Chapter 160: The Recovered Yan Land
At the end of the first year of the Tian You Calendar, in the Spring Swallow City area. With the crunching sounds of hard snow being trampled and shattered, batches of serfs were fleeing through the snow. Behind them, over a dozen Hao State knights were chasing on horseback, their hooves leaving shallow marks on the icy surface, while the breaths of both men and horses sprayed out long streams of white vapor.
This group of serfs fleeing south had been Haotian laborers armed with farming ironware against the Wu Family Army on the battlefield just half a year ago.
Now without armor, without sabers, and even starving with rumbling stomachs, this group scattered chaotically when they reached the lower reaches of the river, losing count of how many fell behind, yet they gathered together again under the pursuit of the knights behind.
However, just as they lowered their heads and closed their eyes, waiting to be flogged and then led back, a patrol of Yao Army knights appeared in the lower reaches of the river. These serfs who had broken away from Hao territory shouted loudly, drawing the attention of this batch of Yao Army. This made the slave-catching teams from the Hao State side curse a couple times and gallop away.
These Hao State serfs then knelt toward the troops coming from the south, and were obediently herded to the southern prisoner camp.
…Snowflakes covered the footprints, but new footprints soon appeared again…
And over the entire winter, six thousand serfs fled south, and this was only those who made it across. Those who starved to death directly, failed to escape midway, or froze to death were countless.
Wu Fei received intelligence: Spring Swallow City in Hao State had a severe grain crisis.
In contrast, on the Yao Army side, in the farms built around Ascending Dragon City, because Wu Fei had transported large amounts of grain in advance, stockpiled plenty of firewood before winter, and washed the serfs plus weighed them every ten days, most people survived.
Of course, in Wu Fei’s planning, these serfs were only kept alive; all dignity and morality were cast aside.
In the large communal sleeping areas of the earthen enclosures, the serfs huddled on the kang beds like rats gathered in straw. Men in one huddle, women in another.
As for “sharing a large quilt to sleep,” these serfs had done it, but they certainly wouldn’t do it every day. As the saying goes, only when full and warm does one think of lust; for serfs, with just that little rations each day, they couldn’t afford to waste the communal grain.
Speaking of which, the female serfs in the earthen enclosure houses were all thirty-five to fifty years old. However, since pregnant women could receive extra personal rations, these robust women were all striving hard this winter. Notably, they had already passed through the gates of hell once at seventeen or eighteen and again in their twenties; compared to the calamity ten months later, surviving the current famine was what mattered.
What, no teenage to twenty-year-old girls among the female serfs? The young and pretty female captives had long been sold to the southern soldiers as wives.
To put it very inhumanely, the serfs’ living places were like “bamboo rat dens,” only ensuring survival and reproduction, with all scientific planning aimed solely at that goal. The lords’ management was about saving the most rations while extracting the maximum physical labor.
Due to such management being too brutal (too p-society), Wu Fei worried it would cause harm for ages, so he sent greetings to all the local enfeoffed lords, warning them: “This current model cannot last forever; once the granaries are full, one must know etiquette; once clothed and fed, one must know honor and shame.”
Even so, the Yao Army’s serfs didn’t starve to death! And the serfs could even accompany the lords in taking turns riding horses to patrol outside and hunt blind bears, which made the laborers in the north’s Hao State unable to endure and flock south to defect.
Over the entire winter, in Yan Land, just this situation of not starving to death actually won the people’s hearts.
…As a modern person feeling that in chaotic times, days have no worst, only worse…
Wu Fei learned through “agents” that currently in Spring Swallow City, the lowest soldier stratum couldn’t even maintain the reward mechanism of more rewards for more labor and more pay for the brave.
Wu Fei felt it was a ruler’s calculating mindset of “once you’ve contributed, hurry up and die, don’t waste resources.”
For example, the story of the slave lying on a straw mat who fled south went like this: They were building camps inside Spring Swallow City. One artisan built a camp better than others. During a heavy snow, he felt the stable’s strength was insufficient and told the Haotian masters. The master immediately sent him to repair it. When he returned, he was shivering all over. The next day, sure enough, the stables in other areas collapsed, but only his area didn’t collapse, while this carpenter caught a cold. But that master didn’t give him medicine or hot soup, not even merit; in the end, this carpenter died and was thrown outside the city.
Regarding this story, Wu Fei used reverse psychology, first denying it: This is fake.
When Wu Fei’s attitude reached their own interrogators, the storyteller became especially agitated: “My lord, everything this lowly one said is true; all those who came with me saw it, that Mu Laoshi was thrown into the river! Don’t believe me, go ask!”
After Wu Fei, as a big shot, gave his “denial,” the person in charge of the serf camp went all out to verify. What was submitted next was no longer the storytelling version, but testimonies cross-verified by multiple serfs, including that the carpenter was called “Mu Laoshi,” and he was thrown out on the twentieth day of the eleventh month last winter.
Wu Fei’s principle for intelligence work is that one person’s story, no matter how exciting, cannot enter the analysis database; only cross-verification counts.
Actually, when multiple serfs passed around the carpenter’s tragic story mouth to mouth, whether true or false no longer mattered; the key was that this story spread below, while the Hao State masters above pretended not to know, which was an ostrich effect.
Wu Fei analyzed: “If Spring Swallow City really knew the subsequent impact of this incident was so great, they would have handled it promptly.”
Giving “Mu Laoshi” sufficient rewards wouldn’t have been hard. The reason for defaulting to no response was that there were too many like “Mu Laoshi”; the masters felt guilty, so they pretended it was “a trivial matter not worth minding,” to keep control of the overall situation.
In reality, Hao State’s overall situation was already uncontrollable; unable to win external wars, with such internal contradictions, it was already falling apart. Inside Spring Swallow City, serfs from different camps fought to the point of bloodshed over a single steamed bun, their relations between camps comparable to “prison riot.”
If Wu Hengyu had attacked with troops under the city last year, it would have been a tough battle, but not this year.
Wu Fei called Wu Hengyu and explained: “Most of the people starved to death in Spring Swallow City; once we take it, we can live stably.”
Wu Hengyu warmed his hands by a fire lit with rush wicks and said: “What’s the plan?”
Wu Fei, wearing gloves, flipped through the cold bamboo slips: “I’ve arranged people; when you go, there’ll be a signal. Someone will open the city gate. Even if no one opens it, at the southwest corner of the city wall, the wall is old and crumbling, and there’s no moat there; we can take it by force.”
Wu Hengyu: “Prepare more of those nutty rations.”
Wu Fei: “Naturally.”
…Five hundred troops hurried along…
Tian You Calendar Year 2, January 10th, in Spring Swallow City. Wu Gao, lying in warm furnace bedding, suddenly woke up. He was covered in cold sweat; in the dream just now, he led troops on the ice of the Zi River for the final battle against the Wu Brothers.
At the most intense moment, the ice under the Jade Lion’s feet on the riverbank shattered, cracks spreading across the entire battlefield with a roar, drowning countless troops.
Wu Gao wiped his sweat and sighed: “Just a nightmare; I still have two thousand troops and eight thousand civilian laborers; how could I lose?!”
Just as he prepared to sleep again, noise erupted inside the city. But as he wanted to reprimand his soldiers for not suppressing the city disturbance in time, a shrill cry came from outside his residence: “Enemy attack!”
Wu Gao was stunned; shouldn’t enemy attacks be shouted from the battlements two hundred paces away? How was it suddenly within twenty paces?
Wu Gao didn’t know that his people at the city gate had already had their throats slit. Wu Hengyu’s troops, guided by the fleeing serfs, entered the city and paraded through like a street march; a thousand men divided into several routes shuttling along the streets, while the laborers in various camps had been habitually suppressed by Wu Gao’s men these days, so these serfs saw the Yao Army troops enter with torches and weapons, and all hid in their earthen enclosures, pretending not to see.
Wu Hengyu’s army reached outside Wu Gao’s residence; Wu Gao’s nightmare was hardly not a premonition from the approaching killing intent.
However, it was already too late; after Wu Gao’s residence was surrounded, he made a final cornered resistance. But after the siege ram was brought into the city, with a boom, the courtyard wall collapsed, and Wu Hengyu charged in.
Wu Gao’s personal guards refused to surrender. Seeing Wu Hengyu enter alone, they fought bravely, but after Wu Hengyu wielding his saber killed a hundred men, his clothes were soaked with blood at the edges as he charged to Wu Gao.
Wu Gao was dumbfounded; his inner residence guards’ combat power amounted to “fifty axemen.” Yet they were utterly useless.
Facing the ferocious tiger of the human world, Wu Gao muttered: “You are Wu, Wu, Hengyu.” Corpses and wounded lay in the courtyard and inside and outside the walls; no one could approach within three steps of Wu Hengyu.
Wu Hengyu, with blood spots on his face, said nothing; like picking a watermelon, he lightly sliced off his head with the knife. Then he had his men hang it from the flagpole, and everyone in the city surrendered.
After taking the city, Wu Hengyu sent information for Wu Fei to handle the aftermath, mainly determining rewards and punishments for merits.
Wu Hengyu was accustomed to letting Wu Fei handle this kind of brain work.
…Snow blocks wiped the sword clean of blood, sheathed…
In this northern expedition, all the soldiers including Wu Hengyu highly approved of Wu Fei dividing the spoils of war.
For example, after breaking Ascending Dragon City, Wu Hengyu’s army didn’t linger on spoils after the assault but quickly went for the decisive battle at Wu Gao’s because Wu Fei was in charge of guarding Ascending Dragon City’s spoils.
And now, after taking Spring Swallow City and seeing many women, the soldiers under Wu Hengyu, originally from the Northern Army, grew restless, even eager to act. There were too many fine goods among Wu Gao’s maidservants, with the tall stature and unyielding charm of Northern Kingdom women; in internet slang, plump and fertile, the good breeding kind.
Just as the soldiers grew restless and someone shouted first come first served, thunderous winds from Nine Phoenix flying in appeared in the sky. Veterans seeing Wu Fei present began retreating, becoming obedient, frowning and quietly stepping back among the crowd, while some fools still rushed ahead.
After each victory, Wu Hengyu might allow soldiers to indulge, but this Wu Family “second general” in charge of finances was notorious for enforcing rules; even the brothels in the army required everyone to wash clean first, wearing pig bladder and fish maw.
After Wu Fei arrived, he pinned down several ringleaders of the commotion, determined their merits were completely insufficient—just tailing the main army into the city with the wind at their backs—and immediately had their heads cut off.
After Wu Fei arrived, with the heads of these useless-in-battle but top-notch-at-stirring guys from the Yao Army hung on the flagpole, and several meritorious ones beaten on the buttocks, the camp quieted. Those prescient veterans then laughed at the recruits: “See, got the leather whip, huh? Why rush; women are being sent to the camp. What’s yours will be yours.”
Wu Fei quickly sorted the merits here, calculated merit points clearly for all soldiers, and allocated women to the five hundred with the most merit in this battle. This allocation was personal, non-transferable; after the battle, each took his own back to his hometown.
Some eyed enviously those with “first to ascend” merit who got women, but there was no talk of “sharing a piece.”
Because Wu Fei always favored the fierce fighters who went all out in combat; the others who got none dared not complain.
Three hours later, after completing the allocation, Wu Fei exhaled. After a great victory, allocating other land and goods could wait, but women’s allocation, if slowed even a bit, would cause mutiny. Those living by the blade are beasts breaking chains; never provoke this bloodlust with the “sage” air from the study.
In the Battle of Xingyang, Liu Bang nearly failed—that battle—his Jiangdong disciples fell apart when Chen Ping sent two thousand armor-piercing women.
Wu Fei gazed further west and sighed: “Sigh, hope there are enough Dragon Descendant women. The taste of Dragon Girls, heh heh.”
Taking Spring Swallow City was with five hundred men; if continuing west across the grasslands to sweep, they’d need to sustain five thousand sooner or later. Wu Hengyu’s men were all high-“maintenance” battle soldiers; he had no economy units.
…Southern migratory birds began flying north, a few feathers falling on the green waters…
However, just as Wu Fei finished work and returned to Ascending Dragon City, Wu Hengyu had barely rested when Bai Renfeng urgently sought an audience.
Sword immortal Bai Renfeng, holding a sect letter: “The imperial court sent a gazette; evil has appeared in Zhenzhou, plague has broken out.”
Wu Hengyu was slightly stunned, then: “How serious is this situation you speak of?”
Since joining the army, Wu Hengyu had encountered several plagues: once in Donghua Commandery, once in the Chong Shui battle, none caused major issues, no impact on the army; but this special report clearly meant it was unusual.
Bai Renfeng looked at his senior brother with a complex expression: “According to investigations by major sects, the cause of this plague is related to your father.”
“Crack!” Wu Hengyu crushed the cup, staring at him: “Who exactly said this.”
Bai Renfeng’s expression unchanged, facing Wu Hengyu’s killing intent, spoke truthfully: “Wangheng Sect investigated evidence: there’s a large Yellow Springs under Lelang City, and the only direct passage from the large Yellow Springs to the surface has always been guarded by your father’s troops, barring anyone from interfering.”
Wu Hengyu denied: “Wangheng Sect is at the border of Yongzhou and Yuhuazhou? They might very well be secretly colluding with False Hao at this time.”
Bai Renfeng immediately dispelled Wu Hengyu’s fluke: “Da Yao’s Demon Suppressing Division also confirmed the news; your father’s matter is eighty to ninety percent true.”
Wu Hengyu stood with hands behind his back, like a suppressed storm, slowly saying: “They think my father has no one around him.”
Bai Renfeng: “General, you’d best not get involved.”
Wu Hengyu turned to stare at Bai Renfeng, suddenly saying: “Senior Brother, you seem to think my family is the evil side too?”
Killing intent surged like water; in Wu Hengyu’s eyes, he had just taken two prefectures for the Da Yao court, earning great merit; yet just as things settled, this happened.
Bai Renfeng gathered all his spiritual energy, but his sword intent remained, still standing tall as he slowly said to Wu Hengyu: “General, the court enfeoffed you in Bo Prefecture hoping you avoid this matter.”
Wu Hengyu: “Father and son are one; how can I be separated? What’s the sect’s (Qinghua Sect) view?”
Bai Renfeng slowly said: “General Wu Hanluan sent a letter disavowing relations with our sect.”
Wu Hengyu entered an eerie calm. He let Senior Brother Bai leave, but Bai Renfeng knew clearly this was not compromise, but accumulating unstable emotions.
Bai Renfeng calculated: the Wu Family currently faced great peril in this matter, though amid the peril there was a sliver of turnaround.
Bai Renfeng hurried north toward Spring Swallow City in the north. As the messenger, he had to deliver the letter to the Wu Brothers.
…Military strategists and immortal families rarely began intersecting…
Wu Fei was planning Spring Swallow City’s post-spring planting, as well as defensive fortress nodes for next year, to use as a base for future nation-destroying preparations.
Wu Fei’s plan to destroy Hao was simple: block the mountain ridge passes in western Yan Land, build checkpoints, then annually exit closed-door cultivation to raid the grassland tribes north of Sha Prefecture, creating trouble for Hao State’s rear. Cut off Sha Prefecture’s horse supplies. After subduing some tribes, take them as dogs, then annually send a thousand-man troop with cannons and vassal army to blast open Sha Prefecture checkpoints, then enter.
Do this several times over three years, and Hao State, repeatedly stabbed in the rear, would contract troops to the north for defense every autumn.
Even in quieter years, they’d reflexively guard against Wu Xiao Que coming south to stir trouble. By then, even if Hao State stationed a Li Mu long-term in the north, they’d face the late Changping dilemma of Zhao State running out of national strength.
Standing on the battlements, watching the once white expanse recede, Wu Fei couldn’t help sighing: if Emperor Shu were still around, with Da Yao stable internally for a few years, Hao State would be pacified ninety-nine percent. Note: that uncertain one percent was Emperor Shu’s family’s various unpredictable antics.
Wu Fei’s evaluation of Emperor Shu’s family: their bloodline hid the gene of “seek fortune in danger; if no danger, forcibly create it.”
Wu Fei spat on recalling the past: he’d encountered several cases himself—four hundred years ago, the Li Crown Prince refining pills, eventually exiled to Southern Border; ten years ago, Prince Bo unwilling to be confined and running wild; Prince Zhou, now the emperor, once squandered fifteen routed armies; three years ago, Emperor Shu’s personal expedition. For such people, no insurance suffices; they play for the thrill.
Wu Fei looked at the obedient and hardworking Wu Juwang, smugly: “My family is good, no such antics.”
At this moment, Bai Renfeng flew over from the horizon, landing five hundred meters away facing the killing intent, then showed his waist token to request an audience.
