Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 30 Solid Foundation
In the main hall of Yongji Pass, Wu Fei took some time to have a talk with the elders of the Wu family who had arrived from the rear. After all, they were family, and in the current situation where unity was crucial, he had to play the submissive role for the sake of unity.

Seeing the orderly checkpoint, the elders of the Wu family said to Wu Fei, "Little Sparrow, you are promising, but..." Before they could finish their sentence, Wu Fei interrupted them, "Grandpa, I have always looked up to you. I have heard since I was a child that you led your team to cut down more than three hundred heads on the hillside! You are the number one armored warrior in our Wu family! With you here today, victory is assured."

Then Wu Fei looked at Zhao Tu, who was stunned for a moment. Following Wu Fei's lead in clapping, Zhao Tu quickly clapped and shouted, "Grandpa, this is the number one armored warrior of my Wu family army!" "Number one armored warrior!" The entire hall, filled with the cheering crowd Wu Fei had arranged beforehand, praised their uncle to the skies. Even the dragon horses lined up outside the city walls joined in the cheering, raising their heads and neighing proudly before the old general.

The atmosphere of support is just missing a song that goes, "If you come in the depths of winter, you will return to me a city covered in snow."

Under Wu Fei's care, this old uncle of the Wu family seemed to be lost in the glorious past and forgot the purpose of his visit to persuade Wu Fei: to hold the pass steadily for now, and after Wu Hanluan stabilized the situation in the north, he would send some people to support you (Wu Xiaoque) before launching a war against the southern barbarians. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
In the end, the old man from the Wu family could only quietly pull Wu Fei aside and ask, "Give your uncle a piece of the truth, are you really confident?"

Wu Fei held his uncle's calloused, scarred, and wrinkled hand tightly and said very solemnly, "Of course it's possible, it's easy."

For those who can't help him right now but can only cause trouble, whether they're sincere or not, all Wu Fei can do is offer reassurance.

After meeting with his uncle, he kept him there and gave bribes to the young family members who accompanied him, instructing them to convey a message to the family: his uncle was staying to watch the enemies in the southern borderlands be utterly defeated, like chickens and dogs. Any further doubts would be directed at the family elders.

In other words, the family wanted the elders to come and give "Little Sparrow" some earnest guidance, but now Little Sparrow is using the emperor to command the princes.

…Victory is not guaranteed by generals, but by unity of purpose among superiors and subordinates…

As the scouts sent in the latest intelligence, they had spotted tens of thousands of demons and monsters rushing northwards across the Lingjiang River in the south, making a great commotion as if they were attending a market. Various disturbances and battles were taking place along the way.

Wu Fei had a high degree of understanding of the battlefield, and even when he predicted that he would win in various simulations, he still prepared for possible setbacks.

This means that Wu Fei has begun recruiting reserve personnel.

Regardless of the reserves, Wu Fei currently has only 1,350 regular troops at Yongji Pass. These 1,350 men are elite forces capable of launching surprise attacks outside the pass, so it would be a waste for them to just stay and guard Yongji Pass.

Of course, Wu Fei wouldn't send all 1,350 men out of the city. The larger the force, the greater the logistical pressure. A 300-man unit only needed to carry provisions, but for a force of over 1,000, provisions would require dedicated supply wagons, which meant considering whether the roads could accommodate such large vehicles, and also necessitating the deployment of troops to protect these slow-moving targets. Therefore, he decided to send these troops out in shifts.

Next, let's talk about the reserves. The reserves of the Wu family army are the good families in the Wu family's fiefdom. The amount of fiefdom the imperial court gives to the Wu family is fixed, but in reality, the Da Yao has been peaceful for the past hundred years. Like other noble families, the Wu family has hidden households. If Wu Hanluan were here, he could pull out two thousand able-bodied men to support Wu Fei, but Wu Fei has no way to mobilize them now.

Fortunately, Wu Fei had another force: the escort agencies that originally operated along the route from Yongji Pass to Zhuzhou.

The merchants are currently lacking confidence. The escort agency's strength is still stable; after all, the agency relies on its reputation for survival, and as for risk? As long as there's money, it's manageable. Moreover, Wu Fei has maintained control over the five escort agencies by infiltrating veterans of the military and through a reward system.

After investing in those merchants, Wu Fei set up personnel at key checkpoints to inspect the goods and then issued "postal tokens" to the镖师 (bodyguards/escorts). At the checkpoints, the镖师 with postal tokens could collect a toll at the destination by stamping the tokens with the merchant's seal.

These postal tokens served two purposes: first, they allowed the镖师 (bodyguards/escorts) to choose the safest route and track the total amount of goods transported by merchants; second, if a镖师's postal tokens were missing a certain stamp in a certain place, Wu Fei would know that the goods were being transported via a detour. Merchants might sell goods along the way without reporting it to him.

Wu Fei: Since that's the case, I'll send military forces over to create some "banditry" so that the merchants know that this sneaky behavior of avoiding doing business with me is a provocation. I'll have to create some "high risk" for you.

Wu Fei has always maintained a monopoly on trade routes. And he is never stingy with the bodyguards.

Of course, for some of the bodyguards, it would be even better if they could share in some of the military merits. Wu Fei has now given these bodyguards an opportunity to obtain heads, although it does not conform to the imperial system. However, as long as this war is won, Wu Fei has the ability to replace the imperial system and fulfill his promises.

The imperial court's laws and the nobility system allow for tax exemptions and exemptions from corvée labor. For crimes such as murder, punishments can be reduced. Currently, in the places where the Wu family army has ravaged the land, Wu Fei can speak with the local government.

Wu Fei has been building a "military interest group." This is no longer about the various subordinate units under the control of the court officials relying on "military pay" to maintain their cohesion. Instead, it is about shaping the relatively special interests of military personnel from various angles to maintain the group's cohesion.

…Some truths can only be revealed through the force of a knife…

As Wu Fei's men went to various escort agencies, the agencies gathered a total of three thousand men for him. Instead of taking these three thousand men to the front lines, Wu Fei went directly to block the various routes north of Yongji Pass.

Two days after Wu Fei met with his uncle, Wu Fei served the merchants a simple meal. The merchants were embarrassed when they saw Wu Fei, because their scheme to secretly smuggle people and goods out of Yongji Pass to avoid unnecessary losses had been exposed.

In the eyes of the merchants, Wu Fei had somehow managed to gather a large number of people at each checkpoint and intercepted their supplies and personnel who were preparing to retreat.

That's how merchants are. They think Yongji Pass is unsafe and might be defended with scorched earth, leading to their own losses, without considering that if everyone follows suit, what will become of them? In the long run, if the pass really falls, all the people and goods they planned to move out of the pass will be looted. Of course, they also have confidence in Wu Fei, believing that Yongji Pass cannot fall; at most, they will suffer a severe defeat and many deaths.

In the words of these self-proclaimed scholarly businessmen: they simply believe that a wise man avoids dangerous situations.

However, Wu Fei was very unhappy with these merchants' "gentlemanly conduct." Wu Fei thought to himself: You're all gentlemen, so am I an idiot?

Wu Fei distributed the list to each person one by one and announced that "there are too many people in the group" and that a round of reductions would be necessary. As a result, at the banquet, the businessmen generously donated. Since their plans to back down had been exposed, they decided to take a step further and gamble! Because now that the channels are becoming more and more stable, everyone feels that there are too many people at the table and that some should be kicked out!

The merchants' attitude changed to: "If you had told us earlier that you were willing to operate fairly and justly, we would definitely have placed our bets with you."

Within just three days, a large amount of supplies were transported to Yongji Pass, and the merchants also sent a total of 5,000 militiamen. These militiamen were originally slaves who farmed the surrounding land, but now they have all come over.

…Everything Wu Fei plundered will eventually be distributed to those brave enough to fight…

At the city gate, Wen Si shook off his newly issued rattan armor. His slave status had been revoked upon arrival at the checkpoint. The tattoo on his forehead remained, but he was promised it would be removed after the battle. Strict military law and a curfew were imposed throughout the city; violations would result in more severe punishment than for non-slaves. For instance, some former slave soldiers had their ears cut off for violating the curfew in the past two days.

Today it was Wen Si's turn to stand guard at Yongji Pass. Bored, he leaned out from behind the parapet to look around. After looking around, he pulled back, cocked his crossbow, and aimed it at the parapet. He focused his attention on the mountain for a while, then suddenly his hand itched, and he pulled the trigger in a flash, immediately looking towards the direction of the arrow in the distance.

"Where did it hit?" someone behind us asked.

Wen Si patted his leg: "I saw that swaying plume of dust—"

He suddenly paused, turned around abruptly, and saw that it was Wu Fei.

He quickly leaned against the wall, his body going limp, wondering if he had violated military regulations. According to the rules, violating military regulations on the city wall would result in having one's nose cut off.

But he was quick-witted and said, "General! I want to test where the crossbow can shoot when the enemy attacks!"

Wu Fei glanced at him and asked, "Really?"

Wen Si, covered in sweat, nodded hurriedly: "Yes."

Wu Fei turned around and whistled. A captain ran over, and Xuan Chong asked, "Has your team never had any archery training?"

The captain looked at the arrow: "Not yet." Then he looked at Wen Si's quiver. "Each city wall patrolman only has five arrows. This one wasn't issued by us." He then picked out an arrow from Wen Si's quiver. It was clear that the fletching was glued on with rice, indicating that it had been modified.

Wu Fei glanced at the arrow; the atmosphere was heavy.

Wu Fei said, "Send up a batch of arrows, and have the soldiers guarding the city practice shooting them every afternoon. Also,"

Wu Fei pointed at Wen Si again, making Wen Si's heart leap into his throat. But then he heard, "Promoted to squad leader, he'll be responsible for recording the accuracy of each team's shooting practice." Wen Si breathed a sigh of relief amidst his mixed emotions of joy and sorrow, preparing to thank the general. However, Wu Fei hadn't finished speaking: "After your dismissal, you'll receive five strokes of the cane on the drill ground!" Wen Si paused. This punishment was much better than physical torture. Wu Fei then explained, "These five strokes are punishment for not reporting your idea and acting on your own."

At this moment, the military judge who ran over said, "General, as a sentry, acting without authorization is punishable by death according to military orders." — The military judge wasn't trying to harm Wen Si, but rather fearing that Wu Fei would investigate whether military law had been properly explained, so he immediately stated that he was on duty.

Wu Fei said, "He just spotted a suspected target outside the city, so he fired an arrow! His mistake was not raising a flag to report it after firing." — With Wu Fei finding an excuse for Wen Si, the matter was over.

In the afternoon, on the drill ground, where people gathered, Wen Si lay down with a smile, then bit a stick and performed being beaten with a military stick in front of everyone.

……

As for why Wen Siyi was released!
A person who can immediately organize their thoughts and rationalize their actions in a critical moment, who can come up with a reasonable defense based on their actions and articulate it clearly under the fear of military punishment, is a talented person who can use their brain in desperate situations on the battlefield!

There are many critical moments in a large army, where quick thinking is essential in life-or-death situations. So why not let him go?

Military law is meant to restrain people from fighting. As long as they are willing to fight, soldiers with their own ideas can be treated with more leniency.

After being flogged, Wen Si began leading his team every afternoon to check whether the soldiers on the city walls were firing outwards on time, testing their accuracy on the lines outside the city, and then compiling and reporting the results. He did this very diligently.

When his colleagues mocked him for his good luck in fooling the young marshal and escaping with his life, he chuckled and said, "The general was just admiring me." Then, sticking out his buttocks, he boasted, "I'm getting a beating now, aren't I?" Everyone asked, "What was it?" Wen Si boasted, "That was the young marshal reminding me that if I perform well in this battle, I can be promoted five ranks." After he finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter, "You're just bragging!" They clearly didn't believe him at all.

…Meanwhile, on the other hand…

Ang Ri watched the procession crossing the river and the distant dragon-horse scouts recede into the distance, staring at the "Martial" banners among their cavalry. Such cavalry units would be considered elite "Brave Cavalry" even in the Haotian Realm. In the Haotian Realm, cavalry are divided into three classes: the lowest is the Farmer Cavalry, the middle is the "Brave Cavalry," and the highest is the "Heroic Cavalry."

Ang Ri patted Tai Yue Luan and muttered to himself, "Was it really worth it for our clan to fight the Yao people for this?"

Below him, chaos erupted within the ranks. The Clawed People and the Horned People seemed to be fighting over a straw rope for crossing the river. Why fight over a straw rope? Because after crossing the river, setting up camp required building a framework of branches, which needed to be tied together with rope. Southern Xinjiang was poor, and resources were scarce. Hence the fighting and the struggle.

When a disciple of the Li Huo Sect arrived, he raised his fan and waved it slightly. Flame patterns appeared on the heads of all the troublemakers. Amidst the bursts of fire, red flames appeared on the skin of a horned man. These flames "ate" away at the flesh like worms, or rather, burned away all the muscle. After a few breaths, the horned man shriveled up, and finally, after his skin collapsed, his charred bones were exposed.

The disciple of the Li Huo Sect glanced at the kneeling Southern Frontier tribes, spat, and sneered: "You beasts."

As Ang Ri rode on the Taiyue Luan and watched all this, a chill crept into his heart. He had always known that the medicine from the Li Huo Sect that he gave to his clan of crows had side effects, but he never imagined that their lives would be controlled by others like this.

Angri quietly tightened the "ash medicine" in the bag, determined not to eat it unless absolutely necessary, and that he must find a substitute.

Twenty kilometers away, a large eye was watching Angri.

Yao Sangu, who had spread her Wind and Thunder Wings to leave the pass to gather herbs, was now looking at Ang Ri with her eyes between her brows. Sangu spoke in a drawn-out tone: "Oh, confused, not knowing how to deal with it, and, pleading, for a new solution!" (The corners of her mouth were already turned up.)

(End of this chapter)