Chapter 261: Scram

After winning a battle, every commander seemed to have his own way of dealing with victory.

The Marquis of Zhenbei liked to start a barbecue right there on the battlefield.

Li Fusheng liked eating “blood-soaked buns” amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Tian Wujing simply remained seated atop his Pixiu, as though everything before him had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Then again, compared with leading two hundred thousand troops across a thousand li and smashing half the State of Jin to pieces, what had just happened here could only count as a minor skirmish.

The savages had lost.

Completely.

Without even room for complaint.

They could not win.

That was all there was to it.

Around Quemu’s feet lay countless corpses.

Some belonged to Yan soldiers.

Others belonged to savage warriors who had sworn to protect him to the death.

Angda was already dead.

He had fulfilled his oath.

Quemu had not fled either.

Even though that Marquis from the south seemed to feel no particular urgency about killing him, a savage commander, Quemu still refused to run.

Reason told him that escaping now would benefit the larger situation.

He could return and tell the King:

The Yan people truly are as powerful and terrifying as you said.

As a commander, dying here merely to satisfy a moment of personal valor would undoubtedly be a loss to the King.

Quemu believed the King wanted him alive.

Wanted him to return.

Because no matter what happened, the King always seemed capable of maintaining a frightening degree of calm.

But Quemu did not want to run.

He was unwilling to flee.

At the very beginning, Angda had urged him to retreat with the five thousand warriors under his command.

Quemu had refused.

He had even insisted on summoning the savage warriors of the nearby tribes to join the battle.

This was the result of his own stubborn decision.

So he would remain here and bear responsibility for it.

The larger situation was too large.

Too exhausting.

He no longer wanted to think about it.

Right now, he only wanted to die.

To die in battle...

Everyone was already up there waiting for him.

They would all return together into the embrace of the stars.

Yet the Yan cavalry surrounding him merely circled nearby.

It was as though he had already become a fish trapped inside a net, and they were waiting for someone higher up to decide how he should be cooked.

“Come on!

“Come on!

“COME ON!”

Quemu stumbled as he turned from side to side, roaring at the men surrounding him.

He had already exhausted the last of his strength.

His wounds were so severe that he could no longer even run.

Barely remaining upright was all he could manage.

Come on.

Get over here.

Kill me!

The Yan soldiers around him watched with faint amusement.

From time to time, one of them would draw a bow and loose an arrow.

But they deliberately missed Quemu.

The arrows struck the ground in front of him or beside him.

People often heard stories about how an army solemnly honored a worthy opponent.

But the chances of such stories truly happening were rather small.

Or perhaps some important figure deliberately staged such a scene for political effect.

A group of grunts who had only just emerged from a bloody slaughter, their eyes still red from killing you expected them to understand how to respect the enemy?

Not a chance.

Quemu was humiliated and enraged.

He wanted to die.

Yet no one came forward to give him the final blow.

At this point, he was nothing more than surrounded prey.

Liang Cheng’s Rear Army had already transformed into the vanguard and gone off pursuing the fleeing enemy.

The rest of the troops remained behind to recover and clean the battlefield.

Some finished off the wounded.

Some treated injured comrades.

And every so often, men would lift their heads and glance at Quemu, still raging in the distance, as though watching an impromptu performance.

The Yan army had won.

But that did not mean it had suffered no casualties.

Rather than being entertainment for the living, this performance was perhaps better understood as a memorial for the comrades who had just died.

Zheng Fan pulled out his waterskin and drank several mouthfuls.

By then, Tian Wujing had already dismounted and walked to the edge of the encirclement.

“Come on!

“Come on!

“Come on...!”

Quemu was still shouting.

Perhaps those were the only words of the Xia Tongue he knew.

His voice was already hoarse beyond recognition.

Tian Wujing stood there and watched.

He said nothing.

Seeing their Marquis remain silent, the surrounding Yan riders assumed he did not care what happened to this savage warrior.

So they continued tormenting him.

Zheng Fan removed a coil of rope from his warhorse and walked over.

Then he shouted at several cavalrymen circling nearby, “Shoot his legs!”

The Marquis’s favored subordinate still carried some weight when he spoke.

Several riders immediately drew their bows.

Quemu had already lost the ability to dodge.

Arrows struck both legs, and he collapsed to the ground.

Zheng Fan tossed the rope to a rider beside him.

“Tie him up.

“Drag him behind a horse.

“Take him around the nearby tribes for a circuit.”

“Yes, sir!”

Like roping a horse, the riders cast the rope around Quemu, who had only just fallen to his knees.

Then several hundred cavalrymen roared away.

Behind them, Quemu was dragged across the ground, struggling and bellowing in rage as they hauled him into the distance.

Tian Wujing neither approved nor objected to Zheng Fan’s handling of the matter.

He walked back to the Pixiu and sat down beside it.

Zheng Fan moved over as well and asked, “Marquis, should we establish camp?”

They could wait for the twenty thousand cavalry behind them—the Left and Right Armies.

“No.

“Let the men rest briefly.

“Then we continue east.”

“And the tribes nearby?”

“Leave them to the Left and Right Armies behind us.”

Zheng Fan let out a long breath of relief.

As long as those tribes were swept clean, huge numbers of savage slaves, together with enormous herds of cattle, sheep, and horses, would all become spoils of Great Yan.

Tian Wujing seemed to see through Zheng Fan’s thoughts at once.

“What?

“Afraid you won’t recover your costs?”

Zheng Fan gave a bashful smile.

Then, with complete honesty, he nodded.

“A little.”

“War is not business.”

“This general understands.

“But this general understands even more clearly that a war that constantly loses money is no different from a business that constantly loses money.

“Neither can last very long.”

“There is something behind those words.”

“The Marquis is wise.

“This thought only occurred to me just now.

“Marquis, the savages of the snowfields are considerably stronger than the savages this general exterminated inside the Tianduan Mountains.”

“Go on.”

“This general believes that the Marquis did not lead troops into the snowfields this time intending to finish everything in a single campaign and completely exterminate the snowfield savages.

“Because... they simply cannot be exterminated.”

Tian Wujing looked at Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan continued, “It is the same as the desert.

“The Zhenbei Army can smash any barbarian force that meets it head-on, yet it still cannot purge the barbarians from the desert entirely.

“For Great Yan, the desert simply offers too little value.

“And Great Yan has no way to imitate the State of Qian by linking fortified cities wall to wall and sealing off the entire desert.”

It was much the same in another world.

The control a Central Plains dynasty held over frontier regions often waxed and waned.

When the dynasty was strong, it could hold them.

When the dynasty weakened, it lost them again.

The cost of maintaining control over such places was simply too high.

During an age of strength, the dynasty might indulge in expanding its territory for glory.

Once it was no longer so powerful, that same territory could instead become a burden.

“The snowfield savages are the same.

“Our army departed from Shengle City to enter the snowfields, and this place is still only the outer edge of savage territory.

“Even an elite force like the Jingnan Army needed more than ten days just to cross the Tianduan Mountains and reach this point.

“If we continue marching deeper into the snowfields, the distances become truly boundless.

“Army supplies, reinforcements, military intelligence—all of them will be severely obstructed.

“In truth, to a certain extent, the snowfields are simply another desert.”

Tian Wujing lifted a hand and pointed at Zheng Fan.

“This Marquis understands what you mean now.

“If the snowfields are another desert for Great Yan, then City Defender Zheng wants to become another Marquis of Zhenbei?”

“A soldier who does not want to become a Marquis is not a good soldier.”

“That saying is somewhat interesting.”

“Marquis, this general does not dare dream of any noble title.

“Great Yan does not easily grant hereditary rank to men outside the imperial clan.

“But as City Defender of Shengle, this general is willing to shoulder the duty of reducing the snowfield savages on Great Yan’s behalf.”

This place could be attacked.

But it could not truly be occupied.

You could win.

But eventually, you still had to leave.

And once you left, the people here simply returned.

The Jin people had been cutting down savages for hundreds of years.

Even so, the Tianduan Mountains were still packed with savage settlements.

Cut one crop down and another grew back.

The blades had gone dull from killing, yet the savages still stretched endlessly across the land.

So the only option was to imitate the Marquis of Zhenbei’s estate: every so often, go greet these neighbors.

Give them a beating.

First, never allow them to form a unified regime.

Second, prevent their population from growing too quickly.

“This Marquis cannot decide such a matter.”

For a single city to assume the responsibility of maintaining loose control over the snowfields that was no longer merely the duty of a City Defender.

At the very least, it would require something like the Jingnan Army or Zhenbei Army: an entire military region of its own.

Zheng Fan lowered his head.

“However, this Marquis will raise the proposal with His Majesty on your behalf.

“But City Defender Zheng...”

“This general is here.”

“Eat according to the size of your stomach.

“This Marquis is only afraid you will swallow too much at once and choke yourself.”

“Marquis, a little over a year ago, this general was only the young proprietor of an inn in Tiger Head City.

“I had only a few utterly ordinary, foolish servants around me—good for nothing except eating.

“But now, this general can already build a city.

“Marquis, you once said there is a certain merchant’s temperament about me.

“This general thinks there is nothing wrong with that.

“At the very least, I know how to manage things.

“And I am capable of managing them.”

The meaning beneath his words was obvious:

Give me this responsibility.

I will not ask the imperial treasury to spend more money.

I can run.

And I do not even eat grass!

Tian Wujing gave no reaction.

Zheng Fan did not dare say anything else.

A moment later, Tian Wujing spoke.

“You are very impatient.”

“Marquis, this general only—”

Tian Wujing nodded.

“This Marquis understands why you are impatient.”

“Marquis, that isn’t—”

“By reason, your talent and potential are both things this Marquis appreciates.

“Li Liangting also thinks highly of you.

“Even His Majesty is the same.

“And by sentiment—you are the godfather of this Marquis’s unborn child.

“So whether by reason or sentiment, this Marquis will push you upward.”

“This general thanks the Marquis for cultivating me!”

“No need to thank this Marquis.”

“Then this general thanks the young Marquis or young Commandery Princess!”

Tian Wujing laughed.

He reached out and shoved Zheng Fan, who was kneeling before him, straight over.

Then he cursed, “You...

“You really do have the face of a treacherous court sycophant.”

Zheng Fan toppled onto the ground.

Yet his face was still covered in a grin.

“Isn’t that because the Marquis spoiled me into becoming like this?”

Tian Wujing sighed.

“You truly wasted your talents by refusing to succeed Wei Zhonghe.”

“That absolutely won’t do, Marquis.

“I haven’t even continued the family line yet.

“Once this war is over and I return home, I’ll put in some effort.

“I’ll try to produce a few playmates for the young Marquis or young Commandery Princess.

“In the future, if anyone dares threaten them...”

Tian Wujing lowered his head and looked at Zheng Fan.

“What will you do?”

Zheng Fan wiped the smile from his face.

He met Tian Wujing’s gaze.

Then said, one word at a time, “I’ll immediately go tell the Marquis, and have you teach them a lesson!”

“Scram.”

[End of Chapter 261]