Chapter 130: Prestige Shakes The North
The Hao State’s troops left to guard Bo Prefecture number fifty thousand. Zhao Cheng has calculated that relying on these troops, Huangyu City and Hu City can support each other as horns. The Sky Boat Fleet deployed inside Hu City, relying on the sea breeze here, can maneuver the Sky Boat Fleet in the sky to Huangyu City at any time; while Huangyu City’s food and grass can be directly transported to Hu City along the river, during which Huangyu City has sufficient food and grass, Hu City maintains smooth contact with the outside world, and holding out for a year is no problem.
But Zhao Cheng’s one oversight amid a hundred precautions was that the troops left behind were too many, and the Hao State’s guard general here, Su Dong, was a hot-tempered guy who couldn’t stand provocation. After encountering cargo being robbed outside the city, he lacked the patience to organize patrols within the territory and instead chose to sortie and engage in reckless battle with opponents whose depth he couldn’t gauge.
And what Zhao Cheng hadn’t calculated was that a certain guy he had previously guarded against would unexpectedly jump from the west to the east. And this guy calling himself Wu Xiao Que was the best at hitting opponents’ sore spots.
Looking back, Emperor Shu of Da Yao had successfully calculated Wu Fei in the Yao Calculation a year ago and launched a “head-on cannon” against the Hao State at the most opportune time.
…Wu Xiao Que’s fire burned fiercely…
In Huangyu City, the newly appointed Dragon Descendant Governor Ang Ri was looking at the suddenly changed popular sentiment on the mountains and rivers map.
In just over ten days, the “Dragon Slaying Decree” rampant under his governance had caused various disturbances. At this time, the gates of various cities closed before nightfall, and peddlers transporting grain outside, if without Hao Army passes, did not dare to travel casually.
From this point, the “Dragon Slaying Decree” was no longer empty talk but formally activated, stirring up the popular sentiment of the entire Bo Prefecture.
After all the heroes in Bo Prefecture rebelled, the Hao State’s big crocodile was equivalent to having its pond polluted by Wu Fei.
Early July, outside Hu City in the eastern part of Bo Prefecture, Hao Heaven troops coming out from this port city trekked toward Huangyu City, and during the march, the squad leader leading the way went to various great households and villages to borrow lodging.
In the past, it was a “fish-water relationship”; the Hao Army grandpas would just stay at inns and spend some money, and usually no one on the streets dared to clash with them.
But now, upon going out, they found that eight out of ten great households had anti-poems posted at their entrances, and hidden areas concealed bandits who shot dark arrows at their large army.
Chasing to the gates of local great households, these great households vehemently denied it, but outside the corners of their courtyard walls, they could see armor plates from their own army’s lost armor scattered around. Thus, the Hao Army squads were all on edge.
Whenever the Hao Army marched out and lacked water and grain in the evening, they would select a nearby village, drive all the villagers out, and only then feel at ease to light fires and cook.
However, this practice of driving away locals, if done once or twice during emergency marches, would be fine, but doing so in routine patrols was harassment to the locals.
A few days later, the Hao Army found more night raids. They captured two alive and tortured them severely; one committed suicide by poison on the spot, while the other spat bloodied water at the Hao Army leader and cursed vehemently.
The Hao Army squad leader learned: Other Hao State patrol squads had invaded villages to burn, kill, and plunder, forcing him to flee and become homeless; with no way to live, he might as well assassinate Hao People to claim the reward money.
In the torture chamber, the Hao Heaven squad leader rebuked the Yao Person they had caught: How do you know every Hao Person will plunder?
Rebel: Then why did you drive us all away when we hadn’t resisted?!
Thus, this interrogation ended; the rebel was finished with one knife stroke, and dozens of days later, facing a volley of firearms, this ordinary Hao Heaven squad leader, after being hit, also saw Yao People with grinning follow-up kill sequences approaching him, sighing “karma.”
The “Dragon Slaying Decree” precisely triggered the current weak point in the Hao State’s rule in Bo Prefecture. Namely, the lack of trust between the two ethnic groups.
…Dark clouds and colorful clouds are not on the same level…
Mid-July, after Wu Fei’s corps occupied the western side of Bo Prefecture, they maintained offensive harassment on one side while training troops. Rows of bamboo soldiers were held in rural villages for thrusting drills.
The Eastern Market Army’s newly added personnel were all landlord militias that had attached themselves.
Wu Fei was now registering and cataloging the good han who had come to join, tallying all soldiers’ names and origins completely, then leading these good family disciples, landlords, and clan soldiers for separation.
Waging war relies on discipline and organizational ability. If still organized by original clan ties, it would be at the “peasant rebellion” level.
Xuan Chong rummaged through historical records: Historically, many local forces’ uprisings against dynastic regular armies ended in failure.
For example, the early Tang Dynasty’s suppression of the Hebei uprising, or later the Jin and Yuan occupying the Central Plains, the early Qing’s military groups extinguishing uprisings in occupied areas, and the late Qing’s Boxer Rebellion. This was because the rebel armies failed to “regularize,” ultimately leading to defeat.
But history also has successes, like the Yue Family Army in the early Southern Song that nearly struck straight to the dragon’s lair, and Zhu Yuanzhang detaching from the Red Turban Army to establish independent organization. The key feature was formatting away the rebel army’s internal clan merit systems and replacing them with a unified merit system.
“Regularizing” the rebel army involves complex political operations. Reviewing soldier rosters is the beginning of everything.
Next, before “formatting,” provide political rights compensation to the attached clans in exchange for their command over clan soldiers.
On the thatched kang, Wu Fei sat in a circle with these clan leaders, with personal soldiers behind holding a blackboard, explaining the rights and responsibilities in the two major different systems of “army” and “local maintenance.”
While the Hao Army in great cities like Huangyu City felt like sitting on pins and needles outside the city due to the “Dragon Slaying Decree,” in Dong Lei City, Wu Fei received all the attached rural clan landlords with an all-embracing attitude.
Wu Fei, accepting troops from various sect masters on the thatched kang, inevitably had to offer compensation terms. That is, incorporating them into the governance system he was building in Bo Prefecture.
Wu Fei recorded each clan’s attached rural clan landlords according to a “share system” formula, namely, in the three different stages of “initial stage,” “small success stage,” and “momentum secured,” what political rights should be gained for sending soldiers, grain, equipment.
For example: Sending one hundred men in the initial stage versus in the momentum secured stage yields different political contributions; Zhang Fei to Liu Bei was initial stage—his investment of several hundred men gave slightly higher political power than Ma Chao later bringing Liang Province to join.
Wu Fei handed training to non-commissioned officers, while what he was truly busy with was building a suitable political discourse platform for military affairs.
After various landlords sent soldiers, they weren’t dismissed immediately, nor directly led into the main army with their men.
Instead, first issue settlement fees in rotation according to the roster, then call these new soldiers for anonymous elections to select a responsible person to send the settlement fees back.
At this point, most landlords who brought their own men began busying with this “military-camp-to-village liaison” work, actually stripping away military training relations. Missing the chance to gain prestige under “combat skills” training in the army.
Then Wu Fei took out the prefecture registry, and based on the situations of clans coming to attach from various places, established rural liaison offices; in the future, spoils of war distribution and supplies would also go through liaison offices to the villages.
And Wu Fei promised that following him meant absolutely no cannon fodder: Village elders could select some disciples to enter his personal soldier team for key training. Actually, non-commissioned officer reserve groups. Namely, army promotion channels.
Intangibly, the original leaders of the attached landlord militias were stripped from the organization; those honest good family disciples entered the Eastern Market Army system, recasting “who to listen to” and “what rules to follow.”
This attached troop was not like those great rebel armies in history with mountain tops everywhere.
Originally, these landlords knew they weren’t good at fighting. Especially after entering the disciplined camp, they were awed into silence. After confirming the main army could guarantee their rights post-attachment, and their skilled sons could find paths through the general, they beamed with joy.
Not everyone wants to be a grass-roots king in chaotic times. Wu Fei created a “maintenance committee,” making these landlords feel it better suited their interests.
These local great clans knew their own weight well; previously, they had all supported family members to build mountain strongholds.
If they really wanted to be grass-roots kings, they would have gone independent now, not brought troops over. —Moreover, the path to kingship looks high-reward but riskier. Now following Wu Fei’s royal army ensures baseline returns with minimal risk.
…A new political structure must have the ability to “value optimize” certain resources…
After the first “maintenance committee” was successfully established, Wu Fei assigned the local great households a task: under the maintenance committee framework, handle the large batch of captives from the Eastern Market Army’s earlier annihilation of Su Dong.
Among these Hao Army captives, squad leaders and such had been screened out; they were given “blinding curses,” temporarily blinded, and sent to the Southern Border for Ang Ri to train. While some foreign race captives, like Dwarves who could smith, were kept by Wu Fei.
As for the remaining captives, most were corvee recruited locally in Bo Prefecture by the Hao Heaven Army; the Eastern Market Army as outsiders was actually hard-pressed to digest this batch of captives.
The maintenance committee’s village elders, upon hearing this captive allocation, immediately said they would handle it.
These village elders oppressed by the Hao Army for years excitedly took these captives back.
Speaking of which, how could they not use up the captives? Local tooth men could operate thanks to their connections. Such as, in the decade before Xuan Chong’s birth, human traffickers rampaged because conservative factions in various villages sheltered them. Later, when information reached every village, with electrification and water supply, governance groups could gather detailed information, eliminating human trafficker soil. Conversely, across the ocean, the American Empire was still filming “Little Beauty and Little Handsome encountering horror stories in remote villages,” where human traffickers still exist. And they began harvesting and folding, keeping up with the times, cooperating with medical groups.
These great surnames suppressed by the Hao State in Bo Prefecture, pitiful and kind villagers to Wu Fei, became machines processing the weak after regaining grassroots power. The Eastern Market Army even sent these slaves to labor-short rural areas. What’s more, many were local Bo Prefecture people; originally hiring locals for short work required pay, now directly indentured labor.
As for the captives’ food! Originally staying in the army consumed millet, which was very bad. (Army grain must satisfy large-scale storage and centralized cooking properties.)
But in the countryside, food can mix large amounts of leeks, elm seeds, field tubers, and even caught mice to fill bellies. (These foods don’t satisfy large-scale storage and don’t need centralized preparation.)
The countryside follows seasons; when the season comes, eat what’s available; each village has a classic for surviving famines. This is why strange delicacies appear locally.
Wu Fei successfully offloaded the captive burden, while maintenance committee village elders gained labor, consolidating local prestige.
The Eastern Market Army’s docking with local clans was very pleasant; Wu Fei perfectly “value optimized” the excess resources gained from war.
However, in this process, some resources couldn’t be optimized.
For example, Wu Fei looking at the over forty female Elves left in the captive camp. Their armor had been stripped; for these pointed-ears squatting in grass clumps wrapped in hemp cloth, Wu Fei was speechless.
When his troops selected women, they were left over. No other reason: by Da Yao People aesthetics, their sunken eye sockets, high noses looked ghostly. As for villagers, they found these foreign race women who had killed dangerous, so unwanted.
Wu Fei was heartbroken: Don’t you know Western big meals?
Thus, Wu Fei thought and decided to take them himself; after talking with these Elves, he also liberated those male Elves from the mines, promising to send them to the Southern Border as his bow and arrow instructor team.
As for now, they had to first serve as mercenaries for this battle. These Elves gave Wu Fei a “Western noble courtesy,” sparking a bit of interest in Wu Fei’s heart for the “Haotian Realm before the end.”
…Unity, division…
After Wu Fei successfully organized his own military and power division with clans locally, everything snowballed uncontrollably.
In stark contrast to the Eastern Market Army’s booming situation: the “Dragon Slaying Decree” turned the Hao State’s layout in Bo Prefecture upside down.
Under the royal army’s great flag at Lu Jiao City, when Wu Fei saw various heroes bringing Hao Clan heads to attach, he drew a cold breath; these heroes’ eyes all carried some bloodlust.
In the military tent, by the silver table, Wu Fei looking at those wide-eyed heads murmured: This is national war.
Here in Bo Prefecture, the Eastern Market Army led by Wu Fei was just a tiny spark; once the Hao State’s great general arrived, it would be bitter fighting.
Wu Fei: So now we must expand through various hatred incitements! Hatred is wrong, but this is war—no advance without retreat.
July 20, under Huangyu City prefect’s urging, Hao Army from Huangyu and Hu Cities, total twenty thousand troops sortied.
And after these twenty thousand sortied, Wu Fei quickly got the news and led his five thousand troops out.
After the Hao Army’s twenty thousand sortied, they bred resentment with locals; the Hao Army whole force bullied, abusing countryside folk outside the city: burning villages, breaking doors, insulting women.
For individual Hao Army soldiers, in past verbal clashes they swallowed anger; today with the whole army, arriving in surrounding countryside, of course they vented grudges. Properly educating these Yao People who recently thought they’d flipped, acting arrogantly.
The returning village brigade incident happened.
On the official road twenty li outside Hu City, Hao People, due to being overcharged two coppers by a tea stall owner ten days ago, today directly robbed and smashed the owner, slashing his throat with a knife.
If speaking in detail, it wasn’t about the two coppers, but extremely insulting treatment.
The tea stall owner’s tea was collected from leftovers in other guests’ bowls, then put in a horse trough—where beasts drink; when Hao Army soldiers came, he sold it to them for two coppers and boasted take it or leave it; after sipping, they tasted grass bits, checked and found it was horse trough water, flew into rage, but were mocked by the tea stall owner.
So now with the Hao Army main force here, they killed the tea stall owner.
But as Hao Army rank-and-file soldiers kept settling their pleasures, unbeknownst to them, haters multiplied. Intelligence flew like snowflakes to the east.
Wu Fei seized this chance to sortie; at this time, the Eastern Market Army’s five thousand field troops could fully track enemy movements, with local heroes helping narrate the Hao Army’s real-time positions.
Wu Fei also knew popular sentiment was usable and not to be bullied.
Bo Prefecture folk had their rebel hearts stirred; if he as lead big brother didn’t fight now, letting locals discover the Eastern Market Army issuing the Dragon Slaying Decree was just for show, then the fire ignited in locals would extinguish.
In the core tent with all officers, Wu Fei said to attending non-commissioned officers: Strategy in three steps; first step, better to cut off one finger than injure ten.
On the sand table, the so-called thirty thousand army from Gourd City had flags densely packed, and Wu Fei drew a circle locking one Hao Heaven flagged troop.
With the circle set, Wu Fei’s corps began forced march; while the Hao Heaven Army lazily shifted. The Eastern Market Army like a fast knife directly inserted into this Hao Heaven branch corps. Like cutting steak, slicing this small piece off the main steak.
July 22, Lizhuang Campaign began.
Wu Fei’s infantry, cavalry, artillery—four thousand five hundred men—intercepted this Hao Heaven elite troop with three pottery figurines and eight hundred elite cavalry.
On the slope outside the village, Eastern Market Army firearm arrays layered out, forming a five hundred meter battle line.
While two li from the main formation, Eastern Market Army cavalry with repeater rifles circled the Hao Army elite cavalry iron floaters’ movement direction, always firing behind enemy butts with flexible “mounted archery,” forcing this heavy armor troop straight into the firearm heavy cannon positions.
Pottery figurines were roped by lassos from charging war chariots, huge pottery figurines tethered by one leg, brutally yanked back, constantly stumbling. When pottery figurines spun in place, Yao Army halberdiers arrived, swarming up: some hooked the giant figurine’s crotch with halberds, others hooked copper wire straps on legs; with able-bodied men shouting in unison to pull, the pottery figurine legs dragged off balance, crashing to the ground.
As for Hao Army heavy cavalry, facing layered firearm fire, when impacting to fifty paces to charge the firearm clusters, they successively tripped over ground things.
Because Eastern Market Army firearm soldiers, in front of the array, inserted steel stakes, stringing tripwires.
Hao Army heavy cavalry in sudden panic braked, giving firearm soldiers clustered square formation chance; then war chariots shed disguises of “straw mats” as food and grass, revealing loaded ballistae underneath; close heavy cavalry became live targets.
While subsequent flanking Da Yao firearm cavalry thoroughly cut off their turning retreat possibility.
Corpses piled in village ditches, but Yao Army defense line remained intact, just with added gunpowder smoke.
In four hours, Wu Fei, relying on his complete firepower soldier system, devoured one of the Hao Army’s top-value queues.
And on the Eastern Market Army side, amid postwar cries of total victory, they clearly weren’t “full yet”—after all, only the first slice was cut from this “big steak.”
