After entering the first cloud ladder, the military strategist can participate in some battles. As long as they win, they will gain a certain amount of killing power. After accumulating enough killing power, they can enter the second cloud ladder, and so on.
The minimum qualification to enter the Thirteen Cloud Ladders is to be a military strategist who has passed the palace examination, and ordinary scholars have only one chance to enter each year, while scholars from the Holy Academy can enter three times a year. They can exchange three chances with their writings on the literary list, and three additional chances with their military merits. Disciples from semi-saint families can get an additional three times, disciples from sub-saint families can get an additional six times, and disciples from Confucian saint families can get nine times.
For every level of advancement in literary rank, three additional opportunities will be granted each year.
A Jinshi from the Confucius Academy can enter up to eighteen times a year.
The only exceptions are the Sun Tzu family and the Sun Bin family. The disciples of these two families can directly get ten additional chances every year.
Fang Yun is a virtual saint. Even if he has not passed the palace examination and is not a Jinshi of the Holy Academy, his basic number of entries per year reaches thirteen. After being canonized as a virtual saint, the Sun Tzu family and the Sun Bin family each give him an extra ten chances, and the Holy Academy also gives him an extra ten times.
Fang Yun can also be exchanged with literary works and military merits. Now he can get a full forty-nine chances every year!
Except for the semi-saints, no one in the world can compare to Fang Yun, not even the head of the Sun Zi family.
Thirteen ladders in military strategists are more difficult than climbing to the sky.
Even Han Xin, Zhang Liang, Sima Yi, Zhou Yu and other world-famous military strategists could only reach the ninth ladder and could not go any higher.
After the Ninth Cloud Ladder, there is another name, called the Holy Throne Battlefield!
Because after the Ninth Ladder, the war often affects the entire continent. If the literary courage is not strong enough and there is no power of the Holy Way, no matter how strong the military strategy is, it is difficult to take the overall situation into consideration.
Before the Ninth Cloud Ladder, it was just a battle between countries or with monsters, but after the Ninth Cloud Ladder, it would involve all races, a battle of hundreds of races, and the fighting methods and terrain were also very special. Even from time to time, saint monsters would appear, and the danger was far greater than that of ordinary wars.
Thirteen Cloud Ladders is the core holy place of military strategists. For military strategists, it is better not to study in the mountains of books, but to climb the Thirteen Cloud Ladders.
The battle of military arts is like entering a certain cloud ladder continent. The winner can take away a part of the loser's killing power. No matter how much killing power the loser has, he will inevitably descend one level of the cloud ladder. Then the killing power will quickly dissipate and finally drop to the minimum limit of this level.
If you descend from the second cloud ladder to the first cloud ladder, all the killing power will dissipate.
It is precisely because the punishment for the military confrontation is too harsh. Therefore, unless there is a deep hatred, military strategists rarely use this method to fight.
It's just that the population of the ten countries is too large. The conflicts between the families in each country are too complicated, and there are dozens of military battles every year.
Qing Kingdom is different from Jing Kingdom.
To the north of Jing State was the Barbarian Tribe, and all the generals had experienced a lot of actual combat. However, Qing State had been at peace for many years, and except for a few generals stationed in various demon mountains and generals in various ancient lands, the rest were mediocre.
For example, although Zhou Junhu is currently serving in the capital, he has been leading troops in battles decades ago. Although he has not participated in the war recently, he has focused his energy on military tactics. With sufficient accumulation from before, his military tactics have not retreated but advanced instead.
A Grand Secretary of Military Affairs will at least reach the third ladder, and the outstanding ones can enter the fourth ladder. Zhou Junhu just entered the fifth ladder last year, which makes him considered a top Grand Secretary of Military Affairs.
In terms of military talent, the top group of people in the two countries are on par with each other, but at the middle level, Jing State's defect of small number of people is revealed, and it is not as good as Qing State. In overall terms, Jing State is still at a disadvantage.
In order to protect Fang Yun, the Kingdom of Jing sent several university scholars and great Confucian scholars including Zhou Junhu. However, the famous generals of the Kingdom of Qing were all guarding important places and could not accompany Qing Jun, so naturally they were not able to come.
Logically speaking, when Zhou Junhu proposed a military confrontation, even if Xin Zhi did not dare, the military strategists of the Qing State present should have accepted it. However, they knew very well that they were no match for a fierce man like Zhou Junhu.
The killing nature of a military scholar depends on the Wentai formed when he became a scholar. For example, Zhou Junhu's distant cousin in Qi State, the great scholar Zhou Qingtian, had a "Wentai of Ten Thousand Armies", which was more focused on strategizing and had a general killing nature. Zhou Junhu's Wentai was a "Wentai of Hundred Armies", which, once activated, would reveal countless weapons and was extremely killing.
Xin Zhi was also considered a famous general of the Qing Kingdom and was outstanding among the Hanlin scholars, but he was far inferior to Zhou Junhu.
Xin Zhi avoided Zhou Junhu's sharp eyes, looked at the Jingguo Hanlin, and said, "General Zhou is using his position as a university scholar to suppress me, so I can't defeat him. But, do you Jingguo like to bully the weak? Jingguo Hanlin, do you dare to fight me?"
After these words were spoken, the officials of Jing State fell silent.
Jing State is now facing internal and external troubles, and the top Hanlin scholars are all in the north, preparing to fight against the monsters and barbarians. The Hanlin scholars who are strong in military strategy are not as good as ordinary university scholars in protecting Fang Yun, and it is impossible for them to follow Fang Yun.
Most of the Hanlin scholars present were from the Ministry of Rites, the Honglu Temple and other civil academies, and there were only a few military Hanlin scholars such as He Ludong.
He Ludong had just become a Hanlin and had no experience in commanding a large war. If he were to fight Xin Zhiwen, he would not be afraid and would even be confident of winning. However, in terms of military strategy, he was indeed inferior to Xin Zhi.
The hall was in an awkward balance, with each side having its own strengths and weaknesses, yet both sides were at the mercy of the other.
Xin Zhi had been severely suppressed by Fang Yun before, and now he finally let out a sigh of relief. Seeing that the people of Jing State did not answer, he smiled and said, "Why? The people of Jing State only know how to bully the weak, and when they meet people of the same rank, they all become cowards?"
He Ludong was a man of blood after all, and he said angrily: "Then I will fight against you, a filthy soldier, to see who is better!"
"Hahaha... Okay, then I will take away your killing power in the Thirteen Cloud Ladders and let you..."
"Wait." Fang Yun's voice sounded.
Xin Zhi was so scared that his tongue trembled, and he cursed in his heart, Fang Xusheng, you've had enough! From the time they met yesterday until today, he has been suppressing the officials of Qing State. With just one poem, he pushed the King of Qing and the royal family into a ditch and stained them with a stigma. Why are you still taking action now
Xin Zhi closed his mouth and looked at Fang Yun with some fear, with a shadow in his eyes.
Under the gaze of everyone, Fang Yun looked down at them like a king and said slowly: "General Xin said that my Jing country has no one and likes to bully the weak, but this saint does not think so. On the contrary, this saint feels that letting General He and General Xin fight against each other is like killing a chicken with a butcher knife, which is still bullying. Therefore, this saint thinks that in order to show its magnanimity, Jing country should choose a Jinshi to fight against you. General Xin, do you dare?"
All the officials were stunned, and Xin Zhi's eyes showed suspicion. He quickly glanced at all the people in Jingguo, thinking that Jingguo had not had any outstanding military strategists in recent years, and it was impossible for him to be in the team.
Xin Zhi subconsciously looked at Fang Yun, was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized!
.(To be continued..)