Chapter 1018: Hannibal of the Northern Desert (Part 1) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]
People in this era have a deep-seated fear of natural disasters, especially the fear of earth dragons turning over, as if their ancestors had experienced similar calamities, deeply embedding this fear in their genes and passing it down from generation to generation. But as time goes by, people become numb to it.
Whose earth can keep turning over and over all day long?
Xianyu Jian was initially on edge.
Every muscle was poised to strike, ready to help his senior brother escape.
As a result, dust fell from the roof beams from daytime until nightfall.
The shock was so great that even closing his eyes made Yun Ce uneasy.
Xianyu Jian couldn't sit still, so he got up to inquire.
They hadn't held out much hope, but the soldiers guarding them seemed to have been given special instructions and didn't make things difficult for Xianyu Jian. They mocked, "It's said that the people from Kangguo are digging a trap."
Xianyu Jian was unsure whether the news was true or false.
Upon returning and informing Yun Ce, Yun Ce looked weary: "Digging a trap? Has anyone outside said how big the trap is, or how long it will take to dig?"
Xianyu Jian: "They said they wanted to surround the Shooting Star Pass."
Because it was so far-fetched, the news turned out to be true—this bizarre thought process is indeed something only a family member would do.
Yun Ce pondered for a moment: "Surround them? Cut off their food supplies?"
Xianyu Jian sighed, "It's not easy to run out of food supplies."
Digging a circle of traps could indeed completely isolate Shexing Pass—not even a whole circle, about 70-80% would be enough—but the problem is that the Northern Desert isn't a wooden stake; it can't just stand by and watch the Kang Kingdom's troops dig Shexing Pass into an isolated island, and it's not blind.
The Northern Desert will also send elite troops to intercept and kill the construction teams.
In terms of sheer military strength, the latter would likely be unable to withstand the former.
In addition, the project timeline is also a stumbling block to the plan, making it too difficult to completely trap the elite troops of the Northern Desert at Shexing Pass.
Yun Ce closed his eyes and calmed himself for a while. Just when Xianyu Jian thought he had fallen asleep, he said, "It's not like there's no chance."
He didn't say where the opportunity lay.
All of them, including their fellow disciples, became prisoners.
There are many people openly watching them, and who knows how many more are watching them secretly. Some sensitive topics can only be touched upon.
Even Xianyu Jian was unaware of the opportunity Yun Ce was referring to.
Because Zigu had little contact with the Directorate of Works.
Unlike Yun Ce, he was acquainted with Bei Qiu, the Grand Master of the Imperial Workshop.
Initially, Bei Qiu needed help testing the toughness and strength of her tools, and Yun Ce went over out of respect for Bei Qiu—Kang State was newly established and couldn't spare many scholars or warriors to help her. Then, other Mohists saw this and also came to borrow people from Bei Qiu.
Young people, you need to be more diligent.
The smiling Mohist patted Yun Ce on the back.
Yun Ce nearly lost his temper.
Every strand of hair screams resistance.
Bei Qiu later comforted her, saying, "Your martial aunt is quite old; even if she were desperate, she wouldn't choose you. She just wanted to know the length of your spine. She's been working on a wooden dummy that can sweep itself lately."
Yun Ce said: [A wooden figure that swept the floor itself?]
The chicken leg twirled in Bei Qiu's mouth a couple of times before spitting out the clean chicken bone: "The sawdust we scrape off every day is too much trouble to clean up."
Yun Ce's social circle was not large to begin with.
I can't find many friends even when I'm on vacation.
Whenever he had free time, Bei Qiu would grab him to help out. After he finished, the other Mohists would "coincidentally" come over, see that he was there, and pull him away with smiles. Every day off was meticulously planned out.
After a while, Yun Ce became an unofficial member of the Imperial Workshop.
A shared little helper.
Other Mohists always praised him for his generosity, helpfulness, and willingness to assist those in distress; he was practically the perfect young man of Kangguo, a model for all young unmarried officials, and the ideal son-in-law in the eyes of mothers-in-law. The Junior Craftsman of the Directorate of Works, who was also Bei Qiu's senior martial uncle, was extremely pleased with him.
As the son-in-law of the Directorate of Works, Yun Ce naturally had access to far more things than outsiders. From small things like various self-moving "wooden oxen and flowing horses," although they didn't look like oxen or horses from their appearance—the Mohist who created them bluntly said that she herself was the ox or horse—oxen and horses are born of the same root, why fight each other so fiercely; to strange firearms whose power was comparable to a third-class hairpin or even a fourth-class firearm.
The former can travel tirelessly as long as they are infused with pure energy from heaven and earth—if they are used to replace cooks transporting grain, the loss of supplies during transportation can be minimized.
Taking a supply battalion of 800 men as an example, the guards would number at least 1,000, and with the addition of scouts, the total number would approach 2,000. The supply battalion would only transport 80 to 100 wagons of grain and supplies. If the terrain was special and the supplies could only be carried by manpower, the volume of the transported supplies would be halved, while the number of manpower required would double.
These people also consume food and fodder on their way to and from the destination.
After deducting the expenses incurred by these people on the way, as well as the losses incurred in storing supplies, what remains is what the soldiers at the front receive. If the soldiers receive 10,000 shi of grain, the rear will need to send out hundreds of thousands more shi.
To minimize losses, they naturally racked their brains to find solutions, and land reclamation was one of them—to shorten the distance between granaries and the front lines as much as possible. Another was to improve transportation equipment for supplies.
The "Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse" was undoubtedly a breakthrough, but the first version of the "Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse" had many flaws and was not yet ready for large-scale grain transport. I wonder how many generations it has been updated to now.
And the latter?
The strange firearms are not very powerful, but they have the advantage of having no limit on the number of units they can produce.
Given enough time, a Mohist can handcraft many things comparable to third-grade hairpins and fourth-grade paper ornaments, and they are disposable.
Even the old him...
Even if caught off guard, you can still get blown up and covered in dust.
It's not very effective on the main battlefield, but it can be used for demolition and digging traps?
That would be so useful!
This thought made Yun Ce feel a little better.
Xianyu Jian fed him the medicine, and his fellow disciples drifted off to sleep amidst the continuous tremors beneath their feet. Xianyu Jian slept lightly, remaining constantly on guard. The next day, just as dawn broke, urgent alarms sounded from within the pass, and hurried footsteps echoed outside.
Yun Ce was also woken up by the noise.
I slept well all night and my complexion is better than yesterday.
Why is it so noisy outside?
Xianyu Jian's expression was strange: "The trap is halfway through."
Yun Ce was taken aback: "More than... more than half?"
At this moment, the Northern Desert army was filled with nothing but curses.
Who would understand? You wake up to find that the enemy, who was digging traps yesterday, is now in the final stages of their project.
They all doubted that they had slept all night.
Did I sleep for more than ten days straight?
Liu Guan, who was preparing to send troops to wipe out the Kangguo construction team today, even doubted her ears. She grabbed the messenger and confirmed three times, but received the same reply. Finally, she simply pushed the messenger aside and went to the city wall herself to investigate. At the end of her line of sight, a very obvious "deep trench" was revealed, one end flowing inward from the left and the other from the right, both heading in opposite directions.
"How is this possible?"
Liu Guan almost left his fingerprints on the wall.
The people of the Northern Desert shared the same shock.
How is this possible?!
Haha, that's actually quite possible.
Besides the Imperial Workshop's Mo Zhe and the highly skilled martial artists under Shen Tang's command, she also had the last remaining members of the Gongxi clan. Ji Moqiu and Gongxi Chou alone were worth half a construction team.
To be precise, it is Gongxi Chou who carries this weight.
As the high priest, Ji Moqiu could continuously draw power from the earth to support his younger brother, while Gong Xichou only needed to summon the Martial Spirit Totem, and the two of them rolled around in the mud. The other soldiers only needed to remove all the mud.
Why roll around?
Ji Moqiu can use divine power to soften the earth, turning solid soil into soft mud. Gong Xichou only needs to control the Martial Courage Totem to plunge in, his tail swinging left and right—there was originally no path in this world, but the more the python climbs, the more paths it will naturally create.
Compared to the construction team's standards, the "trap" that Gong Xichou climbed out of was rather sloppy and had some significant deviations.
Shen Tang stood atop the giant excavator, aiming with one eye.
"The angle is completely different..." If this were a bridge construction project, cars would have to swerve and drift when they got here.
It's impossible to accept the payment and settle the account.
Despite the complaints, Shen Tang was visibly in a good mood.
She could already picture the Northern Desert group getting up early only to be utterly terrified by this scene, their faces contorted in utter disgust. The more she thought about it, the happier she became, and she couldn't help but burst into uncontrollable laughter: "Brilliant!"
Shen Tang looked down at him, hands on his hips.
"It wasn't for nothing that I've been eating dust here for so long."
Just as he was feeling smug, Bai Su appeared in a flash.
He clasped his hands in a deep voice and said, "My lord, there is movement at Shexing Pass."
The gates were wide open, and wild animals were released.
Shen Tang suppressed her smile, shielding her brow with her hand. Sure enough, she saw dust rising faintly from the direction of Shexing Pass, approaching their location. She chuckled and waved to the construction crew, "Get out of here! Pack your things and move on!"
She'll fight these idiots after she's finished digging.
Upon hearing this, the Mohists hurriedly packed up their belongings.
One after another, giant excavators transformed into beams of light and disappeared into the Mohist's "Universal Love." With a flick of his back, the other martial artists formed a battle array and unleashed their speed-enhancing spells. The entire operation took only a dozen breaths; the construction team then slipped away.
Where are they?
Looking down at the precipice below, Liu Guan's face darkened.
Where is there any trace of Kangguo's troops?
Not only were those people gone, but even the colossal artifact the scouts had described as being a dozen people tall had vanished, leaving only countless strange wheel tracks on the ground. Judging from the width and depth of these tracks, the intelligence relayed by the scouts was accurate. But how much time had passed?
How could these things possibly disappear?
Unless, these are all creations of the power of words?
Liu Guan's mind raced.
His fists, hanging at his sides, began to tremble with clenched fists.
"Chase them! Send men to find out their whereabouts!"
The general who led his troops out of the pass rode his horse to the edge of the "cliff," looked down at the ground nearly three zhang below, and remained silent for a long time.
How should we fill these holes?
Although military incantations can also "respond to water with earth," most of this earth is already present beneath one's feet. Incantations can be used to hinder the enemy, with a small portion being created through incantations. The latter will dissipate into the energy of heaven and earth as the incantation expires.
In other words—
The only way to fill the pit in the Northern Desert is with real mud.
rob Peter to pay Paul.
He finally understood why Kangguo's group had taken away the mud as well; they were robbing Peter to pay Paul, leaving them no bricks.
"We can't exactly send people to dig a hole and fill it in, can we..."
They couldn't fill the holes as fast as the others were digging them.
Liu Guan took a deep breath.
"They have their clever strategies, and we have our countermeasures. At worst, we'll just deal with whatever comes our way. Who says that just because they dug a trap, the supplies can't be delivered? We can use our incantations to create a pier!"
After listening, the military officer glanced at the width of the trap.
The narrowest part is 34 feet, and the widest part is nearly 40 feet.
Using incantations to create a pier might seem like a quick fix, but a closer look reveals it's a short-sighted solution, as the incantation cost is related to the pier's length, width, duration, and load-bearing capacity. How heavy are the supply wagons? At the same time, not only the supply wagons need to cross, but also the supply camp's cooks. How many supply wagons and people can the pier accommodate at once?
If supply wagons lined up to cross the bridge...
I can't imagine how chaotic that scene would be.
Even if the Kang Kingdom's troops don't come to harass us, the efficiency of transporting grain will be greatly reduced, not to mention that the Kang Kingdom's troops are unlikely to miss such a good opportunity for a surprise attack. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.
Little did they know, what troubled them even more was yet to come.
The scouts searched for Kangguo's troops to no avail, and Liu Guan returned empty-handed. Just as he reached Shexing Pass, the once-calm earth began to stir again. The familiar smoke and waves appeared in another location.
Liu Guan: "..."
Take a deep breath: "What are you standing there for? Send troops to wipe them out!"
The same scenario played out repeatedly throughout the day.
The soldiers from Shexing Pass escaped, and Shen Tang immediately made a hasty retreat. They took them back, and Shen Tang and the others ran to another place to continue digging holes with their massive excavators. The giant excavator, boom and stick, worked tirelessly, moving so fast it seemed to puff out smoke.
We must hurry.
The northern desert side is pressing closer and closer.
It was done back and forth more than a dozen times.
In his haste, Shen Tang disregarded construction standards, digging the pit as deep and wide as possible, leaving the direction entirely up to chance. All he wanted was to encompass the Star-Shooting Pass.
Shentang's construction standard is that there is no standard.
"Phew—I'm exhausted—it felt like I was dodging the city management officers."
Having dealt with sandstorms for two consecutive days, she hadn't had time to wash up and was covered in dirt, looking like a Minion. Shen Tang was sitting on top of a giant excavator, eating a steamed bun. She had only taken two bites when a scout reported that a supply depot in the Northern Desert had been spotted.
Shen Tang did some quick calculations.
"Ji Shou isn't here, that works, let's take them down!"
When the troops sent out from Shexing Pass came out to provide support, they only found a field of scorched earth.
The supply wagons were completely burned, and the grain and fodder disappeared without a trace.
There is still a small mound of heads piled up on the spot.
A flag was planted on it.
The flag was torn, clearly indicating that someone's clothes had been temporarily requisitioned.
The words "Dragon Flying and Phoenix Dancing" were written on it.
Please accept this!
The reinforcements took the flag back with them.
The hall was completely silent; you could hear a pin drop.
The silence was broken by a snicker.
At this moment, only Yun Da still dared to sneer. He looked at everyone with disdain: "A few measly tricks have intimidated you all? Truly, each generation is worse than the last."
Tudege suppressed his anxiety.
The scale of this grain transport was not large; it was just a preliminary operation. If it was burned, so be it. But it also reflects how much trouble the Kangguo army had caused them this time! If the enemy can succeed once, he can succeed a second time. Even if he can't succeed every time, there are tens of thousands of troops at Shexing Pass, and the daily consumption of grain is a huge amount. If this continues, running out of food is only a matter of time.
Yun Da said, "I want him to die—"
His gaze swept over the crowd.
"First make him go mad."
"Let them burn the grain and fodder as many times as they want."
"We can make mistakes eight or ten times, but—"
"They only get one chance."
─=≡Σ(((つω)つ
I'm skipping the gym class tomorrow afternoon; let's combine the three activities.
(End of this chapter)
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