Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 76 Heaven and Earth Strikes Back, Respecting the King and Expelling the Barbarians

As a human, Wu Fei's perception of the high-energy microscopic physical world is limited. When he was enveloped by the sparrow-shaped red light, he was unaware of the intensity of the stellar-level energy level he was being pulled by, the "burning rocks and igniting water" intensity, and even less aware of the consequences on a planetary scale during this pulling process.

As powerful beings, they are unaware of their influence on the world when they "just open their eyes," hence they can be called "young ones."

The beacon left by the Vermilion Bird in the Xi Human Realm carefully observed Wu Fei and confirmed that he was developing very well and had an extremely pure bloodline, but was also extremely willful. In the end, it had no choice but to return and entered the mantle in less than an incense stick's time and continued to drill downwards.

Suzaku knew that only an incarnation he had sent could bring this "newborn" back.

…Wu Fei's perspective…

This interstellar coordinate, which Wu Fei regarded as the "Red Light Bird," experienced increasingly higher temperatures as it advanced into the Earth's core, rapidly increasing from the initial "gentle" four or five thousand degrees Celsius on the surface to one hundred thousand degrees Celsius.

Furthermore, as it came into contact with more and more of the Earth's core material, much like a lit cigarette butt being inhaled intensely and glowing brightly, the temperature of this Vermilion Bird interstellar coordinate reached one million degrees Celsius after penetrating the mantle. And it continued to rise after entering the Earth's core.

The instant the Vermilion Bird's interstellar coordinates were completely injected into the Earth's core, all living beings on the planet felt a sudden surge of warmth in their hearts!
In the instant that all life on the planet was in a daze, a shockwave from within the planet rapidly penetrated the mantle and spread outwards.

Centered on the Vermilion Bird Holy Land beneath Wu Fei's feet, a barely perceptible tremor with an intensity of only level 2 spread outwards.

…From a micro perspective…

As Wu Fei walked down the mountain, he paused slightly and asked the people around him, "Did you all feel that just now?"

The soldiers were bewildered and did not react, while the mages were calculating and divining. Gongshu Wang was the first to respond: "General, the earth's veins just trembled slightly."

Angri then calculated with his fingers and said to Wu Fei, "My lord, I think we don't need to worry. This activation of the earth's veins is not aimed at us. You are merely communicating with a god."

…from a planetary perspective…

The earthquake waves, which were only around magnitude 2 on the Earth's surface, began to spread outwards in a ring shape across the entire planet. The intensity of the initial oscillations was maintained throughout this ring, much like a drop of water falling into the Pacific Ocean, where the wave crests never diminished.

According to normal Earth physics, the generation of such energy would eventually lead to a super earthquake that could turn the Earth's crust into canyons due to the convergence of seismic waves.

The uniformly spreading seismic waves on the crustal plates of the Xiren Realm will ultimately not "resonate" and cause a devastating plate rupture. This is because the medium through which the energy of large seismic waves can be transmitted is not only the Earth's crust, but also another medium! This medium is the medium through which the Evil Moon is currently projecting its influence on the Xiren Realm.

The terrifying energy fluctuations from the earthquake spread into space in directions invisible to humans.

Several months ago, the four evil moons seized some sacred mountains, sending them flying into space and crashing into themselves. Now, energy fluctuations from the Xiren Realm are also being transmitted to the evil moons through the staircases they created.

…a thousand miles away…

The Taoist was holding a mirror and looking at himself. There was no one else in the mirror except for a large, moving eye.

Eight kinds of magical energy flowed around the mirror, and the large eyes selected and absorbed each energy attribute by shifting their gaze.

Before the enlightened man, a large number of ignorant people were worshipping.

Sixty miles away lies Jinhui Ridge, a renowned spiritual vein and a fiercely contested territory among immortals. The struggle for lineage on the mountain has lasted for centuries, and the dominant sect has changed hands three times since the millennia ago.

Clearly, Xiandaoren was still engrossed in his own plans.

As the gong sounded below, the fools all lowered their heads. Just as the Taoist was about to begin his sermon, he suddenly looked up at the sky, his expression showing confusion.

But soon, all three of his eyes opened wide and stared at the sky.

The four evil moons simultaneously revealed their outlines, but they were a little different from normal. They started in pairs, appearing in a ballroom dance style. The ballroom dance involved the two people first hooking their arms together and turning around, and finally embracing each other.

It wasn't just the Daoist who manifested.

On the Great Nine Palaces, the officials in charge of divination all came out of the palace and looked up to divine unusual signs.

Meanwhile, in various sacred mountains, cultivators who flew on swords and rode spirit beasts also crossed the clouds and flew into the clear sky, looking up at the heavens.

…A savage and violent starry sky…

Xie Yue is in a terrible state, having been turned into a spinning egg by the pull of gravity.

This being, existing as another physical world, has physical rules that are incompatible with the Xiren Realm planet.

So much so that whatever the Xiren Realm throws into it will be distorted by the rules. And Xie Yue will even mock the Xiren Realm's actions as acts of benevolence.

What do you do when faced with a provocation from something untouchable? There's nothing you can do.

But what if you swing one and smash it against the other?

At this moment, high in the sky, the energy fluctuations within the Xiren Realm caused the blue evil moon and the purple evil moon to lock each other; and caused the green evil moon and the red evil moon to lock each other.

And so, a brilliant collision—no, it should be called a "cocktail" mixing—occurred.

The two pairs of dance partners spun faster and closer, and blue and purple merged first.

The purple area, having been materialized, produced numerous volcanoes. Before merging, these volcanoes erupted with brilliant smoke and fire, forming magnificent art of death before falling into the purple realm of depravity.

And this beautiful art seizes the moment and merges into the blue space, just like a nightmare where the next second is a moment of great terror, and the clever ghost immediately wakes up, or directly carries this terror into another person's dream.

The blue labyrinth trembled violently, forced to be shamelessly penetrated by various falling purple tentacles. The labyrinth, originally composed of psychedelic mirrors, was now filled with numerous ukiyo-e paintings, and the purple images, like flowing water, began to fill every part of the labyrinth until large sections of the labyrinth collapsed due to information overload. Before the collapse, the blue labyrinth meticulously analyzed those pleasurable sensations, so the creatures in the purple area, after entering the labyrinth, had their desires extinguished, becoming saintly, followed by confusion and then calmness.

As for the other pair, red and green.

Like a collision between a sea of ​​blood and a sea of ​​dung, mosquitoes and maggots bled from their seven orifices, while the red blood warriors were covered in mosquitoes, each refusing to give way. The maggots, which were originally plump and white, transformed into fighting insects covered in black carapaces and with sharp teeth in their mouths.

…The evil moon becomes two pairs of yin-yang fish…

On the northern route of the Wu family army, Wu Hanluan was looking at a map. Due to more than a year without war, he had become a little overweight. Suddenly, he felt a burning sensation in his chest.

He then started coughing, and as he coughed, he began to gag, and suddenly blood came out of his mouth.

Upon seeing this, a guard quickly helped him up, but Wu Hanluan stopped him, saying, "I'm fine."

Once he was seated back in his place, he instructed his personal guards, "Hengyu must not know about this."

The guards around him nodded. If even the young general wasn't allowed to know, then no one else was allowed to know.

Silence returned to the tent. Wu Hanluan, as if struck by a thought, opened the map of Southern Xinjiang and sighed, "You brothers must get along well." He had recently received a letter from home informing him that Wu Fei had led his troops to Southern Xinjiang again, crossing the Lingjiang River, seemingly attempting to resolve the Southern Xinjiang issue once more.

Wu Hanluan was very pleased with this. Wu Fei was better than him in managing the Southern Frontier and had accomplished what all the ancestors of the Wu family had wanted to do. Passing on the position of Chief of the Army to Wu Fei was indeed the right thing to do.

…Two weeks later, the storm seemed to have passed…

On the south bank of the Lingjiang River, Wu Fei divided the army he had brought into three groups. The first group had already returned to Yongji Pass with chariots and other supplies. The second group retreated to the north bank of the Lingjiang River to hand over the mission in Fenxing City. Wu Fei himself led the last group of troops to garrison in the southern border region in conjunction with the auxiliary troops recruited on the north bank of the Lingjiang River.

In making this arrangement, Wu Fei also took a small step: he and Yao Sangu shared a tent.

After the tents were merged, the following rumors spread throughout the various battalions of the army.

"The young marshal fell ill with Fairy Yao!" "Really?" Under the influence of a couple of ounces of liquor, these busybodies began to embellish the details of the rumor. When they got excited, they started to sing the script of "The Fairy Couple," and a group of soldiers showed their smirks.

In the past, Wu Fei would have definitely denied the rumors if he heard about such "style" issues being spread.

The romantic notions of lovers spending a spring night in a warm tent, as sung by scholars, would chill the hearts of soldiers fighting a bloody battle. Furthermore, Wu Fei's military regulations strictly prohibited the carrying of female musicians during marches and battles.

The current situation is that the corps is in a state of peace, a period of stationing in peacetime. According to military regulations recognized by Wu Fei, soldiers are allowed to bring their families to reside near their station, which helps to maintain morale.

In Fenxing City, it was the same. Wu Fei set up a separate family area in the central area of ​​the castle for the families of officers and sergeants to live in. Of course, if a soldier took a local woman as a concubine, it was also arranged locally.

The signal sent by Wu Fei and Yao Sangu from the same camp was very clear: he intended to be stationed in the southern part of Lingjiang for six months.

Of course, Wu Fei did not indulge in lust and did not hold her at night. After all, the tent was not soundproof, and Wu Fei was a shy person.

This small-scale "joint operation" was, in the eyes of the generals, "should have been done long ago."

When Wu Fei asked Zhao Tu if there had been any negative consequences for his decision to "leave his daughter in the camp," he was met with a question.

Zhao Tu: "General, you went too far before. With 20,000 soldiers under your command and the food and drink of over 100,000 people in charge, it's really hard for everyone to feel at ease without an heir!"

This answer surprised Wu Fei, but after considering the historical context of this place, he suddenly understood.

Offspring were like a token left by an entrepreneur. In this feudal era, this token was more authentic than any imperial seal.

What if this lord were to pass away unexpectedly? If he left nothing behind, such a large undertaking would be left without anyone in charge! Even if there are some talented subordinates, they would be unable to rise to power and command respect.

However, as long as the former ruler has offspring, the successor can first seize the power of assistance and then take over the great cause created.

Whether the successor will continue to act as a great replacement or wait for the child to grow up and become a ruler who maintains the status quo, for the generals of this generation, the foundation they have built will not be scattered like that of bandits.

In the eyes of many "mercenary dogs" in southern Xinjiang: Wu Fei has already proven himself to be a successful entrepreneur. Producing children and continuing the family line is now an essential task.

This "successor" cannot be replaced by taking on apprentices or adopting sons.

Liu Bei hesitated between bestowing titles and granting fiefs to his adopted son, Liu Shan (A Dou), even though he had recognized him as his son for many years and A Dou's abilities seemed mediocre. However, powerful figures like Guan Yu, who were essentially part of Liu Bei's clan, firmly believed that the hard-won legacy should be handed over to their elder brother's biological son!
The reason is simple: the group is inherited by the eldest son, the logic is very simple, there is no need for debate, and the shareholders other than the lord do not need to fight among themselves.

Now that Wu Jiajun's Southern Route Group has finished its campaign in southern Xinjiang, its mentality has quietly changed.

Xuan Chong (Wu Fei), who noticed this, said: For these soldiers who earned their lives through bloodshed, handing over the wealth they had earned with their lives to their blood relatives was an absolutely unshakable "ideology".

Furthermore, Xuan Chong offered a revised perspective: if those who shed blood are willing to transfer the wealth and status they have earned through their lives to compatriots who are "not their own blood relatives," then they have attained the enlightenment of modern nationalist martyrs, and the great cause of the times has undergone a completely new evolution.

As for his place in this world, Xuan Chong felt he still followed tradition.

Even in that new era of his previous life, Xuan Chong had very high standards for choosing a non-blood-related heir. First, one had to be brave and fearless, and second, strong and not vain.

However, in that era, finding such a non-blood-related heir was harder than earning a million dollars. The streets were full of selfish people nurtured by consumerism.

…After the army that had crossed the border returned…

Wu Fei remained near Lingjiang, constructing four strongholds similar to Fenxing City. These strongholds were currently being built in a style resembling the large camps of Donghua County. To quickly establish a defensive position, brick walls were not used for the time being.

However, apart from the lack of rammed earth brick walls and the absence of a city god directly appointed by the imperial court, its construction was similar to that of a city.

Giant felled trees were sharpened, roasted until hard, charred, and buried in the soil to form the camp walls, resembling wooden city walls.

At the same time, since Lingnan had taken in a large number of slaves, it was impossible to simply let them go back. Instead, they used this abundant labor force to cultivate the fields that supported the four cities.

Wu Fei cautiously believes that while the various ethnic groups in southern Xinjiang are temporarily "afraid of his power," it is very worthwhile to do this work. However, once the local people's hearts are no longer filled with fear and their rebellious intentions resurface, it will be much more difficult to implement these royal undertakings.

After the large camp was completed, the food supplies that Wu Fei had sent from the south were almost used up, so he released the slaves to return to their homes. These local tribes of the southern frontier could not starve in the jungle; they could survive even by digging for insects from rotten wood. Therefore, there was no need to support them.

Strategically speaking, Wu Fei has quietly driven four nails into this area, cutting off the economic lifeline of many tribes in southern Lingjiang.

According to Wu Fei's plan, these villages will be garrisoned by two hundred troops, which will be Wu Fei's economically viable forces.

Regarding the blood tribute for the stationed troops, Wu Fei believed that there was no need for the king to provide them with the same treatment as knights; simply granting the commander of the stationed army a noble title would suffice. As for the soldiers below, they would be treated similarly to military households.

The problem with military households in the Ming Dynasty lay in the fact that, in the Jiangnan region, they were influenced by the aristocratic system, resulting in the loss of the army's independence. As a result, military settlements were not only managed by military officers but also oppressed by a local bureaucratic group that used civil officials to control the military. Ultimately, when the civil official group completely overwhelmed the military households and officers, the lowest-ranking military households were pushed to the margins, becoming de facto serfs. Lacking honor, they lacked organization and fighting capacity.

However, in the border regions, the civil officials' power could not overstep the boundaries, and the military officers in charge of land reclamation were directly under the general's command! The military households were no longer at the bottom of the social class.

Before Wu Fei left in 32, he bestowed upon each of the four camp commanders a bronze seal bearing the title of "Colonel and Commander," a legitimate position that Wu Fei, as a lieutenant general, could grant on behalf of the imperial court. Of course, Wu Fei had not yet reported this to the court; given the court's current declining state, he would report it when the opportunity arose.

These four commanders, unaware that Wu Fei had not yet reported the matter, assumed it was a legitimate appointment from the imperial court and excitedly accepted the position. In reality, even if the appointment were actually approved by the imperial court, there would be no grounds for complaint.

Because this is a legitimate fortress stationed on the new border of Da Yao. It's a de facto "post." What, what if, during future reconciliation, the court can't find a corresponding "post" in the central archives? Oh, it must be a data loss in the archives. They'll fill in the missing posts; they can't just say the "post" is fake and order the border to retreat.

As long as the border is under stable control at the grassroots level, procedures can be re-established based on evidence such as unearthed inscriptions.

Indeed, Wu Fei erected a monument here, clearly stating that these four military towns were the locations where the Yongji Pass General's Mansion was situated, and the trading points with the Tusi tribes in southern Lingjiang.

The four fortresses were named Left Wing Fortress, Left Claw Fortress, Right Claw Fortress, and Right Wing Fortress. Wu Fei remarked, "They are all my wings and claws."
The real reason: "Currently, these military outposts are still all made of wooden fences. It's not appropriate to give them overly impressive names. If the officials in the interior see them, they'll say, 'That's all.'" Wu Fei: "In the frontier, it's best to be simple and honest. You can be laughed at for being uncultured, but you can't be labeled as arrogant and ignorant. When this place really becomes impressive, we can invite a respected writer from the interior to come and compose a poem, and then we can change it."

Wu Fei authorized the commanders in the fortress: when they have money in the future, they can turn the village into a city, the wooden fence into rammed earth walls, and stone bricks can be piled on the outside of the rammed earth walls. They don't need to worry about overstepping their bounds. Strengthening the defenses is the way to respect the king and expel the barbarians!

(End of this chapter)