Chapter 198: Relying On “heavenly Timing” To Battle “geographical Advantage” And “human Harmony”
The Third Camp’s reinforced troop conducted a round of skirmish, gained the advantage, and was immediately ordered back by Xuan Chong.
The total number of the Third Camp exploration troop is two thousand, but compared to the fourteen large camps steadily holding the rear line, with two camps maintaining support, it’s like a strong man extending a finger to poke and then withdrawing.
Due to the Third Camp’s very decisive retreat, the surrounding multiple groups suspected to be “dynamic herds” in the jungle seemed very stunned. They had originally arched their backs like snakes preparing to counterattack, but Xuan Chong was like a cat pawing with cat punches—scratch, and then back it went.
Moreover, the camp tasked with vanguard assault advanced with strict formations. Among the two thousand, saber soldiers wielding mountain-splitting sabers were the vanguard, shield armored soldiers formed the wall, firearms and military supplies were in the center, like an iron shell turtle, making those existences in the jungle unable to bite.
When these camps retreated, their formation was retracted within one shichen, trotting back along the originally cleared roads. This left those native combat groups preparing to gather in the jungle eating fart.
This “hit and run” elicited roars from the jungle’s overlords; they seemed to think: these invaders from the north were too cunning this time.
…Intelligence…
The perspective shifts to the First Camp. When the attackers were brought to Xuan Chong in shackles, Xuan Chong looked at these slender figures and was somewhat surprised: Crow People?
However, upon peeling off their clothes to reveal their backs, it was discovered there was still some difference. Feathered People’s folded wings grow wing bones similar to keratin layers; when feathers are insufficient, they manually sew on cotton cloth to facilitate flapping wings for flight.
Crow People, on the other hand, grow plump wings after eating enough fish bones and such food. Though both share ancestry, evolution has made them somewhat different.
Further observing these Feathered People, the Liangtian Pavilion scholars under Xuan Chong discovered that their wing roots were parasitized by plants, using leaves in place of feathers.
After trying several Feathered People languages as guides, they finally heard the word “Queen” in some minority vocabulary.
Ang Ri: My lord, these are also Feathered People; they are called “Forest Feather People.” The ones we traded with before were Kingdom Feather People.
Forest Feather People compared to Kingdom Feather People are like those grassland nomads to Da Yao’s farming residents; both are different cultural groups.
Xuan Chong looked at Ang Ri and asked: “Forest Feather People are more barbaric? Right?”
Ang Ri continued: “In terms of etiquette and music, Forest Feather People are inferior to Kingdom Feather People; but in the Feathered People’s internal bloodline system, Forest Feather People’s royal family bloodline is even recognized within Kingdom Feather People.”
Ang Ri tried hard to explain the concept of “Queen” to Xuan Chong, carefully watching Wu Xiao Que! After so many years of dealings, Ang Ri understood that this being with the most sacred bloodline in the southern border was precisely indifferent to “bloodline,” able to sit carefree before an old farmer gnawing sweet potatoes or casually kick a dragon descendant from the north with her foot.
Ultimately, in explaining the concept of “Queen among the Feather Tribe,” Ang Ri spoke as if explaining how valuable a certain Dragon Horse bloodline was. While Xuan Chong pondered, Ang Ri silently stepped aside.
Xuan Chong, on the word “Queen,” combined with previously obtained information, gave a sociology report and made the following analysis.
Xuan Chong’s treatise: First, “Queen” indicates a matriarchal society, with its socioeconomic foundation being men hunting, women gathering, not yet entering primitive agriculture.
Regarding humans themselves, males in production focus on smooth process execution, skilled at handling various interactions during work; for example, large team cooperation.
Females in production focus on key resource points, controlling essential resources in the area. For example, in gathering, statistically timing and locations of each spot, more suited to stable work in personal “fixed” environments.
Males excel at work requiring massive interaction flows, but individuals miss some key points. Females are good at remembering vast key points but poor at interactions; once their gathering spots are forcibly affected by external factors, they become very unstable.
In modern society, even with “physical labor greatly diminished,” gender differences remain huge.
It can be said that in a society with a super stable resource system and highly concentrated productivity factors, female rule emerges.
Whereas in a society in dynamic evolution, with productivity factors randomly combining and requiring multifaceted cooperation to progress, males often hold dominance.
For this Forest Feather Tribe situation, Xuan Chong glimpsed the spots to calculate the whole; thus, these Feathered People coexisting with plant leaves are probably not a “dominant ethnicity” but an auxiliary ethnicity collectively symbiotic with another powerful system.
The Thorn Region is Tree Monster territory, its output perfectly suited for gathering. So—Xuan Chong connected it to the previously observed hedge areas, roughly guessing: these Tree Spirits have taken some lackeys.
Just like symbiotic signs of ants and plants recorded in “natural world” documentaries, some ants seem to guard tree outputs, providing defense, but these ants can’t switch to other plants and have been reversely tamed by the plants.
Xuan Chong had Ang Ri continue peacefully interrogating the Feather Tribe captives; as for resistant captives, hand them to Jia Mude.
Jia Mude: “We will pry open skulls and implant spirit taming talismans to acquire more intelligence.”
“Male wings are generally much more powerful than female ones. But in archery, females are stronger than males.”
Xuan Chong: “This evolutionary trend means male Feather Tribe need to fly, female Feather Tribe need to shoot?”
…From another camp’s perspective…
In the layered hedge city wall maze, a team of Feathered People forbidden guards escorted a woman to the jungle depths; this was the Forest Feather Tribe’s Queen.
This group arrived at a massive ancient tree ruins, this ancient tree towering two hundred meters, its branches lush like a towering giant tree, and after the Queen passed, vines slithered like snakes through the gaps.
The Queen sensed the surrounding aura grow thick, so she stopped. The bow-and-arrow-carrying female forbidden guards all halted; the Queen barefooted stepped before the trees, surrounding countless vines converging toward her, emitting branches growing flowers.
However, these highly invasive plant spores, upon touching the Queen, ceased offense as the gemstone at her chest flashed, instead converging that ceaseless power onto her.
“The Northern dark army is stronger than any past invasion; they are now continuously invading our forest,” the Queen prayed to the massive tree.
About four shichen later, the massive wood’s rough heart responded with a simple word: “Alliance.”
With this response, all Tree Spirits in Thorn Ridge jungle began loudly repeating “Alliance!”. Simultaneously, gnarled tree roots on the ground came alive, clenching like fingers gripping a bed sheet, full of hateful power.
…Back to the “Dark Demon Army camp”…
Late September, on the south side of Ting Zhu Tan. After the Third Camp retreated, the Fifth Camp began action. The target was a “Tree Monster” stronghold identified through observation.
Xuan Chong joined the Fifth Camp this time, of course accompanied by those non-commissioned officers from the Third Camp with very rich combat experience summaries. This ensured tactical experience continuity during army rotations.
While camps rotated strikes one by one, the soldiers below always maintained vigorous energy, the command system keeping continuous analysis of battlefield situations.
On the 9th, the Fifth Camp’s fifteen hundred army encountered pure Tree People resistance, with no Feathered People seen. The ground was full of irregular mud pits left by massive roots moving.
Shen Wanqing, through the phenomenon of “some leaves concentratedly falling two days ago,” immediately judged that the Feather Tribe had been startled by the previous Third Camp and gathered westward. So the Tree Spirit forces here were in a vacant state.
Thus, after one volley of firearms, they conserved ammunition and had spear soldiers wear rubber mask pig-nose masks for close combat. These masks with activated carbon filter cans were anti-poison masks that could defend against spore clouds.
In this wave of offense, they knew beforehand this was a massive Tree Spirit stronghold. After using four hundred to block Tree Monster escape paths, five hundred elite soldiers suppressed from due north.
A War Kui led, crushing three hundred obstructing Tree Spirits like a tank smashing a dirt wall; following shield-bearing, crunching-footstep halberd soldiers trampled the withered branches and fallen leaves coming forward, hooking down all small vine monsters trying to entwine the War Kui.
Under war machines and infantry coordination, this under eight hundred meter circular hedge camp like a rock-stacked flowerbed was pushed to the inner layer. In the inner layer, Wu Family Army encountered a large swaying forest.
Of course, in the eyes of the Fifth Camp soldiers now fully engaged, these were waves of spirit grass waiting to be harvested, albeit with some resistance.
Grenadiers behind the spear soldiers threw tung oil projectiles one by one, creaking; the massive ancient wood swayed branches, burned by flames into constant writhing.
Those Third Camp non-commissioned officers participating in the handover corrected everyone’s current tactics.
Under multiple non-commissioned officers leading from the front line, grassroots hook scythe soldiers spat into their palms, rubbed, and thrust hooked steel stakes toward the large tree roots.
When non-commissioned officers hooked the giant tree’s branches with halberds, preventing further swinging strikes. A roar: “Rush up!”
Ordinary soldiers immediately hooked the tree’s base root system with hook scythes, finally wedging the steel stake at the tree base. Then had seven or eight livestock pull together to uproot the tree.
This scene was like Sun Wukong flicking a ginseng fruit tree from a flowerbed.
This flowerbed had five building-sized large trees total; one, due to Wu Family Army mishandling, contacted the camp’s riverbank when dragged out of the hedge camp, its roots grasping rocks in the water pool, forcibly rooting at the bottom, and spraying “parasitic seed clouds” to kill Fifth Camp transport soldiers.
No choice, Wu Family Army first rescued the transport people, wiped them with coarse salt, assessed the “tree granny’s” frenzy, then set up cannons three hundred meters away to destroy it.
The remaining four ancient tree spirits were all “transplanted” to the area Xuan Chong selected for them.
These ancient trees would be planted in a special garden, surrounded by stone fortresses, reigning alone in the center, with Wu Family Army periodically picking fruit.
…”Preferential treatment” for captives…
When the steamship dragged the ancient trees one by one to the “nursery” twenty kilometers south of Chi You Ridge.
Xuan Chong, like setting up a fish tank for ornamental fish, imitated the Tree People’s original growth environment, stacking a neat nursery with stone fortresses. And planned waterways flowed precisely to every area of the nursery.
Xuan Chong looked at these trembling ancient trees on the ship, quite “kindly” consoling them, telling stories of “enhancing self-value”: one year yields fifteen fruits, I take four-fifths, you keep three; second year yields twenty, you keep four. In the new place, must properly enhance self-value.
The ancient trees, hearing Xuan Chong’s “teachings,” were very moved; though locked by iron chains, their branches buzzed— this buzz was subsonic frequency.
Accompanying Shen Wanqing said: “My lord, these trees are transmitting information. The south side is responding with the same sound waves.”
Xuan Chong nodded, then said to this favorite general: “Sharp senses are excellent.”—Xuan Chong’s physical test instrument allowed sensing subsonic bands.
Xuan Chong said to Shen Wanqing: “Later, come with me into the tent to help organize materials.”
Nearby personal soldiers looked at Shen Wanqing enviously, because Xuan Chong calling someone into the tent to access materials often involved future personnel power arrangements here.
In the military tent, Xuan Chong shed his earlier playful tree-patting demeanor and began pondering with head lowered.
…A year since heading south…
Xuan Chong: “Northern Da Yao strategic situation changes very fast; various vassal lords have conducted the first round of slaughter, both sides’ stockpiled food and grass rapidly depleted in one year of war; next, standoffs will decrease, decisive battles increase; meaning my returns from south to north will become more frequent, can’t attend to both places.”
Next, he needed to station seven months yearly in Zhenzhou handling issues. While here in Far Southern Territory’s Thorn Ridge, must promote a “Prefect”-level official.
The current Thorn Ridge already shows considerable cultivation resources; those inland families previously indifferent to southern expedition now suddenly send letters to distant kin and old friends in the southern expedition army. So this “Prefect” must balance various interests.
Wu Zhantie definitely won’t do; these years he’s slightly favored Wu Family, given too many merit-earning opportunities; though indeed hard work so no one complains, but tossing such a big cake to Wu Zhantie again would draw ire toward the imperial clan.
Moreover, past imperial clan felt aggrieved at being dispatched to “far south,” fostering a “no one manages” compensatory indulgence upon arriving south. Reference Great Ming imperial clan’s mad wealth-gathering after confinement locally.
Now the south has massive interests, but can Wu Family disciples adjust their habits correctly? Xuan Chong dared not bet on their big-picture view.
In summary, he could leave a few “Wu Family Qian Hu” here, build cities near trade routes to gain fiefs, sit at the table, but not give them the knife to divide the cake.
This “Prefect” absolutely cannot be Lingnan’s local family forces; after finishing southern expedition he’s heading north, if southern local forces collude, southern border resource mobilization would be difficult.
So those with merit and clean backgrounds are few; best candidates are “Wen Siting” and “Shen Wanqing.”
Wen Siting was a slave but from ranger origins, literate and seasoned in military affairs; he can absolutely handle here, and very reliable, but Xuan Chong was reluctant to part with him! In other words, in the coming northern great war, Xuan Chong felt this guy could stand alone, must keep him.
As for Shen Wanqing, Xuan Chong through “intelligent social system” discovered he was complex and hesitant upon meeting him.
Why he was like that, Xuan Chong knew. So now can’t let him hesitate; Xuan Chong: “You stay here and settle down for me.”
…Assessment…
In the military tent, Shen Wanqing entered carrying bundles of bamboo slips materials, while Xuan Chong looked at the sand table.
Shen Wanqing looked closely; the sand table seemed to have complex Yao Calculation power operating, various chess pieces self-moving, completing battle simulations.
Among them, some chess pieces were the known jungle “Tree Spirit” forces; now Feather Tribe vassal forces were also made into flags placed on it.
Xuan Chong picked up his army chess piece and advanced it to the sand table’s riverbank plains area. This area had completed initial fortified position setup.
Xuan Chong turned to Shen Wanqing leisurely: “With our current strength, we need to formulate matching strategic objectives; what is our strategic objective?”
Shen Wanqing saw no one else around, knew it was asking him, so responded: “My lord, our army’s high morale here relies entirely on acquiring Grass Returning Pills. Our war strategy is to plunder from local grass and wood monsters, sustaining war with war.”
Xuan Chong: “Grass Returning Pills and various spiritual materials are our core interests here. But to maximize interest extraction, minimize costs; how to deploy military, economic, diplomatic means?!”
At this, Xuan Chong patted his shoulder: “Soldiers are dangerous weapons, gentlemen use them only when unavoidable. We now must fight those in Thorn Region, but to what extent? After fighting, how to use other conditions to achieve needed interests—this is key.”
Xuan Chong’s clear eyes looked at Shen Wanqing, prompting him not to get bloodthirsty.
Shen Wanqing was slightly stunned; the persistent killing intent in his heart unknowingly quelled by Xuan Chong, and upon snapping back, his originally dust-covered Dao Heart was wiped clean again.—
Shen Wanqing suddenly came to, gazing at the noble person before him, asked: “Please, General, set the strategy?”
Xuan Chong glanced at him: “In the whole camp, of course I set strategy. Now you’re helping organize my desk; need to understand the causes of my strategy.”
Then no more prompting Shen Wanqing, but placed hand on sand table: “Enemy here is massive scale, not exterminable in one battle; future host here must neither let soldiers below idle into laxity nor let army endlessly domineer. Every time we show might, must exchange for sufficient interests.”
Xuan Chong pointed to the vast southern Thorn Ridge: “Ten-odd years, twenty years later, our footprints can freely reach everywhere. But now, we show majesty merely to make the other side acknowledge us here.”
Thus, current battle needs waiting for local monsters to gather and attack our barriers proactively, avoiding enemy’s “manpower” and “terrain” advantages here, using “timing” where we hold advantage to fight. (Timing concept: we unhurried, enemy anxious.)
Shen Wanqing roughly understood; just now making those large trees emit subsonic information was to lure with arrogance, making enemy rely on numerical advantage to attack proactively.
Shen Wanqing: “Marshal is brilliant.”
Xuan Chong: “In private, no need to call me Marshal; I’m a few years older than you, call me brother.”
Shen Wanqing hesitated; actually he was older than Xuan Chong. Then said: “My lord’s kindness to me is as heavy as mountains.”
Xuan Chong acquiesced, continued: “After this battle, all Tree Spirits we conquer, we shall favor.”
Xuan Chong revealed to Shen Wanqing: he had already refined “soil.”—Basic item for spiritual planters nurturing spirit grass.
This soil allows Tree Spirits to draw more power from underground.
Actually “soil” is a “nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria” noted in interstellar ships; ship preserved samples, and Xuan Chong tuned “strain cultivation” facilities for mass production.
Only in Xuan Chong’s view, the “strain” indeed somewhat “immortal spirit”-like; plant roots growing in it were visibly meat-to-eye.
Before Shen Wanqing, Xuan Chong seriously narrated “soil’s” effects, but idly hummed “Jin Kelan, Jin Kelan, nitrogen phosphorus potassium two thousand meters deep.”
