Chapter 23: Breaking the Barrier

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November, the 25th year of the Xutian Calendar. The Great Yao, Bo Prefecture, Gushou Pass.

Snowflakes fell upon the earth, quickly turning into shards of ice. General Wang Lu, the commander for the pacification of the north appointed by the Imperial Court, stood clad in armor, gazing at the gloomy, ominous landscape of the distant mountains. That region had already been occupied by the Haotian Dragon Clan.

In the world of the Great Yao, if a province remained at peace, all energies could be mobilized by imperial decree; for instance, a prefect could suppress a general with a single word, and the chief magistrate of the Demon Suppression Division could shatter immortal arts with a single order.

But Bo Prefecture was no longer tranquil. The armies of the Haotian Dragon Clan had seized multiple minor cities within the prefecture and had begun extensive construction in the mountain ranges, excavating earth, erecting monuments, and building tombs and mausoleums. This was because, following the migration of the dragon-kin, they had moved the ancestral shrines of the Haotian Realm into this domain.

Every location with auspicious feng shui in the mountains was now occupied by "Sacred Yin Cottages" or "Yin-Reverence Shrines."

Sacred Yin Cottages: Only those who had served in battle could reside here. However, as this land had long received the benevolent grace of the Moon Empress’s laurel-yin, men and women who had lost family members in the war were also permitted to dwell within.

Yin-Reverence Shrines: The Haotian Realm possessed countless imperial shrines to satisfy the spiritual lives of its people, and many were dedicated to the Moon Empress of the Heavenly Court; the Yin-Reverence Shrines were the primary examples of these.

These dragon-kin, having returned from beyond the heavens, differed slightly from the customs and culture of the Great Yao—specifically, they leaned toward the "yin."

On the battlefield, one could often see giant ceramic soldier figurines wielding broadswords, charging recklessly. In the Great Yao, such things were typically reserved for imperial tombs, using the accumulation of subterranean yin energy to deter tomb robbers who dared enter the land of the dead.

Even more terrifying were the dragon-kin’s yin-based sorceries. They would summon a legion of yin-soldiers on the battlefield, who would suddenly emerge, brandishing weapons and halberds!

It is said that money can make the devil turn the mill, and some frontier troops of the Great Yao were not above using unconventional methods. However, at most, they would use the "Five Ghosts Carrying Technique" to help grain carts move at night, with the transport officer sacrificing some vitality to have the ghosts push the load. But this? This was letting ghosts fight in active combat!

…There is a price for driving ghosts!…

Taking the Five Ghosts Carrying Technique as an example, when a military transport officer used such arts to ensure the grain carts moved, he would suffer a loss of yang energy; if too much was lost, he would fall gravely ill. But to have ghosts directly push the carts? It seemed more efficient, but what was the cost? The cost was the transport officer sacrificing months of his natural lifespan.

As for summoning yin-soldiers to engage in melee combat on the battlefield, how many lifetimes of living people would that require? These generals from the Haotian Realm seemed to treat it as routine.

In the Haotian Realm, under the rule of the Heavenly Court established by the dragon-kin, the "Yin Dwellings" built by the Court were always adjacent to the "Yang Dwellings" where the living resided, resulting in a world half-yin and half-yang.

To any faction within the Great Yao, such a layout was abnormal. How could the living coexist with the dead? Such an arrangement caused the lifespan of the living to wither, while the dead, denied peace in the earth and driven by endless labor, grew increasingly malevolent.

However, observing the rulers of the Haotian Realm made the reason clear: they were powerful dragons. These dragon-kind did not fear malevolent spirits. Their bodies were naturally imbued with a baleful aura capable of suppressing ghosts.

In the mountains and forests of the Great Yao, ferocious beasts like tigers also did not fear such spirits, and would even enslave ghosts as their minions.

Thus, in the nations built by the dragon-kin, both the living and the dead were merely "dust and sand" to be used within the governing system.

This blurring of the lines between human and ghost was the state of things at the end of the Cheng Dynasty.

As for what the Haotian Realm looked like thousands of years ago when the dragon-kin migrated? How a world that allowed humans and ghosts to coexist for millennia maintained its path of tranquility?

None of that mattered anymore, for the Haotian Realm had been destroyed. The subjects of the dragon-kin’s Heavenly Court had suffered great casualties and scattered across the various realms of the universe.

As for this branch of dragon-kin that returned to the Xi human realm, after establishing their nation in the north, they made "tomb building" their top priority, showing the people of the world exactly what their "Great Governance" looked like.

…Your peace does not belong to my Yao-calculation equilibrium…

For the cities of the Great Yao in the northern frontier like Bo Prefecture, the "Yao-energy" was thrown into an "imbalance of yin and yang" by the dragon-kin’s state-building. Viewed from the sky, the mountain ranges looked like blood vessels stained black with ink. On slopes where the yin energy was too heavy, the trees grew in twisted, claw-like shapes, their leaves sparse and turned a dark, murky green. When they withered, they did not turn yellow, but grey.

Since the checkpoints of Bo Prefecture were also situated in the mountains, they were severely affected.

While inspecting the camp, Wang Lu found his soldiers listless, lacking spirit, and holding their weapons with slack, un-martial postures. The camp had become so neglected that on cloudy days, rats would burrow through the brickwork, and spiders would weave webs in the corners with total impunity!

Gushou Pass, a vital defensive stronghold for the Great Yao’s frontier army, was currently under assault by the dragon-kin’s main force.

…The war drums beat…

The dragon-kin army of the Guotai faction, led by Pu E, stood in formation outside the pass clad in jade-quality armor. At the very front of the main camp stood ten-zhang-tall soldier figurines! The Great Yao had these too, but they were soul-suppressors found only in imperial tombs.

When the ceramic figurines stepped heavily, ignoring the rain of arrows stuck in their bodies, and reached the foot of the fortress to hack at the wooden barricades and breach the defenses, the soldiers operating the giant crossbows on the walls cursed. These dragon-kin, who brought "tomb-guarding beasts" to fight, were truly devoid of all virtue.

The Prefect of Bo Prefecture arrived at the ramparts by carriage and found the garrison commander, Wang Lu.

Prefect: "General, can you give Han a straight answer? Can this pass still be held?"

Wang Lu looked at Prefect Han and asked, "May I ask, Lord Han, what if it can be held, and what if it cannot?"

*Boom!* A cannonball struck the tower, and the entire fortress trembled slightly.

The Prefect’s expression remained unchanged: "If the General can hold Gushou Pass, I, on behalf of the five hundred thousand elders and fellow countrymen of Bo Prefecture, thank you, General."

Wang Lu hurriedly tried to help the Prefect up, but the Prefect insisted on bowing, demanding Wang Lu provide him with a plan.

Yet, Wang Lu seemed not to understand: "Military matters are perilous; I cannot decide."

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Prefect Han pulled Wang Lu aside and laid his cards on the table: if the pass could be held, he could conscript another ten thousand able-bodied men. But if the General could not hold it, the great ships on the Tong River would have to carry the people south.

Wang Lu stared at the Prefect: "An imperial-appointed shepherd of the people who abandons his city shall be beheaded, and his family reduced to slave status."

Prefect: "Han will not abandon the city. I came to this pass to live or die with the General."

The two looked at each other, seeing helplessness in each other’s eyes.

The Prefect learned from the General’s eyes that "the city cannot be held," and the General understood from the Prefect that "imperial reinforcements will not be coming."

Were there no spare troops in the world? Of course there were; an army of one hundred thousand had already gathered in the Yao Capital, but it was impossible to entrust the troops of one region to local commanders.

Each garrison general could lead at most one or two armies (one army consisting of two thousand men). Unless the central authority of the dynasty declined, they would never entrust the troops of other regions to a garrison general; otherwise, it would lead to the end result of regional warlords becoming too powerful to control.

Of course, it was not impossible for the Imperial Court to appoint a Great General to command tens of thousands of troops.

The problem was, in the 24th year of the Xutian Calendar, the "Case of the Dried River" occurred, involving the Court’s Minister of War and the rebellion of the Prince of Bo.

Therefore, the Xutian Emperor was now suspicious of the frontier, specifically fearing to let large armies congregate in the north.

Since ancient times, when the Great Yao’s Central Plains gathered armies in the north, they had to choose a trusted high official, but the current Imperial Court could not find such a person.

Thus, from the Emperor’s perspective: compared to the instability of the dynasty’s foundation, the fall of Bo Prefecture was the lesser of two evils.

There was, of course, one more thing they did not say: Wang Lu was recommended by the Prince of Bo, and he was exceptionally capable. In the eyes of the powerful figures at court, his frontier army was already a "discarded piece"—they must not be given any opportunity to establish merit or achieve success.

…Outside the city…

In the dragon army’s southern camp, Pu E stood lightly upon a ten-zhang-high mound, witnessing Gushou Pass, which had been battered into ruins by her firepower.

*Boom, boom, boom.*

Smoke erupted in the camp as giant cannons, dragged by exotic giant oxen unknown to the Great Yao, fired shells that glowed orange and traced arcs into the fortress. In the sky, female soldiers on wooden boats suspended by sky lanterns used white jade crows to relay artillery coordinates to the ground.

As this round of shelling ended, the blade-and-axe infantry began to advance toward the areas where the moats had been filled.

In this era of Taoist arts and exotic beasts, siege warfare was three-dimensional. As the infantry approached the walls, dragon-horses in the sky above would fly toward the ramparts.

…The perspective of the defenders…

On Gushou Pass, the gaps in the brickwork widened with every impact. As the defenders desperately preheated oil and lifted spiked logs in preparation for the climbing infantry, they felt a foul wind and dark clouds pass overhead. Some soldiers even felt soft, squishy things hit their armor. The immediate stench told everyone these were horse droppings.

These were the "gifts" dropped by the dragon army’s flying horses as they swept over the defenders' heads.

The dragon-horses dove wherever the defenders' lines were thin, instantly seizing a foothold on the ramparts. But this captured section of the wall was soon piled high with corpses, so much so that blood flowed down through the cracks in the masonry in steady streams.

The city finally fell. The gates, braced by giant logs, collapsed under the relentless hammer techniques of two giant ceramic soldiers wielding heavy mallets; wooden fibers burst forth from the cracks in the iron cladding.

When the iron was torn away, a stone lion head protruded from the wreckage, the round bumps on its forehead still bearing traces of paint from the impact. This was another type of tomb-guarding beast common to the Guotai, about the size of a normal stone lion.

After leaping from the collapsed gate, this monster slammed heavily into the defensive chariots, crushing them into fragments instantly.

Standing on the tower, Wang Lu watched as the jade and ink lions tore through the retreating soldiers after the city fell. He sighed toward the heavens, "The Imperial Court has failed the soldiers of this city."

With that, he drew his sword and drew it across his throat; blood stained the white blade.

...

Pu E stepped onto the tower, looking at the martyred Wang Lu and the Prefect who had burned himself to death at the top of the tower, and sighed deeply. Her soul-binding arts were useless on these two, for after their martyrdom, a strange power from the Great Yao’s mountains and rivers recalled their souls. This process was immune to any corrosive force, and Pu E’s power was far inferior to the "World-Ending Force," so she could not touch these heroic spirits.

Pu E walked along the corpse-strewn stairs to the parapet and gazed at the sunset.

Pu E: "System, where is the general I drew?"

The system seemed to be busy for a while before replying: "They should already be on the field, but they cannot be selected. We are currently investigating the cause."

Pu E: "This is your fault."

Her system did not refute this.

…Where did the bug come from?…

"If you lack troops in the future, you can conscript from the able-bodied men selected by the Escort Agency, and the old or weak can be sent into the Agency."

In a military camp, Wu Fei gave his final instructions to Wu Hengyu.

Wu Hengyu paused, watching Wu Fei leave behind one "cunning plan" after another, and after some hesitation, finally spoke.

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Wu Hengyu: "Yuan Chang?"

Wu Fei turned his head, looking at him suspiciously, wondering if he had left something out.

Wu Hengyu: "Why don’t you stay and work together?"—He rarely invited people, so this was the height of sincerity.

Wu Fei paused slightly, then shook his head: "No, I still have matters to attend to back home."

Then, as Wu Hengyu frowned, Wu Fei added: "Once I’m done there and things have stabilized, I’ll come find you."

Wu Hengyu raised his left arm, placing his hand in front of Wu Fei, parallel to their gaze.

Wu Fei understood the gesture and raised his hand as well. They gripped hands like an arm-wrestle, but it was not a contest of strength; it was palm-to-palm, a sign of unity.

Just as Wu Fei and his cousin shared this moment, a scroll bar appeared on the system’s interface.

Xuan Chong, curious as to why his system would interrupt such a moment, asked (in the manner of a curious child): "What are you doing?"

System: "I am backing up data. It has nothing to do with you."

Xuan Chong wanted to ask more, but the system said: "Have you finished your homework?" followed by a task labeled "Southern Frontier Special Military Operation."

Xuan Chong immediately muttered, "Wasn't I preparing for it?" and logged off.

Back at the scene of the handshake, Wu Fei gave one last reminder to Wu Hengyu: "Don't massacre cities in the north; I lack men in the south. Sell them directly to me."

Wu Hengyu: "Understood."

…New characters have been loaded…

In the 26th year of the Xutian Calendar, in the Wu Family Army, the organization Wu Yuanchang managed—which could be called a "company"—had grown to eighteen hundred armed personnel, with three hundred veterans forming the backbone.

The disparity in treatment between the veterans and the newcomers was significant. Even if a veteran was disabled, the company provided high benefits, including daily silver and even ten mu of irrigated land.

This generosity was not because Wu Fei was kind-hearted. Everyone knew that "heavy rewards make for brave soldiers," but the biggest question was, "Where does the reward come from?"

Wu Fei’s core purpose in coming here was to make money. Once he determined that Wu Hengyu would handle the reputation and that the locals called him "The Sparrow of Harm," Wu Fei abandoned all constraints in his pursuit of wealth. From the Yongji Pass to the two prefectures of Tuanzhu, the trade route that once had only slight contact between merchants was now fully opened!

In the Great Yao, only military strength could open up trade routes spanning multiple prefectures.

Timber and jade from outside Yongji Pass were sold to the two Tuanzhu prefectures, and through water transport, flowed into other prefectures of the Great Yao; the profits increased tenfold. Similarly, the textiles and salt from Tuanzhu gave Wu Fei sufficient "economic chips," providing him with extra confidence as he prepared for the "Southern Frontier Special Military Operation."

Two years ago, the most important lesson Wu Fei learned from Wu Hanluan’s successful campaign in the southern frontier was the use of "espionage." It could be said that without spies, Wu Hanluan could not have won.

However, Wu Hanluan usually used "cause-spies" and "death-spies"—one-time agents, similar to the people recruited from afar in his past life, used once and discarded. Wu Fei planned to use: internal spies and living spies. These agents, working for him, would be able to return alive and remain hidden indefinitely. Because, for these spies to survive on the other side, they had to be involved in the interests of the opposing camp. Even if they cursed him in the enemy camp (a clever sacrifice of a "collapse letter"), it was only because the enemy camp needed a sense of "victory-ism" to offset the frustration of being unable to fully decouple from the deep economic ties between the two sides.

…

Wu Fei rode out of Zhu Prefecture, passing one mountain stronghold after another—these were the trading posts left behind by the Wu Family Army.

On a flat area five zhang above a pass, which had been the old training ground for the stronghold, veterans sent by the Escort Agency were teaching the local youth spear techniques and battle formations. Although the veteran had a bad leg, his combat skills were still sharp.

The weapons were broadswords. The spears were bamboo, the crossbows were light, and the bows were only one-and-a-half stone, used for hunting wild boars. It was the agricultural season, and wild boars often came to root in the fields at the bottom of the valley behind the stronghold; they had to be hunted.

As Wu Fei led his large contingent past the pass below, Old Man He stopped his work and hurried down from the slope.

A stick of incense later, in front of the marching column, Old Man He asked Wu Fei with the simple honesty of a mountain dweller: "General, what is this?"

Wu Fei: "A temporary rest."

He then pointed to the soldiers in the unit and the shackled slaves: "Feed these people. You don't need to prepare our food, but we will buy your firewood." Wu Fei tossed him a string of coins. (As soldiers, they had to prepare their own food while on the march.)

Following Wu Fei’s instructions, the simple Old Man He had the boys he brought from the mountains deliver the firewood and large pots from the inn to the soldiers. At the same time, he used a whip to drive the slaves, making them line up and hold their bowls in anticipation of being fed.

One of the slaves lifted his dirty, matted hair and said to Old Man He: "Old He, it’s me, Wen Si." The slave stood up excitedly, despite his shackles.

Old Man He was stunned, then lashed out with his whip: "What are you shouting for!" and kicked him to the ground.

This man was a friend he had known when he served in Tuan Prefecture. However, after the first wave of imperial troops were scattered, he had ended up serving Wu Hengyu, while this Wen Si had turned to banditry. As one might expect, after the Wu Family Army pacified the rebels, they had rounded up the fugitives, and Wen Si had been caught.

Old Man He did not want to acknowledge Wen Si, but while distributing the food, he still ordered that he be given an extra rice bran cake and quietly slipped a piece of dry ration into Wen Si’s arms.

As for whether Wen Si would survive in the south and have his slave status removed, that would depend on his own fate.