Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 130 Awe-inspiring Power in the North
The Hao Kingdom has stationed 50,000 troops in Bo County. Zhao Cheng calculated that with these troops, Huangyu City and Hu City can support each other. The Skyship Fleet deployed in Hu City can utilize the local sea breeze to maneuver the fleet to Huangyu City at any time; while Huangyu City's provisions can be transported directly to Hu City along the river. During this process, Huangyu City will have sufficient provisions, and Hu City will maintain smooth communication with the outside world, enough to sustain itself for a year.

However, Zhao Cheng made a mistake. Because too many troops were left behind, Su Dong, the general of Hao Kingdom stationed there, was an impatient fellow. After the goods outside the city were looted, he had no patience to organize the patrol work in his territory and chose to go out of the city to fight a reckless opponent whose strength he could not see.

Zhao Cheng hadn't anticipated that a certain guy he'd been guarding against would unexpectedly jump from the west to the east. And this guy, nicknamed Wu Xiaoque, was the best at hitting his opponents' sore spots.

Looking back, Emperor Da Yao Xu successfully predicted Wu Fei's fate in his divination a year ago, and then launched a decisive attack on Hao Kingdom at the most opportune moment.

…Wu Xiaoque set a very fierce fire…

In Huangyu City, the newly appointed Dragon Descendant General Angming was looking at the suddenly changed color of the people's spirit on the map of the land.

In just over ten days, the "Dragon-Slaying Order," which spread like wildfire under his rule, caused various disturbances. At this time, the gates of all cities were closed before dark, and merchants transporting grain dared not travel freely without the passage of Hao's army.

From then on, the "Dragon-Slaying Order" was not just empty talk, but officially launched, stirring up the morale of the entire Bo County.

After all the heroes in Bo County rebelled, the great crocodile of Hao Kingdom was like a pond polluted by Wu Fei.

In early July, on the outskirts of Hucheng in the eastern part of Bohai, Haotian soldiers, who came from the port city of Hucheng, trekked towards Huangyu City. During their journey, the team leaders stopped at various wealthy households and villages to ask for lodging.

In the past, everyone was very close, like fish and water. Haojun's grandfathers would only pay a little for a hotel stay, and no one dared to talk back to them on the street.

But now that they've come out, they've discovered that eight out of ten major intersections have seditious poems inscribed on them, and that thieves are hiding in secret areas, plotting against their own army.

Upon reaching the gates of wealthy local families, the families vehemently denied any wrongdoing. However, scattered jade armor fragments, remnants of lost armor from their own armies, could be seen in the corners outside their courtyard walls. Therefore, Hao's squad was on high alert.

When Hao Jun went out to fight, if he was short of water and food in the evening, he would choose the nearest village, drive all the people in the village away, and then he would feel safe to start a fire and cook.

However, driving away the locals like this might be acceptable once or twice during an emergency march, but doing it during routine patrols is considered a disturbance to the locals.

A few days later, Hao Jun discovered that even more soldiers were launching nighttime attacks. Two were captured alive and severely tortured; one committed suicide by poison on the spot, while the other spat blood at Hao Jun's leader and cursed him.

Upon learning that other Hao Kingdom patrols had invaded villages and were burning, killing, and looting, he was forced to flee his home. With nowhere else to live, he figured he might as well ambush and kill some Hao people to collect the reward.

In the torture chamber, the Haotian team leader rebuked the Yao people they had captured: How do you know that every Haotian person would rob?
Rebels: Then why did you drive us all away when we weren't resisting?!

And so, the interrogation ended, the rebel was killed with a single blow, and several days later, facing a hail of musket fire, this ordinary captain of the Haotian team, after being shot, saw the Yaoren finishing off the enemy and walking toward him with a sinister grin, and sighed, "Karma."

The "Dragon Slaying Order" precisely exposed the current weakness in Hao Kingdom's rule over Bo County: a lack of trust between the two ethnic groups.

…Dark clouds and colorful clouds are not on the same level…

In mid-July, after occupying the western side of Bo County, Wu Fei's troops maintained offensive harassment while conducting troop training. In rural villages, bamboo poles were being used for thrusting training.

The new soldiers in the Dongshi Army are all local landlord militias who have attached themselves to the army.

Wu Fei is currently registering the heroes who have come to join him. After compiling a list of all the soldiers' names and hometowns, he is leading these respectable landlords and clan soldiers to separate.

Fighting a war requires discipline and organizational skills. If the organization continues to rely on the original clan ties, it will amount to a "civil unrest".

Xuan Chong searched through historical records and found that many uprisings by local forces against the regular army of the dynasty in history ended in failure.

Examples include the suppression of uprisings in Hebei during the early Tang Dynasty, the later conquest of the Central Plains by the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the suppression of uprisings in occupied territories by military groups in the early Qing Dynasty, and the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the Qing Dynasty. These all demonstrate that the rebel armies failed to achieve "regularization," ultimately leading to their defeat.

However, there have also been successful examples in history, such as Yue Fei's army, which nearly stormed the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang's independent regime after breaking away from the Red Turban Army. Their characteristic was that they standardized the various clan-based merit-based systems within the rebel armies, replacing them with a unified merit-based system.

The "regularization" of the rebel army involved complex political maneuvering. Verifying the roster of recruits was the first step.

Next, before "formatting," political rights compensation must be given to the clans that have pledged allegiance in exchange for command of their clan's soldiers.

On the thatched earthen bed, Wu Fei sat in a circle with the clan leaders, while his personal guards held a blackboard behind them, explaining the powers and responsibilities within the two different systems of "army" and "local maintenance".

While Hao Jun in major cities like Huangyu City felt uneasy outside the city due to the "Dragon Slaying Order," in Donglei City, Wu Fei welcomed all the local clans and landlords who came to seek refuge with an open and inclusive attitude.

Wu Fei, having accepted the troops of various sect leaders on a thatched earthen bed, would inevitably have to offer compensation. This meant incorporating them into the governance system he was currently establishing in Bohai.

Wu Fei also recorded the political rights that each clan's patrons would receive for sending troops, supplies, and weapons in three different stages: the "initial stage," the "small success stage," and the "final stage."

For example, the political contribution of sending 100 people to join in the initial stage is different from that of sending 100 people to join when the situation is already settled. Zhang Fei's contribution to Liu Bei was in the initial stage. His investment of 100 people had a slightly higher political power than Ma Chao's later arrival with Liangzhou.

Wu Fei handed over the training work to the non-commissioned officers, but what he was really busy with was building a suitable political discourse platform for military affairs.

After the various landlords sent their soldiers, they didn't simply send them away or let them directly join the army and lead their troops.

Instead, they first distributed a settling-in allowance to each recruit in turn according to the roster, and then called on these new recruits to hold a secret ballot election to elect a person in charge to send the settling-in allowance back.

At this point, most of the landlords who brought their families began to busy themselves with this kind of "liaison between the army and the villages," effectively severing their connection with the military training. They missed the opportunity to gain prestige through "killing skills" training in the army.

Then Wu Fei took out the state register and established liaison offices in the villages based on the situation of people coming to join the clan. In the future, the distribution and supply of spoils of war would also be transferred to the villages through the liaison offices.

Furthermore, Wu Fei promised that those who followed him would not be cannon fodder: the village elders could select some of their sons to join his personal guard for intensive training. This was essentially a reserve officer group—a pathway for advancement within the military.

Unbeknownst to them, the original leaders of the landlord militias who came to join them were stripped from the organization, and those honest and simple young men entered the Dongshi Army system, where the concepts of "whom to listen to" and "what rules to follow" were redefined.

Unlike the numerous factions that formed during historical uprisings, this army that came to join us was not divided into many separate factions.

These landlords knew they weren't good at fighting. Especially after entering the strictly disciplined camp, they were too intimidated to say anything. Once they were certain the army would guarantee their rights after surrendering, and that their sons skilled in spears and clubs could find connections with the general, they were overjoyed.

Not everyone wants to be a warlord in chaotic times. Wu Fei created the "Maintenance Committee," which these landlords felt was more in line with their interests.

These local powerful clans are well aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and they have all been supporting their own clansmen in building mountain villages.

If he truly wanted to be a local warlord, he would have gone solo by now and wouldn't have brought any troops with him. Besides, the path to becoming king seems lucrative, but the risks are even greater. Working alongside Wu Fei's imperial army now guarantees a minimum return, while minimizing risk.

…A newly established political structure must possess the ability to “optimize the value” of certain resources…

After the first "Maintenance Committee" was successfully established, Wu Fei assigned a task to the local wealthy families: to dispose of the large number of prisoners captured by the Dongshi Army after they had previously annihilated Su Dong, within the framework of the Maintenance Committee.

Among these Hao army prisoners, their squad leaders and similar ranks were eliminated. They were given a "blindness curse," temporarily losing their sight before being sent to the southern border to be trained by Angri. Some prisoners from other races, such as dwarves, were also taken in by Wu Fei because they knew how to forge iron.

As for the remaining prisoners, most of them were conscripts recruited by the Haotian Army from the local Bo region. The Dongshi Army, being outsiders, actually had a hard time absorbing these prisoners. Upon hearing about the distribution of the prisoners, the elders of the puppet government immediately offered to take care of them.

These village elders, who had been oppressed by Hao Jun for several years, happily led the prisoners back home.
For them, how could they possibly not use prisoners? The fact that people from various places could move around was all thanks to their connections. For example, in the ten years before Xuan Chong was born, human traffickers were rampant because conservative groups in various villages protected them. Later, when information technology was connected to every village, and each village gained access to electricity and water, the governance group could also collect detailed information, and the breeding ground for human trafficking disappeared. Conversely, across the ocean in the United States, they were still making films about "young Americans and handsome boys encountering terrifying stories in remote villages," indicating that human trafficking still existed. Furthermore, they began to adapt to the times, cooperating with medical groups in the practice of human trafficking.

These powerful clans in Bo County, suppressed by the Hao Kingdom, may appear as pitiful and kind people to Wu Fei, but once he regains control of the grassroots, they become machines for exploiting the weak. The Eastern Market Army has managed to send these slaves to rural areas with labor shortages. Moreover, many are locals from Bo County; previously, hiring locals for short-term labor required payment, but now they are essentially indentured laborers.

As for the prisoners' food! It's very bad to leave the millet here in the army to consume; (the army's food must meet the requirements of large-scale storage and centralized cooking and preparation).
However, in the countryside, food can consist of a mix of leeks, elm seeds, tubers from the fields, and even things like mice caught in the ground. (These foods are not suitable for large-scale storage and do not require centralized preparation.)
In rural areas, people eat according to the seasons; when the season arrives, they eat whatever is available. Every village has its own classic guide to surviving famine. This is why some unusual local delicacies can appear.

Wu Fei successfully shirked the burden of the prisoners, while the elders of the local maintenance committee gained labor and consolidated their local prestige.

The Dongshi Army and the local clans got along very well, and Wu Fei perfectly utilized the surplus resources acquired in the war to "optimize their value".

However, there are also resources that cannot be optimized during this process.

For example, Wu Fei looked at the forty-odd female elves remaining in the prisoner camp. Their armor had been stripped off, and Wu Fei was speechless at these pointy-eared creatures wrapped in burlap and crouching in the grass.

When their own troops were selecting women, these women were left over. The reason was simple: according to the aesthetic standards of the Da Yao people, their sunken eyes and high noses made them look somewhat like ghosts. As for the villagers, they felt these women from a different tribe who had killed people were dangerous, so they also rejected them.

Wu Fei was heartbroken: Don't you know how to eat Western food?

After thinking it over, Wu Fei decided to take them over himself. After talking with the elves, he freed the male elves from the mine and promised to send them to the southern border to become his archery training team.

For now, they had to act as mercenaries in this battle. The elves performed a "Western aristocratic courtesy" on Wu Fei, which made Wu Fei somewhat interested in the "Haotian Realm before the End."

…Unity, division…

After Wu Fei successfully reorganized his own military forces and divided power among his clans in the local area, everything spiraled out of control like a snowball.

In stark contrast to the thriving Eastern City Army, the "Dragon Slaying Order" completely disrupted Hao Kingdom's plans in the Bo region.

Under the banner of the King's Army of Deer Horn City, Wu Fei gasped as he watched heroes from all walks of life bring the heads of the Hao clan to pledge allegiance. Each of these heroes now had a bloodthirsty glint in their eyes.

Inside the tent, by the silver distribution platform, Wu Fei looked at the unseeing heads and whispered: This is a national war.

In Bohai, Wu Fei's Dongshi Army is just a tiny spark; once the great general from Hao Kingdom arrives, they will be plunged into a bitter battle.

Wu Fei: So now we must use all kinds of hatred to incite our strength! Hatred is certainly wrong, but this is war, there is no turning back.

On July 20, under the urging of the governor of Huangyu City, Hao Jun led a total of 7 troops from Huangyu and Hucheng out of the city.

After the 20,000 men left the city, Wu Fei quickly received the news and led his 5,000 soldiers out.

After Hao Jun's 20,000 troops set out, they clashed with the local people. Hao Jun relied on his strength and abused the people outside the city, burning villages, breaking down doors, and humiliating women.

For individual soldiers of Haojun, who used to swallow their pride during quarrels, now that they had mobilized the entire army and arrived in the surrounding countryside, they naturally wanted to settle scores and teach those ungrateful bastards a lesson for thinking they had turned the tables on them a few days ago.

The incident involving the homecoming group has occurred.

On the official road twenty miles outside Hucheng, the Hao people, because the tea stall owner had overcharged them by two coins ten days ago, robbed and smashed the owner's property today, and even slit the owner's throat with a knife.

If I were to elaborate, it wouldn't be about those two coins, but rather the extremely humiliating treatment I received.

The tea stall owner collected the leftover tea leaves from other customers' bowls and put them in the horse trough, which was for the animals to drink. When Hao Jun's soldiers arrived, he sold the tea to them for two coins, saying they could drink it or not. After taking a sip, the Hao Jun soldier found grass clippings in his drink. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was water from the horse trough and became furious, only to be mocked by the tea stall owner.

So now that the Haoren army has arrived, they've chopped up the teahouse owner.

But while the lower-ranking soldiers of the Hao Army were constantly indulging in their own pleasures, little did they know that the number of people who hated them was growing. Intelligence reports were being sent eastward like snowflakes.

Wu Fei seized this opportunity to send troops. At this time, the 5,000 field troops of the Dongshi Army were able to understand the enemy's movements in the whole process, and the local heroes all helped to describe the real-time location of Hao Army.

Wu Fei also knew that the people's spirit could be used, but it was also not to be bullied.

The people of Bo were stirred up with a desire to resist. If they, as the leader, did not fight at this time and the local families discovered that the Eastern Market Army, which issued the Dragon-Slaying Order, was just putting on a show, then the fire that had been ignited in the hearts of the people would be extinguished.

Inside the core tent of the entire army, Wu Fei said to the participating sergeants: The strategy is divided into three steps. The first step is to cut off one finger rather than injure all ten fingers.

On the sand table, the army of 30,000 men that came out of Hulu City was covered with flags, and Wu Fei drew a circle, locking in one of the troops marked by the Haotian flag.

With this circle settled, Wu Fei's army began a rapid march, while the Haotian Army was lazily making its way. The Dongshi Army, like a swift knife, pierced directly into this branch of the Haotian army, slicing off a small piece from the main steak as easily as cutting a steak.

On July 22, the Battle of Lizhuang began.

Wu Fei's infantry, cavalry, and artillery, totaling 4,500 men, intercepted Haotian's elite force, which included three terracotta warriors and 800 elite cavalry.

On the slope outside the village, the Dongshi military arsenal was deployed in layers, forming a battle line spanning 500 meters.

Meanwhile, the Dongshi Army cavalry, armed with revolvers and repeating muskets, positioned two miles away from the main camp, blocked the movement of Hao Jun's Iron Pagoda Cavalry. Through skillful mounted archery, they kept firing from behind the enemy, forcing this heavily armored unit to charge directly towards the musket and artillery positions.

The terracotta warriors were bound by ropes thrown out by the charging chariots. One of the giant terracotta warriors was tied by a leg and was pulled backward, staggering continuously. As the terracotta warrior spun in place, the halberdiers of the Yao army arrived and swarmed forward. Some used their halberds to hook the giant terracotta warrior's crotch, while others hooked the copper wire straps on its legs. With shouts and all-out effort from the strong men, the terracotta warrior's leg was dragged and it lost its balance, crashing to the ground with a thud.

As for Hao Jun's heavy cavalry, facing the layers of fire from the musket array, they were repeatedly tripped up by things on the ground when they were about to charge the musket cluster at fifty paces.

Because the musketeers of the East Market used steel rods to insert and pull up tripwires in front of the formation.

The sudden stop of Hao Jun's heavy cavalry caught them off guard, giving the musketeers the opportunity to form a square formation. Then, one after another, the chariots lifted the "straw mats" disguised as provisions, revealing crossbows already cocked. The approaching heavy cavalry became live targets.

The subsequent encirclement by the large musketeer cavalry completely eliminated any possibility of them turning back.

The corpses were piled up in the ditch outside the village, but the Yao army's defense line remained intact, only now there was more smoke from the gunpowder.

Within four hours, Wu Fei, relying on his well-rounded firepower system, wiped out one of the most valuable units in Hao's army.

Meanwhile, the Dongshi Army, amidst their cries of complete victory after the battle, were clearly not yet "full," having only cut off the first piece of this "big steak."

(End of this chapter)