Chapter 144: Showdown Between Pro Gamers
In Huangyu City, Gongshu Wang led the carpenters on time and in full quantity, delivering a batch of Feng Shui-driven trains to the army; Wu Fei, while happy, began chatting with Gongshu Wang, trying to draw closer their relationship.
Wu Fei looked at the boiler in front of him and sighed deeply, asking, “Wood, how long have we been away from home?”
Gongshu Wang, having debugged the piston machine and standing by waiting for it to operate, said, “Reporting to the General, I have been away from home for a full two years.”
Wu Fei flipped through Gongshu Wang’s technical process record table and sighed, “I’ve brought you north for so long, you’ve suffered!”
Gongshu Wang looked at this intimacy from Wu Fei, somewhat unaccustomed: “My lord, what are you saying? The lord goes, the minister follows; this is the minister’s glory.”
Wu Fei chuckled, expressing great happiness at Gongshu Wang’s awareness, and thus the two began chatting, and as they chatted, they talked about their first meeting that year.
Wu Fei was very curious: how did Gongshu Wang find him back then?
Gongshu Wang: “Oh, back then I had just come down the mountain when a three-eyed fellow Daoist called me to stop.”
Wu Fei’s expression moved slightly; he knew this three-eyed one. But seeing Gongshu Wang’s manner, he seemed unaware of the relationship between Xian Daoren and San Niang; otherwise, when he was stirring things up in the Southern Border back then, he couldn’t possibly not have borrowed power from San Niang’s side.
Wu Fei: “He called you to stop, and you stopped?”
Gongshu Wang: “That fellow Daoist called me through a wooden puppet; I got itchy hands for a moment and turned back.”
Wu Fei laughed cheerfully: “He called you to stop, why did you listen to him? And he persuaded you and you listened? Could it be that you had heard of my wise and divine martial prowess from the start and intended to come join me?”
Gongshu Wang: “Of course not. He said he wanted to have a betting battle with me; if I won, he would teach me (at this point he immediately shut his mouth, avoiding the topic), um, if I lost, I would go south to the Southern Border to seek a lord.”
Gongshu Wang hurriedly added: “The lord is a beacon of light; no talented person would join in the dark, so in that game, I did not lose.”
Wu Fei: “No, no.”
Wu Fei ended the conversation, but in his heart he was very puzzled: why did Xian Daoren do this?
If Wu Fei could peer into Su Kang’s situation in Yao Capital at this time, he would roughly understand Xian Daoren’s calculation.
Xian Daoren wanted to use Gongshu Wang as this chip to add a bit of change between Wu Fei and Wu Hanluan.
Sure enough, Gongshu Wang as a Mohist School successor had learned many forbidden magic, and also the “Bewitch Person” technique; if pushed to desperation, he would inevitably use it. But his plan had basically come to nothing at Wu Fei’s end.
The result was that Wu Fei saw only half-implemented “world-shaking wisdom” from Xian Daoren, feeling utterly baffled.
…System: Small cleverness won’t cut it…
In October of year 36, Huangyu City was captured, Bo Prefecture’s most difficult moment had passed, and then the autumn grain from various places was harvested; at that time Wu Fei breathed a sigh of relief. The original pressure from Zhao Cheng who might come at any time had dissipated by more than half.
And now in May of the Shu Tian Calendar, the spring wheat was also about to be harvested; estimated next, excluding the rations reserved for each household, just in Huangyu City’s warehouses there would be 150,000 shi of grain gathered, while the other two large cities had 70,000 and 50,000 shi respectively.
Those dandy-originated non-commissioned officers in Yao Capital previously did not know the sufferings of the human world, but now they all understood what this meant.
This meant that next, if the Eastern Market Army engaged the Hao Army in field battle, they could ensure several times the Hao Army’s mobile forces.
The entire Bo Prefecture welcomed prosperity not seen for several good years. Whether officers and soldiers or local commoners, all supported Wu Fei; Wu Fei’s originally worried “stability crisis” now vanished completely.
“Prosperity?!” Wu Fei found it quite ironic. This year under his watch, 30,000 slaves had starved to death outright; in his previous life, that would be the most inhuman tyrant in certain literati’s mouths. If this world had wall newspapers, then on the opponent’s wall newspaper comics, his image would be drawn as a “monster with fangs in mouth and horns on head.”
Wu Fei traveled incognito to the countryside, and upon inquiring local opinions, confirmed that in the hearts of Bo Prefecture locals, it was “prosperity.” It was not just maintaining flattery, because in the eyes of all locals living on the brink of death, Wu Fei had terminated a vicious cycle.
War destroyed production, insufficient production led to population decline, population decline further led to insufficient production and thus worsening famine. For the local commoners who had been fighting for several years, as long as this vicious cycle could be terminated, even “sacrificing several tens of thousands at once” was acceptable.
The commoners on Bo Prefecture’s side originally felt they were about to spiral straight down into hell; with the Eastern Market Army fighting all the way over, the Hao People fled, and farmland replanted; wasn’t Wu Fei just the great savior of Bo Prefecture’s commoners!
Under Wu Xiao Que’s brilliant light, Bo Prefecture’s arduous march cost only tightening belts for a year.. Starved a batch of slaves! Truly a sage descending.
…After long rainy day, the sun came out…
After Zhao Cheng came, the core of Wu Fei’s work was “military-political” coordination, that is, while fighting, also ensuring the operation of production materials on his own turf.
After those local maintaining societies spread out, all captured farming land was allocated as “permanent holdings,” and during grain coordination, according to every name list reported by the maintaining society, life-saving rations were reserved, to the point that Bo Prefecture’s commoners tightened
Wu Fei’s approach combines combat and farming in parallel. Moreover, resources are balanced between them (grasping both operations and management in real-time strategy). This is the standard approach in the Southern Border.
However, this ability does not exist among the other generals in Da Yao. The reason is simple: where does the inner land have the authority to grant the Military Strategist School the power for tuntian? The land all belongs to the local clans and noble families. If it weren’t for all the noble families in the North being wiped out, Wu Fei would not have been able to farm either.
Therefore, the generals and troops in each place are fixed, so it’s just like Chinese chess, where a chess piece eaten is one less.
Even if Da Yao’s soldiers and officers now begin fiefdomization and start cooperating with local noble families, they still lack the ability to independently establish “resource allocation and production, stabilizing local order.”
Wu Fei has not completely wiped out the clans now, but he has dismantled several branches of each clan according to different districts of “city” and “countryside,” and they are all obedient. If he tells them to go east, they dare not go west.
As for hidden households, concealing taxes? Heh heh. Speaking of which, among the current clans, which family doesn’t have private grain storage points, watching each other closely, and once reported and verified, all the grain is confiscated.
…This year Pu E waited for Zhao Cheng, and Wu Fei also completed the cooldown of his strategic ultimate move.
Just as Wu Fei was meticulously repairing armor, organizing roads and military supplies, preparing to strike northward. After Zhao Cheng finished inspecting Gu Shou Pass, he dressed in plain clothes and quietly headed south to observe the situation in Bo Prefecture.
When he saw the beacon towers, large stretches of ditches, roads, and grain depots along the way, he was filled with worries, and when he finally saw the fortress point stuck at the key transportation route, he held his breath.
Pu E, who was accompanying him, saw this and asked: “Why has the general’s aura suddenly faltered like this?”
The fortress point that Zhao Cheng was staring at was fifty kilometers from Gu Shou Pass, with an extremely critical position, blocking the river ford, and surrounded by a moat. This small city was less than a hundred paces long and wide; even raising a hundred chickens inside would feel cramped. The Hao State generals who came did not take this city seriously. But in fact, this fortress was fortification-style, with the protruding parts of the outer thick walls allowing crossfire, while the internal thin partition walls were like a Bagua Formation. Once several doors were dropped, these inner wall spaces became like a barbican.
Zhao Cheng said solemnly: “Southern Region generals excel at defensive tactics. You lost to this person, and it’s not unjust.”
Zhao Cheng has always been known for his ingenious and nimble use of troops. He is extremely skilled at seizing upon a general’s momentary lapse. Turning the rotten into the magical.
But when he secretly visited Bo Prefecture, he discovered that Wu Fei’s flaws were almost nonexistent. All farming affairs and military affairs were linked one to another, tightly interlocked, airtight.
Zhao Cheng: “When facing such a person, any slackness is unacceptable.”
It was obvious that Pu E had been badly tormented by Wu Fei these days; maintaining food and grass was difficult, and more critically, the facilities inside the pass were now severely worn out.
Pu E: “That guy, although he hasn’t attacked the pass these past few months, set fire to the mountains outside Gu Shou Pass.”
From Pu E using the term “that guy,” not even willing to say “General Yuan Chang,” it was clear she had been thoroughly disgusted by Wu Fei.
Wu Fei had proactively helped Gu Shou Pass implement scorched earth policy, which then caused landslides in the mountains around the checkpoint during rainy weather, submerging part of the water sources. Moreover, firewood inside the pass was also in short supply. In short, Wu Fei hadn’t missed any opportunity to make Gu Shou Pass uncomfortable.
Pu E hoped Zhao Cheng’s arrival could break the stalemate. However, this time, Zhao Cheng said to the arriving Pu E: “This requires long-term planning.”
Pu E paused, then couldn’t help but provoke: “Duke Zhao, how does this man’s troop command compare to yours?”
Zhao Cheng: “If it were earlier, when he had not yet firmly established himself in Bo Prefecture, I could defeat him; but now he has seized the initiative.”
If Huangyu City had not fallen earlier—or rather, after the tenth month of the 36th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, if Hu City had still retained the Hao Army’s effective forces, and the Dragon Descendants were willing to obey military orders without dragging their feet—then Zhao Cheng would still have room to maneuver.
But now? Zhao Cheng could not find any flaw in Wu Fei.
When Zhao Cheng evaluated Wu Fei’s military strategy, he described his character as “cautious and meticulous.” In the eyes of laymen, Wu Fei was bold enough. But in Zhao Cheng’s view, if he were to take over Wu Fei’s current situation, Yan Land would already have changed hands by now.
Wu Fei’s personality had been formed during his student days, where to cope with exams as much as possible, he familiarized himself with every type of question. Speaking of it, this above-average personality from his previous life was very rare in this era. Zhao Cheng now had many clever calculations, but they were all based on other generals being imprudent and not reflecting on their own weaknesses. But now, along this journey, he had seen Wu Fei’s clear grasp of the big picture, and in this small defensive city, he had seen details far beyond the ordinary.
The Dragon Descendant Huang Tao nearby was unconvinced: “If General Zhao lacks the courage, let us try. With our artillery strength and sturdy troops, I can take this small city in three days!” (Zhao Qi had already been transferred back.)
Zhao Cheng: “You don’t know how many mechanisms surround these fortresses. Without four or five days, you couldn’t test them all. And in four or five days, if you are held up by the garrison in the fortress—”
Then, Zhao Cheng pointed to the flags beginning to change on the city battlement, pointing out that the flags on the city battlement were linked in information with the beacon tower thirty kilometers away.
Wu Fei’s military strategist professional skills were encountering commentary from someone who understood for the first time.
Pu E held back Huang Tao who wanted to retort: “Does that mean there is absolutely no flaw?”
Zhao Cheng frowned: “In such a stalemate, the battle is not on the battlefield, but in the imperial court; with disharmony between generals and ministers, and suspicion between ruler and subjects, even an impregnable fortress cannot be guaranteed—however, at this point, Zhao Cheng silently sighed.”
All along, Dragon Descendants had won more and lost fewer in ordinary battle formations where the few fought the many. So they had a bit of pride. But coordinating great wars with tens of thousands of military strategists requires calculation.
Having lost the resources south of Gu Shou Pass, Hao State would face shortages of various food and grass supplies in northern Yan Land this year.
Zhao Cheng let Pu E in on a secret: the current plan was to relocate the capital. Pu E shook her head.
The Dragon Descendants had tragic memories of escaping from the Haotian Realm, making it hard for them to accept such a humiliating concession.
Pu E was not giving up: “Really can’t fight?”
Zhao Cheng: “Coming south from Yan Tu, they can only sustain ten to twenty thousand troops; and if we suffer even a few days’ setback under one city, the army’s food and grass will be insufficient, with too low a margin for error.” Then Zhao Cheng argued in reverse: after abandoning Gu Shou Pass, they would not launch a large-scale invasion either, as their food and grass couldn’t support a large-scale exit from the pass.
But just after saying this, Zhao Cheng immediately added: “They can’t exit the pass on a large scale for two to three years.”
Because as Zhao Cheng squatted down, he discovered something even more shocking: the soil around the water channels was relatively new, clearly newly dug. Zhao Cheng thought to himself: “Farming and war integration!”
Zhao Cheng felt that after revealing the truth, Pu E could no longer listen and didn’t continue, but kept it in mind.
Zhao Cheng: “If I had known a year ago that this young man had come to Bo Prefecture, I would have taken him at any cost, for my own use.”
…Zhao Cheng: “I need a talent worthy of a king, who can unite with me…”
After spring began, Wu Fei felt that both sea raids had been counter-ambushed, so he temporarily halted the sea harassment. Then Wu Fei discovered that inside Gu Shou Pass, they were no longer just dead-guarding, but patrol soldiers were rotating shifts according to signals to patrol and scout. Moreover, troop strength was assembling in Yan Land, making it much harder for his own scouts to cause trouble. Thus he understood that Hao State’s great general had arrived.
Just as Wu Fei was tense, someone from Gu Shou Pass came to make contact, expressing that Hao State’s great general felt a “kindred spirit” with Wu Fei, which couldn’t help but make Wu Xiao Que feel pleased.
Wu Fei: “Back home, only I flattered Wu Hengyu. Today, to have such a confidant! Rare indeed.”
Although they were mutually guarding against each other with no gaps in scouting and blockades, through comings and goings, envoys from both sides communicated. Today Wu Fei sent some local specialties, tomorrow Zhao Cheng returned a gift, and Wu Fei doubled it in return.
But after the cold spell in late spring, Zhao Cheng suddenly sent four white wolves, said to have been found in the west of Da Yao, given to Wu Fei as an auspicious sign.
Then Wu Fei immediately “dug up” a jade cauldron in Zhao Cheng’s original hometown, likewise as an auspicious sign, and sent it back.
Thus, what had been a phase of mutual goodwill and gift-giving between the two sides suddenly turned sour, with both sides starting to hide daggers behind smiles. And for the next decade or more, both sides continued such subtle mutual scheming.
What are white wolves? Before Da Yao was established, this realm’s dynasty was called Da Cheng, and before Da Cheng was Bu Dynasty. In the late Bu Dynasty, a bamboo book recorded: “A god leads a white wolf with a hook in its mouth into Bu.” This signified dynastic change.
Wu Fei didn’t understand at first, but fortunately, the advisor nearby explained this allusion.
Xuan Chong (Wu Fei) pointed north and cursed: “Everyone has read military treatises. Is there any meaning in playing like this?” Our Da Yao’s Emperor Shu is indeed incompetent and loves to play, on the level of Principal Jiang; how much better is that king of yours in Hao State? A small clan bullying a great nation, constantly seeking Dragon Descendant generals to hold military power, balancing your domestic authority.
Through these rounds of exchange, Fei confirmed that Zhao Cheng and Hao State’s Dragon Descendant generals were not on the same level at all. How could such a person remain long under others!
Wu Fei thought fiercely: if it happens again, he would directly “dig up” the “Nine Honors” in his ancestral home and send it over.
Wu Xiao Que was shameless; if he locked onto where Zhao Cheng’s ancestral home was, he would immediately forge some kingly aura on his family gravesite, then spread the news to Hao State.
…Same level confrontation…
Through espionage, Zhao Cheng had learned about Wu Fei’s troop management. The troops in the three frontline towns had always maintained high alertness, with sentries guarding the camp gates day and night nonstop. Even for buying vegetables and meat, vendors placed supplies outside the camp, then soldiers from inside came to transport them, never allowing outsiders contact.
This was clearly guarding against outsiders probing for information, something Zhao Cheng rarely saw in other generals.
To keep soldiers in constant high alert is not as simple as a general issuing an order. Even the most rigorous people will slack off over time.
A general leading by example can keep soldiers rigorous, but over time, soldiers will still grow restless, possibly leading to night camp disturbances.
So the most technical method is to rotate stationed troops, keeping them relaxed and tense appropriately.
When Wu Fei entered the military strategist field, he started in logistics, with specialized research on maintaining morale and how to most efficiently and quickly restore soldiers in the shortest time.
Even soldier entertainment details were not overlooked by Wu Fei. In the process of rotating troops to the rear for rest, Wu Fei issued orders each time for city brothels to prepare professional reception, especially in hygiene.
