Chapter 7: What Is Thought, Enjoyed, Feared, Tolerated
The Granary Battle lasted from the end of Wu hour to the beginning of You hour (from 3 PM to 7 PM). In fact, the truly difficult part had already ended before sunset. What followed was taking turns to man the defenses strictly, blocking the camp exit to prevent the snake people from escaping.
In the main camp, the kitchen fired up to cook, boiling gao ba. After rinsing the rations with well water, they were immediately delivered to the soldiers who had withdrawn to catch their breath and rest. For a moment, the camp was filled not only with the stench but also the smoky aroma of pickles, rice and flour, and stove tops.
Wu Fei had played a key role in organizing the camp teams into groups over these two months.
According to the Wu Family Army’s training dharma gate, the grouping was divided according to Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui. When he first arrived, Xuan Chong thought this was too chuunibyou. Later, he learned it was a summary of empiricism.
Xuan Chong: Grouping is for mobilization, and mobilization relies on flags. If it were numerical flags, these farmers wouldn’t understand. Only with the eight basic hexagrams of yao calculation as flags could the soldiers in each group collectively realize it was their camp team receiving the general’s order to take the field. Similar to how Marshal Yuan’s training with “straw sandals” and “cloth shoes” allowed quick reactions, but “left” and “right” did not.
And now, the grouped soldiers were like university students during military training taking turns using gaps on the training ground—some sitting to rest in their own camp, others standing ready to take the field in rotation under the flag’s command.
The camp’s space was small, so each team entering and exiting the field was like the pistons of a multi-cylinder engine, compressing in turns into the twenty-zhang-wide battlefield at the camp entrance.
This rotation kept the frontline soldiers who were fighting the fiercest always with abundant stamina. The more abundant the stamina, the tighter the moves, the fewer the casualties, and with fewer casualties, morale rose higher and higher.
In the final stage, the snake people were like cornered beasts fighting, hanging on with their last breath in desperate struggle. Slowly wearing down their strength was the steadiest approach.
As someone who had fought in middle school, Xuan Chong deeply knew that fighting was extremely stamina-consuming—swinging fists while dodging to protect the bridge of nose and eye socket. Five minutes was fine, but over time, one would be gasping, inevitably seeing stars, with a sweet metallic taste in the nose. If the opponent still had the stamina advantage, one could only hug head and squat defensively.
As for the fierce generals in ancient biographies who fought fifty rounds on horseback, it wasn’t just great strength but also strong endurance.
And in this world, Wu Fei had seen in his memory his uncle charging for a shichen. Before charging, his uncle hadn’t donned armor yet and was covered in muscle, with a beer belly-like layer of fat around his waist and abdomen. After the charge, back in the military tent removing armor, he was like a steam blast furnace, a ring of white hot steam diffusing, followed by sweat drenching his body as if soaked in water. The fat around his waist and abdomen was gone. Only after eating a large plate of pork and rice and flour, and sleeping, would the fat reappear on his body.
Personally leading a charge formation was the most direct way for a general to boost morale. As long as the general took the field, even if the soldiers’ morale was at its lowest, they would forcibly hang on with one last breath and not be defeated.
Xuan Chong himself currently lacked this “charge formation” ability. He didn’t have the physique for Wu Hanluan’s combination of “muscle” and “fat” in dynamic balance.
Oh, at this moment, the system also provided a training plan: broadcast gymnastics, which leaned toward coordinating body balance in its effects.
Xuan Chong felt this was the modern sports model. Compared to ancient times, most physical labor had disappeared from modern work. Moreover, high-energy foods were easily obtainable—like carrying chocolate and sugary drinks in one’s pocket. Who would still keep fat? But now it was ancient times.
Worth mentioning was that, despite some grumbling, Xuan Chong did not defy the system on training, nor did he gorge himself like his uncle, because the system would “deduct academic credit.”
Xuan Chong had always not known what problems “deducting academic credit” would ultimately cause, but he still followed it. It was like walking a small path at night: the system’s “academic credit” route was the lit area. As for the unlit places, out of resistance to the unknown, though he occasionally probed with a foot, he never stepped out.
…thoughts…
In the final stage of engagement, the laborer soldiers were rotating in combat, while Wu Fei kept his nerves taut at all times, judging the snake people’s final counterattack moment and his own side’s condition.
The laborers under Wu Fei each had muscle on their bodies but little fat, so their condition dropped quickly after engagement. Insufficient endurance.
Wu Fei watched the soldiers shouting as they pressed forward below, involuntarily imagining himself on the frontline swinging a saber. Vaguely, he heard everyone’s breathing and heartbeat, and visualized the “stamina bar” drop during each spear thrust, as well as how many more full-force thrusts they could do from the initial state.
The soldiers’ fatigue—Wu Fei was now gradually able to “feel it as if his own.”
And at the same time, for the snake people, the degree of muscle fatigue from continuous rotations in battle, Wu Fei could similarly imagine—no, Xuan Chong could even feel for these snake people how their arms swinging stone axes grew increasingly sore, even clearer than the snake people themselves on how many breaths until their last gasp for a dying counterattack.
Due to this imagination, Wu Fei seemed to foresee the future, determining how many losses his farmers would suffer in the snake people’s dying counterattack after committing his troops!—Thus, he chose to prolong the battle, waiting for the snake people’s last string to snap in “change.”
A flash of blue light flickered in Wu Fei’s pupils. Immediately, Wu Fei saw that in twenty breaths, the snake person on the left couldn’t hold on—he erupted in a fierce final counterattack, then his movements had no strength left, facing the saber without dodging, and was stabbed to death. Right after, another snake person about two body lengths away followed the same steps.
The snake people’s last breaths erupting in rotation, like a string of firecrackers, popping and crackling as they released.
Compared to exploding all at once, this staggered explosion—yes, one by one dying bursts—was easier to handle.
Wu Fei, based on this rhythm, predicted what was about to happen, nodded: “About right.” He waved the command flag, sending multiple reserve teams forward, especially in front of the snake people group in the first wave preparing to “trade lives.”
The future confirmed Wu Fei’s thinking: just before the first snake person’s dying burst, his order had just brought a squad of warriors at full stamina to replace this wave. As the snake person’s final killing move was blocked, under the surging drum beats boosting morale, the five charged forward in battle formation with rainbow momentum—one spear hit its arm holding the stone axe, while the other two speared into the abdomen and throat respectively. The snake person’s dying struggle had no effect, and it curled up in death with regret.
Right after was the second, the third. With proper deployment of crossbow bolts and halberds, the snake people’s final ripples were precisely smashed apart.
Finally, the snake people surrendered. After their shaman’s spinosaurus mount was stabbed down, this snake person shaman with a white mark on its forehead had already committed suicide with a small dagger.
Xuan Chong picked up this pure gold dagger, on which the blue gemstone seemed alive. Xuan Chong looked at it, pried the gemstone off with a sword, smashed the dagger into small pieces, stuffed them in his pocket. What Xuan Chong didn’t know was that the blue gemstone’s overflowing hallucinatory color had attached to his hand.
However, it only attached for an instant, as if a fly flicked away, bouncing back into the gemstone. The blue light in the gemstone tried to continue, but the gemstone instantly cracked open, and that wisp of blue light snuffed out like candle flame.
On Xuan Chong’s side, he just felt the system poke its head out, seemingly stretch lazily, then go back.
…enjoyment…
Torches rose in the camp, like blinking eyes playfully watching the prey in the cage. While Xiao Qing’s slender tongue savored the bloodshed.
The Ye Chao Clan’s resistance had ended, but in many dead-end barriers, individuals were still resisting. Xiao Qing held the crossbow bolt in her hand, targeting certain enemies she recognized.
When among the dying snake people, those guys she had her eye on were about to break through the encirclement and smash open the obstruction with a big hammer to escape, a small crossbow bolt would just happen to insert into the snake person’s body, then drain the strength from its frame—because the crossbow bolt was coated with poison left from the “mad snake feast” magic. The suddenly weakened snake person, before collapsing, faced the surrounding sabers and spears pressing in, emitting a wail of despair.
In Xiao Qing’s sense of hearing, this was so beautiful. And she wasn’t satisfied with that; as the camp battle ended, she followed the pursuit team out of the camp.
After a volley of arrow rain, the tree stumps ahead were full of arrowheads, snake people flicking tails retreating into the grass. Leaving several S-shaped twisted trails in the grass.
Xiao Qing looked at those trails in the grass leaving bloodstains and damaged snake skin, her mouth joyful, but tears welling in her eyes.
As a survivor of her clan’s extermination, now seeing her enemies fall into even more miserable despair, the enemies’ struggles were the most beautiful dance, her whole body as if soaked in sweet honey.
Xiao Qing hoped these blood trails on the ground could drag on even longer.
But ultimately, after rings of barbed large nets ensnared the exhausted snake people, this delicious pit kill finally ended.
…fear…
Zhao Tu brought all the snake people captives to the drill ground. Amid the farmers’ cheers, like an executioner, he cut off the heads of the captive snake people and snake people corpses, distributing them like pork to each camp.
Zhao Tu’s explanation to Wu Fei was: This killing was the tension-release method for training “mad soldiers.” Previously, it relied on strong suppression to enforce orders among these soldiers, but suppression can’t last forever unchanged; it needs measured tension and release. If these soldiers weren’t allowed to vent now, the accumulated brutality would inevitably erupt uncontrollably sooner or later.
Wu Fei couldn’t help gazing at the several heads from the pre-battle sacrifice to the flag hanging high on his camp’s main flag. Back then, the laborers were like frightened chicks, silent as cicadas in winter. And now, on the drill ground, those farmers holding heads like World Cup trophies—everything felt worlds away.
As Wu Fei’s Xuan Chong, he suddenly felt like he wasn’t from this world, so he opened the system to mutter: “Previously, they (the farmers) obeyed Zhao Tu because they hadn’t killed anyone, so they feared the remorseless Zhao Tu. Now, having killed in this battle, they suddenly realize they too can be remorseless, so Zhao Tu is now using this behavior, with ‘able to lead you to kill,’ to guide this group of farmers’ bloodlust tide.”
System: “Congratulations, initial task completed. You have preliminarily mastered this army.”
Wu Fei: “Can’t you give some useful information? With this troop’s situation, external combat is fine, but if one day the imperial court pulls them into the Central Plains and they encounter siege battles, that’ll mean massacring cities every battle to vent.”
System: “Hmm, are you thinking of entering under heaven?”
With his thoughts seen through, Wu Fei immediately changed the topic: “No way? The Wu Family has loyally served the imperial court for generations, great loyal ministers.”
…accommodation…
While Wu Fei defended the granary, his uncle was building encirclement zones on the periphery.
At this time on the high mountain, Wu Hanluan’s main flag was firmly planted on the mountain top. The army coiled like a long snake on the mountain, everyone waiting for the general’s order and the earth vein to open.
In the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, karst caves can be used to shuttle troops—it’s no secret. Locals can quickly traverse to a mountain foot a hundred li away via earth vein pulsation. In other words, the “spatial distance change” Wu Fei had felt earlier was real. Not an illusion.
Wu Hanluan’s crotch mount winged tiger’s “king brow” slightly furrowed, its tail tapping the ground like a whip crack. Soon, a “furry-faced thunder god mouth” macaque drilled out from below ground. This was from the blue-faced golden macaque clan. After crawling out, it held intelligence, looking ingratiatingly at Wu Hanluan but scared by the winged tiger, not daring to approach.
At this time, the Daoist priest with blue bun beside Wu Hanluan—that is, the Daoist priest who had spied on Wu Fei’s great warehouse a dozen days ago—provisionally called Xian Daoren, walked to this “Earth Walker Sun,” swept dust with his fly whisk, then pinched and yanked a “hair” at its nape. Oh, not a hair, but a wriggling line. Xian Daoren skillfully placed this line into his transparent alcohol gourd; the wriggling line immediately dissolved in the alcohol, turning into yao calculation data.
Xian Daoren cupped hands to Wu Hanluan: “General, this is one of the six servants I brought from Mei Mountain, Hong Yuan, skilled at detecting underground water veins. He must have brought good news for the general.”
Wu Hanluan praised: “So it’s Hero Hong, please rise.”—In the Southern Border, Wu Hanluan was famously tolerant. Whenever Southern Border clans fought internally, he would “timely” show mercy to mediate and shelter certain foreign race fugitives. Carrot and stick, truly the Southern Border clans’ good “kind father.”
After taking the yao calculation data from Xian Daoren, Wu Hanluan opened the silk cloth map in front, inputting the yin yang two energies’ yao calculation data. On the silk cloth map, a line soon formed in the mountains—this was the line inside the mountain that Wu Fei had previously explored. But strangely, with the yao calculation, a bulge appeared on this line, the bulge growing larger while the surrounding lines thinned, as if the space in the passage had squeezed into a “tumor.”
Wu Hanluan’s finger pointed at the bulge, while another finger drew a rune on the command flag. Soon, flags in all directions began fluttering with the wind.
He ordered the whole army: “The earth gate is about to open. Whole army prepare to enter underground for interception.”
The soldiers originally marching in formation on the mountainside soon discovered a tunnel on the mountain side, as if suddenly appeared. Then, led by various cavalry teams, they entered the tunnel. Upon entry, it was initially extremely narrow, barely allowing one person, then after dozens of steps, it suddenly opened up into a vast underground hall booming before their eyes.
This wondrous underground world was the “great grotto-heaven” in local mountain folk legends—the wondrous world one would suddenly step into after entering a cave and encountering an unknown ghost hitting wall.
Earth veins would form blocked evil earth holes with fluctuations, yao calculation could predict such earth holes, and military strategists could suddenly lead their armies underground. Of course, they could also clash with enemies mastering the same method in an “interception battle.”
……
Meanwhile, on the snake people side, the snake person shaman was leading over a thousand snake people traversing the earth vein when suddenly the snake people felt the cave shifting. Immediately after, the troops that had been in a thin long stream formation in the earth vein piled up in the darkness. When everyone’s senses recovered, they were no longer in single-file long snake formation through the narrow cave, but clustered together like an ant army death spiral.
This spatial change shocked many snake people who had never seen earth fiend translocation technique. Of course, what shocked them even more next was that from the other side of this suddenly accommodating great grotto-heaven came the sound of war drums.
The cave filled with waves of war drum sound; sand and gravel, water droplets fell from the cave echoing the drum. The surrounding stalactites turned into reliefs of human heads, sabers and spears, swords and halberds.
The snake people great shaman gazed at the stalactites around twisted into relief murals, inexplicably feeling his own army’s bones would also become part of these reliefs.
