Chapter 24: Preparations for Everything

On the 9th of January in the 26th year of the Shutian Era, Guoshou Pass fell. All the garrison commanders perished. On the same day, after the city fell, Prefect Han Yong burned himself to death along with the tower. Five days later, Huangyu City fell, and the imperial inspector Liu Rang, dispatched by the court, abandoned the city and fled.

The world was shocked. The Emperor of Da Yao in Yaodu was furious; perhaps he, who prided himself on unmatched martial prowess, was angered by the loss of territory for the first time in decades, or perhaps because he had failed to command the hearts of his subjects.

In the Emperor’s eyes, Wang Lu had long been branded a traitor. He had only been waiting for Wang to abandon the city so he could execute this defeated general, whom the world deemed a blight upon the nation. Yet, the very man he had labeled a "traitor" had died on the battlefield in the most impeccable manner, while Liu Rang, the loyal subject in whom he had placed such high hopes, had failed to turn the tide or strike back at the enemy after the fall of Guoshou Pass.

The heroic deaths of these two "traitors" left the Emperor, who prided himself on his ability to judge men, with a sense of stifled frustration—a feeling of "I was clearly right, so why is the answer different?"

In court, the Emperor issued a decree to dispatch a massive army of one hundred thousand to launch a northern expedition. This force would be led by four generals.

Xuan Chong, acting as an observer, summarized the situation after learning the full picture: The bureaucratic system of Da Yao suffered from structural fragility; the key personnel essential to its core operations were irreplaceable. Once an individual official playing a critical role was wrongly despised and ostracized by the top-level ruler, no replacement could be found in the short term. The resulting structural paralysis often caused the state to stumble and suffer catastrophic setbacks during its operations.

Therefore, an enlightened monarch should not recklessly indulge his temperament. As *The Way of the Sovereign* in *Han Feizi* states: "The ruler should not reveal his desires."

...In the Southern Ridge of Da Yao...

At Yongji Pass, Wu Fei stared at a monster caged in rope netting.

It was a beast with the body of a lion, the head of a bird of prey, and the massive wings of an eagle. This hybrid creature’s hooked beak was as large as a peck-measure, and water buffalo horns beside its mouth looked like mere insects on a chicken’s beak.

The border soldiers were astonished by such a curiosity, poking at the creature with spears to tease it, but Wu Fei felt a jolt of disbelief: A griffin! How did this thing appear in his plane of existence?

However, he soon grew accustomed to it; after all, he had previously seen snake-men riding spined dragons.

Official Da Yao records in the *Chronicles of Exotic Realms* provided an explanation: The wilderness, unprotected by the human Way, often sees the descent of alien entities from the stars, which is the source of these strange creatures.

Southern border records also noted: In the old days of Chiyou’s rebellion, evil spirits festered in the long hills; the people there, ignorant of etiquette, were skilled at raising exotic beasts.

For example, in the first year of the Shutian Era, the Lingnan army had captured a "Ba-snake" with lush wings, the upper body of a phoenix-chicken, and the tail of a serpent.

As for how griffins and such were created, Wu Fei understood it to be a process of forcibly fusing two species via "Primordial Stones," followed by using "Spirit-Awakening Pills" and other methods to control the mutation and complete the integration.

Wu Fei did not know how this world resolved "species rejection," but he understood that these "mutant species" were bred for the same purpose as humans training horses: war.

During his two years in Lingnan, Wu Fei had also attempted to domesticate monsters. Most notably, he had raised a batch of "Stone Rhinos" that could be ridden and were fearless of fire. Their sensitivity to cold was managed by outfitting them in padded cotton armor. This was a feat of domestication never accomplished by humans in his previous life on Earth, demonstrating the level of "alchemy and cauldron" spiritual arts in this world.

As for the griffin, Wu Fei approached it, reaching out to stroke the feathers on its head in an attempt to soothe it. The griffin immediately turned to bite. Its giant beak could crush buffalo horns, and Wu Fei hurriedly pulled back, narrowly escaping injury.

Since petting its head didn't work, he tried patting its rear. When soothing his own cats, Wu Fei always rubbed their backsides. However, the griffin struggled violently, lashing its tail like a whip.

"Damn it," Wu Fei thought, "nothing works." He grabbed an iron hammer and thrust it at the eagle head; as the griffin opened its mouth, he jammed the hammer directly into its throat.

Facing the griffin as it tried to spit out the war hammer, Wu Fei revealed a fierce expression: "Go on, bite again?"

A few minutes later, the griffin lowered its head, wilted. Wu Fei said to the soldiers nearby, "Feed it meat later. If it doesn't eat, feed it the hammer. If it doesn't eat for three days, push the cage to the slaughterhouse." He then glanced at the griffin’s hindquarters and issued a dining order: "Save the 'whip' for me."

The griffin immediately opened its beak wide, looking as foolish as a confused bald eagle that had fallen into the water and become a drowned rat.

Seeing this, Wu Fei hesitated. Is something this dim-witted capable of being a mount?

Just then, Zhao Tu walked over, and the griffin immediately cowered, crouching down as if ready to be ridden.

Zhao Tu looked over, and Wu Fei looked back.

After a second of hesitation, Xuan Chong, much like Prime Minister Cao letting Zhen Ji go, waved his hand at Zhao Tu: "Fine, fine, it's yours."

Wu Fei strode away, while behind him, Zhao Tu happily rubbed the griffin’s fur before putting on the riding gear.

...

The appearance of the griffin made Wu Fei faintly sense that a change had occurred in the Southern Frontier. This change was a shift in the "environmental energy field."

...

At this time, the attention of the Da Yao court and public was focused on the invasion by the northern force known as the Celestial Dynasty. But in the midst of this great calamity, was that truly all there was to it?

Wu Fei opened the trade manifest for crossing the pass and discovered some strange items, such as a feathered cloak made of plumage he had never seen on any bird. Such cloaks possessed excellent conductivity for "Dao Power."

"Dao Power" was not a specific force, but a duality of matter—the states of "Yin and Yang." In Da Yao, any object that utilized this "duality" for calculations was considered a "Dao Power" object, and the best of these were presented to the court as tribute.

These materials were used either for constructing the palaces in the Divine Capital or for crafting massive war machines.

For example, the giant turtles from Heluo Commandery had eight opposing dualities on their shells; the nephrite jade from Qiling was crafted into precious disks or pendants for the nobility due to its excellent "Dao Power"; then there were the century-old giant trees in the Southern Ridge, whose interlaced rings also represented Yin and Yang.

Among these materials, the man-made "Dao Power" substances were White Ridge Earth and Black Evil Stone, which were processed by alchemists in "refining kilns" using alternating mild and intense fires to create "Dao Porcelain" and "Spirit Bricks."

Xuan Chong remembered that in his previous life, all computer cores utilized the "potential" of semiconductors for calculation. In this world, "Yin and Yang" were not just potential differences, and the computing materials were not merely semiconductors.

In the warehouse, Wu Fei picked up a feather and gently infused it with blood energy. The feather began to flicker alternately like a fiber-optic cable.

After careful comparison, Wu Fei determined that these were likely the feathers of the most common egrets in the south, but they had undergone mutations due to "Spirit-Evil Tides," causing them to transform.

Wu Fei squeezed his hands, and as he unleashed his baleful energy, the spiritual light flickering on the cloak dissipated like white water vapor. It was just like the "snake swarm" spells he had encountered years ago; when the soldiers' baleful energy pressed in, the vibrant patterns on those venomous snakes turned into colored smoke and were expelled, reverting them into ordinary, non-venomous grass snakes.

By now, the southern barbarians should not have had the capability to weave such a cloak; there must have been external forces involved. If one could weave Dao Power into a cloak like this, one could also embed feathers into the shafts of arrows for wind-element enchantment, drastically increasing their range.

..."Foreign interference," Wu Fei shook his head...

In June of the 26th year of the Shutian Era, in the workshops behind Yongji Pass, rows of arrow-bamboo materials were being processed and stored. At the same time, the engraving of "Wind-Riding Runes" was completed.

The method of engraving these runes was derived entirely from the empirical system summarized by the craftsmen of Da Yao; Xuan Chong could not interfere using the so-called "advanced" processes of Earth.

One part of this enchantment process involved wrapping spirit-silk around the arrow shaft to form spirit-runes, applying lacquer, and then roasting it over a fire to allow the spirit of the silk to permeate the shaft. Once the oil-soaking was finished, the spirit-runes were complete.

As a military strategist, Wu Fei was an outsider to the principles of this "craftsman's technology" and could not dictate the process, but he could ensure the supply of raw materials.

Through his two years of management at Yongji Pass, Wu Fei had unified everything from production to transportation of military materials. For instance, all arrow-bamboo was grown on uniform terraced fields and harvested on a schedule, ensuring that all output was of the same standard.

Bamboo Mountain had become a heavily guarded area, to the point that the "iron-eating beasts" that used to come for food had been driven away, unable to get even a single shoot.

In the workshops, the arrow shafts were bundled and inspected daily. No unauthorized personnel were allowed near.

"Third Aunt" seemed to want to approach the workshops, but Wu Fei felt it better not to trouble her.

...

With ample arrows, the intensity of live-fire training was increased.

Outside Bamboo Mountain, the army’s crossbowmen began training every three days, practicing volley fire and shield-wall combat. The arrow shafts piled on the targets looked like firewood; of course, broken shafts were split into strips and reprocessed into rattan-shield armor.

Oil-soaked bamboo was a "poor man's" carbon fiber; when used as the skeleton for a shield and covered with dragon-turtle hide, it made for an excellent light shield.

On the firing range, crossbowmen drew their strings, while on the training ground, soldiers with sandbags strapped to their legs practiced blocking, rolling, and dodging with rattan shields and swords.

...

Within a three-hundred-mile radius of Yongji Pass, multiple fortified villages were mobilized, and more and more conscripted farmers were brought in for training. They donned armor, carried swords, and drilled in "border patrols."

According to Da Yao law, it was a major crime for a general to mobilize more than a hundred soldiers between provinces.

But having returned from Tianchi City, Wu Fei no longer had concerns about overstepping his authority. Compared to the schemes of his uncle, his actions were nothing. Furthermore, he was not moving troops into the provincial capital, but to the frontier to guard against alien tribes.

Out here in the borderlands, could Da Yao really control how many troops he gathered? Even if they wanted to, the troops were outside the frontier—they couldn't even check! If they really had the ability to inspect, why not check the troops of the northern Celestial Dynasty in Bo Commandery?

Ever since Da Yao’s series of failed deployments in Bo Commandery had left the nation’s borders compromised, Wu Fei had begun to look down on Da Yao a little more.

...

Wen Si arrived at Yongji Pass. Amidst the buzzing mosquitoes in the fields, he looked at the ox carts on the imperial road and laughed foolishly. The distressed slaves beside him frowned and asked, "What are you laughing at?"

Wen Si said, "I’m thinking that one day when I’m successful, I’ll definitely drive an ox cart and walk through here."

The slaves sneered, "You? Wanting to be successful?"

Amidst the laughter, Wen Si laughed along with them.

Suddenly, the foreman came over and cursed, "What are you laughing at? Get to work!"

Under the foreman's intimidation, everyone hurriedly lowered their heads.

The foreman walked a circle and came to Wen Si, kicking him: "It was you causing trouble just now, wasn't it, kid?"

Wen Si hurriedly nodded and apologized with a smile: "It was me, it was me. I was just telling a joke—telling everyone a joke."

The foreman held his whip and swung it in the air twice at Wen Si. Oh, the whip didn't unfurl; it was just held in his hand in a circle. The so-called "beating" was nothing more than a light tap, purely symbolic.

The foreman said, "I’m sick of this place myself, and you’re telling jokes? Aren't you afraid you’ll joke yourself into being a slave?"

It looked like a punishment, but the foreman was actually just bored. Seeking someone to talk to and wanting a bit of excitement was human nature. When the slaves laughed, he wanted to chime in, but the local mosquitoes wouldn't spare him just because he was a foreman, and he couldn't lower his status to join in the slaves' fun, so he could only lightly vent on Wen Si.

Wen Si, under this beating, clutched his head comically while fawning and smiling, playing along with the foreman. This flexible attitude allowed him to get beaten less than everyone else; after all, if he were beaten to the point of breaking, the atmosphere would become truly dull.

After the foreman had expended some energy, he barked at those around him, "Everyone get back to work! Wen Si, come with me."

Wen Si bowed and smiled, and after the foreman turned, he quickly turned to his brothers, cupped his fists, and gave a thumbs-down gesture, signaling, "Master is going for a moment, you all don't worry."

In the thatched hut, the foreman sat down carelessly. Wen Si swept the floor for a full stick of incense, and only after ensuring the foreman’s expression was normal did he sit down as well.

The foreman asked, "Wen Si, do you want to shed your slave status?"

Wen Si was stunned, clearly thinking for a moment before showing great enthusiasm: "Of course I want to."

The foreman took out a bamboo slip. This was a document issued from above.

...The bamboo slip was filled with Wu Fei’s meticulous calculations...

During the period of northern advancement, Xuan Chong searched through historical data in his system to perfect the merit and reward system for his own family—that is, the "Blood Reward" formula that corresponded to the "second part" of what Wu Hengyu had written in the "first part."

Ultimately, after calculation, Xuan Chong determined that under the current agrarian productivity of the dynasty, the Blood Reward formula should be "one life for ten slaves"—that is, for every soldier lost in battle, ten people must be captured as slaves.

Because supporting one non-producing soldier required ten people to provide productivity (the industrial age had a different standard, where one person could support two, which is why international humanitarian consensus in later ages held that one must never massacre, but turn the defeated into a colony).

Therefore, Xuan Chong wrote his insights into his system. The civility of warfare is: by more reasonably extracting the value of the defeated, one sustains the payment of Blood Rewards, reducing "lethal persecution" of the defeated.

Wu Fei: All strategies must be laid out according to this fundamental formula. If one’s side has no military advantage and cannot maintain the "one life for ten slaves" Blood Reward standard, one must either contract and reduce confrontation, cease confrontation, or consider early on that "those who understand the times are outstanding," and while one still has military leverage, negotiate to join the order established by the other side.

In the main camp, Wu Fei dipped his brush and added a line: A set of effective Blood Reward rules requires a military group to consider how much labor must be mobilized to fill the gap when "the military occupies human resources." The resources filled by labor mobilized from other regions must be "military occupation"—this "labor supply" must not be gradually exploited by "non-military vested interest groups."

Therefore, "slavery" should be limited to one generation. That is, ten slaves pay for one life, but the children and grandchildren of the slaves should not continue to bear the debt. By the same token, it is unreasonable for the descendants of meritorious officials to continue enjoying support as "second-generation slaves" when they have not paid the "price of blood."

The "Iron-Capped Nobility" of the Eight Banners, where descendants generation after generation enjoyed the blood rewards of their ancestors, was the most classic negative example; a "Blood Reward" that should have been settled in one or two generations became an infinitely overdrawn check.

Blood-reward merits should be "reviewed" generation after generation, with titles evaluated based on the blood labor of each generation; they must not become a "golden rice bowl" passed down through inheritance. And this title, evaluated generation by generation, is the "rank of the Qin Law."

*Xunzi's "Discussion on Warfare"* had already concluded long ago: The "Wei Wu Soldiers," heavily rewarded by the state, were difficult to sustain. At its peak, the Wei Wu Soldiers numbered fifty thousand, while the Qin Elite numbered six hundred thousand.