Chapter 317: To Be Human

The tempo of the war began to quicken.

Inside Yingdu, every yamen started operating at full speed.

When the First Prince had served as Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Expedition Army, he had essentially maintained the existing situation. But the moment the Marquis of Jingnan arrived, the bureaucratic machinery of Yingdu suddenly became astonishingly efficient.

Whatever needed doing, whatever supplies needed gathering, whatever support and provisions the various armies required—the Marquis of Jingnan merely approved the written orders, and those orders were immediately delivered to the relevant offices.

Fail to get it done?

No problem.

Execute the chief official and let his deputy take over.

Still fail?

Keep killing.

No one in Yingdu dared object. At least, no objection appeared openly. Every level of the yamen bureaucracy began working as though its life depended on it.

That was the value of prestige.

Of course, the Marquis of Jingnan’s terrifying reputation added plenty of weight as well.

Things the First Prince could not do—or did not dare do—were no difficulty whatsoever for the Marquis of Jingnan.

As for notions like “the law cannot punish the masses” or organizing collective protests, no one dared even begin connecting people together, much less actually attempt it.

Everyone knew perfectly well that this man truly would kill people.

And he would do so without the slightest hesitation.

There was also one very clear difference between the western and eastern banks of the Wang River.

The west bank still preserved a relatively complete system of government. Yamen offices at every level could continue operating.

There was a war going on, but spring planting and the recent autumn harvest had, with difficulty, still been completed. The rest of the region’s organizational structure remained largely intact as well.

At the same time, because the Yan people represented a new outside regime, their deterrent effect on local clan powers was exceptionally strong.

Local powers in Dacheng might once have dared butt heads with Dacheng officials.

But when they saw Yan people, not only did they stop resisting—they actively came forward with gifts and flattery.

People were like that.

Human nature was like that.

The eastern bank of the Wang River was the exact opposite.

After the savages entered the pass, they had done little besides burn, kill, and plunder on a massive scale.

They were draining the pond to catch the fish.

Gold and silver.

Goods.

Population.

Perhaps they had been poor for too long. They would see even an iron cooking pot and immediately think about hauling it back to the snowfields.

The puppet regime originally established by Situ Yi had been little more than a sheet of paper pasted over a window. Its control over the local regions was negligible.

The Yan army had lost the previous Battle of the Wang River, but the savages and the people of Chu had also sold out the new dynasty Situ Yi had built.

After losing what little military support still remained loyal to him, Situ Yi—the new “Emperor” of Dacheng—had even lost Yupan City, his supposed “capital,” to Qu Tiannan.

He had no choice but to take his younger brother farther east, to a small county town named Fengxin, and establish yet another capital there.

Naturally, they called it “relocating the capital.”

Because of that, describing the entire eastern bank of the Wang River as being in a state of near-anarchy would not be an exaggeration.

This probably was not the situation the Savage King wanted.

But it was also a situation he could not change.

Once the savages entered the pass, he simply could not stop the warriors beneath him from burning, killing, and plundering.

...

A cavalry detachment galloped along the western bank of the Wang River, reconfirming the crossing site for the following day.

By afternoon, everyone stopped to rest.

The laborers should arrive sometime that evening.

The river had frozen, which greatly reduced the difficulty of crossing, but if they wanted nearly ten thousand cavalrymen to move across quickly with both men and horses, they still needed to prepare the ice beforehand.

In truth, once the Wang River froze, its value as a defensive line fell by more than eighty percent.

When the water became ice, crossing speed increased enormously while the difficulty dropped sharply.

The defenders could no longer make timely, effective interceptions.

Jin Shuke took out the bottle of medicated oil he had been carefully hoarding and handed it to the First Prince.

“Rub some on. Right beneath your nose.”

The First Prince nodded, dabbed a little onto his finger, and rubbed it under his nostrils.

He took a deep breath.

At once, his head felt clear and refreshed.

“This is good stuff.”

“Isn’t it? Shame I’ve only got this one bottle left. Next time—after the war, when we get back to Shengle—I’ll get some more and give it to you.”

“Thank you.”

“No, no. No need to thank me. Truly. You’re an honored person, and we... well, we’ve got a mutual understanding without declaration.”

“Understood without being spoken?”

“Oh. Right. Heh-heh.”

Jin Shuke scratched his head with an honest-looking smile.

Truthfully, as long as a man was not an idiot, the First Prince’s identity was not difficult to guess.

The reason was his mount.

That entirely black Pixiu was simply too conspicuous.

Across the entire Yan army, there were only so many people of his age who could possibly possess such a mount.

This time, Jin Shuke did not even need to think hard.

It was practically an open-book examination.

He needed to take proper care of this great lord.

But he also had to keep the right distance.

There was another reason Zheng Fan had placed the First Prince within this particular unit.

More than half of Jin Shuke’s soldiers were desert barbarians.

They belonged to the group the Blind Man had spent the longest time indoctrinating, with the best results, and they were also among the troops most loyal to General Zheng.

Tian Wujing had thrown the First Prince into Zheng Fan’s army.

Zheng Fan could not refuse.

But he still had to ensure that this body of troops continued carrying the surname Zheng.

Jin Shuke had already passed every test.

He was one of the Blind Man’s proudest students.

His ideological and political reliability could absolutely withstand examination.

If Zheng Fan had instead placed the First Prince under some other Jin commander, who knew whether that officer might start considering a different thigh to cling to?

The First Prince had admittedly just suffered a defeat.

But he was still an imperial prince of Great Yan.

That thigh certainly looked thicker and more fragrant than General Zheng’s.

Judging others by himself, General Zheng felt that if *he* were thrown into that position, he might not be able to resist hugging it either.

To be fair, the First Prince would ordinarily never do such a thing.

And Tian Wujing would never allow it.

But necessary precautions were still necessary.

Otherwise, Zheng Fan himself would feel uncomfortable.

The First Prince spoke:

“This time we’re crossing the river here to harass the rear of the Chu army. What I do not understand is why we were not sent to harass the savages’ rear instead.”

It sounded half like a question and half like he was talking to himself.

Since he had lost a battle, the First Prince had begun studying Tian Wujing’s strategy.

The sons of the Ji Clan—especially these imperial princes—had been hammered so brutally by their imperial father that they had developed extraordinary resilience.

Zheng Fan had once joked with the Blind Man and the others that although the Emperor of Yan’s educational methods were savage, the success rate among his sons was genuinely very high.

If the Emperor lived in later generations, he could absolutely write a book titled *On the Superior Merits of Frustration-Based Education* and reinvent himself overnight as an educational authority.

Jin Shuke heard the question, smiled, took a drink from his waterskin, and said:

“Because the people of Chu can run short of food.

“The savages won’t.”

“Why?

“The Chu expeditionary army must have brought a great deal of grain and supplies with them, and over this period they should also have received fresh support from Chu territory.

“The savages, on the other hand, do nothing but kill, plunder, and seize things. A great deal of what they take is transported back to the snowfields.”

Jin Shuke gave a somewhat uncomfortable smile.

“Because the savages know how to herd.”

“Herd?

“Now?”

“Yes.

“They can eat sheep.”

“No. That’s impossible. There aren’t enough sheep.”

The First Prince sounded certain.

He was not the kind of imperial prince who had spent his entire life shut behind the gates of a princely residence.

He understood very well what cattle and sheep meant to pastoral peoples.

They were equivalent to the fields and land of farming households in the Central Plains.

How could anyone casually slaughter them all for food?

Jin Shuke shook his head.

“Honored sir, have you heard of a kind of sheep with two legs?”

“...”

The First Prince.

The atmosphere fell silent at once.

A long time later, the First Prince nodded.

He bit his lip.

He understood.

Tian Wujing was striking only at Chu’s supply routes and rear because he already knew the savages would do something like that?

Jin Shuke knew because, in the earlier years when the desert barbarians had been strong, they had once treated Yan people the same way.

Now the desert had weakened and Yan had grown strong.

Doing such a thing again was almost impossible.

“In my view,” Jin Shuke said, “the savages are nothing more than a pack of wolf cubs.

“They look fierce now, but in the end they’re still no match for a tiger.

“To deal with them, you only need to find the right opportunity, charge them head-on, and settle it in one clash.

“Then everyone will know who’s stronger and who’s weaker.”

The savages were similar to the desert barbarians in certain ways.

But the desert barbarians had always looked down on them.

Jin Shuke felt the same way.

*I may not be able to beat the Yan people, but you think I can’t deal with you?*

“Chu is the real problem,” Jin Shuke continued. “I think they’re harder to handle.

“On the battlefield, the opponent you least want to face is one that has order.”

The First Prince nodded.

He had fought the Chu army personally.

Li Bao had died on the eastern bank leading troops to cover his retreat.

Chu’s Azure Luan Army was unquestionably elite.

“The Chu infantry formations are difficult to bite through.”

Chu’s infantry combat was extremely strong, and its range of troop types was complete.

Even in open country, once the Chu army formed a proper battle array, iron cavalry found it difficult to locate a place to sink its teeth.

Jin Shuke grinned.

“That’s why we trap the Chu army.”

The First Prince immediately asked:

“And after trapping them?

“We attack their cities?”

“After trapping them, we fight the savages.”

The First Prince paused.

*Besiege Chu, strike the savages?*

Suddenly, the First Prince felt that this desert barbarian in front of him was unusual.

Genuinely unusual.

Because Ji Wujiang had the faint suspicion that Jin Shuke—the Thousand-Man Commander who was currently his nominal “superior”—had already guessed the Marquis of Jingnan’s next strategic arrangement.

The First Prince immediately sat cross-legged on the ground facing Jin Shuke.

“Explain in detail.”

Jin Shuke grew excited as well.

He loved talking.

The problem was that many things he wanted to discuss could not be said casually, because there had never been a suitable audience around him.

“The savages, when you strip everything away, are nothing more than a pack of mad dogs.

“But Chu is different.

“The Chu people know how to build cities, and they know how to defend them.

“Why has the situation along the Wang River become so difficult?

“Isn’t it because Chu mixed itself into the fight?

“On the eastern bank of the Wang River, Chu and the savages are... mutually complementationing each other.”

“Uh...”

The First Prince chose not to correct the mangled phrase.

He understood what Jin Shuke meant.

That was enough.

“Without the savages, the people of Chu can’t properly spread themselves out.

“They’d only be able to sit there and take a beating from our cavalry.

“The savages make up for that weakness.

“But without Chu, the savages would have no people here to seize and defend Yupan City for them.

“The savages would have only two choices left: fight or retreat.

“Nothing else.

“Because Chu appeared, the savages gained the ability to remain here and confront us for the long term.

“That’s called... strat... strategic space.

“Yes. That’s the phrase.

“So if we trap the Chu army, the savages will have to come save them.

“That king of the savages—even Mr. Bei says he’s an extraordinary figure.

“He definitely won’t stand across the river and watch the fire burn.

“That’s the saying, right? Watch the fire?”

“Watch the fire from the opposite bank.”

“Oh. Right.

“But when you strip it all down, we’re still stronger.

“Yes, we lost once. But counting our Zheng Family Army—

“No.

“Counting our Shengle Army, another fifty thousand Jingnan troops have now arrived altogether, and the Marquis himself is here.

“Honored sir, I’ll say something you may not like hearing.

“A man’s shadow follows his name.

“When that Marquis stands behind us soldiers, it feels different from when you stood behind us before.”

“I know.”

The First Prince nodded.

He did not deny it.

Nor would he attempt to deny it.

A God of War brought an army more than tactical and strategic advantages.

The boost to the soldiers’ morale and confidence was equally terrifying.

The First Prince asked again:

“Then tell me.

“How should the savages be fought?”

“Heh. What’s difficult about that?

“Mount up and charge.

“Loose two rounds of mounted arrows.

“Then pull your sabers and smash straight into them.

“When it comes to mounted archery, honored sir, your Zhenbei Army and Jingnan Army really are no worse than us barbarians.

“So what is there to fear from savages?

“Fighting savages doesn’t actually need so many twists and schemes.

“In my eyes, it’s like two packs of wild dogs fighting.

“You put your strongest, fiercest fighters right in the center and smash them directly into the other side’s strongest bunch.

“Fight them!

“Crush them!

“Once you beat down the strongest group on the other side and force them to submit, the courage of everyone else scatters.

“The reason the left-wing army lost so completely last time was still because that whole bunch of men were just too...”

Jin Shuke stopped.

He realized he had probably said too much.

The First Prince closed his eyes.

He drew a long breath.

Then he nodded.

“It was my fault.”

His mistake had been thinking too much.

His mistake had been being too cautious.

And his mistake had been taking matters that could have remained simple and forcibly making them complicated.

“Honored sir, your temper really is good. Heh-heh.”

“I grew up in the army too.”

“Heh-heh. Is that so?

“Look, maybe I shouldn’t say these words. I don’t really have the standing.

“But honored sir, Mr. Bei once said:

“Failure is success’s old mother.

“Don’t lose heart.

“Just rise again later.

“The capital you possess is greater than that of ten thousand other men.”

“General Zheng having a commander like you beneath him is truly enviable.”

The hidden meaning of those words could already be understood as a kind of suggestion.

After all, everyone knew the First Prince could not possibly spend the rest of his life serving as a Lieutenant Commander in the Shengle Army.

But Jin Shuke merely pretended he had not understood.

The First Prince assumed he had perhaps been too impatient.

To dissolve the awkwardness, he said:

“I’ll take a few more men and inspect that side again.

“We need to make sure no Chu scouts are nearby.”

“Good. Thank you for the trouble.”

“It’s what I should do.”

Once the First Prince left, a barbarian soldier moved closer to Jin Shuke and whispered:

“Jin Shuke, that Yan nobleman seems to admire you quite a lot.

“You’re going to rise.”

A disdainful smile appeared at the corner of Jin Shuke’s mouth.

He reached out and slapped the soldier’s helmet without the slightest courtesy.

Then he cursed:

“Forgot who feeds you?”

“No! I wouldn’t dare.

“I—I was only happy for you.”

“Happy?”

Jin Shuke snorted.

Not a trace remained of the respectful expression he had worn before the First Prince.

His voice turned cold.

“Yan nobles all use people like us as dogs.

“Only General Zheng truly treats us as human beings.

“I was born into a convict tribe.

“I’ve been a dog long enough.

“Now—

I want to live as a human being.”

[End of Chapter 317]