Chapter 136: Great Victory In Luo Town, Sighing At Wang Pass
On the morning of September 12th in the 36th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, a Yao Army corps of three thousand troops was marching toward the decisive battle at Hu City. Zhao Xian Zhong rode his horse back and forth inspecting the marching troops, like a sheepdog watching goats, biting if they were slightly inattentive—no, whipping them once.
These troops, who had just transformed from mountain bandit underlings into soldiers eating military grain, did not dare slack under Zhao Xian Zhong’s gaze. Their squad leader sensed the killing intent and shouted loudly: Keep up, no straggling, hold your gun with some spirit, if I see you dragging the spearhead on the ground again, I’ll drag you behind my horse.
Just then, a formation failed to straighten up in time when Zhao Xian Zhong galloped over, and he whipped down; at the crack of the whip tip, they hurriedly begged for mercy.
It was no wonder Zhao Xian Zhong was angry; this whipped formation had been too undisciplined just now—only defeated soldiers run dragging their guns.
Of course, even so, these mountain bandit underlings were better than the farm soldiers He Fei Yu had recruited at this time; at least they marched in formation, and no weapons or shields were missing, because Zhao Xian Zhong really enforced military law on “those who lose equipment shall be executed.”
Oh, why didn’t those who “lost military equipment” run? The answer is they couldn’t—a whole squad would be held jointly liable.
This mountain stronghold formation was currently marching in the formation that Zhao Xian Zhong had hacked out by beheading over a dozen people.
As for whether there was any resistance during the beheadings?
Zhao Xian Zhong greatly appreciated any resistance, so those daring enough to hack back at him were already hung on the flagpole, giving these brave ones a fine view!
The soldiers all knew Zhao Xian Zhong’s standard for enforcing military law: only “can be executed” and “cannot be executed.”
For those that cannot be executed under military law, he enforced it very sloppily—just a few whips, then some kicks, and done. But for those eligible for execution, he personally wielded the blade.
Thus, this army corps oscillated between laxity and tension. The squad leaders below had no choice but to study the “law” (military law in detail) to know where the red line was.
Wu Fei had considered the nature of Zhao Xian Zhong’s troops, so he ordered them to march as slowly as possible. This slowness was not chaotic dawdling, but frequent halts, stopping every five kilometers. The drill manual called for twelve to eighteen kilometers.
Wu Fei’s deliberate order to go “slow” bored Zhao Xian Zhong greatly. He knew this was the Military Master’s punishment, clearly barring him from the battle. But while he was idling along with stops and starts, a frontline messenger arrived from ahead.
Zhao Xian Zhong hurried over and began questioning this familiar face about the situation.
The messenger gave Zhao Xian Zhong a joyful order: He Yufei’s troops were already rushing north to the main battlefield, so Zhao Xian Zhong should prepare to intercept the enemy’s fleeing and breakout troops.
Zhao Xian Zhong spread out the map, looked it over, and said: My troops will set an ambush twenty kilometers from the battlefield, ensuring coordination with the Military Master’s encircle three, leave one open strategy, to bag as many routed soldiers as possible.
This messenger from Wu Fei’s own troops took out a fruit skin notepad to record it, verified with Zhao Xian Zhong, then went back to report.
…The soldiers’ footsteps began to quicken…
Shifting to the main battlefield, as He Yufei advanced while preparing to engage the north battlefield forces, he discovered that the Yao Army—which had always kept thirty kilometers away to his west (Zhao Xian Zhong’s troops)—was hurrying over rapidly. He realized he was about to be caught in a pincer.
And the Da Yao main blocking force (Wu Fei’s troops) that had arrived early in the northern combat zone was clearly prepared; they had just finished rations, with cooking fires sending up smoke, infuriating the Hao Army troops who had run on empty stomachs after only a bowl of thin porridge that morning.
He Yufei’s order for “the whole army to eat their fill” was just words, while Xuan Chong’s side had standard rations.
Once the battle started and He Yufei’s troops just began moving, Wu Fei sent cavalry to harass their flank, kicking up dust—clearly planning to swing around back to raid the supply area.
To prevent his rear from panicking before battle, He Yufei ordered his army—who hadn’t even had a sip of water—to launch an immediate attack.
At noon twelve o’clock, the Hao Army led with sixteen stone lions of hundred-stone weight, impacting Wu Fei’s central army formation. Charging across the ground, they churned up massive dust; some tripping ropes deployed ahead of positions were easily dragged out—these mines prepared for Hao Army cavalry were all cleared.
This stone lion pack “easily” smashed through Wu Fei’s forward formation; He Yufei watched from afar as the Yao Army square formation was crushed, with massive troops “routing,” and burst out laughing: I see that Wu Fei kid is nothing special.
But suddenly the stone lions “sank” directly twenty paces from Wu Fei’s command flag; then the “routing” Yao Army reformed like pond water rapidly closing after a stone splash, with large corps rushing to the frontline to close the military formation.
He Yufei was shocked by this sudden reversal; he couldn’t figure out why the first wave of ferocious lion pack had vanished so abruptly. After crow scouts reported from the sky, he learned that Wu Fei’s central army area was ringed by a trench—the stone lions had toppled right in.
He Yufei, staring fixedly at Wu Fei’s central army flag: Impossible, I saw the routing troops withdraw—if there was a trench, how could those troops cross it smoothly.
He Yufei could never have imagined: Wu Fei had gathered all the long benches from Luo Town, laid them across the trench, and covered them with bamboo rafts; the benches supported the rafts, and routing armored soldiers stepped on them to withdraw. But after the stone lions crossed the trench, soldiers on the other side collectively pulled hemp ropes tied to the bench legs; after their own troops passed the pit, they yanked the bench legs supporting the wooden planks, and the stone lions sank with one step.
This ploy hinged on predicting the direction He Yufei would send the stone lions charging. For this, Xuan Chong deliberately placed the central army flag forward, and arrayed the troops directly ahead sparsely, making it look easy to break through.
And Wu Fei had precisely studied the Hao Army’s combat style: they liked using stone lions and pottery figurines to lead central breakthroughs.
Speaking of which, Zhao Cheng didn’t do that; he was better at maneuvering troops on the battlefield. He only sent stone lion groups when his own lines were shaky to bolster his soldiers. He saved his high-value assets until probing enemy weak points, then used ballistae and penetrating arrows to destroy enemy high-value monsters.
In short, compared to Zhao Cheng, these Haotian Dragon Descendant generals’ military strategy was too rigid. Wu Fei had them figured out.
Just like certain shoddy literary works that brainlessly apply “insider” formulas to fool people—impressive at first glance, but over time, anyone with brains will sum it up.
The scene in the pit at this moment was like this: stone lions clawing at the pit edge would slip and tumble back into the pile with others. Stone collisions produced “billiards clacking” sounds.
The trench dimensions perfectly trapped the stone lions; if a modern person saw this tactic, they’d know it was damn anti-tank ditch. When the stone lions tried climbing out, halberdiers poked them back, and then the pit edge filled with big hammer swingers.
Just as the stone lions were being slaughtered in the pit, Wu Fei waved his flag, and the left and right square formations advanced together—like the two mouths atop the “vessel” character.
The flank square formations began crossfire harvesting; the Hao Army trying to continue charging along the central stone lion path faced pressure from both sides. The center was already “ten-sided ambush.”
With the Hao Army’s most elite troops trapped in the central line, morale plummeted fast; the panting follow-up Hao Army troops were repelled by the Eastern Market Army’s spear phalanx and shotgun squads—this time, smoke and dust rose from the western ground.
He Yufei’s pent-up offensive army saw no victory and routed; fully six thousand troops were defeated and perished in one shichen.
Front to back, not even half a shichen—the Hao Army came thundering like a snowball, then smashed into an iron wall and shattered.
Because the defeat was so decisive, when Eastern Market Army non-commissioned officers recorded the battle report, they summed up the entire battle in under twenty characters.
Yuwen Li’s massive routed soldiers fled south with luck in mind; these routed troops tried escaping back to Hu City, only to encounter Zhao Xian Zhong.
Zhao Xian Zhong rode a griffin at the forefront, leading the team to take over two hundred heads (actually five hundred), the small river tinged red with blood.
News of He Yufei’s great defeat reached Gu Shou Pass within one day; the Haotian troops were panic-stricken.
Looking back, three months prior when Wu Fei marched on Bo Hai Commandery, everyone thought this Yao Capital ragtag of rich young masters—”Pinhaojun” — was just for show, at most shouting from the frontline before claiming merit back home.
Now, three battles, three victories! It shocked the entire Hao State.
The Dragon Descendants of Bo Yan land paid no mind when Zhao Cheng was on their side, but when Wu Fei emerged opposite, they finally knew terror.
In Gu Shou Pass, Pu E used prospecting to discover He Yufei’s military momentum had already dissipated.
She finally understood that famous generals often need collisions between different camps to reveal their true abilities.
…reputation skyrocketing…
On September 24th, Wu Fei arrived at Hu City with the prestige of a great victory, and as the Da Yao flags appeared outside Hu City, various forces inside Hu City rushed to restore order, allowing the army to take Hu City almost without bloodshed.
Due to restoring order quickly enough, Wu Fei dispatched well-disciplined troops into the city to post notices to pacify the people.
In response, those bandit-reorganized troops of Zhao Xian Zhong were stopped by fast horses outside the city.
At the Hu City gate, Wu Fei clearly said to Zhao Xian Zhong: I don’t know what those people under you are thinking? I won’t let your army enter the city for your own good, to avoid me having to swing the knife to chop people.
Zhao Xian Zhong: Sir, no need to worry. If these bastards commit any crimes, I’ll chop them myself.
Xuan Chong: Get lost.
While Wu Fei was watching over Hu City, the garrison at Gu Shou Pass in the North launched a “Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao”.
Pu E’s subordinates sent two or three hundred people to bluff, trying to create the illusion of a large army striking out.
In the past, Zhao Cheng had created multiple routes of “surprise troops” like this to achieve remarkable results.
But these people at Gu Shou Pass were too inexperienced in their methods, and they were completely unaware that Zhao Cheng’s success came from “combination of orthodox and unorthodox tactics”, resulting in them failing to imitate the tiger and instead becoming like dogs.
Wu Fei looked at this delivery team that popped out from Gu Shou Pass: When Zhao Cheng deploys the main army on the front to form a large scout blockade zone, creating enough war fog to obscure, then suddenly has surprise troops burst out from somewhere in the fog area, that could startle me. But you don’t even have war fog, and you just send people out—do you think my army is “Starcraft players” without vision? I’ve specifically sent the intelligence team to keep people watching Gu Shou Pass.
Of course, it’s not really the fault of the Gu Shou Pass generals’ “speculative mindset”. They believed Wu Fei, who was encircling and exterminating He Yufei in the northeast direction, couldn’t split his attention.
After all, most generals are at this level, but these rookies didn’t know that under Wu Fei’s “automatic delegation” system, the Eastern Market Army could handle things with “conditioned reflexes”.
The non-commissioned officer organization in the Huangyu City defense zone confirmed that these people were sneaking out from Gu Shou Pass, immediately reacted according to responsibility division, and dispatched troops to intercept, so this wave of Hao Army was blocked 150 li north of Huangyu City. They also lost dozens of men and fled in panic.
The Dragon Descendants, unwilling to give up after the defeat, returned to Gu Shou Pass to complain tearfully.
Pu E had just returned and saw these defeated Dragon Descendants Zhao Qi, frowning as she thought about how to punish this trusted general.
Note: According to Wu Fei’s rules, even Wu Family people would be executed for unauthorized deployment of troops, of course Wu Fei would never hand military authority to such a “incompetent but ambitious” guy.
In Wu Fei’s system: All non-commissioned officers with independent military authority must undergo strict examination. If you want to play favorites, go honestly to the border where the ability threshold is low but the moral threshold is high to accumulate hard work. Even hard work is something others desire but can’t get. After all, in this world, “rewards for labor” is actually rare.
But in the Dragon Descendant system, the problem is that bloodline really factors into the selection weight. Indeed, Zhao Qi’s bloodline is very high, and Pu E selected him from the forefront among the migrating people.
Pu E looked at the dejected Zhao Qi and softened: I told you not to go, but you wouldn’t listen.
Zhao Qi said: Huangyu City has empty troop strength, the southern main general is now in Hu City, I brought few troops this time, so we retreated after defeat. If my army had two thousand more troops, it wouldn’t have come to this.
Pu E frowned: If it really were two thousand troops, could you take it?
Zhao Qi stubbornly said: Hard to say.
…perplexed dividing line…
Meanwhile in Hu City, Wu Fei had already received the combat report from that small skirmish north of Huangyu City.
In this ambush that made Zhao Qi eat dirt right after setting out, Wu Fei extracted key information from the captives’ accounts: The garrison inside Gu Shou Pass was about four thousand Hao Army. And the general from the west, Zhao Cheng, had not returned.
Worth mentioning is that Wu Fei now not only knew Zhao Cheng’s background but had investigated down to Yinsi City where he had appeared, yet still couldn’t find his family origins.
In response, Wu Fei, who tried to “dox his whole family”, was baffled? Just like his own cousin coming for a “paternity test”.
Wu Fei scratched his ears and cheeks: Zhao Cheng isn’t from the Hao Clan, he’s a native of Da Yao? How come I can’t find his identity.
There was an issue here: Wu Fei (Xuan Chong) believed “Zhao Cheng” must be someone with status; his military strategy couldn’t have appeared out of thin air.
Just like a “top scorer” popping up in the Gaokao, you can definitely trace back to his school—it absolutely can’t be self-taught from nothing. Exams aren’t just about student talent; they also require teachers to summarize years of question-setting experience, figuring out during that inch-of-time inch-of-gold exam process how to quickly sync with the question-setter’s “characteristic information” based on the questions, thus rapidly entering the answering state and squeezing out time for the brain to compute.
In his previous life, Xuan Chong had taken exams, and now Wu Fei had led troops.
On this land of Da Yao, a guy who uses troops like a god couldn’t suddenly pop up. Wu Fei joined the army at fourteen, starting from the ranks in the Southern Border, combining practical operation with thoroughly integrating and applying the family-passed-down military treatises.
Wu Fei reasoned by his own example that the growth path of a “military strategist” was similar. His own path was very perfect, but it still required several necessary conditions.
First, it required a multi-generational military general noble family, only then would there be a large number of military treatises and connections for practice in the ranks. —In this era, knowledge was very precious.
Paper existed, but its quality was like rough paper; even sealed on shelves, information preserved on paper would grow mold in four or five years, and if circulated for a month it would wear out completely. Only bamboo slips could last decades or centuries.
Bamboo slips have low information density, requiring a dedicated study room for storage, and reading rooms need people to transport them. In other words, learning a complete “system” of texts required full-time labor accompaniment, like a 21st-century PhD supervising a master’s. This was something poor families couldn’t afford.
So Zhao Cheng has no identity? Wu Fei (Xuan Chong) suspected the investigating merchant had pocketed his silver money: Absolutely impossible.
Yet the fact was he couldn’t “dox” his identity. At this moment, Xuan Chong saw a line of small text float by on the system. So he had a flash of inspiration and acted on it.
Xuan Chong: System, I I want to—
System: Does not provide such operation.
Xuan Chong: I haven’t even said it yet.
System: This system’s historical teaching service will not help students develop the bad habit of “prying into others’ privacy”.
Xuan Chong: But this is war, I need intelligence.
System countered flexibly: During exams, all conditions are on the paper; no discussing question content with the teacher.
Xuan Chong: Won’t help, huh.
System: Correct, won’t help. Additionally, reminder: The City God has given a promise in this situation. (System diagram showed these three cities could directly teleport troops in.)
Xuan Chong: What about it?
System: I just checked against the outline, and it involves feudal superstition, which is not suitable for use. You can spend 0.1 academic credit to unlock it for use under security supervision.
Xuan Chong took a deep breath to calm himself down: You, you did that on purpose.
The System said quite seriously: Let me check the outline again to see what else doesn’t meet the requirements.
Xuan Chong immediately said sweetly: Hello teacher, good good, scoop scoop.
System: Do the questions properly.
…Back to the classroom…
On October 1st, Wu Fei’s five thousand troops arrived at Gu Shou Pass. This pass is where the mountain range extends to the sea and then abruptly turns back, hence it is called Gu Shou Pass.
Wu Fei looked at this checkpoint and remained silent. This is absolutely the number one checkpoint under heaven, part of an entire defensive system. Besides its frontal checkpoint restraining the sea passage, there is a platform called Liu Shan Gang three li away on the side.
This platform did not exist in the past for Da Yao’s defense against the north, but now, when Zhao Cheng was Great General, he built soil fortifications on the platform and deployed fifteen hundred elite soldiers. The platform relies on three stone pools behind the hillock to store rainwater, so it does not lack water sources.
Liu Shan Gang’s slope is not particularly steep, but it provides a good firing line for firearms, and the soil fortifications built with wood and soil on the hill help quickly absorb cannonball energy.
To attack Gu Shou Pass, the Hao Army general guarding this platform can push out cannons from the side angle and fire at our own troops attacking outside Gu Shou Pass.
To capture this platform, Wu Fei conservatively estimates that it would take at least five thousand elite troops in successive assaults, while also ensuring that the Gu Shou Pass side is suppressed.
Wu Fei had no choice but to withdraw his troops. Regarding his subordinates’ suggestion to deceive the city, Wu Fei said: Don’t waste internal espionage agents; agents’ lives are lives too.
Wu Fei had already made up his mind in his heart to fight a protracted war of resources. But he still went through the process with the non-commissioned officers for consultation.
In the wartime tent at the small wooden table, Wu Fei explained his future defensive counterattack strategy to the participating non-commissioned officers.
Wu Fei: “Although capturing Gu Shou Pass to thoroughly conquer the entire territory is very tempting, Da Yao’s Sha Prefecture in the west has already been conquered, and there is still Yan Land in the north. The Hao Army has more than one path to attack Bo Prefecture. If our army suffers heavy losses at Gu Shou Pass and the troops are exhausted, it is very likely that the enemy will seize the strategic opportunity for a surprise attack on us.”
Wu Fei tapped on the series of city defenses in Bo Prefecture as a model: Therefore, it is better now to hold heavy troops in hand. Squat and wear down the Hao Army. As long as they can’t solve us, they will have to constantly prepare for ‘how to defend against being solved by us.’
Wu Fei also pointed out one thing: Gu Shou Pass’s food and grass has always relied on Huangyu City. Now, although they have the strong pass, they lack food and grass. Yan Land’s food and grass now also needs to supply Sha Prefecture and cannot support Gu Shou Pass. Compared to us, the Hao Army must take the initiative to attack and enter the pass to solve the problem. And we can strike later to control the situation.
…The fast attack strategy has gone bankrupt, next is to hunker down at home…
Wu Fei led his troops to withdraw thirty li and build multiple fortresses and garrison points. The fortress strongholds maintain sufficient storage and pack horses; these facilities ensure that the army can head north at any time in the future to confront the corps at Gu Shou Pass.
On the checkpoint, Pu E watched Wu Fei during the Yao Army’s retreat. In her view, Wu Fei was riding on a big bird circling around the checkpoint, peering around with a telescope for a good while.
Pu E suppressed the impulse to go meet him because she had received news from many sources that Wu Xiao Que from the southern region does not follow martial ethics. If she went over in dragon transformation to talk, Wu Xiao Que might immediately start with an “Immortal Binding Lock” (spider silk condensing in the air) and then call everyone to gang up.
Pu E looked at Wu Fei riding on the peacock and said: I don’t like this (had to admit, Sparrow’s attribute values are pretty good. It’s just the characteristic, she doesn’t like it).
