Chapter 523: - Bloody Battle (III)

“Hiss... hurts...”

Guo Dong unwound the bindings around his wrist.

A shield soldier lived by the shield in his hand.

The sort of shield forged from fine steel existed only in the hands of true elites. Equipping troops with them on any large scale was impossible.

Auxiliaries like Guo Dong naturally had no chance of receiving that kind of treatment.

Arrow after arrow came flying in. Most could indeed be stopped by a shield, but enduring impact after impact was hardly effortless.

So the arm that held the shield would usually be wrapped with several extra layers of leather or hemp cloth until it was thickly padded.

Even so, when the siege ended and they withdrew, an arrow had slipped through a gap beside Guo Dong's shield and pierced the flesh of his arm.

Fortunately, the wound was shallow.

On a battlefield like this, an injury of that degree barely even counted as wounded.

But once he set the shield down and began peeling away the leather and hemp wrapped around his arm layer by layer, each strip tugged at the wound again.

The pain was not something an ordinary person could easily endure.

It felt like slowly tearing away his own skin one layer at a time.

At last, apparently deciding Guo Dong could not take much more of it, the military medic took out scissors and cut away the innermost two layers.

Then he poured strong liquor over the wound.

“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”

What an exquisite sensation.

Guo Dong felt as though even his tailbone wanted to stand straight up.

Once the wound had been rebandaged, the medic immediately grabbed his things and hurried on to the next place.

This group of medics was not responsible for the seriously wounded.

Men with grave injuries, or injuries that genuinely required systematic treatment, had all been concentrated in a separate area.

These medics had been sent around specifically to deal with the soldiers' smaller wounds.

The battlefield first-aid methods used in the army had been personally taught by the Fourth Lady.

This age naturally had military physicians of its own, and their skill was not necessarily poor.

The problem was that medical conditions were often so limited that most wounded soldiers never had any chance of receiving proper treatment.

Some people also liked using folk battlefield remedies.

Sometimes they worked.

Sometimes they produced infection.

A Barbarian remedy might prove useful in the dry desert, but here in eastern Jin, it could very well fail to acclimate to the local soil and water.

Once his wound was treated, Guo Dong raised his head and looked at Xu An, who had washed his face and just entered the tent.

“I heard the Count was nearly assassinated in the formation today?”

The Chu assassin had hidden among the returning Savage slaves, approached the Yan formation, then drawn his bow and fired directly at Count Pingye.

Xu An smiled.

“The Count has the Sword Saint protecting him. What can an assassin like that possibly accomplish?”

Guo Dong nodded.

“Exactly. Besides, the Count himself is extraordinarily strong. How could he possibly fall to some petty rat like that?”

“Today we filled most of the Chu trenches and defensive ditches. Tomorrow should be the real wall assault.”

Hearing that, Guo Dong immediately looked furious with himself.

“Damn it. Too bad all we've got is one big shield. I truly want to carry a saber up there and kill a few men myself, to repay the Count for the enormous grace he's shown me.”

After spending this much time together, Xu An had developed a deeper understanding of Yan people.

In recent years, the Yan had campaigned north and south and won nearly every battle.

But Yan people were actually not so different from Jin people.

They did not have three heads and six arms.

They were lazy sometimes.

They liked taking small advantages.

When Guo Dong first arrived, he had even thought the entire expedition against Chu was pointless.

So what if His Majesty the Emperor had lost one son?

But after living among them long enough, Xu An discovered that Yan people possessed a kind of pride buried deep in their bones.

Ordinarily, that pride did not show itself.

When genuine hardship came, however, it often emerged all at once.

Certainly, after his father's death, Guo Dong had turned Count Pingye into the pillar supporting his spirit.

But no matter how one put it, a young man who only a few months earlier had feared war and disliked fighting had, after losing his father, displayed a thirst for revenge fierce enough to make the heart tremble.

People often said the hatred for a father's murder could not exist beneath the same Heaven.

But that mostly happened in plays.

In ordinary life, when ordinary people faced something like that, the more common reactions were despair and fear.

Just like...

Xu An himself.

In Yingdu, Xu An had seen many people like himself.

He had originally thought he already lived in a numb daze.

Then he saw the refugees who had crossed the Wang River from eastern Jin and fled into Yingdu.

The emptiness in their eyes was what true numbness looked like.

Xu An was no thinker.

But he did think.

His godfather, when younger, had traveled north and south with merchant caravans.

The old man had once said:

Why were Yan people called Yan barbarians?

Because they truly were barbaric.

The barbarism was in their bones.

Back then, Xu An had never understood what “barbarism in the bones” was supposed to mean.

Did you peel back the flesh, smash a hole into the bone, and pour barbarism inside?

Now, he understood.

And it was not merely Guo Dong.

The same thing could be seen among the other men in the laborer camp and auxiliary camp.

Those two camps were split roughly half and half between Yan and Jin men.

Before today, there had not seemed to be much difference between them.

But after the bloody siege ended, the Jin auxiliaries and laborers looked weighed down.

They sat wherever they could, visibly depressed and oppressed by what they had seen.

The Yan laborers and auxiliaries were almost all like Guo Dong.

They too had entered a battlefield for the first time.

They too had seen arrows filling the air and corpses covering the earth for the first time.

Yet instead of being crushed, they seemed like heaps of dry firewood struck by sparks.

One after another, they shouted about how tomorrow they would make those Chu slaves pay.

Xu An did not understand a term like “folk character.”

But he could clearly see an invisible red line dividing Yan and Jin men who otherwise looked almost exactly the same.

Guo Dong had no idea what his companion was thinking.

Now that his wound had been treated, all he felt was hunger.

“Why haven't they served the evening meal yet?”

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

Whistles sounded.

The Lieutenant Commanders from Snow Sea Pass who managed the auxiliaries liked using whistles to pass signals.

This was the order to assemble.

Guo Dong and Xu An did not dare delay.

They immediately grabbed their shields, ran out, and formed ranks.

The formation was visibly thinner than it had been that morning.

They had returned.

Many others had not.

Those men were still lying “sleepily” beneath the walls and would probably miss tonight's dinner.

“March out of camp. Tonight's evening meal will be eaten at another camp.”

Everyone was exhausted and hungry.

No one dared complain.

The Lieutenant Commanders from Snow Sea Pass had long ago taught them the meaning of obedience with clubs.

And after entering a battlefield, everyone had gained a much deeper understanding of the words military order.

Even so, Guo Dong could not help muttering:

“I really wish they'd give us another slice of watermelon with dinner.”

Xu An smiled.

There was one sentence he did not say.

Watermelon flesh was red.

You had to wager your life to eat it.

...

“Nothing happened to the Count today, right?”

Gou Moli and the Blind Man walked through the military camp together.

The Blind Man shook his head.

“Nothing serious. But the Chu do possess some skill.”

Within a very short time, the assassin had identified the target and prepared a disguise.

He had concealed himself among the heavy-armored Chu troops that sortied from the fort.

Then he slipped among the slave soldiers moving back toward the Yan formation.

Finally, he condensed all the qi and blood in his body into one attack and fired a single arrow.

The assassin's grasp of the situation, his analysis and use of it, the speed and care of his planning, and the decisiveness with which he struck were all excellent.

Even though he had failed, he could still be called an outstanding assassin.

Of course, even if the Sword Saint had not been beside Count Pingye today, dodging that arrow from such a long distance would not have been especially difficult.

The reason the Sword Saint had been on the command carriage in the first place was precisely why Count Pingye had casually left his personal guards surrounding the carriage instead of crowding onto it.

Besides, Count Pingye's own reactions and the Demon Pill's abilities were more than enough to deal with an attack like that.

At the root of it all, even after penetrating so deeply, the assassin must have felt despair when he realized how absurdly far back his target had placed his command carriage.

Gou Moli nodded.

“That was probably because our siege today put enormous pressure on the Chu defenders. We never truly began scaling the walls, but our posture alone was already enough to make them restless. An assassin of that level must have been extremely valuable even among the Chu, yet they still sent him out on the very first day for a mission where survival was impossible.”

Whether the assassination succeeded or failed, once that arrow left the string, the assassin had only one ending.

Death.

The Blind Man nodded.

The Chu pressure was inevitably enormous.

Originally, in Chu eyes, the Yan were not skilled at siege warfare.

Then today an entire forest of large siege engines rolled forward.

Their quality was actually better than the Chu's own.

The Yan trebuchets in particular exceeded the Chu weapons in both number and performance.

Tactically, the moment the Chu trebuchets fired, the Yan immediately calculated their locations inside the fort from the fall of the boulders and returned fire against them.

That meant the Yan army possessed not only master craftsmen capable of building excellent siege engines.

It also possessed commanders skilled at siege warfare.

At that moment, Gou Moli and the Blind Man passed one area where Savage slaves were gathered.

They huddled together.

Farther away, several soldiers stood outside the fence throwing food toward them.

Truly throwing it.

The Savages looked like chickens and ducks being raised inside a pen.

The instant food landed among them, they fought madly over it.

The Blind Man said:

“Their food standard may not be high, but surely it hasn't fallen this low.”

Savage slave soldiers were cheap.

But not so cheap that anyone needed to begrudge them a mouthful of food.

If they were going to die, they should die beneath the walls of East Mountain Fort or later at Zhennan Pass.

They were not supposed to starve to death here.

This was not compassion.

It was simply bad business.

And in the military camp used specifically to confine Savage slaves, all adult men had been placed on one side.

Women and children were on the other.

The two groups had been separated.

That too was a strange arrangement.

Gou Moli said:

“I ordered it this way. You cannot let them eat too much. You cannot treat them too well either. Treat them like pigs and dogs, and they actually feel safer.”

“Heh.”

“You think I'm too ruthless toward my own people?”

The Blind Man shook his head.

“You don't have many of your own people left.”

Apart from the group Sanghu had brought back...

No.

More accurately, even among the people Sanghu had brought back, only a very small number had been genuinely loyal to the Savage King.

The Savage tribes still active on the snowfields today, including the slave soldiers before them, had in some sense betrayed the Savage King's cause.

“I'm doing this for their own good. You don't understand just how much suffering Savages can endure. Give them one mouthful of food and they can curl up in a corner without moving for half a day. You could grind your boot sole into a man's face and he'd still just grin stupidly at you. Most of them have no dignity. They aren't used to having dignity either. Treating them the way you'd treat people doesn't suit them. Raise them like livestock instead, and you can actually train a little wolfishness back into them.”

“You handle it.”

On this matter, the Blind Man could not be bothered arguing with the Savage King.

Gou Moli continued:

“I know about the things you've done with the soldiers and civilians in Snow Sea Pass. I understand them too. Your methods genuinely impress me. And you know, when it comes to this sort of thing, there aren't many people capable of impressing me.”

When it came to manipulating people's hearts, the Savage King was unquestionably a master.

He possessed enormous confidence in his own ability.

That was exactly why praise from him carried weight.

The Blind Man said:

“I'm only standing on the shoulders of giants.”

“That phrase is genuinely interesting. You and the Count are alike. You can always say things that make people stop and think.”

“Mm.”

At that moment, a group of auxiliaries arrived from outside the camp.

Guo Dong and Xu An were among them.

The field cooks immediately set up cauldrons and began preparing food.

The scent of steaming rice, mantou, and cured meat quickly spread through the camp.

Guo Dong discovered, to his astonishment, that tonight's food was much better than usual.

The mantou actually had filling!

He had heard auxiliaries from Snow Sea Pass say before that the mantou over there all came with filling.

Guo Dong had found that extremely strange.

Wasn't a filled mantou supposed to be called a baozi?

Whatever.

It tasted good.

That was what mattered.

Shredded radish filled the bun, with little pieces of meat mixed through it.

It was not dry or scratchy at all.

It was rich and flavorful.

The auxiliaries had entered a battlefield for the first time today.

By emotion and by reason alike, they deserved a little reward in their dinner.

So every man received two pieces of cured meat.

The portions of rice and mantou were double the usual amount.

Anything they could not finish could be carried away.

The salty sauce normally rationed at half a spoonful per person was unlimited tonight.

Assigning them psychological counselors was obviously unrealistic.

Fortunately, one beautiful meal could solve most of the sorrow sitting in their hearts.

There was another reason they had deliberately been transferred here to eat dinner.

The Savage slaves were separated from them by only one fence.

They were supposed to watch.

Xu An elbowed Guo Dong, who was devouring a mantou, and gestured toward the other side.

Good heavens.

Guo Dong almost jumped when he looked.

The fence beside them was packed with faces.

Savages crowded against the bars, hair disheveled, faces filthy.

Every mouth hung open.

Tongues stretched outward.

It was as though they were trying to drink in the smell itself.

Their hunger and longing were painfully obvious.

But Guo Dong was a man who had eaten Count Pingye's watermelon!

Other people might think that meant nothing.

Guo Dong, however, had believed ever since that moment that his life was no longer ordinary.

So he immediately suppressed the unease in his heart and said to Xu An and the comrades beside them:

“Hahaha! Back when I lived at home, my father was a steward at the mountain camp, so our household had a few good years. Whenever we ate dinner, I loved carrying my bowl to the doorstep and squatting there so all the boys from the alley could see the grease and meat in my bowl. Today is even better. We've got this many people watching us eat. Makes the food taste better! Come on, brothers, put some effort into it! Eat more! Smack your lips loud enough for them to hear!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hahaha!”

The auxiliaries burst into laughter.

And somehow, they began eating even more enthusiastically.

Since ancient times, people had resented inequality more than poverty.

But the feeling of “I have it and you don't” could be remarkably attractive in its own right.

Gou Moli reached out and grabbed the hair of one adult Savage man whose head was almost sticking through the fence.

He yanked backward.

The man screamed and crashed onto his back.

The instant he landed, he instinctively tried to turn and pounce on Gou Moli.

These Savages had been imprisoned together.

Every time food was thrown inside, they fought over it.

By now, “prison bosses” had naturally emerged.

A prison boss could seize the most food.

His followers ate somewhat better too.

The other Savages confined in the same section could only pray for scraps or simply go hungry.

Only now did the Blind Man remember that the soldiers throwing food earlier had been tossing it in at regular intervals.

Clearly, the area had been deliberately divided into sections.

It was like fish farming in a pond.

Set up nets, divide the water into grids, then distribute feed evenly.

The Savage Gou Moli had grabbed was precisely one of those prison bosses.

He was vicious.

His followers, after spending days standing behind him and fighting over food, had also begun unconsciously treating him as their leader.

Seeing their boss dragged down, they instinctively started pressing forward.

But the surviving Savages Sanghu had left behind, the ones who had not died storming Central Mountain Camp, immediately advanced behind Gou Moli with sabers drawn.

The personal guards following the Blind Man raised crossbows as well.

The prison boss lost his nerve.

His followers lost theirs too.

There was no helping it.

The Yan had beaten the courage out of these Savages long ago.

Gou Moli placed one foot on the prison boss's head.

Then he turned toward the Blind Man and said:

“To borrow something the Count once said, this is picking a general from among the runts.”

The Blind Man understood how the Savage King was selecting men.

He nodded.

“You're doing well.”

Gou Moli smiled.

“No choice. If you want wolfishness, this is how you raise it. Just like the wolfishness in you Yan people. You have it. Jin people don't. That's because we Savages were too weak, while the Barbarians were simply too strong. The Yan fought the Barbarians for centuries before wolfishness was branded into your bones. We Savages, by contrast, carry rather more servility.”

Then

Gou Moli immediately switched to the Savage tongue and shouted toward the slaves around him:

“Want to eat the same things they're eating? I'll give you the chance.”

Clap! Clap!

Gou Moli clapped his hands.

Outside, a group of Savage guards began pushing carts filled with rattan armor.

Most of the armor was damaged.

Almost every suit still bore bloodstains.

These were spoils taken from Central Mountain Camp.

“I am going to choose a group of men. Tomorrow, you will follow me and attack the Chu walls. Those of you who survive tomorrow will eat the same food as those men from then on.”

Gou Moli pointed at the rattan armor piled on the carts.

“I am not asking you to die naked. You will wear this armor tomorrow. I will give you sabers and spears too.”

Finally, he pointed toward the other fenced enclosure, the one holding women and children.

“I know many of your women and children are locked over there. Survive tomorrow, and I will return your women and children to you. If your women and children aren't here, or if you never had a woman or children in the first place, that doesn't matter. See them? Those are other men's women and children. Survive tomorrow's charge on the walls with me, and you can choose another man's woman and children for yourself! Let another man's woman warm your bed. Let another man's children call you Father! Hahahahahaha!”

The instant the Savage King finished, the eyes of the men around him began turning red.

Many clenched their fists.

Standing behind Gou Moli, the Blind Man quietly spat out two words.

“You beast.”

For the Blind Man, learning the Savage language was not difficult.

Gou Moli smiled and nodded.

It sounded half like an answer and half like he was talking to himself.

“Haven't I always called myself... a dog? That's because a very long time ago, I already began thinking of myself as an animal.”

[End of Chapter 523]