Chapter 41: Catching the Ghost Train

The perspective now shifts to the northward-marching Wu Family Army. Shortly after setting out for the north, an imperial edict arrived, commanding the Wu Family Army to halt and station themselves on the eastern bank of the Donghua River to assist in suppressing the aquatic tribes of the Yunmeng Marsh.

When the imperial envoy read out the decree, although the generals received it dutifully, the decree brought no sense of vast imperial grace or awe. The army's battle flags fluttered noisily, the sound of the snapping banners clashing with the rhythm of the imperial envoy's recitation. Meanwhile, the ceremonial halberd held by the envoy twisted like a braided cruller, writhing back and forth like a snake's tail as if trying to escape something. Such an unnatural phenomenon clearly arose because the imperial laws and decrees failed to command the wholehearted obedience of the grand army.

This is a world where all things can be subjected to divination, including human hearts and rivers and mountains!

Rulers must calculate for the common people and the rivers and mountains, and constantly monitor themselves for any loss of virtue. If an edict born of lost virtue is transmitted downward and ultimately enforced, it will cause the dynastic aura to lose its equilibrium.

As for the current situation: even before the imperial decree was issued, the Wu Family Army had already marched toward the Donghua River to set up camp.

The reason was that the army's initial encampment had been the result of their own tactical retreat after coming into conflict with local prefects and other aristocratic factions.

At that time, the court did not timely adjudicate the conflict; instead, after the Wu Family Army had already swallowed its pride and compromised, the court suddenly issued a retroactive command disguised as an instruction, as if to say, "This is entirely in accordance with my wishes, and all your actions were arranged by me."

In truth, the court could have done nothing—meaning it tacitly acknowledged that the Wu Family Army, which had been transferred there by command, had conflicts with the local noble clans. Ideally, it should have simply acknowledged this friction. It did not even need to resolve the conflict immediately, because those loyal to the sovereign understood that these were troubled times.

The Wu Family Army had made a retreating adjustment precisely to prevent the conflict from intensifying.

However, the court's retroactive intervention directly provided a retroactive endorsement of legitimacy to the southern aristocratic clans for bullying a passing army and forcing them to break camp prematurely. Now, coming to read the decree was tantamount to informing the Wu Family Army that such submission was entirely expected of them!

This stripped the aristocratic clans of the restraint they had shown during the initial negotiations; instead, they became arrogant: you suffered no grievance, so you ought to be understanding of the aristocratic clans from the start. Good grief, you should have had this self-awareness much earlier.

In times of peace, governing the military through the civil administration to maintain the so-called grand picture relies not only on civil methods but also on the spiritual awakening of the martial class.

The class that wields destructive force tacitly agrees that they should not throw tantrums at will. However, this does not mean that certain illusory classes can arbitrarily throw tantrums at them!

The imperial envoy looked at Wu Hanluan, who was kneeling to receive the decree. Seeing no inappropriate expressions of discourtesy from the general, but sensing that the atmosphere was wrong, the envoy hastily delivered the decree and departed.

The imperial envoy was well aware that this retroactive decree from the court was actually the result of petitions submitted by local officials such as the Prefect of Taonan County!

Having just fallen out of harmony with a passing army, to submit a "petition" at such a moment was thoroughly inappropriate. For the court to completely heed such a petition was even more inappropriate.

State affairs are arduous, and the court currently relies upon the military families, yet before risking their lives, these military families also need to trust the court.

However, the military families viewed the gatehouse magnates with suspicion, while the court favored the gatehouse magnates! Consequently, the military families grew suspicious of the court as well.

...Seemingly peaceful, yet harboring undercurrents...

Let us explain the reason why the court ordered the Wu Family Army to move north.

In the mid-26th year of the Shutian Era, a foreign star fell into the Yunmeng Marsh. The local bureaucrats concealed the matter and failed to investigate. However, the foreign star that landed there was a mountain-sized dragon boat. Concealed within the mists of the Yunmeng Marsh, the dragon boat took a full year and a half to complete its repairs, after which all the aquatic tribes in the vast marsh attached themselves to it.

Upon learning of this, the court was furious, but things had already reached this point, and the local bureaucrats could not be punished. The court could only command the troops stationed conveniently nearby to annihilate this rebellious aquatic faction. Yet the local soldiers were utterly incompetent! For two consecutive years, not only were the water bandits not exterminated, but they grew increasingly powerful, leading to the urgent mobilization of available troops from the surrounding regions for suppression.

Half a year ago, troops from Jizhou were mobilized to participate in the suppression, but regrettably, they still failed to pacify the region. The calamity caused by the aquatic tribes did not decrease; instead, it grew worse.

Thus, available troops from the rapidly pacified regions of Lou and Zhu were naturally dragged to the frontline.

Of course, the court still had another large army encircling and suppressing the aquatic tribes in this area, which was why it was so casual and indifferent toward the Wu Family Army.

...Three days after the imperial envoy's departure...

The main encampment of the Wu Family Army encountered a trouble nearby. The tens of thousands of troops currently moving north were stationed in a place called "Hongze." As the name suggested, this place was a swampy region, connected directly to the Yunmeng Marsh.

Twenty kilometers south of "Hongtan" lay Chang City.

Chang City was a hub where multiple waterways converged, renowned as the thoroughfare of nine prefectures, with waterways dividing the location into two or three segments.

Had this been the industrial age, cross-river bridges could have been built over these waterways, embankments used to fix the river channels, and high-rise buildings constructed simultaneously across the three segments divided by the rivers to plan industrial and commercial zones, forming a great metropolis.

In the current era, however, city walls lacked the capability to span rivers. Therefore, Chang City was constructed independently to the south, while the Yunmeng Marsh lay to the southeast.

Currently, the other two columns of the grand army had also established two large encampments in the south to confront the water bandits of the Yunmeng Marsh.

From the map, the Wu Family Army appeared to have been shoved into an insignificant corner in the north to camp! This demonstrated a clear lack of regard.

Yet this relegation did not grant the Wu Family Army peaceful days, for there were dangers in the north as well.

Having initially completed the encampment, Wu Henyu frowned as he looked at the grain and provisions within the army. The grain supply had consistently been limited to a mere seven days, with fresh supplies dispatched from Chang City every seven days.

Indeed, the provisions for these tens of thousands of troops were not stored within the camp, but rather within the high-walled city of Chang City across the river, as well as in the fortified manors of the local powerful clans.

Keeping the grain supply detached from the main army was a method the court still used to keep various grand armies in check!

Come to think of it, if the grand army were to occupy a city, possess its own city walls, and control its own storage system, it would become an independent warlord domain uninhibited by the court.

The camp, built along the mountain ridges, featured encampment layouts within antler-barricaded fences resembling a city, complete with a marketplace specifically for peddlers to enter and exit.

"Woo—woo—"

The horns sounded, and the soldiers in the camp began to form ranks, marching out of the camp and up the mountain to chop firewood. Wu Henyu also hugged his helmet as he left his tent, for the beasts in the mountains had grown exceptionally ferocious over the past few days, frequently gathering in packs to attack people. This was precisely the reason why the southern aristocratic clans had left this northern patch of land for the Wu Family Army to camp in.

...Evil vapors summon ferocious beasts...

Two hours later, the officers and men on the mountain were busy chopping firewood, trees being loaded onto carts one by one. Wu Henyu rode on horseback through the ranks, gazing at this newly cleared, long-abandoned ancient road.

Suddenly, gongs sounded ahead. From somewhere in the mountains, a horde of spirits and monsters burst forth. Among these spirits and monsters were black bears and wild boar fiends, clamoring in a noisy mob of four or five hundred, abruptly appearing on the mountain.

Wu Henyu gazed at this treacherous peak and perilous ridge. Clouds gathered over the mountain ridges, clearly indicating that something had just manipulated the malevolent energy, gathering these spirits and monsters scattered throughout the mountains!

Wu Henyu sighed inwardly: "There are aquatic tribes in the waters [the Yunmeng Marsh to the south] and spirits and monsters in the mountains; the local government's loss of virtue has truly reached its extreme."

In the Xi human realm, heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers are mutually harmonized with the mortal realm, and even more deeply interconnected. In other words, if the harmony fails, heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers break away from the sphere of influence of human morality—especially when human morality malfunctions, causing mountains and rivers to generate malevolent vapors. Common folk who depend on the mountains and rivers for survival will display strange anomalies, and birds and beasts that lick dew and rocks will learn to devour souls. From this, spirits and monsters are born.

Spirits and monsters belong to two different categories: spirits are beasts that devour humans and gain intelligence, while monsters were originally human commoners who, invaded by abnormal vapors, transformed into monsters.

Thus, the creatures in the mountains were "spirits," whereas those in the southern Yunmeng Marsh belonged to the category of "monsters."

According to the Confucian philosophy of Great Dayou, if the rule of a sage-king were implemented, under the resonance between heaven and man, spirits and monsters would never appear.

Yet when the mountains and rivers no longer resonate with the sovereign and the regional governors, they breed spirits and monsters that erode human morality. How should such a situation be handled?

The military strategists' theory was simply to "kill." Kill as many spirits and monsters as there are; once they are all exterminated and sacrificed to the mountains and rivers, the mountains and rivers will naturally resonate with humanity. That was how it was done over at Yongji Pass, where the mountain's malevolent energy nexus was put to use by Wu Fei.

Returning to the combat situation currently faced by Wu Henyu, an army of over fifteen hundred men had completed its formation.

Wu Henyu gazed at the horde of spirits and monsters on the opposite hillside. The various mountain spirits draped in grass garments in the front were not to be feared, but these mountain spirits lacked the ability to form battle arrays! In the skies above the enemy formation, wind and clouds were churning.

Wu Henyu, a major general in the army, patted the "Wuzhui" steed beneath him, and this divine beast unfolded its wings, riding the wind and clouds to ascend to a higher vantage point.

Wu Henyu pinched a Dao incantation, spiritual light flashing at his fingertips. He swiped his fingers across his glabella, opening his celestial eye. Then, he clearly discerned the entities within the three masses of wind and clouds above the enemy formation! He could not help but be greatly alarmed—these were three gigantic aerial beasts.

These three colossal beasts resembled phoenixes, their bodies far larger than the pig-devouring eagles of Lingnan, with a wingspan reaching a full fifty meters and bearing nine heads.

Wu Henyu instantly understood what they were: nine-headed birds, Nine-Phoenixes, though they also bore a lesser-known name: "Ghost Carts." Unlike auspicious phoenix birds, Ghost Carts were immensely malevolent, fond of devouring the soul-breath of young children.

Ghost Carts were terrifying fierce entities. Gritting his teeth, Wu Henyu charged into battle as well.

The battle flags began to spin, and Wu Henyu's infantry formation stretched out, forming a relatively broad line and advancing step by step. This military array did not rely on directly inflicting casualties on the Ghost Carts in the sky; rather, through the pressure of the formation, it would drive away the Ghost Carts' spirit-and-monster assistants on the ground. This would strip the Ghost Carts of the support of their own forces' malevolent energy, causing them to be contaminated by the army's malevolent energy and consequently lose their ability to stay airborne, forcing them to drop to the ground.

At this moment, the malevolent energy of the Wu Family Army formed a massive net in the sky. Any flying bird contaminated by this malevolent energy found its wings growing heavy, forcing it to fly low and flee the battlefield.

Such a reckless endeavor—personally engaging in close combat with giant flying monsters in the sky—was something Wu Fei would never have considered.

In a specific countermeasure, Wu Fei would have had his soldiers form ranks to protect the artillery, and then dispatched mobile cavalry armed with bows to harass the enemy formation and lure out the flying beasts. Once the flying beasts became isolated, they would be trapped with nets and tripping ropes, then shot down from a distance.

Wu Henyu, on the other hand, had encountered the Ghost Carts while climbing the mountain to chop firewood and had brought no artillery whatsoever.

Had Wu Henyu chosen not to charge directly, the Ghost Carts' strategy would have been for one to churn the wind and clouds in the front, while the other two flanked around to the rear and sides. Once the mountain spirits in the front charged into close combat, the Ghost Carts would dive down to launch a sudden assault on the Wu Family Army's formation.

Now, however, all three Ghost Carts had charged forward to meet them. Facing Wu Henyu's mount Wuzhui—which had transformed into its divine beast state and was aggressively approaching—these nine-headed birds were clearly somewhat flustered, and thus hastily unleashed a wave of their innate abilities.

Their nine heads each possessed multiple mystical arts such as breathing fire, whipping up sand, and exhaling toxic smoke. At this moment, several heads began wreaking havoc in all directions. One stream of toxic smoke happened to sweep across the ground, causing the vegetation within a radius of a hundred paces around the impact zone to wither instantly.

Yet Wu Henyu bypassed this death zone woven from dozens of intersecting spray trajectories and made a beeline for the largest beast, thrusting fiercely. Wu Henyu's spear technique was razor-sharp; basically, every three thrusts blew up a bird's head. Even though these bird heads could regenerate after exploding, they could not withstand such a reaping speed.

From the rear formation came a shout: "General, I come to aid you!" Following closely behind him were twelve battle generals riding dragon-steeds.

Wu Henyu raised his Star-Han Spear: "You need only patrol the flanks and guard the perimeter." Cloud vapor began to revolve around Wu Henyu like a living entity, forming a powerful protective barrier.

As the words fell, the wind-riding technique of the divine beast beneath Wu Henyu flashed, and he single-handedly broke through to the airspace above the enemy formation, piercing through and beheading a Ghost Carts hidden within the wind and clouds with a single spear strike!

The slain Ghost Carts left behind no corpse; instead, it transformed into red clouds of mist, which then condensed into a torrential downpour of blood pouring down from the sky. The rain drenched the unkempt fur of the mountain spirits. The fur of several mountain spirits peeled away as if scrubbed by acidic water, instantly provoking panic and chaos as their battle formation crumbled.

Immediately afterward, Wu Henyu, holding his halberd aloft in the sky, pointed a distance away. A squad of axemen beneath him understood the command, cast off their heavy armor to reduce weight, and accelerated along the indicated flanking route to wedge themselves deep into the enemy lines.

Under this fierce and brave chopping assault, the mountain spirits and wild fiends, whose morale was already low, were thoroughly slashed through.

The two remaining Ghost Carts in the sky anxiously attempted to dive down, but they were intercepted by the patrolling generals riding dragon-steeds on the flanks. The deputy camp commander hurled a long spear mid-air, unleashing an arc-shaped sweep that intercepted the Ghost Carts' retreat trajectory, blasting a flurry of black feathers across the sky.

Meanwhile, Wu Henyu plunged down instantly, and the two giant beasts were forced crashing into a nearby thicket. There, they fought Wu Henyu from the skies down into the brush, eighteen heads clashing against Wu Henyu's single spear in a match so evenly contested that it was hard to tell who would win. But very soon, the soldiers swarmed into the thicket to surround them.

When the pikemen closed in, shoulder-to-shoulder, to gang up on the beasts in a brawl, the outcome was sealed.

The spearmen wrapped their noses and mouths in urine-soaked cloth and pressed in. The nine-headed birds were pinned firmly to the ground, whimpering incessantly, their chests heaving like multi-headed roosters being held down.

Inside the main camp, the captured nine-headed birds were locked inside cages, suppressed within the grand tent by layer upon layer of talismans. Next, what awaited these nine-headed birds was forty-nine days of "refining."

In the grand camp, Wu Hanluan stood in the parade ground, gazing through the cage bars at the two Ghost Carts with their heads buried collectively beneath their indigo chest feathers like ostriches hiding their heads in the dirt. "Such exotic beasts failing to serve our army is truly a pity."

Wu Henyu remarked from the side, "Then I shall go catch a few more!"

Wu Hanluan shook his head: "There is no rush, no rush." He then walked up to the cage, reached in, and directly plucked a feather from the giant beast. The Ghost Carts instantly bared their teeth and grimaced through the cage bars, several heads even assuming a posture as if preparing to unleash a breath attack. Yet with a gentle cough from Wu Hanluan, the Ghost Carts were extinguished as if their fatal acu-point had been pinched; they drooped their heads, abandoning their ferocious demeanor.

Toll-playing with the feather in his hand, Wu Hanluan said to Wu Henyu, "Send this to Yuan Chang."

Wu Henyu frowned: "A thousand miles away, we are sending this beast home?"

Wu Hanluan shook his head: "What we are sending thousands of miles is just a goose feather."

Wu Henyu was puzzled.

Wu Hanluan explained: "It is to tell him that there is work here waiting for him to do."

Using an arrow, he drew a map in the dirt on the ground, pointing out to Wu Henyu that the mountain range previously blocked by malevolent energy actually formed a passable trade route once pierced by the Wu family's martial battle-aura.

The surrounding generals all came to a sudden understanding.

...

Following the hunting of the Ghost Carts, the malevolent energy in the mountains diminished. Inside Chang City, the prefect observed that the northern mountain ranges had grown peaceful. By lamplight, he gazed at the map showing the encampment positions of the Wu Family Army, and after a long silence, he declared that this southern army was capable of pacifying the local region.

Consequently, he prepared gifts, intending to pay a visit to Wu Hanluan.