“You want to be General Ke’s adviser?” Interesting, where did he get such confidence? “Have you even been to the front lines? How much do you know about leading troops and waging war?”0

“I was born on the northern frontier,” Sun Hongye said with a faint smile. “Until I was twelve, war and migration were simply a part of daily life. Later, I served as a study companion in Lord Hé’s household[1], where I scoured the family archives from end to end. After that, I even spent four full years at the State Academy in the capital.”1

“Only four years?” With nothing better to do, He Lingchuan popped a strawberry into his mouth. “I’ve heard that real scholars spend their whole lives poring over the classics until their hair turns white. Surely it takes more than four years of reading to qualify as a military strategist.”0

Strawberries were not in season now, so they had likely they had been forced to grow in greenhouses. The fruit looked bright and red, the juice plentiful, but it lacked the fragrance of strawberries in their proper season.0

“To study well, one must have good books,” Sun Hongye said, shaking his head with a trace of regret. “The State Academy may cover vast grounds, but its collection is riddled with...0