Chapter 29: Luring The Tiger Away From The Mountain
In the Southern Border, at night, San Gu looked at the flickering firelight in the Lotus Lamp before her.
Sparks burst with a “pop” in the lamplight: “Yan, you’ve been in the camp for two years now, how come there’s not even a single result?”
San Gu, addressed as “Yan”: “Xin, you just squat in the cave and talk. The surrenderers you sent haven’t even been able to get up the City Wall so far.”
“Xin”: “Before you and ‘Yan’ came out of the mountain, you said that within three years, you could make the Southern Border defenses wide open.”
At this moment, the firelight representing “Yan” conveyed Xian Daoren’s explanation: “Yes, originally everything was going smoothly according to plan, but now it’s stuck on Wu Hanluan’s nephew.”
“Xin”: “Can’t you make Wu Hanluan have a rift with this nephew? Manipulating people’s hearts isn’t that your specialty?”
“Yan” (Xian Daoren): “We’re already working on it, don’t be hasty. There are many in the Wu Family who can fight, but only one who can take charge. Wu Hanluan doesn’t fully trust that nephew either, and keeps learning about his movements through the people planted there. ‘Xin’, you need to wait. We’ve all waited a thousand years; there’s no need to rush.”
“Xin” began to laugh wildly. With a “pop” in the lamplight, sparks splashed out, but the flame and smoke pillar in the lamp remained stable.
“Xin”: “You two have received the blessing and can escape the curse of the Flowing Ash Pill, walking in the Human World, while only I am still enduring the corrosion of the rancid oil. Now you advise me to wait?!”
The conversation fell silent. “Xin”: “Forget it, I don’t expect you two to be clever and ingenious in your schemes. Just lure away Wu Hanluan’s main force, and after that, you don’t need to concern yourselves.”
San Gu immediately sensed something and asked with “concern”: “You want to launch a strong assault on Yongji Pass?”
“Xin”: “What about it? Since you can’t convert him (Wu Fei) to our use, I’ll personally come to teach him a lesson.”
San Gu, as “Yan”, snorted coldly: “Let me tell you, Yongji Pass’s current city defenses are the strongest in a century. Though you’ve gathered the Monster troops of the Southern Border, nine times out of ten you’ll end up battered and bloody.”
“Xin”: “Heh, that’s none of your concern.”
At this moment, Xian Daoren, as “Yan” in the lamplight: “‘Xin’, have you gotten some other path? I remember that the Crow People branch from beyond the heavens has now descended and sought your protection. Did that confirm some information for you? That’s why you’re so urgent.”
Xin did not answer.
Xian Daoren chuckled lightly: “In that case, as you wish.”
The Lotus Lamp’s firelight remained, but strangely, the Wick had disappeared. Yan and Yan were still there, floating in the Lotus Lamp like rootless duckweed. Suddenly, this lamp turned into a pool of blue, and the firelight became a large eye.
…Below is the blue content…
The Eye of the Past and the Eye of the Future not only stared at Wu Fei simultaneously; they had also toyed with others together. Once complete control over a person is achieved, they can traverse time and space to the temporal anchor point in that person’s Soul, crossing past and future. Now, the Eye of the Past and the Eye of the Future have selected Wu Fei, but Wu Fei is unworthy of conversion, so the two are trapped on this timeline and cannot jump out of this spacetime.
However, on this timeline, the other unfortunates whom they have fully converted have already become roles in the “plan”.
San Gu with a faint smile: “Brother, this ‘Xin’ guy seems to want to break away from the trinity.”
Xian Daoren sighed: “Yeah, we’ve coexisted with him for two or three hundred years, watching him win all along. (In the early days of Li Huo Sect’s flight south, there were still seventeen Elders; now only three remain, the rest devoured.) Now at the end, it’s time for the final ‘change’.”
San Gu: “So what should his outcome be now? Our new element here needs to be fused in.” (The so-called new element is that they have come to this timeline to reselect an observer, involving those among them.)
Xian Daoren: “That Crow People lineage has some Bi Fang blood in it, containing a strand of fire rhyme. He wants to use Bi Fang as the source to gather his own living flame from the wildfires of the land.”
San Gu remained steady and composed, as if she had long known the plot: “In that case, why are you still helping him!”
Xian Daoren laughed: “Didn’t you say Yongji Pass is strong enough, that outsiders crashing into it will end up battered and bloody? Since they’re so confident, we don’t mind changing the Wick.”
San Gu: “A new Wick?” Though saying this, her gaze was on Wu Yuanchang’s camp at Yongji Pass.
Xian Daoren: “He doesn’t want to be a good Wick; someone else will. If he hadn’t stubbornly clung to the title of Crown Prince Zhide, defying the way of change, he would have long escaped those scorching Shackles.”
San Gu: “A new Wick! How should I ignite it.” — This seemed like a question but was actually a demand.
After a long while, Xian Daoren said: “You handle the Bi Fang blood.”
…Too clever by half…
In the artisan workshop, Wu Fei was fiddling with the winding mechanism on the Vernier Caliper, squinting at the millimeter-scale adjustment. This tool was common in his previous life, but in truth, Xuan Chong had only heard of it. After describing it many times to the artisans, they busied themselves half a day making various other things. Finally, he tried making a prototype himself, and only then could the artisans produce it.
Similar technologies like the Vernier Caliper should exist in the artisan workshops of Emperor Yao’s capital, but here in the borderlands, the artisans in these newly integrated small workshops had never heard of it.
In small workshops, the Vernier Caliper doesn’t represent productivity; each carpenter’s hand feel is precise enough to make wooden trays that can hold water. But in large workshops, with multiple processes collaborating, a “standard measure” is necessary.
Just like leading troops: bandits can use various specialized slang for communication, but regular troops need unified command signals.
Wu Fei set down the caliper and instructed the artisan: “All Arrow Fletching must be three point four inches long, zero point eight millimeters thick, and weigh one point five qian. Got it.” This artisan manager took Notes and recorded the data.
Meanwhile, the turning cutter was producing Arrow Fletching for the Arrows.
Regarding production standards for Arrow Fletching, Wu Fei consulted relevant artisan records, but there were no universal standard measurements recorded. The experiences on Bamboo Slips were all like this: using tail feathers from one-year-old male pheasants, selected for their bright gray color.
This relied on the stable growth of bird Species to ensure Arrow Fletching dimensions—an absolute empiricism, without an interconnected theoretical system.
Wu Fei couldn’t find enough bird feathers for the time being. As a fallback, he chose to carve Bamboo Slips instead. The Arrows shot from the bows and crossbows held by Zhao Tu and other Palace Attendants achieved a wounding range of one inch skin penetration, reduced by twenty paces.
But with the large increase in Arrow numbers and more practice, the crossbowmen’s accuracy improved significantly. Relying on Mountain Sight for aiming, they could hit pot-lid-sized targets at over one hundred paces with more than seventy percent probability.
Straw targets of various sizes from foreign races were set up on the archery range. Wu Fei checked one by one the penetration of Arrows at various distances, then used a Carving Knife to engrave Records on the Bamboo Tally in his hand.
…The Southern Border is a land of foul stench…
Xiao Qing followed behind Wu Fei. At this time, she was still slender, but her height had grown a full circle, reaching eight feet.
Xiao Qing now managed the Panlong Association, this commercial organization—oh, that is, gathering a group of Snake People and other Southern Border foreign races to collect intelligence for the Wu Family Army’s commercial activities in the south.
At this time, though Xiao Qing was not a Tribe leader in the Southern Border, she could decide the life and death of many Southern Border Tribes.
Regarding her current situation, Wu Fei knew it well: this was a useful knife, but also raising a tiger that could turn on him. Once something happened to him, this Snake Woman and her Panlong Association would spiral out of control, similar to the wild boar hide unintentionally fostered by Li Liangcheng.
For this situation, Wu Fei felt helpless. Because according to his historical records, it was unsolvable. To expand territory outward, one must heavily employ border foreign race talents, but once Central Plains dynasties guarded against the borders, weakening the native forces there, it would inevitably lead to fostering enemies.
The Hu people Emperor Wu of Han resettled after defeating the Xiongnu north became arrogant by the Jin dynasty; the Eastern Hu who were as obedient as dogs during the Tang dynasty’s prosperity demanded tribute while raiding for supplies during the Song; it was even more so in the Ming. After the scholars dismantled Li Chengliang’s private army, the wild boars who started with eighteen suits of Armor scavenging scraps turned into hungry wolves devouring their master.
Looking at the respectful Xiao Qing, Wu Fei was momentarily lost in thought. He listed out these questions and then temporarily set them aside.
Wu Fei: “Qing, the intelligence you submitted says that the tribes in the Southern Ling River of the Southern Border show signs of rebellion.”
Xiao Qing: “Yes, sir. They are now conspiring, and there is a possibility of them gathering over ten thousand.”
Wu Fei nodded at the situation on the silk cloth map where the “malicious energy” was approaching Yongji Pass from the south: “It was about time.”
Wu Fei had already learned from the intelligence: After the Li Huo Sect was forced to relocate, in the four hundred years since arriving in the Southern Border, they had never forgotten their obsession with subverting Da Yao, and they had always been infiltrating the Southern Border. All the wars in the Southern Border over these few hundred years, including the previous war between Wu Hanluan and the Snake People, had the shadow of this Li Huo Sect behind them.
With such consistent efforts over a hundred years to “change the status quo,” Wu Fei: “They really put in the effort. But effort needs to pick the right timing.”
…It seemed to prove this point; for Wu Fei, something untimely had appeared at this moment…
In the 5th month of the 27th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, the Imperial Court suddenly mobilized the elites of the Wu Family Army northward.
These elites naturally included the six Golden Bull Giant Soldiers, as well as that cavalry unit that had risen to prominence during the pacification of the rebellions in Zhu Prefecture and the two prefectures.
Wu Hanluan and Wu Hengyu led their troops northward. When passing Tianmen Post, Xian Daoren, who was with the army, turned back to look at the Southern Mountain Ridge, revealing a mysterious smile, and jested: “Now someone is getting what they wished for.”
On the road through the pass, the six Golden Bulls forded the river water. During the crossing, whirlpools appeared in the river water ahead and behind the Golden Bulls, causing the ferries following behind to rock and nearly capsize. But the intense rocking also caused a Battle Soldier in iron armor to plop into the river and sink. After this incident, the army’s march began to slow down.
On the riverbank, the soldiers of the Wu Family Army looked at the moldy yellow flatbreads issued by the local post station and were grumbling.
Sitting on the ground, Soldier A: “Far from home, damn it, look, we just left home and they’re already issuing old rice and old grain.”
Soldier B: “Say less, it’s already good that we have something to eat now.”
Over a thousand soldiers, one sentence from you and one from me, their muttering formed a wave of noise.
At this time in the main camp, Wu Hanluan watched the soldiers waiting to cross the river whispering to each other and frowned.
Meanwhile, Wu Hengyu nearby was parched as he directed the cavalry group to find more boats upstream and downstream.
Wu Hanluan shook his head; if it were him, he wouldn’t give the soldiers a chance to sit down and discuss. Even if he made the rear troops walk slower, upon reaching the riverbank, he wouldn’t stop and wait, but instead form teams to scout the terrain and conduct exploration. For meals, they would rotate in fifteen-minute shifts to eat, and after eating, “hold a twig in the mouth.”
“However,” Wu Hanluan pinched the yellow flatbread in the soldier’s hand and sighed, “Once away from home, we’re at others’ mercy.”
These yellow flatbreads came from the local government office responsible for military supplies; they had ground old rice stored in the warehouse for several years into military grain. — In comparison, when Wu Fei managed the Great Warehouse, the marching rations were rice and flour cakes mixed with dried plums, vegetables, and salted meat. During normal marches, when cooking, each person had thick millet porridge and large pieces of salted fish for lunch.
Because Wu Fei held the silver, having multiple merchant houses responsible for military grain! If the military grain was substandard, they would be kicked out of the supply list. And after battles, the monopoly business in occupied areas would exclude these merchant houses.
When Wu Fei was scraping in Zhu Prefecture, everything could be converted into military resources, even local real estate, which was all forcibly bought and then sold to local merchants. To ensure credibility, if the buyer felt that this property might be demanded back by local bosses in the future, Wu Fei would immediately become a county magistrate who “ruins families and exterminates clans,” directly pinning a charge of colluding with bandits on the original owner and exiling the whole family to Lingnan. But if they were willing to do business, nothing would be touched.
As a result, at that time, although the Wu Family Army bore the bad reputation carried by Wu Xiao Que, wherever they went, they were sincerely welcomed.
At this time, there was also warfare in the North; the various armies passing through en route had no normal purchasing channels, and wherever the soldiers passed, they were guarded by poor ghosts tending thin fields. Even demolishing houses for cooking wouldn’t yield much money.
In contrast, Wu Fei’s army was quite disciplined. After passing through, they would survey the land properly, gather farm tools, and even fatten the draft oxen in the stables. The merchant houses would quickly negotiate with local wealthy households willing to cooperate, taking advantage of the reshuffle to eat what they could. — What, don’t want to sell? Wait until after the army passes and sue the Imperial Court? Tsk tsk, then your whole family might die in the bandit chaos.
Of course, if wealthy households were willing to pay a bit more, the army could even use surplus manpower to dig a ditch on your family’s land, making it easier to compete for water with neighboring villages later.
The essence of commerce is that as long as you need it, I can put a price on it. Which noble family or powerful clan doesn’t have gold and silver buried in their backyard? The passing army doesn’t know, but locals certainly do. This information is worthless if not exchanged, but once exchanged, it’s a deal; the soldiers can at any time launder these properties into clean, ownerless items and sell them to cooperators.
In Zhu Prefecture, a place where the Imperial Court hadn’t collected taxes for ten consecutive years, Wu Fei scraped up a big handful of oil. — The local wealthy households offered “baskets of food and jugs of wine,” and the army never complained about food.
Wu Hanluan looked at the busy Wu Hengyu; facing the Imperial Court’s conscription, he chose “father and son soldiers on the battlefield.” Wu Hanluan: What if he had brought Yuan Chang out?
But soon, Wu Hanluan shook off this thought. On this expedition, there was certainly a chance to establish merit and achievements, but even more likely to wrap one’s corpse in horse leather. He needed to leave someone to guard the home and keep a fallback.
…North-South dividing line,…
Inside the “Military Affairs Office” in Yongji Pass, just as they confirmed that the scale of the Southern Border foreign race alliance heading north was over ten thousand, Wu Fei also received the bad news that his uncle and the others had been transferred away.
At this time, this news was absolutely bad for him. The most important thing in war is a stable rear, and this stability is best with no changes at all.
“Roar, someone wants to stab me in the back?” Wu Fei looked at the current intelligence with a playful expression. He had just prepared to act against the south, and the family’s rear forces were transferred away, creating instability in morale.
Wu Fei strongly suspected there was an insider in the Wu Family Army; otherwise, it was impossible for his uncle’s main force to head north and the south to rebel so eagerly. Who was this insider? Wu Fei narrowed his eyes, looked in the mirror at himself, and began listing all the people connected to him through interpersonal relationships, radiating outward. — His reflection in the mirror became very scheming.
The side effect of Yongji Pass’s commercialized atmosphere manifested: every breeze shook confidence greatly. First, some elders in the Wu Family, upon hearing that the family’s local elites had been transferred north, inexplicably felt unsafe, became less confident in the Wu Family’s garrison at the pass, and believed that Wu Fei was still young, lacking grasp of the big picture, and that the current strategy should prioritize stability.
At the same time, the merchants also lost the enthusiasm for additional investment from half a year ago, staging “market confidence contraction” as a reality for Xuan Chong. All merchants began holding back, extending the closure times of workshops in Yongji Pass. When questioned by the General’s Mansion, they gave perfunctory responses and refused to deliver more goods to shops in Yongji Pass, merely maintaining market prosperity.
The only cloth vendor who bought in bulk nearly made Wu Xiao Que jump up and chop him; he had bought white cloth.
Wu Fei, this Young General, had achieved all past victories by following the Old General Wu Hanluan. Although recognized in the military, in the eyes of people outside the army, Wu Fei’s backer was Wu Hanluan, and he was still lacking to shoulder the big burden alone.
Whether he could stand on his own would depend on whether Sparrow could hold up in this first battle after leaving protection.
Wu Fei looked at the map, without the complacency of foresight, but instead pondered by immersing himself: “Of course, with over ten thousand brutes, they think they can breach Yongji Pass? Too underestimating this fortified city and stronghold. Historically, this pass withstood three years of attacks from tens of thousands of demons and evils from the Southern Border. The enemy’s preparations clearly do not exceed the historical maximum troop strength. And he himself, guarding the pass, was currently fully prepared.”
“Then!” Wu Fei’s finger slid on the silk cloth over the mountains where Yongji Pass was located; wherever his finger pointed, the “Yao Calculation” mountain patterns on the silk cloth showed grass and trees swaying.
Wu Fei: “Probably wanting to ‘stealthily cross Yinping and head straight for Shu Han.'”
If there was such a small path bypassing Yongji Pass, it could indeed produce miraculous results! Of course, this was based on the current situation where the main force at Tianchi City had already headed north, leaving troops depleted.
Wu Fei: In the campaign where Shu Han was destroyed, stealthily crossing Yinping was certainly a brilliant strategy, but more importantly, Shu Han’s combat forces were all concentrated on the frontline. After Deng Ai breaks in, they did not choose to hold the advantageous terrain, resulting in annihilation of their last vital forces on the plains and total collapse.
Wu Fei looked at the map; such a “stealthily crossing Yinping” strategy might have succeeded ten years earlier, but now?
Two orders were issued from the Military Affairs Office.
The first was “strengthen border patrols”; this was sent to merchants within the territory, requiring them to buy information from their mountain road peddlers. Because any road possibly used for stealth crossing would definitely be known to the profit-driven traveling merchants.
Provide information on a mountain road crossing the border, rewarded with twenty strings of cash; if confirming unidentified troops appearing on the roads and reporting promptly, rewarded with one thousand strings and three merits; if daring to actively lead enemy troops onto that road and cooperate with the Wu Family Army’s ambush, rewarded with thirty thousand strings and granted twenty merits!
The second was to borrow money from various merchant houses and conscript local braves. Now, the rear of Yongji Pass was no barren land; after three years of checkpoints and years of slave trade, a large number of artisans had gathered here, along with a large number of slaves captured from the Zhu Prefecture pacification. Now, organizing these slaves together with local braves,
As the two orders were issued, regarding the current issue of people’s hearts being so easily swayed, Wu Fei pondered creating a system in the Wu Family Army that he would fully control, similar to the overlord’s headquarters invented by Cao Cao. Wu Fei hurriedly declared in his heart: “I am not trying to rebel against my homeland; I just want to provide double insurance for the Great Tang’s rivers and mountains like Li Erfeng.”
