Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 38 "Trickery" and "Human Nature"

With the return of Wu Fei's legion with 520 prisoners, the "barbarian rebellion" was effectively "covered up." Well, "covered up" was the official stance of the officials in Nanling; in their official reports, as long as Yongji Pass remained intact, any gathering of barbarians would only result in a "minor disturbance."

The "minor disturbances" are now being reported to the imperial court, as the country is currently in a period of great turmoil. At this critical moment, the officials of the court are most concerned about any unrest in other border regions, which could affect their ability to deploy troops to the north.

The matter at Yongji Pass really needs to be reported to a higher level. All the court can do is to severely reprimand the border troops for resolving the issue quickly, and then give the local officials a good dressing down and thoroughly investigate their local misdeeds.

In fact, the prefects of the three counties in Lingnan were quite concerned about the fighting at Yongji Pass. After the battle eased slightly and the defending troops needed supplies, they sent their servants, disguised as merchants selling military supplies, to inquire about the battle situation.

If a pass is on the verge of collapse, then one must shift the blame. One righteous and stern way to shift the blame is: "The imperial court previously transferred troops from the south, leaving Lingnan vulnerable and giving the barbarians an opportunity to take advantage." Another obsequious way to shift the blame is: "The general guarding Yongji Pass has been greedy and provocative, leading to this great disaster."

Of course, the aforementioned "unfavorable situation" did not occur. What was written in the government offices was: "Barbarian tribes harassed the border, and the soldiers guarding the pass fought bravely, displaying the might of our great army!" This was both an open and covert message to the court, praising the soldiers of Lingnan for their fighting prowess and reminding the court to pay attention to the army marching north and to cherish it.

After this incident, ambitious people in Lingnan suddenly realized that "one only regrets not having enough soldiers when times are chaotic."

Of the army that Da Yao is currently drawing upon to march north from Wu Hanluan, three thousand are soldiers trained by the Wu family army for a thousand days, while the remaining tens of thousands of laborers are all able-bodied men conscripted from Lingnan! They are invaluable.

…The dividing line between leaving home…

Meanwhile, Wu Hanluan, who was heading north, was also encountering troubles. These troubles were certainly not caused by Wu Fei.

The letter, carrying the message about the barbarian siege at Yongji Pass, was opened and placed aside by the sword. This letter had been sitting on the table for two days, a welcome piece of good news to help him calm his nerves and get a good night's sleep.

Regarding the rebellion in Lingjiang, Wu Hanluan was not worried at all. He said to the anxious Wu Hengyu, "Five years ago, I had already wiped out the snake people in the southern border. At this time, there is no large tribe in Lingjiang that can suppress the various tribes. The ones gathered in front of Yongji Pass now are just a disorganized mess. With his skills, he can handle them more than enough."

Wu Hanluan now "naturally" acknowledged Wu Fei's solid fundamentals! If someone else were to guard the pass, there would be no chance to gain this stable experience.

Therefore, Wu Hanluan "naturally" wrote a letter back home, clearly stating that he was currently away on a long trip and could not attend to matters at home, and that all matters, big and small, at home should be handled by Yuan Chang (Wu Fei).

Unlike the previous urgent messages, Wu Hanluan openly affixed the central army seal and sent his personal guards and soldiers back with the letter. The guards understood and carried out the order.

Narrator: The letter that arrived when Yongji Pass was attacked was a secret message, known only to a few people including Wu Hanluan and Wu Hengyu. No one else was informed. This was because if news of the family incident spread, it would destabilize the army. However, now that Wu Fei has resolved the situation at Yongji Pass so effectively, Wu Hengyu has allowed his personal guards to circulate the news casually, ensuring that his army has no worries about its rear.

Of course, Wu Hanluan's actions were a formal confirmation that the seventeen-year-old Wu Fei would be the next leader of the Wu family's military command. Wu Hanluan already knew enough about Wu Fei's abilities; the only shortcoming was his young age. Leaving him in the rear would have created a situation of "a young ruler and a suspicious state." Now, Wu Fei had proven himself capable of handling things. This battle had earned him the position of "leader of the military command" in the Wu family.

Back to the present, the Wu family army has been experiencing setbacks while traveling. On Wu Hanluan's desk, the silk map was heavily marked with the location of Jijiajing in vermilion ink!
"Jijiajing" is a town where Wu Hengyu and his vanguard camped three days ago, after which something went wrong. It seems that someone forcibly seized the houses and warehouses of the locals. Later that night, when the cavalry was encamped, they dug a well for water and food, and sores appeared on their bodies. A day later, these sores turned into eerie smiling faces.

This is clearly a method of "spelling nightmares".

The first to discover this was Wu Hengyu, who had once practiced Taoism. Young and impetuous, he grabbed an old man in the village and demanded to know what it was.

The old man in the village said, "Twenty miles away from 'Jijiajing' is Yangle Mountain. According to ancient legend, this is the tomb of the seventh son of the founding emperor of the Great Yao Dynasty. Because he was licentious in life, he died at the age of twenty-four. Even after death, he was still unwilling and often rode the yin wind to travel at night to abduct women and boys, causing evil in the area. Eventually, a wise man came here to perform a sacrifice and suppressed him, but every spring and autumn, he still has to offer cattle and sheep as a grand sacrifice."

Then he said, "Originally, we were supposed to hold a sacrificial ceremony this year, but since you, sir, have come, so~"

Wu Hengyu, of course, didn't believe in such superstition. The founding emperor of the Great Yao Dynasty only had three legitimate sons; how could there be a seventh son? Wu Hengyu believed that the townspeople had secretly poisoned the well water to frighten outsiders passing through the town and swindle them out of disaster relief money.

Wu Hengyu: Good heavens, it's one thing for you to cheat small merchants and households, but you actually dare to cheat the army.

Wu Hengyu immediately imprisoned all the townspeople in what they called Yangle Mountain, letting them appease the evil spirits they spoke of.

That very night, strange things began to happen. The soldiers who had gone to the village that spread rumors with Wu Hengyu that day all developed sores on their backs upon their return. What was even more serious was that human-headed worms began to grow from these sores!

Only Wu Hengyu possessed extremely high martial arts cultivation, and his blood and qi were strong and masculine, untainted by evil.

But rumors were spreading that the Wu family army was carrying out a blood sacrifice because the young general named Wu Hengyu had captured and killed the entire village.

…At this moment, Wu Hengyu, like Wu Fei who spearheaded the prohibition movement, was focused on his work without giving it much thought…

Now, Wu Hanluan is in the spotlight. There are two reasons for this. First, it's obvious that the army has stumbled upon a "strange" event, yet Wu Hengyu's handling of the matter is far too frivolous. Is this kind of "strange" event, daring to directly extort the army, really just an ordinary one?! Second, in broad daylight, this kind of Yin-Yang technique dares to obstruct the army. It truly signifies chaos in the world, and demons are beginning to emerge.

In the major hexagram, "strange" phenomena are quite common. There are minor "strange" phenomena, such as pedestrians encountering ghosts and being trapped in a maze at night, or deceased elderly people in the countryside having their souls sucked by cats and dogs and beginning to speak human language.

More serious "strange" events include ghost kings getting married at inauspicious times, ghostly soldiers passing through, or even a ghost city appearing in a cemetery.

Of course, all the strange and bizarre things that arise from "trickery" have their limits. Just as a mud wall or broken tiles can force ordinary people to submit, it will be crushed by a bulldozer like an army.

The appearance of "strange occurrences" stems from disharmony between "heaven, earth, and man," leading to major disasters and man-made calamities, resulting in lingering resentment in people, much like an uncorrupted corpse existing in the world. The frequent occurrence of strange events also reflects problems in the local government's governance, frequent wrongful convictions, and the bullying of the local populace by wealthy and powerful families.

Ordinary people should avoid "twisting" things. As for the unavoidable "twisting" things, there will be special people in the inner court of the Great Yao to keep an eye on them and grasp the development pattern of the "twisting". These people include some night watchmen and supervisors of the underworld.

It is worth mentioning that in the major hexagrams, there are some underworld officials under the Legalists who use "deception" to swindle money.

However, for an army of tens of thousands, there's no such thing as giving way to the "devils"! The fact that Wu Hanluan's army is facing this situation must be due to local forces causing trouble. And to defeat the "devils," the personnel issue must be resolved first.

Wu Hanluan summoned Wu Hengyu into his tent and reprimanded him, scolding him for being led by others without realizing it.

Upon realizing he had fallen into a trap, and that those who had set it up were actually the local tycoons who had made sarcastic remarks, Wu Hengyu's brow furrowed with anger. ...Two days later...

On the streets, Wu Hengyu and a group of men dressed in plain clothes, with the help of money paved by Wu Hanluan, and with the help of local wandering knights, targeted some people who had let slip their secrets in restaurants and gambling dens.

As dusk settled, Wu Hengyu easily bound these henchmen and quickly led them out of the city, dragging them to Wu Hanluan's camp.

Wearing a mask, Wu Hanluan looked at the henchmen released from the sacks. After a barrage of threats, the group of small fry revealed the reason: the water source the army had occupied happened to be the land used for irrigation by the local governor's family.

Wu Hengyu immediately flew into a rage: "This is a military camp designated by the imperial court for the army. How did the water source become your master's?"

However, Wu Hanluan stopped Wu Hengyu from resorting to violence and instead asked the crucial question: how exactly did the prefect's family members use "cursing"?

When these unfortunate men revealed how they collected a large number of "bones of women who died unjustly in the underworld" and deliberately used human blood to build a large screen on cloth, which they then buried in the underground palace, Wu Hengyu was dumbfounded: these powerful local clans of the imperial court were even more wicked than the evil sects.

…The way of man is to take from those who have less and give to those who have more, but one should not take too much from them…

Wu Hanluan immediately led his army to the so-called Yangle Mountain and invited the local prefect to the scene. The thousand-strong army formed the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation! Flags were raised in all directions and fluttered in the wind.

Then, the Golden Ox was unleashed and began to plow the mountain! As trenches ten feet wide were dug out, cracks appeared in the mountain, which collapsed with a roar. Blood, snakes, and insects immediately gushed from the collapsed sections. This was the place where the entire army was "cursed."

This menacing aura caused the townspeople watching to kneel on the ground.

However, Wu Hanluan sneered, "A mere trick!" The prefect beside him froze.

Confucianism, Legalism, the School of Military Strategy, and Mohism are among the top nine schools of thought in the Hundred Schools of Thought within the Great Treatise on Divination. The Yin-Yang School, associated with esoteric matters, is ranked among the bottom nine! This ranking is reasonable.

Military strategy either leads to defeat on the battlefield due to lack of courage, or to being despised by the world for lack of benevolence, or to having chaotic laws and regulations that make it impossible to issue orders. But it never involves yielding to evil forces.

One after another, ox-drawn cannons fired at the bleeding hilltop. As sparks flew, the "evil spirits" on the hilltop were blasted out, attempting to escape as wisps of yellow smoke. However, once airborne, they were trapped by the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation.

As the nine hundred burly soldiers of the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation waved their flags, the flags shifted and formed a vortex, opening a latrine bucket at the very center of the formation. Immediately, the wisp of smoke forced out by the artillery bombardment was sucked directly into it.

After exorcising the evil spirits, Wu Hanluan offered wine and shared a drink with the prefect. Wu Hanluan said, "The arrival of your army has caused much trouble for your region. Today, we are honored to rid the local people of this scourge." The prefect raised his golden goblet, drank the wine, and then made polite remarks, insisting that a monument be erected here to record this virtuous story.

A few days later, the soldiers who had contracted sores recovered after taking the medicine, and the army marched to the next encampment designated by the prefect.

When the army set off, the prefect personally came to reward the troops, bringing a large amount of grain and fodder, as well as about a hundred pigs and sheep. Wu Hengyu was wary and carefully inspected the grain and fodder and the supplies for rewarding the troops.

As the army marched away, the governor's smile gradually faded, revealing a hint of ruthlessness and sinister intent. Little did the governor know that a tiny insect was swimming in the white of his eye.

…golden goblets, golden buckets…

In the military camp, Wu Hengyu, feeling very unhappy, asked his father, "Why do we still have to give up the main camp?"

Wu Hanluan said, "Our army is the guest army here. It's easy to defend against open attacks, but difficult to guard against hidden arrows. Let's avoid it if we can. You can't just draw your sword and kill him right now, can you?"

With a stern face, Wu Hengyu squeezed out the words through gritted teeth: "If I weren't in the army and holding an important position, I would definitely have rushed into the mansion with my sword and beheaded him."

Wu Hanluan patted the winged tiger beneath him, which also showed its approval, and said to Wu Hengyu, "His head smells too bad, don't dirty your hands."

Wu Hengyu turned to his father, and he could tell what was hidden in his father's words.

Wu Hanluan changed the subject: "You know, if Yuan Changruo were here, this might not have happened."

Wu Hengyu paused slightly: "Him? He is somewhat clever. But he wouldn't be able to do anything about what happened today."

Wu Hanluan shook his head: "If it were him, he would have shown these wealthy families what it means to be plagued by bandits and have to ask us for favors. Instead, he would have driven us away now, thinking he had nothing to do. The officials in Lingnan are now going to great lengths to curry favor with him and expand their connections, sending their letters to me first."

After thinking for a moment, Wu Hengyu had to nod and admit that, in the presence of these guest forces, Wu Fei was not only a master at extorting money from the local area, but also made the local forces only dare to curse him in secret and not dare to confront him openly.

Therefore, Wu Hengyu couldn't help but fall into memories. It seemed that a long, long time ago, he also had helpers by his side, but he was unaware of it until they left, and only then did he miss the person who helped manage his hegemony.

Just as Wu Hengyu was lost in reminiscence, he suddenly sensed a surge of malevolent energy erupting ahead. A messenger then reported that a sudden gust of wind had swept across the road ahead, causing chaos, but no one was injured.

Wu Hengyu said to Wu Hanluan, "I'll go and investigate."

After obtaining Wu Hanluan's consent, he spurred his divine steed, which instantly transformed into a three-zhang-long divine beast. Riding on wind and thunder, it galloped over the army formation and headed to the front.

Wu Hanluan watched his son rush forward, nodded slowly, then stopped and asked the person behind him, "Daoist, is what lies ahead auspicious or ominous?"

Hundreds of meters behind the column, upon hearing a sudden sound from inside the vehicle, Xian Daoren calculated with his fingers and replied, "Our army will turn misfortune into good fortune!"

(End of this chapter)