Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 198 Leveraging "favorable timing," "advantageous location," and "harmonious relationships"

After gaining an advantage in a round of close combat, the reinforced 3rd Battalion was immediately ordered to return by Xuan Chong.

The total number of the exploratory troops in the Third Battalion was two thousand, but compared to the fourteen large battalions that stabilized the rear line, with two of them maintaining support, it was like a strong man sticking out his finger and coming back.

Because the Third Battalion withdrew so decisively, the other groups in the surrounding jungle that appeared to be "dynamic" seemed quite taken aback. They had been crouching like snakes, ready to counterattack, but Xuan Chong, like a cat throwing a punch, snapped his claws and retreated.

Furthermore, the battalion tasked with the vanguard advanced in a well-organized formation. Of the two thousand men, those wielding machetes served as the outposts, armored shield bearers formed the walls, and muskets and supplies were positioned in the center, resembling an iron-shelled tortoise, making it impossible for the creatures in the jungle to find a way to attack them.

These battalions, during their retreat, managed to regroup within an hour and jog back along the original paths they had cleared. This rendered the local fighting groups that were preparing to assemble in the jungle completely ineffective.

This "hit-and-run" tactic provoked roars from the jungle's rulers, who seemed to think: the invaders from the north were too cunning.

…intelligence…

The perspective shifts to the first camp. When the attackers were brought to Xuan Chong in shackles, Xuan Chong looked at these slender figures with some surprise: Crow people?

However, when their clothes were peeled off to reveal their backs, some differences were noticed. The wing bones on the back of the winged people were wing bones with a keratin-like layer. When they didn't have enough feathers, they would sew cotton cloth on them by hand to make it easier to flap their wings and fly.

The crow people, on the other hand, grow full wings after eating enough fish bones and other food. Although they share a common ancestor, they have evolved to be somewhat different over time.

Upon further observation of these winged beings, the scholars of Liangtian Pavilion under Xuan Chong discovered that their wing roots were parasitized by plants, which replaced feathers with leaves.

After the guide switched to several of the winged people's languages, he finally heard the word "Queen" among the less common vocabulary.

Angri: My lord, these are also winged people. They are called "forest winged people." Previously, we traded with the kingdom's winged people.

The forest winged people are to the kingdom winged people what the nomadic people of the grasslands are to the agricultural inhabitants of Da Yao; they are different cultural groups.

Xuan Chong looked at Ang Ri and asked, "Are the forest winged people more savage? Is that right?"

Angri continued, "In terms of etiquette and music, the Forest Winged People are inferior to the Kingdom Winged People; however, in terms of the bloodline system within the Winged People, the royal bloodline of the Forest Winged People is recognized even within the Kingdom Winged People."

Angri tried his best to explain the concept of the word "Queen" to Xuan Chong, while carefully watching Wu Xiaoque! After so many years of dealing with her, Angri understood that this person, whose bloodline was the most sacred in the Southern Frontier, was precisely the one who did not care about "bloodline" at all. She could sit in front of an old farmer and eat sweet potatoes without any scruples, and she could also kick the dragon descendants from the north at will.

In the end, Angri's explanation of the concept of "Queen of the Feathered Clan" was as if he were explaining how valuable a certain dragon-horse bloodline was. While Xuan Chong was pondering, Angri silently stepped aside.

Xuan Chong presented a sociological report on the term "Queen," drawing on previously obtained information. The analysis is as follows.

Xuanchong Editorial: First of all, the term "Queen" indicates that this is a matriarchal society, whose socio-economic foundation is that men hunt and women gather, and that they have not yet entered the stage of primitive agriculture.

In terms of human beings themselves, men focus on the smooth execution of the process in production and are good at handling various interactions during the work process; such as large team collaborations.

Women in the production process focus on key resource points and control essential resource elements within the area. For example, in data collection, they are better suited to working stably in a personal, "fixed" environment, where they need to collect data on the time and location of each event.

Men excel at jobs requiring extensive interaction, but they may miss some key points. Women are good at remembering large amounts of information but are less adept at interaction; their data collection becomes highly unstable if external factors forcefully influence it.

Even in modern society, where "physical labor has largely disappeared," the differences between men and women remain enormous.

It can be said that women will come to power in a society with a super stable resource system and a high concentration of productive factors.

When a society is in a dynamic evolution, with random combinations of factors of production and progress requiring cooperation from multiple parties, men often occupy a dominant position.

Xuan Chong, having glimpsed only a part of the situation of this forest winged tribe, could deduce the whole picture; therefore, these winged tribes, which live in symbiosis with plant leaves, should not be a "dominant ethnic group," but rather an auxiliary ethnic group that collectively coexists with another powerful system.

The thorny area is the domain of tree spirits, and its resources are perfect for gathering. Therefore—Xuan Chong, connecting this to his previous observations of the hedgerow areas, roughly guessed that these tree spirits had taken in some lackeys.

Just like some signs of symbiosis between ants and plants recorded in the "Natural World" documentary, some ants seem to guard the trees' output and provide protection, but these ants can no longer switch to other plants and have been domesticated by the plants in reverse.

Xuan Chong instructed Ang Ri to continue peacefully interrogating the Feather Clan prisoners, while the prisoners who resisted were handed over to Jia Mude.

Jamud: "We will obtain more information by prying open the skull and implanting a spirit-taming talisman."

"Men's wings are generally much stronger than women's. However, women are better than men at archery."

Xuan Chong: "This evolutionary trend means that male winged race members need to fly, while female winged race members need to shoot?"

…from the perspective of another faction…

In a labyrinth of layers of hedgerows and city walls, a squad of winged guards escorts a woman deep into the jungle—the queen of the forest winged tribe.

The group arrived at the ruins of a huge ancient tree. The tree was two hundred meters tall, with lush branches like a towering tree. After the queen passed by, vines flowed like snakes through the gaps.

The Queen sensed the growing heaviness in the air around her and stopped. The female guards carrying bows and arrows all stood still. The Queen stepped barefoot into the trees, and countless vines began to converge on her, sprouting branches and blossoms.

However, when these highly infectious plant spores encountered the Queen, as the jewel on her chest shone, they ceased to be aggressive and instead gathered their continuous power into her.

"The dark army of the north is stronger than ever before, and they are now relentlessly invading our forests," the queen prayed to the giant trees.

About four hours later, the massive log's rough heart responded with a simple word: "Alliance."

Following this response, all the tree spirits in the Thorn Ridge jungle began to loudly repeat, "Alliance!" At the same time, the gnarled tree roots on the ground seemed to come alive, like fingers clenching a bedsheet, filled with resentful power.

…Return to the “Dark Army” camp…

In late September, on the south side of the anchorage beach, the Fifth Battalion began its operation after the Third Battalion withdrew. Their objective was to strike a "tree monster" stronghold identified through observation.

Xuan Chong traveled with the Fifth Battalion this time, along with the non-commissioned officers from the Third Battalion who were highly experienced in combat. This was to ensure the continuity of tactical experience during shift changes between different units.

While battalions rotated to attack, the soldiers below maintained high morale, and the command system maintained a continuous approach to analyzing the battlefield situation.

On the 9th, the 1,500-strong Fifth Battalion encountered only resistance from tree people; they did not see any winged people. The ground was covered with irregular mud pits left by the movement of giant roots.

Based on the observation that "some leaves fell in a concentrated manner two days ago," Shen Wanqing immediately deduced that the Feathered Clan had likely been disturbed by the original Third Battalion and had gathered westward. Therefore, the Tree Spirit forces in the Fifth Battalion were currently weak.

So after firing a volley of musket fire, they conserved ammunition and allowed the pikemen to engage in close combat wearing rubber-faced pig-nose masks. These masks were gas masks with activated carbon filters, designed to protect against spore clouds.

This attack was launched after it was known in advance that this place was a stronghold of many tree spirits. After using four hundred men to block the escape routes of these tree spirits, five hundred elite soldiers pressed in from the due north.

A war guillotine led the way, crushing three hundred tree spirits blocking its path like a tank crushing an earthen wall. Following behind, halberdiers carrying shields and clattering footsteps trampled over the withered branches and leaves, hooking down all the small vine monsters that tried to entangle themselves around the war guillotine.

With the combined efforts of war machines and infantry, this hedge camp, less than 800 meters in circumference and resembling a flowerbed of piled rocks, was advanced into its inner layer. In the inner layer, the Wu family army encountered a large area of ​​swaying forest.

Of course, in the eyes of the Fifth Battalion soldiers who are now completely engrossed, these are waves of spiritual herbs waiting to be harvested, yet possessing some resistance.

The grenadiers hurled tung oil pellets from behind the pikemen, the sound crackling and creaking as the massive ancient tree swayed its branches, which were being burned by the flames.

The non-commissioned officers from the Third Battalion who participated in the handover were correcting everyone's current tactics.

With several sergeants taking the lead, the grassroots hook-and-sickle soldiers spat into their palms, rubbed them together, and then picked up the hooked steel rods and thrust them towards the roots of the big tree.

The sergeant hooked his halberd onto the branches of the giant tree, preventing it from swinging and striking. A loud shout rang out, "Charge!"

The ordinary soldiers immediately used hooks and sickles to grab the base of the tree's roots, eventually wedging the steel stake at the bottom. Then, seven or eight livestock worked together to uproot the tree. The scene was similar to Sun Wukong lifting the ginseng fruit tree from the flowerbed.

There were five large trees in this flower bed, resembling small Western-style buildings. One of them, due to the carelessness of the Wu family army, had its roots touch the riverbank of the camp when it was dragged out of this hedge. This large tree began to have a final burst of energy, with many branches grabbing the rocks in the pool, forcibly taking root at the bottom of the pool, and spraying "parasitic seed clouds" to kill and injure the transport soldiers of the Fifth Battalion.

Left with no other choice, the Wu family army could only rescue the people who were transporting the goods, wipe them with coarse salt, and then assess the state of "Grandma Tree's" madness. So they set up artillery 300 meters away and destroyed it.

The remaining four ancient tree spirits were all "transplanted" to the area that Xuan Chong had chosen for them.

These ancient trees will be planted in a special garden, surrounded by concentric stone fortresses, standing alone in the center, and then the Wu family army will harvest their fruit regularly.

…“Preferential treatment” for prisoners of war…

The steamships towed the ancient trees one by one to the "garden" 20 kilometers south of Chiyou Ridge.

Just as setting up an aquarium for ornamental fish is like creating a neat garden for the tree people, the project uses stones to build a model of their original habitat. Furthermore, the planned waterways flow precisely into every area of ​​this garden.

Xuan Chong looked at the ancient trees trembling on the boat and, with a rather "kind" heart, offered them comfort, telling them a story about "enhancing one's self-worth": "If you bear fifteen fruits a year, and I take four-fifths, you can only keep three; if you bear twenty fruits the following year, you can keep four. When you arrive in a new place, you must strive to enhance your self-worth."

The ancient trees were deeply moved by Xuan Chong's "teachings." Even though the trees were chained, their branches swayed and hummed—this humming was infrasound.

Shen Wanqing, who was accompanying Xuan Chong, said, "Sir, these trees are transmitting a message. They are responding with the same sound waves from the south."

Xuan Chong nodded and said to his trusted general, "Your keen senses are quite good." — The body measurement device on Xuan Chong's body could detect infrasound waves.

Xuan Chong said to Shen Wanqing, "Come with me into the tent later and help me organize the documents."

The guards standing nearby looked at Shen Wanqing with envy, because Xuan Chong had called people into the tent to access the documents, which often involved the future personnel arrangements and power dynamics in the area.

Inside the tent, Xuan Chong, who had been so nonchalant when he was patting the ancient tree, began to ponder deeply.

…It's been a year since we went south…

Xuan Chong: "The strategic situation in the north is changing very rapidly. The various lords have already carried out the first round of slaughter. The grain and fodder stockpiled by both sides have been quickly exhausted in the year-long war. There will be less confrontation and more decisive battles in the future. In other words, I will be returning to the north from the south more and more frequently, and I will not be able to take care of both places at the same time."

I will need to spend seven months each year stationed in Zhenzhou to handle issues. And in the far south, in the Thorn Ridge, it is necessary to promote a bureaucrat to the rank of "prefect".

The Thorn Ridge has now revealed considerable cultivation resources; those powerful families who were previously indifferent to the Southern Expedition in the inland areas are now suddenly sending letters to their distant relatives and friends in the expeditionary force. Therefore, this "prefect" must be able to balance the interests of all parties.

Wu Zhantie is definitely not an option. Over the years, I have taken care of the Wu family and given them too many opportunities to accumulate military merits. Since they have indeed put in a lot of hard work, everyone has nothing to say about it. But if I were to give such a big piece of the pie to Wu Zhantie, everyone would have objections to the royal family.

Furthermore, in the past, members of the imperial clan felt aggrieved about being sent to the "far south," which fostered a compensatory mentality that, once they arrived in the south and felt "unattended," they should act recklessly to compensate for their misfortune. One can refer to the rampant wealth accumulation by members of the Ming dynasty imperial clan after they were confined to the provinces.

There are huge benefits to be gained in the south, but what about the Wu family disciples? Can they adjust their habits correctly? Xuan Chong dared not gamble that they had a sense of the big picture.

In short, I can leave a few "military commanders" here, build cities near the trade route and obtain fiefs, and sit at the table, but I can't give them the knife to divide the cake.

This "prefect" must not be one of those local family forces in Lingnan. After finishing the southern campaign, he will head north. If the local forces in the south collude with each other, it will be very difficult to mobilize resources in the southern frontier.

Therefore, there were very few people with military achievements and clean records, and the best candidates were "Wen Siting" and "Shen Wanqing".

Wen Siting had been a slave, but he came from a chivalrous background. He was literate and experienced in military affairs, so he was absolutely capable of handling things here. Moreover, he was quite reliable, but Xuan Chong couldn't bear to part with him! In other words, in the upcoming northern war, Xuan Chong felt that this guy could stand alone and he had to keep him.

As for Shen Wanqing, Xuan Chong discovered through the "intelligent social system" that Shen Wanqing was complex and hesitant when he met him.

Xuan Chong knew why he was acting this way. So he couldn't let him hesitate now. Xuan Chong said, "You'd better settle down here."

…Assessment…

Inside the tent, Shen Wanqing walked in carrying bundles of bamboo slips and documents, while Xuan Chong looked at the sand table.

Shen Wanqing looked closely and saw that the sand table seemed to be operating with complex divination power, with various chess pieces moving on their own and completing the battle simulation.

Some of the pieces were from the "tree spirit" faction in the jungle that he already knew about, and now he has discovered that the winged race's vassal forces have also made their flags and placed them on top of it.

Xuan Chong picked up his military chess piece and moved it to the riverbank plain on the sand table. This area had already been initially fortified and fortified.

Xuan Chong turned to Shen Wanqing and said leisurely, "Given our current strength, we need to formulate matching strategic goals. What are our strategic goals?"

Seeing that no one else was around, Shen Wanqing knew that he was being asked, so he replied, "My lord, the reason why our army is so highly motivated is entirely due to the acquisition of the Herb Rejuvenation Pill. Our strategy is to plunder the local plant spirits and monsters to sustain our war effort."

Xuan Chong: "The Herb Rejuvenation Pill and various spiritual materials are our core interests here. But in order to maximize our profits and minimize our costs, what military, economic, and diplomatic strategies should we employ?!"

At this point, Xuan Chong patted him on the shoulder and said, "Weapons are instruments of violence, and a wise man uses them only as a last resort. We are about to fight a battle with the beings in the Thorn Region, but to what extent? And after the battle, how to use other conditions to achieve the benefits we need? That's the key."

Xuan Chong looked at Shen Wanqing with clear eyes, reminding him not to get carried away with the killing.

Shen Wanqing was slightly taken aback. The murderous intent that had been lingering in his heart was unconsciously stunned by Xuan Chong's actions. After regaining his senses, his previously clouded Dao heart was once again cleansed.

Shen Wanqing suddenly came to his senses and looked at the distinguished person in front of him, asking, "Please, General, make the decision?"

Xuan Chong glanced at him: "Of course, I'm the one who makes the decisions in the whole camp. And now that you're helping me organize the documents, you need to understand the cause and effect of my decisions."

He then stopped advising Shen Wanqing and instead placed his hand on the sand table: "The enemy here is very large, and we cannot defeat them in one battle. The future leader of this place must neither allow the soldiers below to remain idle and complacent, nor allow the army to bully this place without limit. Every time we exert our power, we must gain sufficient benefits in return."

Xuan Chong pointed to the vast thorny ridge to the south, "In ten or twenty years, we will be able to freely roam every place. But for now, we are only showing our power to make the other side acknowledge that we are here."

Therefore, the current battle requires waiting for the local monsters to gather and launch an attack on our fortifications, avoiding the enemy's "human resources" and "geographical advantage" here, and instead utilizing "timing" to fight this battle from our advantageous position. (The concept of timing is that we are not in a hurry, but the enemy is.)

Shen Wanqing roughly understood that he had just made those big trees emit infrasound signals to show off their superiority and provoke the enemy to take the initiative to attack based on their numerical advantage.

Shen Wanqing: "The commander-in-chief is wise."

Xuan Chong: "In private, there's no need to call me Commander; I'm a few years older than you, just call me elder brother."

Shen Wanqing hesitated for a moment; in fact, he was older than Xuan Chong. He then said, "My lord's kindness to me is as heavy as a mountain."

Xuan Chong tacitly agreed and continued, "After this battle, we will treat all the tree spirits that we have conquered as a favor."

Xuan Chong revealed to Shen Wanqing that he had already refined "Soil"—a basic material for spirit plant cultivators to cultivate spirit herbs.

These soils allow tree spirits to draw more power from the ground.

In fact, "soil" is a type of "nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria" marked on the starship. Samples were preserved on the ship, and Xuan Chong has debugged the "bacterial culture" facility that can be mass-produced.

However, Xuan Chong felt that the "fungus strain" was indeed somewhat "magical," as plant roots grew inside it, which was visible to the naked eye.

In front of Shen Wanqing, Xuan Chong seriously described the effects of "soil," but when he had nothing to do, he would hum "Golden Fertilizer, Golden Fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium below two thousand meters."

(End of this chapter)