Tian Sheng army possibly have crossed that stretch of forest? Where are our troops? Did we not leave an ambush in place?"
"Reporting to General," said the soldier who had just escaped the chaos, speaking rapidly. "Tian Sheng dispatched eighty thousand troops this time. They seem to be extremely familiar with the terrain inside the forest. Our five thousand ambushers could not match them at all. They were wiped out almost instantly.
The Tian Sheng army is now nearing the edge of the forest. If nothing goes wrong, they will launch a direct attack on our city today."
"Utter nonsense!"
The Annan commander was so shocked his belt became a knotted mess.
Who knew better than he the true state of Annan's military strength? If they clashed head-on with Tian Sheng, it would be a path to certain death.
Originally, all seven kingdoms had agreed to merely delay Tian Sheng, wearing down their resources without full engagement.
Just like the past month: he didn't even need to show up in person. Each day, he sent a few thousand troops to harass Tian Sheng using the forest as cover.
On lucky days, he could remain in the bedchamber of his lovely concubines and still gain military merit without lifting a finger.
He thought such a sweet arrangement could last indefinitely.
Who would have thought that the forest shielding them would suddenly fail, and Tian Sheng would press straight through?
And with eighty thousand soldiers, no less!
That must be the entire military force that Yongzhou could muster. Had Tian Sheng gone mad? Were they not afraid that a single defeat would cause Yongzhou to fall altogether?
"Here is what we will do. Have Vice General Li lead thirty thousand men to ambush them at the forest's edge and wear down their strength as much as possible.
Then send Vice General Song with ten thousand troops to circle around from the other side and support Vice General Li in a pincer attack.
If they manage to slay the enemy's commanding general, I shall reward them with a hundred taels of gold!"
After issuing his orders, the Annan commander mounted his horse. Seeing that the messenger still had not left, he grew furious and lashed out with a kick.
"Why are you still standing there like an idiot? Did you not hear my command?"
"But…" The soldier hesitated before speaking up.
"General, the Tian Sheng army numbers eighty thousand. If we only send out forty thousand men, wouldn't that be…"
"Are you the commander or am I?"
The Annan commander raised his whip in anger. "If I send out all the troops, who will defend the city? If the city falls, will you take responsibility?"
"Get moving! If you delay military affairs, I will personally take your head!"
"Yes, General!"
"Useless fool!"
He cursed as he drove the soldier away. The commander spurred his horse forward toward the military camp but then suddenly pulled up short, as if something had just occurred to him.
Turning around, he raced back to his general's residence, snatched up a brush, and swiftly scribbled a few urgent words.
He folded the note solemnly and handed it to his personal guard.
"You must deliver this letter to His Majesty today. No matter what."
"Understood!"
Though Annan was small, delivering the letter to the royal capital within the day would be difficult.
The guard dared not delay a moment longer. Clutching the secret letter, he galloped away from the general's residence and vanished down the road toward the capital.
Only then did the Annan commander take a deep breath, mount his horse again, and head to the military camp.
He believed that sending Vice Generals Li and Song with forty thousand men to strike would, if not result in a resounding victory, at least delay Tian Sheng's advance.
But…
"Fifth Sister, I see our banner!"
On the cliffside, Yun Chuhuan, who had still been sulking, suddenly sprang to his feet, telescope in hand.
"It's our troops! Didn't they say there would still be fighting along the part of the route we can't see yet? Why so fast? Don't tell me Annan never sent out any forces at all?"
"Impossible," Yun Shu answered without hesitation.
"The terrain in that stretch of forest is complex. If the Annan commander had even half a brain, he would have used his familiarity with the landscape to set an ambush.
The fact that General Lu's battle ended so quickly only proves that our prior simulations on the strategy table were extremely accurate. The ambush they arranged failed to achieve anything."
After all, the tactics had been refined with comprehensive data analysis.
She had then spent days painstakingly breaking them down with the generals and strategists, ensuring every detail was honed.
Unless Annan possessed a genius-level commander, someone truly gifted in the art of war, then their swift and easy victory was not surprising at all.