Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 49 April Under the Same Sky
On April 15th of the 28th year of the Tianli era, the Battle of Yunmengze came to an end.

With the blockade chain in place, the Wu family army completed its intelligence gathering. The aquatic creatures in the Yunmeng Marsh rely on water chestnuts for sustenance, and these water chestnuts need to be preserved by either air-drying or sun-drying. Air-drying, after sealing with mud, only requires storage in a cellar, while sun-drying requires a large area to be exposed to the scorching sun.

Both methods ensure that water chestnuts remain edible for a long time, and are commonly used by the residents of the Yunmeng Marsh region. However, the mountains and rivers of the Great Yao are dynamic; when all the Yao are balanced, the mountains, rivers, and lakes pose no problem for the people. But now, in Donghua County, the human way is excessively "taking from the poor to give to the rich," causing the Heavenly Way to become unbalanced.

As a result, various mountain spirits appeared in Aoling in the north, and ghostly creatures were born; while in Yunmengze in the south, when the people ate dried water chestnuts, the yin energy in their bodies accumulated and turned into strange monsters, which are now the aquatic creatures in and out of Yunmengze that look like shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

It can be said that two of the so-called "three evils" of those powerful families in Changcheng were caused by their immorality.

During the process of the Haotian Realm Dragon Clan guiding the Great Whirlpool, Yu Li's character accidentally entered this place. Unable to contact her clan in the north, she had to take on the responsibility of guiding the local aquatic creatures. It seemed that the more "aquatic creatures" there were, the greater her power would be, but that was not actually the case.

Yu Li was constantly trying to reduce the Yin energy within the aquatic beings she commanded, attempting to restore peace and harmony.

Because these people, who have mutated into aquatic beings, currently have a limit to the amount of yin energy they can withstand. At present, they have only developed scales; in more severe cases, their hands may turn into pincers. Their intelligence has not yet been significantly affected, but once the yin energy accumulates to a certain level, they will completely mutate into monsters and lose their intelligence.

Therefore, Yu Li has been looking for an opportunity to set foot on the shore and establish a camp. In other words, he needs a sunny area to turn the harvested water chestnuts into yang food to neutralize the yin energy in his body.

Therefore, the aquatic creatures under Yu Li's leadership fell into a trap when they tried to seize the sun-drenched land.

…Swords and blades on the dry bank slashed at the farmers in the mud…

During the six months of stalemate, the Wu family army trained an elite cavalry force of eight hundred men. On April 15th, when the aquatic creatures came ashore again, the Wu family army suddenly attacked.

Since the aquatic creatures were only halfway across the river, this was essentially an ambush for the cavalry. Wu Hengyu lacked the ability to adapt to changing battle formations and was not adept at altering large-scale battle formations. However, his military tactics, like his spearmanship, allowed him to find the most opportune moment to launch a surprise attack.

This is also a talent for military strategy. Such a general does not need to be familiar with the tactics in military books, but has an innate instinct for attack. Once he chooses a direction to attack, he is as unstoppable as a boulder falling from a high mountain.

The aquatic tribes on the south bank of Yunmeng Marsh had not anticipated that the Wu family army would gather boats and proactively cross the river to their chosen grain-drying ground to seek battle. When the war drums sounded, the aquatic tribes hastily formed ranks, but before their formation could take shape, heavy cavalry attacked from the flanks, causing widespread slaughter among the aquatic tribes. The first to collapse were the fishermen and hunters armed with muskets, their ranks crumbling as if battered by waves.

For the past few months, these fishermen and hunters had been practicing their muskets in the reeds. They were the main force for this volley fire during the army's attack, preparing to advance into the camp and set up infantry phalanxes. However, under the sudden attack of the cavalry, they all dropped their guns and scattered in all directions.

After the musket battalion was scattered, the armored soldiers wearing reed mats followed. Because they were not in formation, they were trampled by the clustered cavalry and collapsed in less than three minutes.

The weaker and demoralized aquatic creatures, facing the oncoming murderous aura, had their scales eroded and fell off piece by piece. These aquatic creatures, trampling each other and barely managing to stand, were covered in blood. In the chaos, they made way for the iron hooves, much like a 21st-century street automatically parting at the sound of a police siren, but this blocked the movement of their own remaining, stronger camps.

The elite battle formations under Yu Li's command that had remained intact were quickly deformed under the pressure of the defeated aquatic forces.

For example, the eighty-man Golden Armored Dragon Guards on the left wing came from the Haotian Realm. In the past few years, when facing attacks from other Yao armies of the Southern Camp that outnumbered them several times over, they remained as steadfast as a rock.

Even now, in such unfavorable circumstances, facing the fleeing cannon fodder around them, their battalion officers are still trying to adjust their formation.

Finally, this group of golden-armored dragon guards managed to carve a trail of blood through the fleeing army with their halberds, thus separating the fleeing soldiers. When they saw the cavalry driving the crowd away, they stopped two hundred paces away.

To the Dragon Guards, these large cavalrymen seemed to be mocking them, pointing and gesturing at the corpses of the routed soldiers lying in front of their ranks. The Dragon Guards' halberds hadn't even touched the enemy yet, but were already stained with the blood of their own men.

Just as the Dragon Guards were preparing to face the first wave of attack on the Wu Family Army's formation, the sound of hooves came from other directions.

The first cavalry column stopped 120 paces away from the front of the Dragon Guard; a short while later, the second column, having completed its charge to the east, also arrived and formed ranks; then, a moment later, the third and fourth columns arrived and took their positions on the northwest and southeast sides respectively.

Faced with the "preparation" of cavalry from multiple directions, the Dragon Guards tensed up. They held their breath, afraid to even breathe.

Wu Hengyu's fighting style is quite brave, but bravery does not mean recklessness. He will choose to gather the strongest force and lead the charge towards the enemy's weak point.

After observing his tactics, Wu Fei formed a corresponding understanding: these fatal weaknesses were the "baseline points" that allowed large groups of troops to regroup. In other words, during drills, alignment was based on a certain point; if that point was eliminated, the formation would lose its standard for alignment.

The eastern cavalry began their slow, relentless charge, forcing the Dragon Guards to prepare to face east. However, the southern cavalry, though arriving later, surged forward with greater momentum. The Dragon Guards felt the ground tremble beneath their feet and were forced to look around.

Ultimately, it was the cavalry on the east side that accelerated and charged ahead of the cavalry on the south side.

The moment Wu Hengyu's cavalry made contact with the aquatic tribes, both sides suffered losses. The horses were strung together like candied hawthorns, and a large number of the Dragon Guards' halberds, which were leaning against each other shoulder to shoulder, were pushed over. The huge impact was transmitted from the east side to the west side. In order to stand firm, the Heavenly Court guards had to collectively push each other to the west.

Before the shoving could end, the southern charge made contact with the Dragon Guard's formation. At this moment, every soldier in the Dragon Guard's formation was still searching for a unified point of leverage to charge eastward. Suddenly encountering the force of the southern charge, several times more men fell than when they first encountered the initial impact. During the southern charge, three rows of Dragon Guard soldiers collapsed at once.

However, by this time all the Dragon Guards sensed something was wrong, and some of them turned to look at the direction from the west where the horses' hooves were approaching. The attack from the west was coming.

With a "crash," the sound of armor clashing echoed as five or six rows of the Dragon Guards on the west side were swept away like waves.

Anyone who's ever been in a fight knows that to bring someone to the ground, you have to wait for them to move their feet and then trip them. — That's how Wu Hengyu always managed to knock his opponents to the ground when he was a child, including those who had bullied Wu Fei.

The Dragon Guard halberdiers lost their courage under a series of heavy blows.

If the previous collapse was merely an earthquake, the collapse of the Dragon Guard was a cataclysmic event.

Just as the collapse of the flag in the central army camp would affect the entire army, the desertion of even one elite unit like the Heavenly Dragon Guard would cause a large number of soldiers and generals to flee.

The officers in charge of the Dragon Guard were in a difficult position. If they were facing the enemy head-on with enough "foothold" soldiers on both sides, they could have held off these mere four cavalry squads.

But it was precisely these ragtag soldiers who collapsed early; they were attacked from all sides and couldn't fight off multiple opponents.

If a seasoned general witnessed this scene, he would understand that it was not a matter of bad luck as Long Wei claimed, but rather that Wu Hengyu was a born cavalry general, capable of seizing the best opportunity on a battlefield as ever-changing as a charge battle.

As the personal benchmark of the cavalry battalion, Wu Hengyu no longer needed Wu Fei's command ability to direct the entire army from under the central banner. With a loud shout, Wu Hengyu signaled, "Everyone look at me, I have an important announcement to make!" Then, after spurring his horse forward, everyone understood "where to charge forward with all their might."

One man charges forward, leading a thousand to move, and when a thousand move, mountains and rivers tremble. Wu Hengyu, at the center, condensed his malevolent energy into a twenty-meter-long hammer. Each time the hammer struck the enemy formation, it generated a shockwave of malevolent energy hundreds of feet long. Those swept by this shockwave felt as if they were facing a roaring tiger on a mountain ridge.

The morale of the Yunmengze bandits has collapsed. The core elite force of the entire army is being beaten to a pulp, and what about the other bandit groups? Anyone who dares to raise their head will be attacked.

The subsequent soldiers of the Wu family army made three incursions and three exits with three swords and six holes, severing the connection between their left and right armies.

After leading the ground cavalry assault, Wu Hengyu transformed his black horse into a cloud-riding state, joined the Sky Dragon Horse formation, then rode across the lake, and finally jumped onto the deck of the giant warship.

On the forty-foot-long sailboat, the towering sails and cables snapped and crashed down, and the entire ship, losing wind support, sank onto the riverbank. Wu Hengyu saw the dragon-descended women surrounded on the bow deck and rushed over first.

After Wu Hengyu attacked Yu Li's side guards, she spat out a dragon pearl to release an energy shield in an attempt to defend herself, but it was pierced by the Star River Spear, and a murderous aura gathered between her brows. The two stared at each other, as if for a thousand years.

After a long while, Wu Hengyu pressed the tip of his gun against her neck: "I don't kill women."

After Wu Hengyu captured the general, the Yunmengze navy scattered like birds and beasts! The Wu family army achieved a complete victory.

Is it really over?

In May of the 28th year of the Xu Tian calendar, with the pacification of the year-long rebellion of the aquatic tribes in Yunmengze, Da Yao regained control over this land.

The Wu family army, under the king's orders, quelled the remaining enemy forces in this area and simultaneously escorted the taxes and provisions collected from neighboring Jizhou across the border. This relieved the court's urgent crisis. Indeed, Jizhou had previously used the pretext of rampant banditry in Donghua County and its disturbance of the border to obstruct trade routes, prevent southern merchants from entering, and delay tax collection, forcing the court to distribute taxes among counties south of Donghua County. Now that Donghua County has returned to peace, Jizhou should also resume its "official tribute from the Heavenly Court."

Wu Hanluan knew, and so did the governor of Donghua County. In recent years, Jizhou had been covering up the real reason why "bandits plundered and made it difficult to transport taxes to the capital." However, the governor of Jizhou was a relative of the emperor, so they could only let him pass the buck. Only now, with the merit of "suppressing the bandits," could they finally use this trick to get rid of the blame.

…but before one pot could be quelled, another one was already in the works…

On May 27th, at Jiguan Pass, the imperial grain carts were delayed for a full four hours. The fat-headed, big-eared officer guarding the pass, who was actually the governor's servant, walked over with a toothpick in his mouth and his nostrils flaring up. He made things difficult for the grain entering the pass, and his first words were full of suspicion: "There are contraband items on this grain cart. We must confiscate and inspect them!"

The soldiers, who were escorting the national tribute, had just come down from the battlefield and waited four hours for the gate to open. They were already furious.

The result was a "confiscation," and not just any confiscation, but one without any receipt. This immediately infuriated him.

Soldier: "This old man has traveled all the way from Changcheng to deliver this imperial tribute, and you're going to smear it with fabricated charges?"

Over the years, the fat general had been indulging in wine and women, and his eyes had been clouded by lust. He didn't sense any murderous intent. Instead, he thought: These soldiers escorting the goods don't know the rules, and they're just worthless lives. How dare they ask me for an explanation?

Immediately, he bared his neck arrogantly: "You can draw a knife? Do you dare touch it?"

The words had barely left his lips when the broadsword swept across, and the enormous pig's head rolled onto the ground, its eyes wide open in death. Blood gushed from its severed neck, staining the ground beside the car with a crimson smear. This trail of blood was as filthy as its usual urination.

…Soldiers who lack blood money are just that straightforward…

On May 4th, regarding the massacre in Jizhou, the imperial court received two versions of the story.

The governor of Jizhou said: "The Wu family army is arrogant and unruly, and has overstepped its duties by attempting to seize the pass. The court should punish them severely."

However, Wu Hanluan of Donghua Prefecture apologized, saying, "I failed to manage my subordinates properly. This time, the soldiers were eager to transport the national tax and became impatient, arguing with the officials of Jizhou, which led to a serious mistake."

Because the complaint from Jizhou reached the imperial court first, the censors in court were the first to attack the southern army. Even the emperor himself was swayed by the narrative, and for a moment, people wondered if the newly victorious and arrogant soldiers were deliberately causing trouble.

However, in the evening, after Wu Hanluan's apology, relayed from eight hundred miles away, arrived, the emperor fell into a terrible silence!

After reviewing the military situation, the emperor asked, "In recent years, bandits have been rampant in Jizhou, making it difficult for the people to travel?"

Although he had long resided in the palace, managing countless affairs of state, Emperor Xu could not possibly be all-encompassing in his dealings with the entire dynasty. However, he was not foolish. The powerful clans below might deceive him for a time, but eventually, the emperor would realize that something was amiss.

Over the years, during the southern wars, countless national taxes mysteriously disappeared. At that time, the emperor initially believed the explanations of the local prefectures. But now, upon reflecting on some events, he has realized something is amiss.

Emperor Shu recalled that last year, his beloved minister Yan returned to his hometown. This childhood friend had built a screen stretching for miles using rolled-up cloth, which became a celebrated story among scholars. But! If bandits were truly rampant, how could such extravagance go unpunished? And why did the imperial treasury disappear due to war?
In light of the current situation, Wu Hanluan personally ordered his personal guards to escort the annual tax, which resulted in a bloodbath at the checkpoint!
The absolute trust that Emperor Xu once placed in Prefect Yan has now silently begun to crack. He wanted to fly into a rage, but ultimately suppressed his anger, sighed, and said, "Draft an edict."

Emperor Xu reprimanded Wu Hanluan, which was consistent with the previous statement made by the court. However, in the content of the decree, the "Jizhou injury incident" was mentioned only briefly. Instead, the decree criticized Wu Hanluan for failing to quickly suppress the bandits and wasting national funds.

…diffusion impact…

Wu Fei, who lived south of Yongji Pass Town, learned of this reprimand of the Wu family ten days later.

For Xuan Chong, who had read dozens of speeches by leaders, the essence of this reprimand lay in the "matters" mentioned within. The fact that the entire document made no mention of Jizhou indicated that His Majesty was already wary of them.

Wu Fei looked at Xuan Tian in the north and whispered, "Can our Emperor rise up? Alas, this will involve touching the most stubborn interests." The aristocratic groups have grown so large that they fully control the concept of "virtue" and firmly grasp the discretion of the "principles" of governing the country. Now, the world cannot even let out the slightest "negation" against them.

As a modern person, Xuan Chong did not have the confidence of "I am in charge" when it came to this emperor, but still held a certain respect and understanding for this ruler.

…The army's flags once again moved in a different direction from the imperial insignia…

In the main camp of Donghua Prefecture, a beautiful woman gazed at the sky; the chains on her shoulder blades had just been removed. Of course, Wu Hengyu was guarding her beside her.

Yu Li gazed at the sky, her double pupils becoming visible. Wu Hengyu followed her gaze and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Yu Li: "I am observing the astronomy of your world." (This is a form of divination that uses celestial phenomena to determine the approximate fortune or misfortune of a world.)
Wu Hengyu knew that a great calamity was about to befall the world, but he was unconvinced by this woman: "The Xiren Realm has existed for 78,000 years since the beginning of time. As an outsider, what ability do you have to divine this?"

Yu Li: "Yes, this world has existed for tens of thousands of years. The great greed, anger and ignorance have attracted the evil demons from outside the heavens."

Wu Hengyu chuckled and shook his head.

Yu Li raised her finger, pointing to the empty sky. "Right there, there's a moon you can't see. And there's another one over there too. There are four moons in total. They are all nurtured by the greed, anger, and ignorance of this world. Once these four moons are nurtured to a certain extent, they will tear your world apart. At that time, starting from the North and South Poles, the earth will become barren, the universe will be disordered (gravitational distortion), and large chunks of rock will flow into the sky. Within the damaged earth, void gates will form, devouring all mud, rocks, grass, and trees. Those gates are the entrances reflected by the four moons. At the same time as they are swallowed, some demons will also emerge."

Wu Hengyu: "You said there are four moons in the sky that keep getting bigger?"

Yu Li nodded.

Wu Hengyu scratched his head: "Then shouldn't these four grown moons have fallen down?" His logic made it difficult for him to understand the universe under the universal gravitation system.

Of course, Wu Fei, who was currently receiving a "liberal arts education," was also puzzled about the physics of this world. Wu Fei: The emotions of the beings in this world could actually cause corresponding celestial bodies in the sky to experience mass increases. Then what exactly is our consciousness? Is it a fifth force inserted into the four fundamental forces?

Yu Li looked at the horizon and murmured, "Haotian Dragon Realm, my homeland, was destroyed in this way. I wonder if my brothers have found another 'living world' to settle down in."

Her robes billowed in the wind, and the small blue wildflowers on the soil beneath them turned crimson.

(End of this chapter)