Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 241 Reversing the Demonic Path, Slicing Through Armor

"Do not let anyone take away your authority; rely on your wisdom and follow the norm. Those who comply will be entrusted with virtue, and those who resist will be eliminated by force."

Xuan Chong silently recited this sentence from the Six Secret Teachings.

As military strategists, we must strive for victory; however, the standard of victory is not merely the annihilation of the enemy.

In Eastern culture, the highest achievement for a general is to bring peace and stability to the world.

…Soaring into the air, adjusting the viewing angle…

Xuan Chong sat atop a peacock and flew into the air, surveying the surrounding landscape. The mountains and rivers there had turned yellow and withered because of the great battle. It was not yet autumn, and the earth was desolate.

Xuan Chong: Hao Jun has become an obstacle to "pacifying the world," and we must "not let him usurp your authority." However, when Xie Yue begins to intervene, we must "sever those who oppose us by force."

This means that the conflict with the tens of thousands of Hao soldiers is an internal conflict within the Xiren realm; so far, the Zhen army only needs to throw a few steamed buns at them to lure a large number of low-ranking soldiers in the Hao army to surrender.

The Evil Moon, on the other hand, is an external contradiction! When this thing tries to descend along with human negative emotions and lands as a bizarre creature, this "incompatible" thing must be eliminated first.

If described using the level descriptions of a real-time strategy game, it would be: At this moment, the standard for victory has changed from the single objective of "annihilating enemy forces" to the necessity of "prioritizing the attack on the biological weapons manufacturing plant to ensure that the biological agents do not leak," while eliminating the remaining enemy forces has become the secondary objective.

Xuan Chong vaguely remembered a terrible intelligence officer he encountered when playing Red Alert in his previous life. After spending half a day on a level, the mission would suddenly be changed at the very end.

Now he needed to change his operational objectives as well. Xuan Chong couldn't help but become shameless.

…four hours later…

Following Xuan Chong's order, the area where Zhao Changhe's army was besieged was cleared to the east. The Chen army then placed several baskets of freshly made steamed buns on the eastern side. The aroma of the freshly steamed buns wafted on the wind across Zhao Changhe's position.

Ultimately, a large number of starving soldiers in Zhao Changhe's army, trapped within the encirclement, launched a sudden "attack" towards the east.

They rushed forward and immediately dropped their weapons to grab the steamed buns. Even the devout followers who had been kneeling and praying with some of the believers in the army just a second ago all ran away.

Forget about "Qingbao Daozun," "Blood Dao Saint Lord," "Spirit Lord of the Living Realm," and "Enjoying Immortals"—they were all cast aside. In the hearts of these defeated soldiers, "Mantou Ancestor" was number one.

The defeated soldiers were required to shout "Lord Chen is benevolent and righteous!" every time they took a steamed bun; otherwise, they were not entitled to take one. Each bite had to be only the size of a dumpling, not a steamed bun; anyone who dared to take a large bite would be lashed with a whip by the Chen army.

Note: These rules and regulations are not because Xuan Chong wants to hear praise, but because he's afraid they'll choke. He'll say one thing after each bite, that's how he gets it down bit by bit.

As wisps of hymns drifted by, the crimson moon in the sky immediately dimmed.

The faith of the Xiren realm is so shameless. They only worship when there is a "deficiency," and once the deficiency is filled, they immediately discard the idol and ignore it.

For the chaotic spatial passage that is descending, it's like a fishing line with bait around which fish were originally gathered; suddenly all the fish are scared away by the bait placed next door.

…The crowd was initially very enthusiastic, but then dispersed in a panic…

Because the Hao army spontaneously marched eastward, while the giant soldiers who had been sacrificed with blood remained in the camp.

Inside the large tent, where blood vessels and muscles were intertwined, the tent fabric bulged and twisted like a blood membrane.

These giant soldiers are still unfinished and slow; the monsters, who have fused their flesh and blood into these giant soldiers, are angrily cursing as they watch the people run away.

The angry expression on the faces of the terracotta warriors is like the exasperated look of a junior manager who calls for employees to work overtime, only to have all the employees pretend not to have seen the call after work.

The things fused within it attempt to unleash the giant army in a final, desperate gamble.

Compared to the rest of Haojun, these fools who devoutly believed in the four gods had already poured everything into it. So, those stuck in the weapons roared and screamed, begging for help.

These cries and pleas, after being integrated into the "Demon Realm Weapons," eventually attracted the attention of their colleagues outside the tent.

Zhao Changhe's personal guards broke through the seals with runes. These guards went mad after seeing these giant soldiers. They bit their fingers and prepared to draw control runes on the giant terracotta warriors.

The blood-red terracotta warriors started up with a "click-clack" sound. The heads that had been protruding like maggots from the broken holes in the terracotta warriors were all sucked into the machinery that had been activated. Blood and tears streamed down the faces of these giant terracotta warriors, and bloodstains appeared at their joints. The holes left behind became gaping maws with sharp teeth.

…Evil vanished…

Meanwhile, the Chen army witnessed the Hao army's collapse after the breach was opened, their last breath, already under oppressive rule, was released.

Xuan Chong sneered as he watched the crescent moon in the sky suddenly stop falling. Zhao Changhe's last trick was utterly underhanded.

Red manipulates hatred to maintain cohesion; Green instigates despair, forcing individuals to give up, thereby maintaining team stability; Purple stirs up short-sighted desires, using indulgence as a means of guidance; Blue is cunning, creating checks and balances internally, and generating changes that only they understand.

All of this requires a powerful, dark entity to execute; once a ray of light shines through the darkness and a door opens, those four lumps of trash will be something that all living beings will avoid at all costs.

Xuan Chong issued an order for the cavalry to wait at three points—20 li, 50 li, and 100 li—to intercept the routed soldiers and prevent them from regrouping. (These distances were precisely calculated, representing the three approximate regrouping points after the enemy's dispersal; therefore, a force of about 1,000 men was dispatched to wait there in advance to conserve their energy and avoid chasing them continuously, which would tire their horses.)

As for the battlefield at that moment, Xuan Chong stared at the few moving things in the camp and ordered the artillery to prepare to strike the enemy's madmen.

Without the "Mountain Moving Talisman," the giant terracotta warriors were surrounded by interconnected walls and ravines, with only a few points that could be breached; once they were targeted, escape was inevitable.

…Sparrows do not speak, and strange phenomena and supernatural beings are not allowed to exist…

Before the Zhen army's fortress, cannonballs bombarded the bloodied and mangled monsters before them—evil creatures born from blood sacrifice.

But these burly men, each ten feet tall, eventually fell on the battlefield.

The monsters stared incredulously at the blood at their feet, muttering, "Why can't we draw power from it?!"

When these strong men arrived, all they saw on the battlefield was a sea of ​​blood; in the past few days, more than 8,000 people had died on the battlefield, and their blood had never dried up!

This "sea of ​​blood" flowing across the earth is invisible to ordinary people, but it appears under the illumination of the blood moon.

Moreover, when they received the blessing, it was clearly stated that as long as they entered places where there was blood, they could fight indefinitely.

Previously, in the blood sacrifice pools in the camp, they were invulnerable to swords and spears, and batches of soldiers were suppressed by them before the blood sacrifice.

But now, how come such a vast sea of ​​blood looks like a mirage?
Unbeknownst to them, when they charged to within a hundred paces of the position, Xuan Chong was watching them through binoculars. When Xuan Chong's gaze fell upon them, he saw their true faces: emaciated, crazed people, none of them even ten feet tall, all emaciated from cannibalism.

Under Xuan Chong's "insightful" gaze, their skulls were blown off by bullets, their arms were broken, and they fell to the ground, their blood seeping into the sand.

Of course, before Xuan Chong observed them, these people were monsters that were ten feet tall. The wounds from bullets healed quickly, and they could withstand two artillery shells.

To the soldiers, these ten-foot-tall monsters, initially impervious to swords and spears, suddenly became useless, easily destroyed by bullets. And those pierced by bullets didn't leave behind massive corpses, but rather shredded, mangled pieces—a stark contrast to the appearance of a white goose turning into a quail (a local idiom describing the vast discrepancy between tax collectors' accounts and actual tax revenue).
This unit blessed by the evil moon remains the same before and after death. While alive, it seems to be "magnified by data," but after death, it becomes real.

The blood-stained soldiers who had bestowed blessings were killed, and then the blood-stained terracotta warriors collapsed with a rumble under Xuan Chong's watchful gaze.

During Xuan Chong's observations, the trajectory of the projectiles curved as they fell, much like watching "Angry Birds destroy blocks." Those terracotta figures, already filled with bone fragments, appeared far more worthless than normal terracotta figures under Xuan Chong's watchful gaze.

After the battle, the giant soldiers and some sacrificial warriors brought by Zhao Changhe were all reduced to corpses and rubble. They were even weaker than before the blood sacrifice, because the soldiers without the blood sacrifice at least had tactical movements, and the terracotta giants still had their energy armor—but after the blood sacrifice, when Xuan Chong saw them, they were just a pile of wreckage. So, what exactly was the point of the blood sacrifice?
Zhao Changhe watched helplessly as the best of his army was wasted. He was stunned, and then, when he sensed Xuan Chong riding a peacock in the distance staring at him, he fled.

…The dark red evil moon is furious…

Zhao Changhe ultimately deserted in the face of battle. Xuan Chong shook his head. If he were Zhao Kuo, Xuan Chong would respect him as a true man.

Twenty kilometers away, at Fanqiao Bridge, Wen Siting constantly looked towards the west bank with her newly issued binoculars, like a wife waiting for her husband's return. Of course, part of it might have been to show off this collapsible telescope.
This telescope is from over ten years ago; Xuan Chong specifically gave it to them when they were giving extensive reports on reconnaissance. The lens material of this telescope is soft, like a living person's eyeball, and it can automatically adjust its focus according to the wearer's intention.

Although every mid-level officer in the Zhen Army now has one, Wen Siting's is marked as being produced in the 32nd year of the Tianli reign, and there are fewer than forty in the entire army. His is number 16, meaning it was issued to promising talents by Xuan Chong at the time, making it a super limited edition.

Zhang Hai waited under the tree, the scorching September sun making his dark skin burn.

Zhang Hai: "Brother, have you seen enough? Why don't you come down and have some plum juice? I'll keep an eye on things for you."

Wen Siting grabbed a leaf, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it at the fool, continuing to watch through his binoculars while scolding, "Stop babbling and wait down there."

After a short while, Wen Siting asked, "How are things going with the brothers?"

Guan Shan: "Thank goodness everyone listened to you and got up early in the morning to dig the tunnel. They're staying in the tunnel now. In this sweltering heat, not in the shade, everyone would have died from the heat."

Wen Siting: "Is someone watching the crossbows?"

Zhang Hai: "Someone is watching us, and they report back every 15 minutes. Don't worry, there won't be any problems."

The group chatted idly when Wen Siting spotted the dust cloud in the distance, slapped his thigh, and exclaimed, "They're here!"—he had observed the direction of the fleeing soldiers.

Zhang Hai: "Big Brother is here, let's get the brothers together."

Wen Siting: "What's the rush? There's still some time. Let the brothers eat first and fill their stomachs."

…waiting in my spare time…

The distant view from Wen Siting revealed the banners of the Hao army, floating boats with sails and balloons, at a height of about twenty-five zhang; followed by three stone lions, and of course, a large number of panting jade-armored soldiers, and even two camps of six or seven hundred dragon-horse troops. This was Zhao Shanhe's only remaining elite force.

Wen Siting immediately made a judgment: the problem with the Dragon Horse Cavalry was that they could charge to a height of a hundred zhang, but on the battlefield, they often only charged at a height of one zhang, relying on the ground effect. During long marches, they were actually like grasshoppers, flying a distance and then resting.

As for the floating vessel, it was clearly loaded with supplies. Our side's (Wen Siting) wooden ox and flowing horse chariots on the ground could go directly to the battlefield and use their mounted crossbows to shoot at these floating ships.

Wen Siting pondered for a moment, opened the map, and ordered his mobile forces to deploy on the opposite mountain. He instructed the mobile forces to attack first, followed by the main force to advance and drive them away.

Meanwhile, Zhen Jun had finished cooking a meal and started working.

This pre-war fast food was very simple. After boiling a pot of water, the salted meat sealed with lotus leaves was sliced ​​with a guillotine and thrown into the pot. Then, the guokui (thick dry flatbread) that everyone carried was also cut into thin strips that were easy to melt under the guillotine.

Each person removed the helmet pad to reveal the iron lining inside; then, a bowl of boiling hot salted meat soup was placed in a wooden bowl, and chopped flatbread was placed under the helmet and left to simmer for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before it could be slurped up and eaten.

For Xuan Chong, it wasn't that he didn't want to make canned food, but rather that the soldiers believed that this traditional military ration was more cost-effective.

The Chen army, having eaten and drunk their fill, began to take advantage of the terrain and form ranks. In addition to Wen Siting, the vanguard commander, there was naturally a group of Longma cavalry in the ranks.

The Chen army did not block just one ferry crossing, but blocked three ferry crossings along the river. Each ferry crossing had about eight hundred men. Once the location of Hao's army's crossing was determined, the other two ferry crossings would rush to support them, and the Longma Corps would be responsible for relaying messages between them.

Of course, besides sending messages, these Dragon Horse Legion also had to make another preparation: the only sheep killed in the meal just now was for these Dragon Horse troops.

At this moment, the company commander of the Dragon Horse Cavalry Company stood beside Wen Siting. He clasped his hands in a fist salute to Wen Siting and then waited for orders.

Wen Siting was also very polite to this Dragon Horse Cavalry captain, because if there were any problems with the mission, he would have to rely on this Dragon Horse troops to fix them.

After three months of bloody trials, Wen Siting's army had almost fully integrated its soldiers and officers.

As the starting gun fired, the Longma cavalry began to roam among the enemy troops. The Hao army deserters, terrified, began to huddle together, fearing being pursued and killed. They then gathered towards Fanqiao, but after rushing for two miles, they found that the Fanqiao garrison was already in position.

…skilled…

On the riverbank, the musketeer officer of the Chen army, watching the troops lined up on the opposite bank, began loading his gun. The paper bullets emitted a smell of "bad ham" and clam oil.

Wen Siting looked at the Dragon Guard infantry crossing the river, along with the stone lions mixed in among them, raised his starting pistol, and ordered his brothers and subordinates: "Brothers of the Fire and Thunder Battalion, fire on the armored soldiers; pay attention to crossfire, ignore the lion."

As the order was given, the troops began to adjust their formation and complete the deployment of fire arrays on both sides, with bursts of bullets firing at the Hao soldiers from both sides.

Because they were fired from the side, many bullets penetrated the weaker parts of the armor, such as the waist.

However, the stone lions continued to move forward unaffected, and the few bullets that hit them only caused minor scratches.

However, when Shishi advanced to within fifty paces of the forward position, he launched a series of crossbows from the position. These crossbows did not fire ordinary long-barreled arrows, but rather explosive projectiles.

As the explosive projectile was launched, it opened up after flying about twenty steps, transforming into a chain bullet. Smoke was rising from both ends of the chain bullet, drawing circular smoke trails in the spiral. Of course, this was not due to the iron chain cutting, but rather the projectile naturally wrapping around the chain as it was thrown.

These bullets were even coated with pine resin.

Caught off guard, the stone lion's thigh was entangled by the bullet. After the fuse burned out, the bullet wrapped around the jade lion exploded with a muffled bang.

Hao Jun watched helplessly as the four remaining stone lions were shattered after he escaped.

Because the explosion occurred while the stone lions were attached to the massive war machine, they instantly shattered into pieces. Two lions didn't break instantly, but they were covered in dense cracks, their surfaces shimmering like a cracked cell phone screen, as if some luminous liquid was leaking out. Of course, these stone lions, like the "cell phone," were also rendered unusable and couldn't be restarted.

Ultimately, faced with rows of tripping ropes on the ground, Hao Jun instantly despaired. Amidst the continuous firing, many retreated; while others abandoned their armor and knelt in surrender.

It's worth mentioning that if the ballistae couldn't effectively stick all the explosive charges to the stone lion, then the Dragon Horse troops would have to rush over and throw the explosive charges at the stone lion.

This is why the elite status and requirements for the Longma troops in the Chen Army are extremely high. Because they are needed as a suicide squad in critical moments.

Of course, if the ballista is operated skillfully, then the credit won't go to the Longma unit. —Just like a World War II anti-tank squad, if they can snipe a tank from a distance, they don't need to get close enough to plant demolition charges.

…After the fight…

Wen Siting watched the defeated Hao army retreating eastward and elegantly adjusted the rank insignia on his shoulder.

His orders were: "Do not pursue."

He held his binoculars, looking westward, awaiting the next wave of Hao troops arriving. His task was to weaken all the Hao troops coming from the west. It wasn't about relentlessly pursuing any particular group; chasing would be too exhausting.

If Zhao Shanhe's army had previously broken through to the east, it could still be considered an "offensive" because his troops still possessed armor and weapons; but now, after being swept away by Wen Siting, the situation has completely changed to a "discarded armor and weapons" retreat.

(End of this chapter)