Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 83 Conquest and Marriage

In the main camp in the northern part of Longyou County, the mining teams recruited from Donghua County have begun to arrive. The men, horses, and supplies have entered the wooden palisades, and the sounds of drums and horns have been heard alternately in various camps, directing each team to take their places.

A month earlier, the group of officers from Lingnan had arrived ahead of time, taken over the 800 soldiers given to them by Wu Hanluan, and then built the camp according to the manual, completing the core facilities of the camp in just 20 days.

These facilities include a series of seemingly insignificant but commonly used and practical facilities such as water purification pools, kitchens, stables, and latrines.

Therefore, the miners recruited by Donghua County could simply set up camp and settle in upon arrival at the camp.

It's worth mentioning that the 800 soldiers used to build the first batch of sergeant battalions were transferred from the military families of the Northern Route Army. —There was a reason for separating these troops.

Wu Hanluan gave a heads-up to his Wu-surname sons who had been divided up: "Don't whine or be reluctant now. We're taking you in to pave the way for you. Once Wu Fei arrives, we'll send you all over here at once."

Hearing that Wu Fei had arrived, the local Wu family members were relieved. As long as their troops weren't being given to outsiders, that was fine. Besides, once they joined Wu Fei's forces, the men would still be their own.

Within the Wu family, Wu Fei was more popular than he had imagined. Wu Yuanchang and Wu Hengyu were of the same generation in the Wu family, but their relationship was more like that of the "Eight Pillars of State".

In recent years, the Wu family army in the North Route has discovered a pattern: after the army sets up camp, with the arrival of Wu Fei's family letters, the Southern merchants also come along; and the army's purchasing agents follow the Southern merchants to make purchases, and three days later there will be oil and meat in the pot.

So with Wu Fei's arrival, things will be a little better for the army.

…relatives are about to gather…

In the central command tent, Wu Hanluan was looking at the accounts, specifically the supply lists for gunpowder, armor, and military rations received from the Southern Merchants over the past three months. He said to Wu Hengyu, "Young man, you've managed things very well. The South has been pacified, and we have no worries about the future."

Wu Hengyu, who was carving words on bamboo slips with a carving knife, shook his sore hands and asked, "When is he coming?"

It was obvious that Wu Hengyu was eager to get rid of the matter.

Wu Hanluan did not look up: "He is negotiating with the imperial court, so we cannot rush him. Take good care of the people he sent and help them quickly familiarize themselves with the situation of the Northern Army."

Wu Hengyu: "Yuan often comes to our area, is our home really secure?"

Wu Hanluan: "Every October, he is sent back to the south to tidy up his family."

"Isn't all this traveling back and forth too much for him?" Regarding Wu Hengyu's doubts, Wu Hanluan replied, "This year he has a rare beast mount; the round trip will only take two days. And..."

At this point, Wu Hanluan felt that the conversation had gone on long enough, and urged Wu Hengyu, "Study the map well. Things in Zhenzhou are becoming increasingly unstable, and the imperial court may send us to take over at any time."

…blood red, skull…

In Lelang County, one of the five prefectures along the Zhen River, an imperial envoy appointed by the emperor had just entered the prefecture's territory when he was contaminated by a foul stench. The carriage had to stop and a silk screen had to be unfurled to shield himself.

However, as they approached the city, this feeling of unease grew stronger. Upon entering the prefectural city, the imperial envoy sensed an unusual madness. The city's inhabitants were bustling about, beggars and wealthy merchants alike shouting something as they ran. The beggars were placing bets with pebbles in the corners, while the commoners were using copper coins and the silk-clad ones were using silver pieces.

In this frenzied atmosphere of gambling, the faces of the people in the city all had an unnatural flush. And when conflicts broke out, they would often end up with bloodied heads.

The imperial envoy had visited this city several times before, but now he sensed something was increasingly amiss. He couldn't help but reprimand the armored soldiers sent by the city after his entry: "Where is the King of Lelang? Why doesn't he come out to receive the imperial decree?"

However, the soldiers ignored him and instead raised their whips, lashing out at a passerby who immediately fell to the ground in the middle of the road. The horse, seemingly possessed, quickly trampled over the man, and as the carriage ran over flesh and blood, it moved even faster.

However, the carriage left bloodstains on the street, but the people on the street did not seem to find it strange. Some onlookers even cheered when they saw the blood-stained carriage.

The imperial envoy, jolted by the sudden jolt, bit his tongue and remained silent, pursing his lips. Although the generals throughout the land were somewhat arrogant, they still adhered to etiquette when receiving envoys, whereas here, the rites and music had collapsed from top to bottom.

The imperial envoy finally found King Lelang in the arena. In the arena, thousands of city generals and nobles watched the lion and tiger fight; King Lelang himself was covered in blood, as if he had just come down from the arena to participate in it himself.

When King Lelang left the arena, the fighting continued. This was because twenty of the king's personal guards, armed with axes, entered the arena to fight against more than a hundred fake prisoners of war wielding knives on the other side.

Although there were many prisoners of war, the guards of the Prince's Palace seemed to have gone mad. As they killed one person, the blood would seep into their bodies, and their entire bodies would become stronger and stronger, like heated iron blocks.

King Lelang walked up to the imperial envoy and snatched the imperial edict from him. It wasn't that the envoy refused to read it, but King Lelang was shirtless, his chest hair stained with blood. How could the imperial decree be read in such an impolite state?

After reading the imperial edict, King Lelang wiped the blood from his chest with it, then waved his hand, and a knife was shoved into the hand of the imperial envoy who was being held down. He then selected a captive who had been falsely accused of treason, pushed the two into the fighting arena, and watched them fight with great interest.

On the map of the capital city, these five prefectures suddenly broke free from the rule of the imperial aura.

…The rebellion has been brought under control…

Wu Fei arrived at the Northern Route Army and met his uncle. They attended a banquet for the army's commanders. This was actually a welcome banquet for Wu Fei.

But Wu Fei felt this was Wu Hengyu's show. Because as soon as he appeared, all the younger team leaders present followed his lead. Looking at Wu Hengyu sitting upright to the right of the commander's seat, Wu Fei mentally complained about his cousin: "He's as fierce as a bullying dog, making many people tremble with fear just by his appearance."

But before Wu Fei could continue his critique of Wu Hengyu, Wu Hanluan, as the commander-in-chief, issued a command, ordering Wu Fei to form a battalion and lead three thousand soldiers on his own.

Inside the tent, the winged tiger suddenly stood up, staring at Wu Fei with eyes like an orange cat. Speaking of which, the few female companions Wu Fei brought this time were all the mounts of the new team commander. Now that they were in separate camps, wouldn't that cause it trouble?

Wu Fei exchanged a glance with the winged tiger, giving it a sufficient hint. The big-headed tiger immediately pretended to be asleep. Wu Hanluan saw this and gave his mount a small elbow strike, but the tiger seemed to be really asleep and remained unmoved.

After seeing the team leaders that Wu Hanluan had assigned to him, Wu Fei noticed a problem: they were all members of the Wu family.

Another group of people scoffed at this and continued to follow Wu Hengyu's lead.

After thinking for a moment, Wu Fei understood the reason. Those team leaders who spoke with accents from Donghua and Zhuzhou regions—their hometowns had all been exploited by the locals. (Wu Fei also knew his reputation was bad.)

Although they later learned that Wu Fei treated everyone equally and that the money he collected was mainly used to support the army, making their impressions a little better, their "first impression" was still too bad.

In the latter part of the banquet, an imperial envoy arrived and announced a major piece of news: the King of Lelang in the north had officially declared himself a traitor and ordered the army to march to the Zhen River.

Moreover, this imperial decree was extraordinary; the court issued a golden token, from which a figure flashed out.

Wu Fei looked up at the projection that had appeared in the camp like a curious child, and the projection looked back at him.

Wu Hanluan, on the other hand, reacted quickly, kicking the straight-standing Wu Hengyu to the ground with one foot, and pulling Wu Fei to the ground and kneeling with the other.

The emperor, with a command arrow in hand, declared: "I hereby grant your army special permission to establish offices and prefectures in Zhenzhou, temporarily acting on behalf of the court to pacify the people!"

After that ethereal voice was emitted, the golden figure faded away.

Wu Hanluan, along with his clan members, knelt to receive the imperial decree. This was the first time in decades that the Great Yao had granted such an order to a military official, one that was not subject to the control of any civil officials, demonstrating the suddenness of the changes in Lelang County—just how much anger had this rebellious King of Lelang incurred His Majesty's wrath?

Wu Hanluan kept Wu Fei behind and scolded him, "Why were you distracted just now?"

Wu Fei paused slightly, then offered a pretext for deception and shifting the blame: "I was keeping an eye on Heng Yu, worried about his words and actions." Wu Heng Yu, standing nearby, glanced at Wu Fei and quickly said, "I was observing the extent of the royal aura. You? You've been blinded by this ritual music!"

The two brothers were bickering, prompting Wu Hanluan to shout, "Enough, shut up!"

Although the Great Yao Dynasty may seem to be in turmoil now, its vast territory still holds considerable power and influence, and its hundreds of thousands of troops can still withstand all kinds of storms.

Wu Hanluan ordered everyone to enter the central command tent for a meeting. Just when Wu Fei thought he had fooled Wu Hanluan with his smokescreen...

Before entering the main tent, Wu Hanluan stopped Wu Fei. The family matter that was originally planned to be discussed at this banquet was now being hinted to Wu Fei: "The Prince of Zhou is willing to act as matchmaker. The Li family of Jiuyang County has a daughter who is of marriageable age."

Wu Fei was slightly taken aback: "I came here to fight for the army? Won't this marriage be delayed?"

Wu Hanluan retorted, "Does a large army mean you won't marry? Didn't you say you wanted to marry a noblewoman from the Central Plains? You should start preparing for this now that you've come north. Be careful with the betrothal, the auspicious date selection, the gift presentation, the wedding date setting, and the wedding ceremony. Don't be as confused as you are today."

Wu Fei paused slightly, realizing that this wasn't the arranged marriage of his previous life. Marriages in noble families involved a series of complicated procedures. Wu Fei thought: No wonder in ancient times, the eldest son wasn't always the legitimate heir. By the time the noblewoman entered the household, the man had already conceived a child with a concubine during the trial marriage.

What does his fiancée look like?

Wu Fei's thoughts wandered: With the immortal's art of maintaining one's appearance, one's looks wouldn't be too bad—but what about one's personality? In a high-ranking family, if there are different personalities and worldviews, can they compromise with each other? That's a big question.

Wu Fei quickly abandoned his fantasies, his expression changing from that of a lovesick fool to one of calm ruthlessness. Wu Fei knew that his marriage was not a simple "blind box love" story, but a political event.

…The meticulous Wu Fei begins to consider realistic aspects…

Although the Wu family holds a powerful and real title of Marquis, their location in a remote area necessitates the recognition of various aristocratic families in the Central Plains. With the world on the verge of collapse, these families are also seeking suitable investment opportunities.

At this time, those prominent military families in the Central Plains with illustrious lineages spanning more than five generations already had suitors vying for their attention. It's worth noting that back in the Southern Frontier, Wu Fei had casually joked about it, never actually imagining that a noblewoman from the Central Plains would marry into a family in the borderlands and settle down with him.

But Wu Hanluan has been working on this for two whole years.

Wu Fei: Such a "marriage" involves a "political exchange," which will inevitably affect my current well-arranged system of blood money.

In the Eastern monarchical system, maternal relatives always had a place at the banquet of blood-red feasts. However! Apart from a very few exceptions like Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, most maternal relatives were unqualified. The most regrettable case in history is that of Liu Bei's wicked maternal relative, who caused the death of Guan Yu and led to the rapid decline of the Shu Han dynasty, essentially acting as the engine of its complete annihilation.

The system popped up a line of tiny text: "The more you worry, the higher your chances of being single. Why are you thinking so much?"

However, Xuan Chong didn't see it clearly and knew that "small print is all content that won't pass censorship," so he ignored the comment.

…Central Command Tent…

During the meeting, a map of the five prefectures along the Zhen River was brought out. At the same time, at Wu Fei's request, a map of Yongzhou in the north was also displayed.

This silk map had been prepared long ago. As for King Lelang, he's quite an oddball; his situation has been extremely uncertain these past few years.

From the perspective of a normal person like Wu Fei, it's completely incomprehensible why he would oppose the imperial court. What was his purpose? A normal person's dissatisfaction with the imperial court is either due to their own ambition being exposed or their subordinates having too much ambition, forcing them to take action to divert attention from the conflict.

After Wu Hanluan's strategist gave a detailed explanation, Wu Fei felt that King Lelang's actions over the past two years were a bizarre operation, like inserting a rusty iron nail into someone's brain and getting tetanus.

After confirming that the King of Lelang was his military target, Wu Fei first considered whether there was any interference from external forces, especially "Guan" to the north and "Guotai" to the northeast.

Wu Fei asked the above questions, and the strategist gave Wu Fei an unexpected answer: King Lelang and King Bo did not have a good relationship. In fact, when King Bo established the pseudo-Guan in the north with the support of Guotai, he directly led his troops to attack the pseudo-Guan city and almost drove the pseudo-Guan to the Gobi Desert in the north.

Inside the tent, Wu Fei scratched his head, recalling the beatings he suffered in the early days of the pseudo-Kingdom, and sighed, "The King of Lelang really fought back, unlike some warlords who preserved their strength and nurtured bandits for their own benefit. How could he have rebelled?"

Guotai originally intended to use Weiguan as a pawn to open a battlefront for Dayao in the east.

As soon as the pieces were deployed, King Lelang almost wiped out the puppet regime, forcing Guotai to divide his forces to protect the last few cities of the puppet regime, putting himself in a two-front war. As a result, the Bo County front has shifted from offense to defense in the past two years.

Logically, such tireless defense of the nation's borders should demonstrate unparalleled loyalty. Could there be some misunderstanding within the court? Or is the emperor incompetent and making a misjudgment?
Wu Fei inquired carefully and found that it really wasn't the court's fault.

Let's not even talk about overstepping boundaries. Nowadays, it's not just military leaders like the Wu family who are overstepping boundaries, but even local powerful families are doing so, amassing large numbers of retainers and forming alliances with each other.

But the Prince of Lelang's usurpation was extraordinary. First, he openly expanded his army, increasing it to over 50,000, claiming it to be 200,000. Good heavens, how could the court possibly recognize such a massive army? Only the Emperor's army could command over 100,000. The Prince of Lelang was essentially declaring to the world that he stood shoulder to shoulder with the Emperor. The court had already tried to appease, warn, and reprimand him, but he wouldn't listen.

If he didn't listen, fine; the imperial court was prepared to handle it quietly. But instead, he directly plundered the surrounding prefectures.

Wu Fei's methods involved using merchants as fronts, and his primary focus was robbing local wealthy merchants in the countryside. He would never openly plunder on official roads, so in the eyes of the imperial court, it was considered minor offenses, similar to civil cases.

He surrounded the cities and prefectures of the imperial court and then let his troops kill indiscriminately, which made the nature of his actions a hundred times worse, disturbing the entire landscape and causing widespread resentment.

…We can't analyze the reasons for the rebellion, but we still need to plan how to quell it…

Wu Hanluan began to unfold the silk map and make plans.

He planned to divide the army into two routes. One route would be the assault force, led by Wu Hengyu, while Wu Fei would remain in the central command.

However, Wu Fei proposed a different plan: he would lead his army to attack first. Wu Fei drew a large arc on the map, cutting directly to the northern region to seize the vulnerable but very important transportation area and prevent external interference.

then!

Wu Fei pointed with his finger: "Once I move my army all the way to the north, King Lelang will surely leave the fortified city."

Then Wu Fei looked at Wu Hengyu and joked, "After I lure him out, how about you fight him one-on-one?"

At this point, Wu Fei assigned the giant beast piece representing the ghost chariot, as well as the chariot troops, to Wu Hengyu's command, strengthening his ability to launch attacks along this route.

Wu Hengyu looked at the map and pointed to the border near Yongzhou: "Twenty days, leading an army of twelve thousand soldiers to this place, can you do it?"

Wu Fei has military maps personally surveyed by the sergeant corps, which he calculated would take ten days, but he still reported it as twenty days.

Wu Fei felt all eyes on him, especially on the Wu family members, and said, "I'll make a pledge." He then added to Wu Hanluan, "I'm leading my own family members, so I have to be strict with myself first before I can instill these qualities in them."

Wu Fei's logic is that it's hardest to punish one's own people. Since there's no possibility of death for them, military law cannot be enforced!
(End of this chapter)