3 days later
The war of the Shu Dynasty and Wei Dynasty ended in Wei Dynasty's victory. No one knew how they won; no one knew what actually happened. However, it spread like wildfire. Wei Dynasty and Shu Dynasty Warriors all died mysteriously. No one from Wei or Shu survived. They even gave it a name – Tragedy of Crimson Grassland.
The Shu Dynasty shrank their Warriors to the capital to protect the Royal Palace at the cost of more than 40% of their landmass. Shu Wang realized there was no way to protect those outer cities. He resolutely gave up on them and protected the northern part of their land and the capital. He was shocked when they all were dead. Even from the spies in the Wei Dynasty, he didn't get any information. He didn't even know how the battle took place. He received information that even Lao Zhang and the two seniors died in the battle. This was completely incomprehensible.
The 10,000 Warriors Li Gang selected were decided around 10 years back when he first created the formation. They were loyal subordinates trained by him personally. He had personally tested if there were any spies among them. When Li Gang first devised the army formation, he lacked the materials. Yet, he used normal shields and weapons to get them familiar with the formation and come up with their own strategies. Li Gang trained them in an array formation that deprived them of their sense of direction, allowing them to get familiar with the situation slowly!
During the cyclone that occurred a year ago, the northeastern part suffered heavy damages. Most of the Warriors of Golden Crow were spread out to protect the public. Due to this, the Shu Dynasty is still able to keep their land for a few years. But they are already aware that the situation is no longer optimistic.
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Golden Crow Kingdom
Shi Tian came to Jin Long and said slowly, "Your Majesty, we have got all the information about the formation they set up!"
Jin Long nodded. He took the scroll and opened it up.
Shi Tian had already seen the person who surrendered after the war between the Wei and Shu Dynasties. He secretly protected a few Warriors during the battle. He was a Rank 6 Warrior with speed more than 100 times that of Rank 3 Warriors and around three times that of Rank 4 Warriors. He was very well capable of secretly protecting them, as long as no one was aware of his motive.
He captured three of them and got the information about the whole formation. The formation had the ability to block Spiritual Prying. If Jin Long was closer, he could have forcefully seen through the internal structure since his own cultivation was much higher than the formation itself.
Jin Long looked at the formation and instantly said, "How impressive! Deception is the ultimate tactic of war formation. Confusing your enemy is the way to win a battle efficiently. If you have a weak point, let them think it is your strong point, and if you have a strong point, let them think it is a weak point."
Shi Tian was surprised and glanced at Jin Long puzzledly. "Your Majesty?"
Jin Long smirked as he took out a letter and handed it over to Shi Tian.
Shi Tian read the letter and was surprised.
It was the same letter that Jin Long obtained from a middle-aged man during the battle.
The content of the letter was not some mere words conveyed to Jin Long but the way to create an array formation. It contained the method to create the same formation used by Li Gang in his maze-like formation to block spiritual prying and create a defensive mechanism against archers using inscriptions on the shields wielded by Defensive Warriors.
Shi Tian was shocked and murmured, "So this is why you decided to kill everyone present there."
Jin Long nodded and smiled. "Greed is such an interesting thing. He knew there was no way to invite me to help him in the battle other than benefits. A benefit that can only be obtained by helping him!"
If Jin Long needed the army formation of Li Gang, he must know the array formation used in it. At the same time, his enemy shouldn't be aware of it, or it wouldn't take long before they would find a countermeasure for the same. Thus, he had to do something to kill all the Warriors present there while at the same time protecting the ones who had the most information about it.
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If Li Gang hadn't shared the array formation, Jin Long wouldn't be interested in Li Gang's army formation. He was very well aware that without the array formation hiding the internal structure, the whole formation might not be good enough. The loss outweighed the gain. He didn't want to mess with two Rank 7 Warriors just for this.
In fact, even with Li Gang's bait, he wasn't going to fall for it. He knew it wasn't worth it to be an enemy of two Rank 7 Warriors. However, Li Gang's use of blood sacrifice changed his thoughts. He saw that there might be a chance to get benefits without losing anything.
Jin Long had always been overshadowed by Jin Huang, but it doesn't mean he was a fool. He was a Rank 7 Warrior. How can someone with such high cultivation be a fool? He knew when to twist the blade and when to sheath it.
He looked at the army formation of Li Gang and the array formation's functions and instantly figured out the only weakness.
Shi Tian asked lightly, "It appears Your Majesty has already seen through its weakness."
Jin Long nodded. He pointed towards the entry point of the army formation, from where Warriors of the enemy camp entered to attack, and said lightly, "Do you see this entry? This is the real trap of the formation. The moment you try to destroy this army formation from this entry point, you lose!"
Shi Tian was shocked. "How is that possible? If we try to fight from the outside, wouldn't we face the horror of archers?"
Jin Long laughed. "This is the true trap. What seems to be the danger isn't the danger, and what seems to be the haven is not the haven!"
He paused as he looked at the scroll deeply and said lightly, "Let's call this formation the Dancing Maze. Do you see these rotating layers? You must attack the left and right of one of the Defensive Warriors to create a gap. If you kill just one of them, it would be instantly filled. However, once you kill both the right and left side, you will be able to create a gap in between to enter."
At the beginning, the outer layer was static, and only the inner layer rotated, but once the enemy starts their attack, even the outer layer starts rotating.
He continued, "The Dancing Maze blocks spiritual prying both ways; thus, even Wei Warriors are incapable of locating the army formations of Shu outside the Dancing Maze. However, they are aware of the direction where the entry point of the Dancing Maze is. All the archers can easily aim at that point, while they can't aim at Warriors outside the Dancing Maze. They need physical transmission of that information with the help of Shield Warriors at the outermost layer, and if the enemy is constantly moving, then the delay in transmission can cause miscoordination."
Shi Tian was surprised. He instantly figured it out. "Those Rank 5 Warriors must take the initiative to lead their units outside the Dancing Maze and create gaps through different angles. They must enter the Dancing Maze through the gaps created by them and not the opening that was already there. Without a Rank 5 Warrior leading, the seamless exchange of weakened and strong Warriors would cause problems in creating gaps, just like how Units 10 to Units 15 faced during the battle."
The weakened Warriors seamlessly changed their position with healthy Warriors and retreated back for healing. This was done to avoid reducing casualties and maintain dominance. A lame camel is better than no horse.
He continued, "Not just that, the gap between two layers is so small that only around a hundred Warriors can have sufficient space to fight freely from the frontal attacks. While the rest of the Warriors are forced to attack the Shield Warriors or try to push forward, highly reducing their efficiency."
The gap between two layers reduces as they move towards the core. The gap between the first and second layer was equivalent to a hundred Warriors standing side by side with some free space! This gap continues to reduce, and thus forces most of the Warriors to stay in the initial layers, and only the remaining Warriors could enter the core area.
Jin Long nodded. "We are able to figure out the weakness because we are aware of the internal structure of the Dancing Maze and the array formation. There was a lack of key information for Shu Pang. The Spiritual Prying was blocked from both sides. It is very well possible to make the one-side blockage, but why didn't he do that? Is it because of his lack of ability? No, there must be other reasons. Is it because it might hinder the quick replacement of Shield Warriors and attacking Warriors?"
Li Gang could have made a formation that blocks spiritual prying from just one way, but he realized that it was highly impractical. It was unbalanced and would exponentially restrict the movement of Defensive Warriors. This would significantly reduce the impact they could make during the battle.
Jin Long said lightly, "This army formation is one of the strongest I have ever seen. However, it is not practical. There are three array formations hidden in the army formation using the inscriptions on shields and a few core Rank 6 materials. Even though this formation can almost guarantee victory over the enemy, the Warriors have to spend a lot of time getting familiar with it and also spend a lot of resources just to create the formation. It can only be utilized for an open battlefield when both sides are going for a full-scale war on the same level of height. If the enemy has a higher ground advantage, then this formation would become even more useless since the array formation may not be able to block the enemy's archers."
Jin Long is the greatest army formation strategist in the Northern Continent. He was able to instantly figure out the weaknesses and strengths of the formation and also realized this formation could only be used as a trump card.
There is no absolute strategy. Every plan has its counters, and every formation has its weaknesses.