Chapter 143: Faction Building
Compared to the struggles in the Yao Capital Imperial Court, the frontline battlefield in Bo Prefecture now appears calm.
Here in the Eastern Market Army, weapons are oiled, while construction tools like trowels and chisels are covered in dust. As for the other side, it is “impoverished”.
In winter, Gu Shou Pass and its surrounding mountain range are covered in a layer of snow. The Hao Army on the city wall is not standing guard; instead, they have set up a scarecrow on the city battlement. The garrison troops are huddled in a small sheltered spot from the wind, staring blankly at the wall without speaking to conserve energy. At the same time, they carefully pick stones out of the charcoal fire, wrap them in rags, and stuff them into their clothes.
Amid this quiet scene, there was a “whoosh” from below the pass wall as a firework launched, popping as it stuck to the city battlement. The Yao Army saw heads moving chaotically on the Gu Shou Pass city battlement and heard the gongs clanging wildly, then mounted their horses and left—but not completely. They would return again at night.
In dealing with a powerful opponent, Wu Fei holds utmost respect.—Originally for Gu Shou Pass, Wu Fei planned to wait until the second half of 37 on the Shu Tian Calendar before acting, letting Bo Prefecture’s people recover more, gathering more grain, and wearing down the garrison’s sharpness inside Gu Shou Pass. In this way, Wu Fei was confident of taking the checkpoint with casualties under one thousand.
But now Zhao Cheng has arrived. He has prepared a military force eighty li north of Gu Shou Pass, convenient both for foraging and for providing support to Gu Shou Pass anytime, anywhere.
Wu Fei knows his “exam paper” has arrived and is eager to start answering it. These past few days, he has been sending small troops constantly to Gu Shou Pass, scouting every other day.
Wu Fei is not just harassing; he also organized a group of slaves to rush to the checkpoint to probe for traps below it.
Regarding sea raids, Wu Fei no longer pursues capturing enemy grain. He tells Zhao Xian Zhong to use fire arrows directly against enemy troops.
…On the exam paper, you must fill it all out, leave no blanks…
Inside Gu Shou Pass, Zhao Cheng watched the chaos on the city battlement caused by the firework, his expression slightly displeased. Clearly, the patrols outside the pass had not done their job properly.
After ten days or half a month of clashes, Zhao Cheng found the Bo Prefecture warfare had turned into a “bladder stalemate”. That Wu Xiao Que was like him, a player without equal.
Zhao Cheng even felt: “After I arrived, Wu Fei has gone a bit wild.”
In Zhao Cheng’s strategy, losing Gu Shou Pass does not affect the big picture. He can make up for it at other strategic points.
But given Hao State’s current situation, if Gu Shou Pass falls from Zhao Cheng’s hands, there will be big trouble! In recent years, the Dragon Descendants inside Hao State have been trying to wrest military power back from Zhao City, and a defeat here at Gu Shou Pass would give them just the pretext they need.
Seeing Wu Fei’s stance of “if you don’t attack, I’ll keep annoying you”, Zhao Cheng felt his scalp tingle.
He must take this shit pot head-on. And Zhao Cheng vaguely sensed that Wu Fei is not just bluffing—as soon as his defense slackens, or if Zhao Cheng has to pull away elsewhere and withdraw from Gu Shou Pass, this army corps in Bo Prefecture will definitely strike.
“My lord, these Bo troops are really annoying!” A brigadier general promoted by Zhao Cheng dismissed the firework on the city battlement.
Clearly, some soldiers inside the pass have grown weary from Bo Prefecture’s raid tactics, feeling no need to take these petty tricks seriously, not wanting to watch the walls day and night.
Zhao Cheng shook his head and said to these generals he had promoted: “You think the enemy is faking it, but in fact, they really want to take this pass from me. If you slacken, that one (Wu Fei) will surely come.
Zhao Cheng made a new decision, dispatching advisors to use connections and money to transfer his loyal generals back to Sha Prefecture.
Zhao Cheng’s advisors said: My lord, if you force the transfer, it won’t work. The Hao Army must actively push us out, then we can go with the flow and (pointing vaguely at the dragon pattern on the screen behind Zhao City) be transferred away.
Zhao Cheng nodded and asked his advisor: “What goods from Yan Land to the south are traded, and which are valuable?”
After the advisor listed them, Zhao Cheng nodded: “We must hold all these in our hands. (Wait for the Dragon Descendants to seize them, pushing us out)
…Loyalty is already insufficient…
Zhao Cheng was reporting the early situation to Pu E. Both sides are now in a test of patience, like children seeing who blinks first, waiting for the opponent’s state power to collapse.
But even Pu E could see that in this standoff, Zhao Cheng is clearly at a disadvantage! Hao State’s national strength cannot support such consumption; Yan Land’s output is insufficient. Wu Fei’s side, however, can afford it, restoring farming production internally while gradually cutting off the northern Hao State trade routes, blocking the possibility of trading furs for grain.
The Hao State monarch and internal factions also cannot rest easy letting Zhao Cheng long-term control Yan Land’s key points.
At the year-end in December, Zhao Cheng tried a trick, sending someone on his own mount to leave the checkpoint under cover of night, deliberately pretending he was not at the checkpoint to lure Wu Fei into attacking early.
But Wu Fei only sent light cavalry, pretending no interest in attacking the city, circled once below Gu Shou Pass as if completing the mission, then went back for the New Year, leaving the garrison inside Gu Shou Pass tense and uneasy, ruining their entire holiday.
After the year-end, both sides exchanged New Year greetings, auspicious wishes, all harmonious. But behind the scenes, they cursed each other as “old fox” and “dishonest”.
…Da Yao’s authority is strengthening…
At year-end in Huangyu City, a colorful cloud drifted in from the south, and a noble guest appeared in the city.
The Imperial Court sent an envoy; this eunuch brought fine wine and silk to reward the three armies. The imperial decree especially highlighted generals from Yao Capital like Li Xiaorong and Mu Xingyu, rewarding them all.
Wu Fei and the many generals knelt to give thanks; this was Emperor Shu’s affirmation of the Bo Prefecture warfare after entering the capital. At least Emperor Shu could still show “inclusiveness” now.
After the rewards, the eunuch also announced: a favor allowing Yao Capital disciples to return home.
Called a favor, it was actually Emperor Shu wanting to recall the backbone of this Eastern Market Army to build near-capital military strength.
When the eunuch announced this favor, the Yao Capital faction generals all looked to Wu Fei—of course, the palace eunuch saw this too.
Under the pressure on site, Wu Fei promptly replied: Yes, after half a year of campaigning, everyone should go home and see family. All brothers from the south, tonight we’ll draw lots to decide the order for home leave.
Wu Fei stood and said to the eunuch: “Please report to Your Majesty that the army has its own regulations needing someone to maintain, so Yao Capital disciples cannot all return at once.”
The eunuch: “General, you run a tight ship and understand the monarch’s will. Rest assured, General.” He smiled and took the gold Wu Fei slipped into his sleeve.
This palace eunuch sent by Emperor Shu had the main task from Emperor Shu to transfer troops from here.—As long as Wu Fei is willing to give, he is a loyal minister. Allowing half the army, a thousand men, to return to the capital is great loyalty; even just a hundred shows his attitude.
Since Wu Fei showed his attitude, the eunuch gave Wu Fei another imperial decree.
After seeing this decree, Wu Fei was stunned; Emperor Shu is sending Wu Hengyu to help him, while announcing that the first to break Gu Shou Pass will be made “General Who Conquers the North”.
The eunuch said: “Your Majesty says, to fight a tiger, rely on brothers; in battle, father and son soldiers. Surely with your own brother coming, General, you can take Gu Shou Pass.”
Wu Fei pondered Emperor Shu’s underlying intent, then nodded: “Thanks to Your Majesty; my brother has the valor of ten thousand. With him here, Gu Shou Pass can surely be taken.”
The eunuch: That’s good, that’s good.
While the eunuch went to discuss Emperor Shu’s grace and might in detail with the other Yao Capital non-commissioned officers, Wu Fei sat silently.
…Sitting and doing homework…
In January of the 37th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, year-end cooking smoke filled the air everywhere. With no northern cavalry roaming to raid for supplies, every household enjoyed a peaceful New Year.
On the first day of the year-end, on the official road of Huangyu City, wheel tracks began to appear on the roads. Village elders from various places sat in ox carts wrapped in dry grass, rushing to the Huangyu City compound to attend the first Maintenance Meeting. This informally organized meeting was hosted by Wu Fei, and all the ox carts were coordinately arranged, with the dry grass for warmth also being Wu Fei’s plan.
In the courtyard meeting, the village elders patted the grass fragments off each other, mocking themselves as common folk.
Wu Fei did not care about these formalities and began directly with the list report on statistics work.
Now Wu Fei was concurrently handling Bo Prefecture’s manpower arrangements, starting to build new water channels, store grain, and pave roads. These were the duties of past Bo Prefecture Prefects, but the Prefects were clearly unqualified. During corvée mobilization, they would exhaust thousands of laborers to death each year, leaving hundreds of households destitute.
In fact, within Da Yao, the Prefects and Prefects from noble families and clans did not have Wu Fei’s abilities in their work.
In this feudal era, the average level of Prefects and Prefects was too low, to the point that light corvée and low taxes became a beautiful tale for governing officials.
Speaking of which, is light corvée and low taxes really a panacea? Why are there still so many uprisings under heaven? Prefects need to organize labor (corvée) efficiently and effectively into engineering systems like water conservancy and roads. This is skilled work.
This is how production was restored during the Qin and Han periods. After the Later Han and Western and Eastern Jin, the central government lost its assessment system to control Prefects, leading to a continuous decline in Prefects’ governance abilities over hundreds of years.
And by the Song and Ming Dynasties, it was the same, with imperial power not reaching the county level. Allowing noble families and great clans to privately keep servants. As a result, the corvée labor needed for river channels and roads was entirely imposed on the bottom self-cultivating farmers. After many self-cultivating farmers died from corvée, it produced negative effects: evading corvée, further lack of manpower to maintain public facilities, declining grain output, insufficient road transport capacity, increased costs for production and resource mobilization, and a vicious cycle.
Wu Hanluan once told Wu Fei, “You have the talent of a chief minister.” At the time, Wu Fei thought it was just family praising family.
But after heading north, Wu Fei also discovered: what he did was better than the Prefects in other areas of Da Yao. Of course, this was the benefit of “vision transcending the era.”
For example: optimizing manpower in Bo Prefecture. To prevent noble families from hiding manpower, Wu Fei implemented a voting system locally. Representatives of each Maintenance Meeting must win enough votes from local adult males to keep their seats. Votes in the Maintenance Meeting correspond to each speaker’s influence.
After figuring out the power holders in the Maintenance Meetings through voting, Wu Fei assigned corvée to them. In the Maintenance Meetings, whoever gets more votes gets more assignment. Of course, whoever provides more people will have their local opinions prioritized on Wu Fei’s desk. Talent selection via the Recommendation System is directly decided by them.
After obtaining the corvée, Wu Fei arranged them according to “military management.” Wu Fei transferred a batch of poor-origin disciples from the military camp to serve as clerks. Corvée work hours per day did not exceed five shichen, and even medical treatment was prepared for injuries. This year’s corvée in Bo Prefecture had almost no deaths, and most even brought some silver money home.
With water channels built up and grain output increased, fewer corvée deaths, to the point that now all the great clans feel it’s good for Wu Fei to stay, even thinking he shouldn’t leave at all.
Of course, Wu Fei knew that after he leaves, this system would gradually fail, because this system requires people who “can calculate, write, and weigh,” with thresholds too high—at least relative to this era.
Because once labor mobilization calculations miss something, it becomes a group incident. Without a systemic talent cultivation structure (modern education), talent shortages are common. Qin faced such a crisis after unifying under heaven.
Speaking plainly, the rebel army was organized by Qin itself through conscription; if conscripting everywhere, people like Liu Bang staying in the countryside, even in disasters, might not really gather.
Xuan Chong’s family opinion summary: Qin’s corvée laws would be overthrown by uprisings, Song laws’ corvée would lead to being brutally beaten by foreign tribes and perishing.
And right now, Bo Prefecture is on the border, and Wu Fei has sufficient ability for internal governance and repelling external threats to secure the borders.
Wu Fei issued commands one by one to the Maintenance Meeting, then based on this year’s situation of each Maintenance Meeting, announced the list of Filial and Honest candidates.
The things Wu Fei did in Bo Prefecture were reported one by one to Zhao Cheng by spies. While listening to the spies’ reports on one side and looking at the southern map on the other, Zhao City could not let go for a long time.
On the Gu Shou Pass side, knowing he was wasting time squatting in the pit, Zhao Cheng couldn’t help saying: “A person like you is a capable minister for good times.”
…Sitting still for too long, the mind wanders…
After Wu Fei finished the Maintenance Meeting resolutions, a military conference was held here. The past Eastern Market Army backbone was Yao Capital’s troops. Under Wu Fei’s deliberate guidance, they prepared for localization, continuously promoting Bo Prefecture disciples.
The current farming policy is very successful. Adding war-torn wasteland fields plus river channels introduced, the newly reclaimed fields, after statistics, are more than double compared to pre-war.
Wu Fei set up a Shang Yang reform system, starting to grant these wastelands anew to these local officers through military merit ennoblement mode. It wouldn’t take long—within two years—the noble families and clans on this land would transform toward a military merit group. Guanzhong military group formation.
Just as Wu Fei was pondering how to continue dragging on, Li Xiaorong, urged by many non-commissioned officers, began to “force the palace” on Wu Fei.
“Xiaorong, you’ve come.” Wu Fei stared at the sand table without even looking up.
Li Xiaorong
Wu Fei looked at him and said with a smile, “If you have something to say, just say it directly.”
Li Xiaorong: “My lord, when are we attacking Gu Shou Pass?”
Wu Fei paused: “What, do you want to go home?”
Li Xiaorong scratched the back of his head: “That’s not it, it’s just that you’re holding back and not going all out, so everyone feels like they can’t put their full strength into it!”
Wu Fei patted him and said: “After you followed me out of Yao Capital, we fought in dozens of large and small campaigns. Initially there were one hundred fifty people, how many are left now?”
Li Xiaorong paused and said, “Only three brothers are injured or disabled, and there are still 147 people now.”
Wu Fei looked at him and said: “So you fought too smoothly, always feeling that all cities could be taken in a single battle.”
Li Xiaorong: “But now, haven’t you prepared more than enough?” He looked at the wall behind Wu Fei fully packed with bamboo slips; these were all the records from the monthly meetings.
During the meeting, it was reported that Bo Prefecture’s current medicines, cloth, and tung oil are accumulating more and more. And now they are still engaged in stationed farming and stockpiling grain.
Wu Fei sighed: “We must prepare for the worst-case scenario. Alright, let’s not talk about this for now. What do you think of the soil and water in Bo Prefecture?”
Li Xiaorong: “My lord, Bo Prefecture is now thriving under your governance.”
Wu Fei looked at him: “Do you have any plans to serve as Prefect in one of the cities in Bo Prefecture?”
Li: “My lord, you aren’t really—?”
Wu Fei: “Raising bandits to strengthen oneself, right?”
Li Xiaorong fell silent and looked out of the tent in panic. Wu Fei waved his hand and said: “Your Majesty’s informants are not here today. Besides, it doesn’t matter even if we inform Your Majesty.”
Wu Fei stared at him and said: “What I am raising is not bandits, but you all. As for me—I can be transferred away at any time with a single mobilization order. But you all are different. In the future, when His Majesty needs to appoint heavy ministers externally, he will select from among you.”
Li Xiaorong left in a daze. Amid the inquiries from his other colleagues, he gritted his teeth and said to his colleagues: “His Excellency hopes that we disciples from Yao Capital will share joys and sorrows with the locals in Bo Prefecture for a while.”
…Wu Fei: I will not monopolize the glory of victory…
Wu Fei and Li Xiaorong explained in detail the future of the Eastern Market Army. This batch of non-commissioned officers brought out from the East Market will ultimately become a faction.
Since it will become a faction, then it must be considered from the perspective of a faction. A faction does not only have a large number of capable people in the military; it also needs a group of people in the localities. Only in this way can it become an evergreen tree in all the upcoming changes.
Wu Fei’s original words: “If we throw everything at them and call it a day, then after we return, we’ll be dragged into taking a side. And once we take the wrong side, all our merits will be wiped clean. So leaving some men in reserve without deploying them is the backup plan. I can indeed be removed with a single edict, but the entire Eastern Market Army was built up by me and all of you together. I don’t want to watch our hard work be dismissed by schemers with just a flick of their fingers, ending up in the elimination group, with all glory and splendor buried away.”
The last snow after the start of spring melted. The oxen began pulling the plows.
The perspective shifts to Yao Capital. During the spring sacrifice of year 37, Emperor Shu presided under the gaze of all the people. However, what felt even stranger to the officials was that Prince Zhou was not present.
It must be known that half a year ago, Emperor Shu had happily praised Prince Zhou for his capable regency. But now, many of Prince Zhou’s followers had already been imprisoned, and many clans sensitive to matters in Heaven already knew that the heir position might change.
