Chapter 31: The “civilization” Of The War Machine
On the jungle road, Wu Haha, who had returned as part of the hometown defense group, was now being kicked and beaten by a group of Horned People.
And Wu Haha was hurriedly leading the way for these Southern Region Horned People kin, to “borrow grain” from the kin north of the river.
After bursting into the village, these Southern Horned People were just as cruel to their own kin as the massacres between different racial tribes in the Southern Border.
These northbound Horned People, in the village, separated these kin by gender; all the males were pressed to one side and forced to reveal where the grain was hidden, while brutal roars and cries quickly came from the females’ side. And this “borrowing grain” turned into a horrific massacre after several hours.
The feature of Horned People is a single horn on top of their heads, similar to that of a unicorn, and the males’ horns are the most beautiful, with excellent conductivity. Weaponsmiths use this horn as material for knife handles; even the most ordinary user can feel the knife as part of their own body when holding it. And in the Wu Family library’s Southern Border trade chronicle, the summary of such materials is: this item has good conductivity for killing intent or spiritual energy and can be used to make all kinds of weapons; not just knife handles, thumb rings for archery are also excellent.
And the Southern Border Horned People also know this about their own race, so now, in the village, these grain-levying Southern violent gangs began pressing all the local male kin to the west side of the village, then tying them up and chopping off their heads with huge cleavers, and afterward extracting the horns.
Wu Haha watched this scene and didn’t dare speak; he also saw the gazes of the young children in the local village staring at him were extremely terrifying.
Wu Haha became increasingly confused; at first, he just followed the vengeful impulse to cause some trouble for the north side Yao People, but now he was no longer clear what his actions would bring him in the future.
Due to this tribal alliance from the South’s various burn, kill, and plunder “unrighteous” behaviors, it had been named “Black Tide” by the Wu Family Army side, and this name was subsequently accepted by other tribes north of the Ling River.
…Heaven’s operation is constant, not existing for Yao, not perishing for Jie…
The perspective shifts to the other side. The Wu Family Army that burst out from Yongji Pass appeared very disciplined and civilized.
Its currently exiting elite Wu Family Army, when passing through local tribal areas one by one, basically committed no offenses. Oh, that phrasing isn’t accurate; it should be “not grabbing grass while beating rabbits.” The several hundred-man combat teams dispatched by Wu Fei were like fast blades directly inserting into the heart, not stopping midway due to supply issues to “borrow” from the local Southern Border tribes.
Wu Fei equipped each striking troop member with an average of two horses to carry the needed supplies.
The current problem for the many northbound Southern Border tribal allied armies is: they have no systematic logistics supply system. The allied army harms wherever it goes like locusts passing through, oh, these tribal allied armies had wishfully planned before setting out to directly plunder Da Yao’s merchants; um, though inevitably borrowing a bit from north side compatriots, the focus was robbing Yao People.
But on Wu Fei’s side, exiting and returning to the pass is regular and on schedule; during withdrawal, they are very decisive, leaving without any lingering, even dismantling the merchant stations. Those merchants still harboring illusions, seeing this situation and confirming trades with local tribes, felt the gap like “deep autumn turning from warm to cold,” and all hurriedly returned to the pass, awaiting Wu Fei’s next exit.
So for this bunch of northbound tribal alliances, reality is very harsh; unless they break Yongji Pass, south of Yongji Pass, this group of teams aggressively seeking to settle scores with Yao People can only borrow from compatriots.
And on the Wu Family Army side! Wu Fei calculated according to the standard formula in the military classics, that is, the exiting combat military team does not exceed three hundred people, and the strike range does not exceed eighty kilometers south of Yongji Pass. Against the northbound tribal alliance, seek their weak points for surprise attacks and raids.
Xuan Chong referenced the case of Huo Qubing’s first battle in his previous life; that lord led eight hundred cavalry, traversed hundreds of li across the grassland, and directly stole the Xiongnu royal court. This case was written in historical records as “Treasure-Seizing Surprise Troop,” as if an irreplicable legend, but according to military strategist thinking, one can see it contains multiple feasibilities. First is few troops, relying on little sustenance; second is relying on local guides, having already scouted the roads thoroughly; Huo Qubing had full confidence, just awaiting Wei Qing’s permission.
Wu Fei now, considering the rugged mountains, reduced the distance to eighty kilometers. As for path familiarity, what was that “returning without achievement” with eight hundred people a year ago for? It was to drink heavily with local Southern Border foreign race hunter households and tribal warriors to become friends? It was to ask for directions.
And Wu Fei also considered that with three hundred people, as long as supplies are sufficient, things like plundering villages won’t happen!
When Wu Fei studied the art of war, he determined that leaders of different ranks have upper limits on leading troops. Wu Fei does not think his rank is higher than Huo Qubing’s.
Correct, Wu Fei will absolutely not overestimate his army’s moral level. But in this confrontation strategy, it is necessary to ensure as much as possible that one’s own military strength has a certain morality. That is, the so-called Confucian benevolent are invincible; plainly speaking, try not to be hated in the war zone as much as possible, and make local people in the war zone more accepting of one’s own “oppression.”
Wu Fei, before exiting the pass in the first half of the year, strolled the slave market, targeting some Southern Border slaves. Then he temporarily proposed to these slaves: have them serve his own army, and based on the cooperation they show, release some.
Now, before this campaign, Wu Fei also gave promises: if they help Da Yao defeat this Southern tribal alliance in this campaign, not only release them back, but also guarantee support for them to become decision-makers in their tribes after returning.
Wu Fei released Wu Haha, and had Wu Haha select servants from same-race slaves, which was shown to this bunch.
And now, the campaign teams all include multiple obedient slave guides, and these lackeys come from different tribes and are in competitive relationships with each other.
…Xuan Chong: The so-called civilization of the great nautical colonial era is the level of refined control over the violence machine by the group…
Fifty kilometers south of Yongji Pass, the sun hung high, baking the road just after rain; the forest was filled with sultry air. On the road checkpoint in front of Yongji Pass, teams of armored soldiers dismounted from the main road area and were trotting toward the predetermined ambush point.
If looking closely at these armored soldiers, um, only their upper bodies are armored. Straps are tied on their calves; this team of over a hundred vine armor soldiers is mostly crossbowmen, while the rest carry sharpened shovels.
“Hurry up, Hoof Enclosure is just ahead.” The leading captain urged.
The armored soldiers with twigs in their mouths quickened their pace and soon arrived at the location. This was a small high ground, but at the front slope, a half-meter-high rubble pile was stacked, a very simple defensive work, not sturdy at all; even a gap was opened behind the rubble pile, making the entire enclosure horseshoe-shaped. But this gap only needs five people holding long weapons to block. And in fact, with a good fence, even fewer could do it.
By the way, half a year ago, this was a livestock enclosure place. In Southern Border trade, merchants bought and exchanged large amounts of livestock from Southern Border tribes; since these livestock were hard to transport, Wu Fei, when exiting the pass, planned a merchant station here to hold livestock. See, that gap was reserved for herding sheep. And now, it was just a usable fortification.
This Wu Family Army got intelligence from the local Clawed People in the team, namely, a mountain monster troop and other tribal races were conflicting over water sources, so they were seeking new water sources.
As for why taking this road, this Clawed People guide guaranteed with Yao Person attitude and military order: “my own kin are guiding that mountain monster,” they must take this road.
…From orderly to chaotic…
Mountain monster leader “Da Mu Tou” was leading the team walking on the road. The two long feet of the big-footed ones stepped footprints one by one on the muddy mountain road. Da Mu Tou turned back every so often to stare at his team, preventing anyone from running out to cause trouble.
Ever since just now, a fool in his team, walking along, saw a rotten log full of mushrooms, excitedly ran over to carry the log back to share with other fools, and after collectively going mad, Da Mu Tou had been keeping an eye out. As for the
Yes, the mountain monster team got a bellyful of anger in the tribe’s main camp. First was the march; they mountain monsters wanted to take the rocky hard roads, but those “little ones” preferred muddy paths, causing their own team great difficulty even to lift their legs,
The mountain monsters finally arrived at the predetermined location with great difficulty. As the big guy, Da Mu Tou got into a dispute with all the small ones over the water source, and almost all other races were resentful of their own race’s big bellies and high water consumption. So Da Mu Tou, in a fit of anger, tied up the local clawed people that the clawed people had plundered as guides, and took a new route.
The team behind Da Mu Tou walked for a while and then became chaotic again, because some mountain monsters swung their hammers to smash the heads of small monsters and plundered the food. This caused some small mountain monsters to curse and shout.
In response, Da Mu Tou’s choice is!——to raise his even bigger fist and hammer those clamoring little mountain monsters! Make them hurry up, and if they dare dawdle again, beat them to death.
That’s right, teaching a lesson to teammates who snatch food, maintaining basic fairness in the team—that’s what a civilized group exists for to sustain its violence machine, but in primitive tribes, what a team follows is the “jungle law,” that is, the guy with the bigger fist can handle everything.
…The huge gulf between trained professionals and illiterates…
To be honest, Wu Fei has always been unable to figure out how this group of Southern Border Tribes alliance dared to gather over ten thousand and charge towards him.
To speak of it, after Wu Fei entered this Southern Border Tribes alliance, just the marching issue alone gave him a massive headache, because each race had different body sizes, and the specifications of the straw sandals to prepare during the march were extremely troublesome!
Wu Fei prepared straw sandals for the foreign race guides in his own striking team who are loyal to Da Yao, as well as corresponding water canteens and dry grain rations. Ensuring they can keep up with the march. So as not to become a weak link in the team, these guides are relatively few in number, so everything is still easy to prepare. But these Southern Border Tribes have vast differences in each part, and truly establishing army corps-level logistics for them would be a nightmare.
Wu Fei: In the future, if I want to form a vassal army, what should I do?
The System timely provided Xuan Chong with explanatory materials. When the rice-character flag colonized South Asia, facing diverse cultures, the strategy adopted was to select vassal armies from a few warlike ethnic groups. For example, the Sikhs: on one hand, it reduced cultural and lifestyle contradictions among various ethnic groups in the army; on the other hand, because there were few ethnic groups with shallow roots in their homeland, they could not rebel.
…Back to the topic…
After Wu Fei learned that this Southern Border Tribes alliance fundamentally lacked any proper logistics system support, he was greatly shocked by this, and subsequently predicted that such a massive group would inevitably fall apart sooner or later. Thus, the current situation of dispatching elite troops to conduct an ambush battle came about.
Wu Fei named this tactic “Gardening Pruning”, because Gardening Pruning is about dealing with those irregular overgrown branches that deviate from the neat shape.
Oh, the battle has already begun.
Da Mu Tou looked at the Yao Army troops blocking ahead at the large enclosure, fully embodying the evaluation from other Southern Border tribes that they were “brainless”, and immediately launched an attack.
Da Mu Tou felt that he still had a brain, and ordered the team to bring all the dog packs carried during the march to the front. Oh, these were real dogs, not that unlucky clawed people guide.
Da Mu Tou walked into this pack of barking dogs, first fed meat to the wolf king of the dog pack and the leading little brothers, then pointed at the Yao Army soldiers occupying the hillside. Immediately after, he waved his hand, and all the leather ropes were untied. The pack of dogs began rushing up.
In the Wu Family Army’s intelligence on the Southern Border tribes, it was once commented: A small portion of mountain monsters with “civilized and enlightened” attributes would capture wild wolves, then beat them with fists to turn them into hunting dogs. That clawed people guide had merely happened to use the dog chains that mountain monsters used to tie dogs.
On the side of the Yao Army troops that came to intercept, they were clearly prepared for the large number of wolf dogs surging up. The Wu Family Army soldiers standing in the barrier carefully took out cross darts with sandbags tied to the center from their pockets, then inserted a projectile with a fire talisman into the cross dart’s slot, and began preparing to throw.
This cross dart was named the “Noisy Bomb”.
As the throwing command rang out, when this group of vicious dogs approached within less than twenty steps of the fortified position, with the front row squad leader shouting “Throw the thunder now!”, one by one the darts spun and flew out,
In an instant, the dog packs were covered by the clouds of smoke after the flying darts exploded, and the subsequent wolf howls turned into dog wails.
Because the bamboo tube on the cross dart was loaded with a smoke bomb containing “sulfur, feces, and other irritants”, its special alchemy formula ensured it would burn completely within three breaths, producing intense smoke. As the cross darts fell, each one emitted three zhang of smoke after burning out, forming a smoke barrier. And this smoke barrier, under the military strategist’s killing intent control, unilaterally danced in a single area.
The dog pack suddenly suffered this calamity, their already not very high killing intent dropped to rock bottom, and they began rolling on the spot. Meanwhile, the Yao Army soldiers behind the barrier raised their crossbows, which were equipped with a “multi-group light bolt volley” module. It was certainly not very useful against armored units, but against these dogs rolling on the ground in the irritant smoke, even exposing their bellies…
As arrowheads scattered like a swarm of bees, the wailing sounds of the dog pack less than twenty steps from the fortified position became even more miserable. Arrowheads pierced through dog bodies, embedding into organs, continuously bleeding. And this was a slope, so as the dogs rolled down, some arrowheads fell off, with barbs pulling out large amounts of flesh and blood, while others stabbed even deeper.
Over here, Da Mu Tou had originally been watching the dogs quickly climbing the slope to approach the Yao Person fortified position satisfactorily, about to succeed—no, it should be “get a bite”. But the next second, as the Yao People used some cunning method, the dogs immediately lost their ability to move.
Since the dog pack was important tribal property, Da Mu Tou raised his stick and charged up, determined to stop these Yao People from slaughtering his dog pack just like that.
…Angry versus sinister laughter…
And on the fortified position, the Wu Family Army captain in charge of command, seeing the mountain monster leader charging up the slope out of breath, ordered the crossbowmen: “Load heavy bolts, step the string full!”
When the leading mountain monster as the spearhead overtook his own team by thirty steps, rushing to within forty steps of the barrier fortified position, the crossbowmen began volleying.
Whoosh, in one sound, arrow shafts neatly appeared on Da Mu Tou’s body, just like Da Mu Tou instantly grew “stubble”, especially three arrows stuck in the eye socket. Da Mu Tou stopped in his tracks, then slowly tilted backward, falling flat and passing out. It was so serene that the mountain monsters behind didn’t realize their leader was already dead, not drunk.
Next, the mountain monsters continued charging, and another round of crossbow bolts volleyed, felling eight out of twenty mountain monsters. As for the rest, their pace had already slowed.
Ultimately, the mountain monster vanguard still made contact with the barrier. Before they could climb over, several conscienceless spears from behind the barrier shot out like spring knives popped by a button, and the unprepared mountain monsters, while lifting their legs, got stabbed in the crotch, howling and tumbling down.
After that, the mountain monsters felt these Yao People were too vicious, so they retreated in a huff. But during the retreat, they were again poked down by one-third by arrow rain, ultimately only seven or eight escaped. The dog pack and such were abandoned, and as for that brought-along clawed people captive, they couldn’t be bothered anymore.
This Saturday and Sunday, due to matters, taking leave, can only single update.
