Chapter 32: Gradually Getting The Hang Of It
The mountain monsters’ misfortune, after being reported back to the tribe, created an atmosphere of “tavern mocking Kong Yiji”-style Wu Haha. After all, in the stereotypes of the southern border races, mountain monsters are just big dummies, and once mountain monsters decide to use their brains to find methods, they definitely provide everyone with laughter. As for whether the mistakes made by mountain monsters should alert someone? Low-level mistakes made by big dummies, why should I be vigilant? If I am vigilant, wouldn’t that mean I’m a big dummy too?
Thus, fourteen hours later, the troops that had just repaired the mountain monsters ambushed another wave of horned people.
If horned people don’t count the horns on their heads, their height is generally no more than two-thirds of Yao people’s, so they are genuinely short people. In relevant southern border gazetteers: horned people are distributed very widely, and in terms of numbers, they are the largest great clan in the southern border. The “scaled and horned” description of southern border races by Da Yao refers to “horned” as them.
They are not outstanding in physical strength and have no smelting technology, but they have one unique skill: they are adept at identifying minerals through taste, and by swallowing minerals, they precipitate corresponding patterns on their horns. Their horns become more metallic in luster and harder the richer the minerals they swallow, and the harder the horns, the higher their status in their tribe.
The reason they could ambush this group of horned people was actually because of the clawed people previously led by the mountain monsters. Before the mountain monsters led him over, he had been beaten badly by the horned people in the camp.
In the Da Yao army, a fellow clawed person rescued him and gave him food. After that, this clawed person captive decided to switch camps and become a “accomplice” for this Yao person troop.
This newly joined clawed person, named Yi Ke Te by the Wu Family Army captain based on his self-reported name. It is said to mean artisan skill.
After receiving spare straw sandals and equipment from the Wu Family Army, Yi Ke Te volunteered for a mission: to act as bait and lure some bastards from the southern tribes over.
Many Wu Family Army soldiers were somewhat suspicious, but after thinking it over, they still let him do it, with the premise that he couldn’t lure “clawed people”—luring other races could still be trusted, but if he lured clawed people, that would be very suspicious.
After Yi Ke Te left, the Wu Family Army internally used “flying bird messaging” to report the matter. Since it was only a hundred li from Yongji Pass, the flying bird talisman brought a reply within two quarters of an hour: Wu Fei: “Permission granted for this risk, but scouts must be dispatched. If anything seems off, the entire team withdraws immediately.”
……
On Yi Ke Te’s side, after leaving with his fellow clansmen, he sneaked to the vicinity of the main camp. After squatting for a full hour, he spotted a horned people team and immediately began action.
When this horned people team ran to the riverbed of a stream to chew sand and replenish minerals, Yi Ke Te shouted from the mountain top, attracting the attention of these horned people, then unleashed a barrage of curses. Since he escaped from the camp, the curses hit exactly on their sore spot: “many internal traitors, killing their own kind” and the like.
This was roughly because traitors like Wu Haha led southern horned people here to borrow grain, which quickly turned into outright robbery, and as they robbed, other races began robbing the horned people too. Who made the horned people numerous? Moreover, when Da Yao exited closed-door cultivation a few days ago, they frantically bought goods, and coincidentally, horned people tribes had many gold sand mines, exchanging for a lot of hard currency like salt and cloth, which these local horned people tribes then resold to other races. So after the black tide arrived, these tribes bore “original sin.”
As a result, these local horned people tribes north of the river became “public toilets”—you step once, I step once. Often after the allied horned people robbed them clean, other races followed for another wave. No money? Then directly eating meat wasn’t out of the question.
The horned people themselves initiated the slaughter of their own race, completely unaware that other races were mocking them while joining in. In this northward black tide, many aspiring horned people felt extremely frustrated. Their own race sent the most people northbound this time, but their racial status declined instead.
Yi Ke Te had just mocked their sore spot. These stream horned people, after being teased, collectively charged toward Yi Ke Te in a chaotic swarm.
Yi Ke Te had his companion go back to report, then began pulling the monsters.
…Pulling dividing line…
When four to five hundred horned people charged furiously into the encirclement, the responsible Wu Family Army captain’s eyes were bloodshot, and the hand holding the command flag trembled with excitement—these were all great merits.
The captain nearby pointed at the luring Yi Ke Te ahead and asked: “What did you ‘sharp claw’ do to make those short barbarians act like their mother died?”
At this point, even though the horned people main force was gasping for breath, they stared deadly at the fleeing Yi Ke Te ahead, vowing to capture this slave, drag him back to camp, and skin him alive in front of the clawed people leader.
Before this ambush battle, the Wu Family Army armored soldiers ambushed in the woods on both sides were in concealment status to those “horned people.”
When the horned people penetrated the ambush circle, their leader sensed a metallic blood smell in the wind from the left. Hmm, this was the smell from arrows pulled out of mountain monsters after battling them. The horned people leader turned to look at the surrounding shrubbery, and just as he did, the Wu Family Army ambushed in the shrubbery was discovered by the horned people.
At this time, when the ambush circle’s both sides were only fifty paces from the horned people, a terrifying killing intent erupted from both sides instantly, almost visible killing intent waves converging toward the center, then turning into a roaring killing intent wave pressing down on the horned people. The killing intent not only intimidated their minds but also made their leather armor emit strange curling sounds from the folds.
The horned people entering the ambush circle panicked greatly, instinctively huddling together, but what greeted them was a volley of heavy crossbows. In the first volley, the outermost horned people dropped dead. Like knife-shaved dough peeling off, they detached from the team.
After being shot one round, the horned people were terrified for a moment, unsure where the enemies were numerous, so in three breaths, another round of crossbow bolts swept over, shaving off another layer like peeling skin, and another circle of horned people fell. However, affected by the killing intent, the horned people still didn’t dare charge, continuing to huddle until the ninth round of crossbow bolts, when they finally realized being shot like targets meant they would all die sooner or later.
Thus, the leading silver-spotted horned person led the charge forward, though he didn’t know which way to charge and couldn’t immediately get other horned people to follow.
As this leader led horned people charging to the left side. One second later, dozens of horned people followed in a scattered, unformed rush. At this time, on the left side, the excited Da Yao people began aiming, and with one command, this round’s volley was exceptionally effective.
The horned people group just preparing to impact was hit by arrow rain from the side and rear, with over half killed or wounded. The surviving horned people had to look fearfully at the numerous Da Yao Army soldiers’ shadows in the grass and trees to their side and rear. So, which way to charge? In this hesitation, suddenly the right side thundered with bowstrings, and the unprepared horned people dropped dead in a swath again.
As for the leading horned person, he was pinned dead to the ground by three crossbow bolts at once. The horned people completely collapsed, scattering in all directions. They even dropped the weapons in their hands just to run faster.
At this time, armored soldiers from both sides charged up with iron shovels. These remaining three hundred “horned people” were already gasping for breath from the earlier pursuit. Facing the charging armored soldiers, under the iron shovel smacks, the horned people rolled on the ground. Fallen horned people, seeing the shovel swinging at other clansmen, immediately scrambled up and ran. In this race of who runs faster, it turned into a shooting contest for the Wu Family Army crossbowmen.
Afterward, the soldiers who came to transport military supplies counted the heads and confirmed 365 kills.
…After the ambush battle, everyone’s faces showed joyful harvest, even the sweat seemed sweet—hmm, this sweat mixed with blood…
After all heads were chopped off and piled into a Jing Guan, incense was inserted. Then a paper figure hopped onto the heads, quite cutely counting one by one. After dancing on the last head, it turned into a paper crane and flew toward Yongji Pass.
Of course, the team’s officers also recorded the head count to prevent loss in transit via the thousand paper cranes. As for after returning to the checkpoint, each team reports their head gains, and whether the paper cranes actually lost any, they don’t know: if heads are underreported and the discrepancy exceeds one-tenth, the squad leader’s “merit” is halved.
After the paper crane flew over, unexpectedly, half an hour later, Yongji Pass quickly responded. Originally, merits were only settled upon return, but now they were to be settled on the spot, mainly allocated to Yi Ke Te and the clawed person who was already leading in the team. Yi Ke Te got ten heads, and the team’s guide, due to defecting early, got fifteen heads’ merit.
The team’s Wu Family Army squad leader quickly understood Wu Fei’s intent, so he called soldiers to report the merits, then had all fifteen foreign race guides in the team summoned.
…Perspective review to the north.…
Yongji Pass at the junction of Daqing Mountain and Jinji Ridge is like a great dragon lying in the mountain stream, waiting for foolish “dragon slayers” to challenge.
In the military affairs office of Yongji Pass, as distant talisman orders flew here, they turned into bamboo tallies neatly hung on the wall, while messengers loudly announced the contents.
Separated by half a hall from this wall, at the desk in front, Wu Fei used a brush to outline marks on the unfolded silk book map. As the brush tip dragged, military symbols leaped accordingly. For the just-concluded ambush battle, the horned people troop symbol on the map immediately faded upon message receipt, its pigment merging into the grass and wood patterns.
Wu Fei stood up, let out a long breath, and waved his hand. His personal soldier carried sweet cane into the hall, peeled it with the hall’s meal knife, and distributed one to each person in the military affairs office. The advisor responsible for announcing the bamboo tallies’ contents had a hoarse throat and eagerly grabbed his to gnaw.
“Crack crack,” the crisp sound of chewing sugarcane rang in the hall. Wu Fei took one and started from the non-sweet end, relaxing his brain, savoring the refreshing sugarcane juice.
For Wu Fei himself, this battle was his first independent command of an army corps-level operation.
For this campaign, the manpower Wu Fei mobilized, including local braves and quasi-armed personnel like hired merchant caravans, exceeded five thousand. Such troop strength would count as a full army in the Central Plains.
The area affected by this campaign now, though mostly in the desolate southern border, allowed Wu Fei to boast that his mobilized military strength’s active range was no less than that of so-called ten-thousand-strong armies contesting around prefectures with war horses.
Of course, Yongji Pass firmly guarding the rear put Wu Fei in an invincible position. This was incomparable to those campaigns.
Commanding such a large-area operation for the first time, to say Wu Fei wasn’t anxious or nervous would be false. In the initial stage, Wu Fei worried whether his commands had issues, committing “mediocre general” errors and dragging down frontline troops. A mix of gain and loss feelings even prevented good sleep—oh, this was also thanks to the system’s nightly “mind cleansing” merit.
Later, after getting the hang of it for a while, Wu Fei was now in the groove! The sweet cane end was already scraps on the plate. Just right at the central sugarcane stage, entering the prime!
Wu Fei chewed sweet cane while gazing at the map, judging the situation, occasionally fine-tuning commands. These past days, in other directions, the Wu Family Army also completed fine blocking battles.
On the large map of the area south of Yongji Pass, there were sixteen rivers total. Most river sections were either rapids and shoals or appeared calm but were very deep in the middle—only locals knew where to cross. Last year, when Wu Fei led eight hundred to scout, he focused on rivers, seeking nearby tribes and confirming fewer than a hundred suitable shallow riverbeds for fording. All listed on this map, and now Wu Fei could recite them from memory.
These southern tribes were clearly unfamiliar with the north. Rivers were natural barriers to them, often blocking left and right along the riverbank for a while, finally discovered by scattered “branch” troops stumbling upon crossing points.
And when these branch troops tried fording, Wu Fei often preemptively predicted their path and moved assault troops ahead.
The on-site camp captains were also very experienced, first deploying a thin layer of troops to block at the riverbed pass, waiting until this black tide small troop was halfway across, then revealing the crossbowmen hidden on both sides of the river crossing. The black tide group fording, seeing the suddenly widened shooting array on the opposite bank, instinctively wanted to detour but forgot that below the river flow, the shoal area was limited, resulting in them shoving into the deep water beside the shoal.
…Sweeping great victories and epic triumphs continuously…
Wu Fei originally worried that after their assault reached the mountains of Yongji Pass, a “stealthily crossing Yinping” situation might occur, so he dispatched elite teams southward to grasp enemy movements. Meanwhile, at Yongji Pass, he prepared enough farm soldiers (that batch recruited by the escort agency) for immediate defense.
Now it seemed the enemy utterly lacked this ability, so unfamiliar with the terrain! Do they really have the ability to stealthily cross Yinping?
At this moment, the closer the black tide advanced south of Yongji Pass, the clearer Wu Fei’s grasp of the frontline.
Wu Fei finally confirmed: “According to comprehensive intelligence from the military affairs office, this tribal army assault to the doorstep of Yongji Pass will take between ten and twenty days!”
Even if this tribal allied army played tricks during the assault, the siege window was still just those ten to twenty days!
Deng Ai’s stealthily crossing Yinping trick hinged on that tight timeline—without enough time, his grain and grass would run out midway, and the troops would scatter.
Wu Fei knew the intelligence showed the black tide constantly causing havoc, making northern tribes avoid them.
Even if the black tide ate anything—mushrooms, fish and shrimp—Wu Fei even calculated mutual cannibalism. Hmm, even figuring “mutual eating causing ten percent attrition leading to collapse,” they couldn’t last twenty days.
“Next is just waiting slowly, of course still guard against eventualities.” Wu Fei raised his hand to the map, using fingers to measure nearby mountain road detours. At each suspicious infiltration pass, his finger paused at areas seemingly amenable to feng shui dispatching for earth vein transport.
However, even if the black tide commander wanted to infiltrate via earth veins, it would be hard to bypass Yongji Pass.
The slopes on both sides of Yongji Pass had many military caves directly connecting to earth veins. Checkpoint garrison could enter mountain body soldier caves, follow earth vein pulses downward for interception battles.
……
Just as Wu Fei suspected every possible point of failure, San Gu walked in. Seeing Wu Fei’s focused demeanor, she approached and said: “General, victory is already in your grasp. You don’t need to think so much.”
This Saturday, Sunday, single update
