Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 102 The Exploration Team Heading South
In December of the 33rd year of the Tianli era, there was a lake three hundred li south of Lingjiang, a large lake called Tiger Leap Lake. This was already the boundary demarcated by Wu Fei. North of this boundary, all the tribes had been forced into chieftainships by force.

The chieftain-controlled tribes have a certain amount of surplus grain stored this year, and various regional distributors have already received some of the stored grain. This is the condition that allows the newly formed Southern Army to deploy its troops here.

As early as the first half of 33, Wu Fei told the chieftains in the south who had submitted to him that once they started farming, a wave of tribes further south would cross Tiger Leap Lake and harass these benevolent chieftains who had been appointed by the Great Yao.

Wu Fei was very "troubled" by this: Why does my border keep refreshing the barbarian camp?

In October, to punish the barbarian forces on the frontier who refused to submit to the king's rule, Wu Fei initiated an armed punitive expedition. This force consisted of the noble sons of the Wu family and the auxiliary troops of southern Lingjiang. It was also a war that would give the Wu family's "scrap metal" (a derogatory term for those who are considered weak or incompetent) some valuable experience.

That said, it's quite a distance from the border to here, and it's not worthwhile to drag the good people of Da Yao's territory to fight such a distant war.

After calculating the appeal of granting fiefs south of the Lingjiang River to soldiers in different regions, Wu Fei decisively brought over his own men to serve as the core and laborers, while primarily employing horned and clawed servants.

These auxiliary troops were codenamed "Brown Cloth Livestock" in the southern border region—a term given by Wu Fei, but the officers now fully endorsed General Wu Fei's assessment.

The reason for this derogatory term is that the indoctrination of the barbarians was slow last year, which made Wu Fei very irritable and declare: "Illiteracy" is equivalent to "livestock".

The martial arts disciples who were dragged to the southern part of Lingjiang, although attending the clan school, which was not as good as the teachings of the great scholars in Da Yao, were still beginning their education. Even if they didn't know many characters, they could still manage to deal with the fixed "battle report terms" and "symbols and markings" for the time being.

The wretched cultural level of these spoiled brats of the Wu family is just enough to make them look down on the pure, ignorant masses.

Because Wu Fei used a spirit-injection stick to warn all the Wu family disciples, and these Wu family disciples also used a spirit-injection stick to tame these servant soldiers, this just happened to be the right time.

Returning to the commander; the horn soldiers can only accept very simple instructions. Like diodes, they can only accept very simple commands, such as turn left or right. Each platoon of horn soldiers consists of ten men, based on the fact that each horn has ten fingers, and the horn soldiers in each platoon can identify their teammates by counting on their fingers.

"Livestock" is the simplest "diode," while the literate samurai who can skillfully record dozens of standard military instructions are more complex circuit boards.

Wu Fei doesn't need to worry about his clan members being unworthy of their positions in the army yet, because they are at least educated. In this wild and undeveloped region, they are considered a generation ahead of their time.

Even the slightest progress would be enough to crush this more barbaric and backward region, since there wasn't even bronze artifacts further south.

…small border battles…

In the jungle, this force of seven hundred men, having received intelligence, began their charge toward a lizardman tribe that was said to number two thousand. Their leather boots, inlaid with iron plates, clattered and stomped on the ground, crushing small pebbles in their footprints.

The skilled soldiers of the Wu family army drove their trained dog "sentinels." These black wolfhounds, whose voices had been partially hoarse since childhood due to the use of medicinal herbs, could not produce loud sounds, but they were extremely intelligent and would return to their owners' vicinity to signal for enemies ahead in the jungle.
Most of these sentries were naturalized individuals who had come from the native Horned Man hunter lineage; this branch of the military was one of the few that received the same food and rations as the Grand Sergeant. Behind the sentries, neat small square formations marched through the jungle. Wu Fei had spent three months training his men to change between square formations.

The movements of the large barbarian tribes were very easy to find, as they left numerous campfire traces in the jungle along their migration route.

This is a powerful period, with veterans mentoring newcomers, just like Wu Hanluan mentoring Wu Fei back then...

On October 5th, the Wu family army caught up with a barbarian tribe of three thousand people, many of whom were able-bodied men, and the two sides clashed in a jungle passage.

It was a war that appeared to be a battle of seven hundred against three thousand, but the three thousand barbarians were in complete disarray and had not formed any ranks at all.

Wu Zhantie glanced at the chaotic situation on the other side and the well-organized musket line on his own. He rubbed his backside; the scabs from being whipped half a year ago had long since healed, but the feeling of giving orders and being whipped was now inextricably linked. He used the same "whipping injection method" on his men.
There was a time when he was reprimanded by Wu Fei because he complained that the drill and formation rules restricted his combat power. He felt that if he were not bound by the rules of the formation, he could kill many people.

Now that I've become a non-commissioned officer, I've found that clear formations reduce the amount of shouting I need when I'm hoarse from relaying orders.

"First platoon, advance in column, load your bullets, platoon leader, check the flints and steels of each squad!"

Wu Zhantie shouted orders, looking at his brown-clothed men, who, holding their iron hats and muskets, advanced. These were actions they had performed countless times.

After a short while, and after the Wu family army's crossbow carts fired a volley of bolts, the larger lizardmen, leading their smaller counterparts, could no longer contain themselves. Amidst a constant hissing exchange, they roared collectively and charged towards the Wu family army.
For these lizardmen, their only option was to charge. The Wu family army had been holding them off for ten hours. If the lizardmen retreated, they would be met with a charge from the fire rhinoceros cavalry. Each charge would send more than a dozen people flying, causing great panic, even though the casualties were not significant.

Meanwhile, Wu Zhantie used binoculars to check the enemy's position and, using the crossbow bolts as a reference, quickly calculated the distance and ordered the muskets to prepare.

The Horned Soldiers chewed up the tung oil-coated paper, poured in a measured amount of gunpowder, and inserted bullets with willow fluff at the end—the fluff was to increase the friction between the bullet and the barrel. Of course, after firing, the bullet's concave section would be impacted by the gunpowder gases, causing it to fly along the smoothbore barrel.

These cardboard-cased fixed-load ammunition are a necessity for the Corner People's Army because they are uneducated, and if the gunpowder loading process is not properly quantified, barrel explosions are a common occurrence.

All the horned soldiers held their muskets, but their fingers did not dare to pull the trigger immediately. As a result of being "injected" with whips countless times on the training ground, they only opened fire after hearing "ready" and the sharp bamboo whistle sounded.

As the bamboo whistle sounded, a volley of gunfire rang out.

The charging jungle lizardmen fell in large numbers. Their beautiful, smooth scales, which seemed capable of protecting against "armor-piercing" blades, were utterly unable to withstand the penetration of high-speed armor-piercing projectiles. A large section of their two-meter-tall bodies collapsed ninety paces away.

Then the second rank moved forward, and within a short five-second interval, another round of firing began.

In round after round of firing, the people at the bottom of the social hierarchy in southern Xinjiang are now experiencing the bravery and power of being "warriors".

The horned people watched as the tall races who had always bullied them fell, and they cheered with cries of "Eee-yah-yah!" Pink, calloused fingers swiftly adjusted the lead weights inside the smoothbore barrel, reloading the bullet.

After confirming the situation of this round of firing, Wu Zhantie determined that the enemy was still unarmored. Therefore, he ordered the cavalry not to charge first, but instead to have the men fix bayonets.

After the three rounds of gunfire were finished, the horned people huddled together in a shout, forming a steel hedgehog. Although the lizardmen with stone hammers could knock four or five of them away by raising their hammers, their sharp, crocodile-like skin on their chests was pierced.

Just twenty minutes after the battle with the horned people began, Wu Zhantie blew a signal and the cavalry launched a surprise attack. The heavily armored rhinoceros cavalry charged out from the side of the jungle, catching the lizardmen completely off guard.

As a large number of lizardmen were knocked down by the golden gourds, the lizardmen began to flee en masse, pursued by cavalry that outnumbered them by a fraction.

The battle ended quickly. The lizardmen prisoners with broken legs and heavy bleeding would have their wounds simply cut open, the bullets removed, and bandaged. Because the magic of the Southern Frontier had a "rejuvenation" effect, through resin bonding and extraction of specific herbal tree sap to regenerate cells, most of these lizardmen were able to survive and contribute to the Wu family's road construction and land reclamation in the Southern Frontier.

The men watched with great interest as they observed these large men, and following orders, stamped pork seals on some of the stronger prisoners to confirm that these were their preferred slaves.

Compared to the horned people's excitement, Wu Zhantie's excitement was a hundred times greater. He had seen glittering ornaments on the lizardman leader and felt their weight. There were no signs of large-scale smelting plumes in the entire Southern Frontier, and these glittering metal artifacts were undoubtedly genuine gold.

With a smile, he selected an easy female lizardwoman to question, and took out the sesame candy from his pocket to sell. From the female lizardwoman's innocent and pure answer, he learned that those shiny metal products were picked out from the sand in a river flowing down from the holy mountain fifty kilometers away.

He was particularly fond of the lizardman's big eyes, so he squatted down and took out a "Holy Ash Pill".

…the calamity of universal love…

In early 34 of the Shutian calendar, Wu Fei was writing a plan for the future remote trading post in southern Lingjiang when he heard the door bell ring. He put down his pen and asked the messenger who came to report, "What is the casualty situation of the exploration team?"

The messenger reported, "Four people were injured, but they were all carried out on stretchers. However, Lord Zhan Tie also suffered minor injuries and is currently unable to move."

With a whoosh, birds outside the window took flight. Wu Fei's heart skipped a beat, then he stopped and slowly asked, "How did he get injured?"

The southward exploration team consisted of 734 people, of whom only 57 were members of the Wu family and their accompanying servants. To prevent Wu Zhantie from contracting the plague, Wu Fei not only focused on testing him on setting up camp and obtaining water during the assessment, but also provided him with antidote drugs and well-protected armor. According to the current combat manual, unless he was ambushed halfway, he would be extremely difficult to be injured.

Now, out of four wounded, Wu Zhantie is one of them? This struck Wu Fei as odd. Could it be that his temper flared up and he whipped the horned people too hard, causing a mutiny? And they were injured in the ensuing struggle? Wu Fei frowned: "Didn't I tell him that he can whip them during training, but he should be treated well in wartime!"

If any of the auxiliary troops are found to be untrustworthy, the exploration team must be immediately isolated! Disloyal leaders must be rigorously investigated, and the rest must be sent to mine.

The Wu family army has now entered as an external force and is now ruling this land. At present, it will not tolerate any "rebellious" will appear in the armed forces it supports!
Because the number of indigenous people in the southern border region is too large, if opposition from the bottom up is tolerated, then within a few years, ambitious individuals among the indigenous people will be able to "rebel against the Heavenly Gang".

Under Wu Fei's exceptionally cold gaze, the messenger stammered and had no choice but to betray his captain little by little: "General, Captain Wu Zhantie was unfortunately assassinated."

Before the words had even finished, the atmosphere in the hall grew even colder. Wu Fei said slowly, "Falsifying military intelligence is punishable by death, but the latest military regulations have been implemented. Now is your time to defend yourself."

The latest military regulations prevent situations where an officer, upon hearing something they dislike, simply waves their hand and beheads the messenger; these regulations are to prevent those military families' sons who, after hearing storytelling in the marketplace, actually believe that such actions are permissible.

Wu Fei's personal guard threatened the messenger, "Passing on false information is a serious crime! Speak!"

Then they explained military law to him. — Sure enough, the messenger turned pale and immediately kowtowed to confess his guilt.

Wu Fei added pressure from the side: "If you feel that certain special intelligence should not be made public, you can report it secretly, but you cannot not report it at all!"

Wu Fei's words, like a battering ram, directly shattered the messenger's psychological defenses. Ten minutes later, Wu Fei's chosen personal guard emerged from the temporary interrogation room next door, his face strange. After relaying the message to Wu Fei, Wu Fei abruptly stood up and cursed, "Serves him right!"

Wu Fei glared at the messenger who had been dragged out and cursed, "He feels ashamed, so he wants you to embellish his story, is that it?!"

The messenger kowtowed and said, "My lord, I was bewitched and should not have accepted it!"
Before he could finish saying "take money," Wu Fei kicked him shut, cursing, "You've got shit in your head."

The guards nearby quickly grabbed the messenger and slapped him to shut him up.

Wu Fei's personal guards knew the reason for his outburst: "This messenger is absolutely incompetent. Inaccurate intelligence reporting could be due to stupidity, a few lashes would suffice; but if he confesses to accepting money from Wu Zhantie and concealing information in his communications, then things will get much worse. According to military law, that's a death sentence."

Wu Fei didn't want to kill anyone today and wanted to play dumb about some things. After all, strictly speaking, the number of troops stationed south of Lingjiang was currently too small. It was hard to cultivate a mouthpiece, and if he was killed, the gap would be difficult to fill. Moreover, Wu Zhantie, who had bribed him, was also doomed. So, before he could finish speaking, Wu Fei kicked him in the mouth.

He then tossed a bag of "recovery money" to the messenger, along with a page of military regulations on "changing military intelligence," telling him to memorize it more.

The personal guard understood immediately. After Wu Fei slammed the door and left, the guard stayed behind to comfort the messenger: "This matter is punishable by death if it's taken too far, but the scales are too full right now, so the general didn't put it on the scales! Next, during your court-martial, you'll have to confess to some things and not others!"

Note: Why go through a military court instead of just suppressing it? Only when the relevant personnel are weighed in military court will they realize the seriousness of the matter and the suppression of this matter within the entire system! If Wu Fei suppresses it directly, it's like telling these scoundrels that Wu Fei can cover for them, so they brag and boast while drinking.

…Wu Fei: How come I'm so good at getting into trouble? Back in the day, well, I remember during Prohibition, my uncle had to wipe my butt for me…

Wu Fei gathered eight hundred men and personally headed south to meet Wu Zhantie's exploration team. The dragon-horse flying formation soared through the treetops, while the chieftain tribes along the way prepared beans and fodder to feed the horses.

Wu Zhantie lay on the stretcher, looking at Wu Fei's gloomy face with surprise, feeling a chill on his neck. —Having been in this southern border for a year, he now both respected and feared this cousin. He respected him because he was completely convinced of the difficulty Wu Fei had in unifying the southern border, and he feared him because he was genuinely worried that he would break his leg and be sent back to the clan.

Without a word, Wu Fei pulled back the covers, looked at him covering his bleeding groin, and said in a sinister tone, "You got hurt at just the right time!"

Before Wu Zhantie could say anything, Wu Fei instructed the healer beside him, "Use the best medicine, and arrange for the Rejuvenation Technique as well."

He turned to Wu Zhantie and said, "One month. After you recover, you can expect to be beaten with military rods."

The Southern Army is now a colonial legion, a combination of a small number of noble troops and local auxiliary forces, similar to the Tang Dynasty's model in the Western Regions; such troops have a very high degree of freedom at the top! It is precisely this high degree of freedom that attracts more pioneers to go to the more southerly and higher-risk areas.

…But we can't have too much freedom either…

Wu Fei pulled off the cloth that Wu Zhantie was tightly covering with his hand, lifted his underwear and carefully examined his injury. He frowned. Although the thing had been reconnected by the "spiritual glue" that could regenerate severed fingers, the reconnected area had a swollen scar, like a tree burl.

As for why that female lizardwoman was so furious and attacked him there? Naturally, it was because that bastard did something particularly despicable.

Half a month ago, he gave the female lizardwoman a pill that made her shed her scales and become human, thus deceiving her body and her emotions. After learning about the glory of the lizardwoman's holy land from her, Wu Zhantie planned to go there under the pretext of bestowing titles and then rob the holy land of its gold.

However, the secret was leaked, and that very night Wu Zhantie was ambushed by the female lizardwoman during her voluntary service.

That evening, Wu Zhantie, who had come to plead for leniency, said to Wu Fei with a wronged expression, "Brother Fei, I learned this from you too, just to get some money to help out."

Wu Fei, clutching his head, cursed at his cousin, who was copying his methods of extorting money from the ground: "You want to learn from me?! I'll teach you properly, but did you even listen? You're just a half-baked expert, always acting on a whim. If you're going to learn, learn everything. If you're going to cheat, don't try to seduce for money; if you're going to seduce for money, don't try to cheat. If you keep dragging me into this, believe me, I'll break your third leg."

(End of this chapter)