Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 186 Qualitative Change, Quantitative Change

In early 4 of the Tianyou calendar, after being suppressed by powerful forces, the Hao Kingdom entered a phase of expansion.

Under Zhao Cheng's determined efforts, the decline that had led to the loss of Yan and Bo has been halted. After Zhao Cheng's campaigns in the south and north, the Hao Kingdom now possesses Yuhua Prefecture, Xing Prefecture, half of Yong Prefecture, Quwo, and some key locations in Heluo; the Hao army under Zhao Cheng's command once again has the momentum to sweep across the world.

Meanwhile, throughout the land, some capable individuals, feeling that the Great Yao Mandate had been lost, flocked to serve Zhao Cheng, a Yao person, after hearing that he was now in charge of the Hao Kingdom.

This wave of talent provided Zhao Cheng with valuable resources for governance, as well as various strategies. However, not every strategy was wise.

Inside the main hall, Zhao Cheng planned to first attack Xia Prefecture; however, one of Zhao Cheng's strategists had a different idea about Zhao Cheng's strategy!

In the hall, Liu Baiyuan said, "General, why don't we attack the west now? I am willing to lead the army into Yongzhou and seize Changjun! At this time, the Wu family is suffering from internal turmoil and will definitely be unable to provide assistance; our army can block the road north of Zhenzhou and then we can look eastward to the western counties of Dayao."

Zhao Cheng looked at the strategist, whose clothes concealed his tattered state, and asked, "Do you think our army should fight the Wu family in Yongzhou?"

Zhao Cheng was well aware that Liu Baiyuan was influenced by his cousin. After the Wangheng Sect's mountain gate was destroyed, this cousin wanted to bring "karmic retribution" upon the Wu family. If he didn't respond to this, he would hurt the feelings of his ally.

At this moment, Zhao Cheng did not want to have such a decisive battle with "Wu Fei" in Yongshui.

The grain supplies heading north from Zhendi are now being supplied by train. There is no longer a disadvantage in transporting grain supplies northward, especially since Wu Fei's military strategy is definitely defensive, using a small number of troops to hold back his forces while launching a large-scale flanking attack from the rear.

Zhao Cheng felt that Wu Fei was waiting for him.

Even after hearing that Wu Fei had transferred most of the Southern Route Army to the north, he felt a sense of helplessness: "I'm in the east, and you're in the east too; I'm going west, and you're still in the west? Is it fate? Is it destiny?"

Since the Wu family cannot be attacked, Zhao Cheng's current strategy is: "Expand first. Strategically encircle Wu Fei's territory in multiple directions, including the north, northeast, and south. Once everything is stable, mobilize the majority of the country and advance from multiple directions to engage Wu Fei in a multi-front decisive battle with overwhelming force."

After Liu Baiyuan took his seat, Zhao Cheng looked at the armored warriors and slowly said, "Yongzhou is just a minor ailment now. We need to quickly pacify Xiazhou west of Heluo. As for Zhenzhou, I need to send someone to write a letter to him to request a truce."

"General, you mustn't!" Immediately, two generals came to persuade him.

Upon hearing the rejection once again, Zhao Cheng clenched his fist slightly, but his expression remained unchanged.

After being "admonished," Zhao Cheng realized that this was a new faction in the court that disagreed with him. The faction concentrating its military force in Yongzhou had another purpose: to bring a large army close to the core area of ​​Haodu. This would make it easier for the Hao officials in the court to consolidate power by formulating rewards and punishments. The new Hao king was already a figurehead, but there were still many Hao officials; even a centipede with a hundred legs doesn't die easily.

Zhao Cheng said to the two of them, "You are both right. I did not consider things properly."

Then a military order was issued, ordering the two men to each lead two thousand soldiers to garrison on the north bank of the Yong River.

However, Zhao Cheng's overall plan remained unchanged, and a large number of troops were still being deployed towards Xia Prefecture.

…Setting up chess pieces along the Chu River and Han Border…

In Zhendi, Xuanchong was near the Donghua Waterway. Steamships were anchored on the river. Divers were lowered from the ships and went underwater. They used impact drills to penetrate the rocks, placed explosive charges inside, and used the incompressibility of water to break the rocks apart.

At this time, Xuan Chong's focus was not only on the north-south trains, but also on the eastward waterways of the Zhen River.

These waterways are currently obstructing shipping due to their numerous old reefs amidst global strife. The proposed solution is to use underwater blasting to remove the rocks and then erect stone markers at the river levels to indicate water levels.

As the underwater channel continued to explode, plumes of white waves spread from the bottom of the water to the surface of the lake, then flowed eastward. Some unfortunate fish were among them.

Xuanchong couldn't see the underwater interface, and the river god could only watch helplessly as the construction proceeded.

After clearing the waterways, Xuanchong opened up the green lines on the map, which will be the main routes for 5,000 troops to march through in the future.

Zhao Cheng was considering a multi-pronged attack after encircling the enemy in the future; wasn't Xuan Chong also considering a multi-pronged attack?
After the blasting was completed, grain ships passed through the waterway, while steamships carried a large number of laborers fleeing the war from the east westward.

The workshop group is currently expanding its recruitment and is short of people.

To fight four or five states with the strength of one state! This would have been unthinkable decades ago, but what if you could gather ten times the population in one state?
Xuanchong is undergoing industrialization. A steady stream of precious timber transported from southern Xinjiang is arriving in Zhenzhou and Longyou, where it is processed into various vehicles in conjunction with the iron smelting and forging industries! Now in Zhenzhou, mules and horses are rapidly disappearing from the main roads and shifting to numerous auxiliary roads.

Within the next two to three years, Xuanchong plans to have all official roads in Zhen County equipped with mechanical wheels.

What does this mean?

1: This means that the cost of transporting grain from the countryside to the city will be greatly reduced. Grain consumed less on the way, and the amount stored can be increased by at least 20%!

2: Urban sewage and pond silt can be transported to the countryside on a larger scale, increasing the yield per acre from three to four shi to about nine shi.

3: A large amount of peat fuel from Zhenzhou can be transported to temporary storage points; the simplified steam engines now being produced can replace oxen and horses for plowing! These steam engines have very high torque, and compared to the wooden oxen and horses that rely on wood for transmission, the plow blades can exert a deeper force on the land.

In just one year, the amount of farmland in Zhendi has more than doubled compared to the original amount.

In other words, this year's grain output alone will more than quadruple. Not to mention the significant savings that will be achieved in transporting grain due to the newly opened train lines and waterways.

Xuan Chong wants to upgrade Zhendi from "Tier 1" to "Tier 5". Then, relying on quality, he plans to conquer the surrounding Tier 1 and Tier 2 states (in gaming terms, "Tier 1" refers to the base's level; the higher the Tier 1, the stronger the base), attempting to use this qualitative change in one corner of the world to withstand Zhao Cheng's future quantitative changes!
At the dock, Xuan Chong received intelligence and his staff came over and said, "Sir, military intelligence from Yongzhou."

Xuan Chong took a look and chuckled, "They only sent four thousand soldiers?"

Xuan Chong could tell that Zhao Cheng had no intention of launching a major offensive in Yongzhou. After questioning the general who had come, Xuan Chong deduced that this was Zhao Cheng's way of dealing with the westward advance faction, meaning that Zhao Cheng did not intend to wage a large-scale war, but could not rule out the possibility that these two hotheads would rashly attack Yongzhou.

"How can I get those two idiots to make more mistakes?" Xuan Chong's interest in fishing arose.

Clearly, if he were to devote all his efforts to mobilizing troops in Yongnan to deal with the situation, these two Haotian generals from Yongzhou would back down.

If I take things too seriously, I'll get bogged down. But if I arrange things perfectly, will those two big fish take the initiative to attack?

Xuan Chong: Our main force cannot move rashly now.

Xuan Chong knew he had offended many powerful families in Da Yao, and was deeply hated by their scions. If he went outside the territory controlled by Chen Di, he would encounter all sorts of attacks from within and without! At this time, if he started a war far away from Chen Zhou, he would not have the advantage of "popular support".

Therefore, before the "era upgrade" of Zhendi is completed, there are no plans to expand significantly in Yongzhou.

Yongzhou is different from Zhen. Zhen had undergone a round of "agricultural reform." The powerful clans had already been dismantled, but in Yongzhou, the rural areas were still based on clan structures. Once you conquered it, the cost of maintaining the occupation would be too high.

Yongzhou serves as a strategic buffer zone. Zhao Cheng could even unleash the opposing forces within Hao Kingdom to entangle with the Wu family. Xuan Chong, on the other hand, ensures that the enemy cannot reach the core area of ​​his Zhenzhou in one fell swoop.

Xuan Chong waved his hand. "Let's keep an eye on the east. Xia Prefecture is where the decisive battle will take place. We need to prepare and receive the refugees."

…Wu Xiaoque: Let me see what the enemy is up to? … In May of the fourth year of the Tianyou calendar, the Battle of Xia Prefecture began. Zhao Cheng deployed four armies, each with approximately two thousand core combat personnel. The armies entered Xia Prefecture in rotation, and the attack commenced.

Opportunities to fully demonstrate Zhao Cheng's military skills are rare. Therefore, in the General Staff Office in Zhenzhou, Xuan Chong led Wu Juwang, Wu Rui, Wu Zai, and others to conduct an analysis.

In this great battle, the first unit of the Hao army to strike the key point was a light cavalry force; this force cut through the road from the west, seized the crossing point like threading a needle, and launched a surprise attack on the grain depot.

Subsequently, Zhao Cheng's western route troops followed this line and advanced. His offensive speed was very fast, and he conquered six counties within eight days.

Although the number of troops killed by Da Yao was not large, it cut off Zhenzhou's access to information about Xiazhou. Clearly, Zhao Cheng is still wary of him.

It took Xuan Chong half a month to learn the size of Zhao Cheng's three armies. Even after six months, he still hadn't grasped some crucial military information, such as the "jade lions" and "giant terracotta warriors" of each army, as well as information on weaponry like "giant cannons" and "giant phoenixes."

Xuan Chong couldn't help but marvel at how sophisticated his intelligence system was, yet Zhao Cheng was able to create such a fog of war.

This means that even if Xuan Chong wanted to intervene in the Xiazhou battle now, he would face a huge information gap.

In June, Xuan Chong said at a staff meeting of the non-commissioned officers: "We can't use a single unit to penetrate Zhao Cheng's territory, because if a single unit penetrates, it might run into a brick wall; once it gets bogged down, the whole army will be wiped out. To defeat him, we have to push forward as a whole, mobilizing more than 100,000 troops to be deployed on all fronts, in order to obtain comprehensive intelligence on all his troops."

Because it was at the staff meeting that Sergeant Wu Zaixing proposed sending a unit to cut off Zhao Cheng's key position.

However, Xuan Chong rejected this suggestion. In front of the sand table, Xuan Chong said to Wu Zaixing, "With incomplete information, how do you know that the other side is his weakness and not an ambush?"

Zhao Cheng's current impression of Wu Fei is that he is "watertight," while Wu Fei's impression of Zhao Cheng is that he is "unpredictable."

Xuan Chong: This guy is a top-notch strategist. He can lure the enemy's forces around in circles and then strike them in the most fatal spot.

…Both sides exchanged letters of greeting…

In June of the fourth year of the Tianyou calendar, the Wu family army, the only force capable of counterbalancing Zhao Cheng's military group, did not launch a large-scale rescue operation. Instead, it dispatched a few thousand cavalrymen to the outskirts of the battle zone in Xia Prefecture to evacuate several thousand households.

This gave the Confucian scholars a chance to launch their attacks. They criticized the Wu family for their sinister intentions—that they had received the country's favor for generations, yet remained inactive when the country was in peril.

Xuan Chong: These military laymen always view war with the naive idea that "all military strategists will fight each other like dogs and eventually perish together."

Xuan Chong understood their thinking. If there were no dogfighting among military strategists, how could these "talented" individuals execute their ingenious plans?
In June, Xiazhou's main city, which had been holding out for a month without reinforcements, had its gates pried open by giant terracotta warriors, and Hao's army swarmed in.

Zhao Cheng received news from the Wu family army on the outskirts of Xia Prefecture that they were helping the civilians and the routed soldiers of Da Yao. He nodded and said, "Yes, he has been watching us."

Zhao Cheng generously rewarded the entire army, bestowing titles and fiefs upon those who had rendered meritorious service, including all the fertile lands of Xia Prefecture and the Hequ region.

After the Battle of Xiazhou, Xuan Chong arranged for his men to capture three small cities on the western border of Xiazhou. Rather than a capture, it would be more accurate to say that the three cities voluntarily surrendered to Wu Fei.

The surrender of the generals in these three cities was actually due to the efforts of two men from Yongzhou. Before the Hao army arrived to breach the cities, they persuaded the general in western Xiazhou to sell himself to the Wu family for a better price.

Xuan Chong bestowed upon his own men the title of chiliarch, then moved their families to Yongzhou, dismissing one unreliable officer and leaving the rest behind. He provided them with soldiers and armor, and mobilized laborers from Zhenzhou to repair the city walls.

Zhao Cheng sent two idiots to Yongzhou to offend the buffer zone, and Xuan Chong naturally had to establish an outpost in Xiazhou as well.

As for why not directly send troops to replace the troops in these three cities? Wu Fei currently has no plan to send a large army into Xia Prefecture. Xia Prefecture has been emptied of resources after several rounds of war. If they were to enter, even feeding the army would become a problem, let alone the enfeoffment of blood rewards and fiefs.

Long-term defense also requires the dedication and effort of the defending general. Preventing infiltration is not difficult; the difficulty lies in maintaining this defense for decades. Xuan Chong's troops are primarily for conquering cities and territories; if you put them in charge of defending a city, they will begin to slacken their efforts after a few months. Defensive battles must be fought with soldiers and generals promoted from the local area. As for these Xia Prefecture generals, their families have all come to his side; Xuan Chong will ensure their integration into the local culture.

…It just takes time to get used to each other…

Two months later, the perspective shifts to Yongzhou. Xuan Chong brought two people here from Xiazhou. One was surnamed Cai, and the other was surnamed Heng. These two were the ones who persuaded the local garrison to surrender to the west before the three cities in Xiazhou were captured.

Xuan Chong asked the two, "How does it feel to return to your homeland?"

Both of them were covered in cold sweat, fearing that Wu Xiaoque would settle scores with them and kill them, and then "mercifully" bury them in their hometown.

Generals Cai and Heng originally fled west with the Prince of Bo; after Emperor Shu personally led an expedition to defeat the Prince of Bo, they fled again with their troops, but did not surrender to the Hao Kingdom. After Emperor Shu was finally defeated by Zhao Cheng, they led their men to serve Wu Hanluan. However, they were not given important positions by Wu Hanluan and were directly sent to Xia Prefecture. Later, after Wu Hanluan's downfall, they were courted by local powerful families in Xia Prefecture, marking their third defection.

This resume definitely warrants some caution. However, we still need to use them in the north, because these two still have connections in the enemy-occupied areas there.

Xuan Chong now attaches great importance to these two surrendered generals. He personally met with their families in Chenzhou and began selecting young men from their families to recruit into his personal guard.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Wu Fei genuinely wanted to promote these two surrendered generals who had a history of rebellion.

Of course, Xuan Chong's actions have far-reaching consequences, making many people even more anxious.

In Yongzhou, there was a southern merchant named Su Dahe who was punished during Wu Hanluan's massive tax collection. In recent years, southern merchants in Yongzhou have been marginalized, and he was very anxious. After seeing Wu Fei entertaining surrendered generals in Changjun, he immediately ran to Zhuzhou and called his son, who was just coasting along as a captain, over: "Tomorrow, go and recommend yourself to the military commander and apply to be stationed in the north."

Upon hearing this, Su Dahe's son objected: "Dad, what are we going there for? I don't know anything about it."

Su Dahe: "I was unfamiliar with everything, so I learned. I was not ashamed to ask questions, so I sought advice from General Cai and General Heng."

The son asked dismissively, "Who are those two?"

After learning that these two were false surrendered generals, he was unconvinced.

But before he could finish speaking, Su Dahe slapped him awake.
Su Dahe: "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Today you despise these two newly attached families, but tomorrow when my Su family falls on hard times, we will be ridiculed by other children."

There's an unspeakable situation within the Wu family: the Wu family army is now divided into northern and southern factions. Su Dahe happens to be the sponsor who invested in Wu Hengyu back then, and he belongs to the northern faction. Moreover, he's the water person in the northern faction who is most estranged from Wu Xiaoque.

Even when Wu Hengyu was still alive, the faction to which the Su family belonged had already grown quite large, suppressing other factions that had submitted to them, apart from the Wu family's native faction.

Wu Hengyu has now gone north, and the eight thousand disciples from Shui and Zhuzhou have followed suit. The Su family, who previously supported Young Master Hengyu within the Wu family army, is now in a very awkward position.

Xuan Chong's prestige and influence are too high, so for the sake of stability, there's no need to immediately purge the Zhu faction. However, this faction is like a kidney stone in the body; if it doesn't disappear on its own, it will definitely require surgery in the future.

Su Dahe could see that Wu Fei was constantly promoting members of the Zhenzhou faction and even paying attention to generals who had surrendered from outside. He was doing this to show his former Northern Route Army veterans.

If these self-proclaimed Wu Hengyu faction elders fail to recognize their current "stone" condition and persist in their own way, they will inevitably be suppressed until they disappear.

Su Dahe was determined to bring his own ship to the front, shed his regional identity, and embrace the new military leader of the Wu family.

(End of this chapter)