Chapter 597: Marching with the Army

Chapter 597: Chapter 597: Marching with the Army

Shen Hao felt something new when he once again arrived at the foot of Zhuo Huo Pass.

If last time, when meeting with Zuo Yuliang, Zhuo Huo Pass left him with an impression of "strictness", then this time it was "boiling".

Shen Hao had done his homework and learned much about the history of Zhuo Huo Pass. In recent times, the South Military Affairs and Road Supervision Office was originally set in Beach Stone—not too far forward, nor too far back; it bridged the front line and the rear, occupying a central, relatively reasonable location.

But ever since Zuo Yuliang became Commander of the Southern Border Army and Daoxing Chief, he moved the Daoxing Chief’s Office from Beach Stone to Zhuo Huo Pass. He even relocated the actual offices into the inner walls of Zhuo Huo Pass itself—truly "on-the-line command".

It was said that almost all military supervisors reported Zuo Yuliang at the time, saying he was exposing the border army’s nerve center right in front of the Barbarian Race, irresponsibly risking the Dynasty. Their language was as fierce as the civil servant group had been when they tried biting into the Xuanqing Guard before.

In the end, Yang Yansi, Minister of War, stood up to all opposition, gained the Emperor’s support, and brushed over the incident by referring to "non-wartime" conditions.

Not only did the supervisors not understand, but even many generals in the military at that time couldn’t comprehend Zuo Yuliang’s reasoning. After all, this truly exposed the command center, carrying tremendous risks.

Yet now, after spending some time at Hai Xia and Beach Stone, Shen Hao looked back at Zuo Yuliang’s decision as an outsider to military affairs and gained some personal understanding.

In Shen Hao’s view, Zuo Yuliang likely chose to bear such immense pressure and move the Daoxing Chief’s Office to Zhuo Huo Pass because he wanted to use his own might to suppress the most crucial link. As for Beach Stone and Hai Xia, he probably felt powerless to change their corrupt situations. This was proven by how, after moving the office to Zhuo Huo Pass, Zuo Yuliang nearly replaced all key stewards there.

Was this foresight, or self-awareness? Shen Hao thought it was both.

If Zuo Yuliang had obediently stayed at Beach Stone, it likely wouldn’t have been possible to subdue Zhuo Huo Pass as thoroughly, nor foster the necessary elite troops for the present sharpened military edge. If so, with the Emperor’s blame now, wouldn’t Zuo Yuliang be doomed?

Now Zhuo Huo Pass was like boiling water, a hubbub of voices, endless flow of carriages and horses surging from within the pass out to its outskirts.

Shen Hao stayed below Zhuo Huo Pass for two days before receiving the order to regroup, leading over three hundred inspectors to join Zuo Yuliang’s central army.

The next day, September 25th, before dawn.

No oath-taking, no stirring speeches; the central army officially mobilized, left Zhuo Huo Pass, entered the Bamboo Path, and began heading south.

This was Shen Hao’s first time marching with the main army, and also his first time passing out from Zhuo Huo Pass into lands outside the Jingjiu Dynasty territory. In fact, since arriving in this world, it was his first long journey on foot.

To be honest, after being here so long, suddenly experiencing a few days without a teleportation array was really hard to get used to.

The first feeling upon entering the Bamboo Path was desolation. Despite its name containing "Bamboo", which suggests green, in reality there was hardly a single tree or bamboo—barely even weeds.

This wasn’t the Bamboo Path’s natural state, but a barrenness carefully maintained by the border army day after day, year after year. Plants and trees block lines of sight, and are more likely to be used by the enemy as siege supplies—trees felled for siege machinery, for instance. Even grasses can be fodder for livestock. So the border army thinks keeping Bamboo Path clean and bare is more important than anything.

In fact, it was even hard to find a reasonably sized stone here. Either giant boulders, or scattered small pebbles.

Where did all the right-sized, ten to thirty-pound rocks go? The answer: they’ve all been collected and stored by the border army as consumable military supplies.

Yesterday, Shen Hao had witnessed firsthand the world’s ranged attack methods—quite different from what he had imagined before.

They did use catapults, or stone-throwing vehicles, but they weren’t as massive as Shen Hao had pictured. Each one was just over three meters in length, made of wood and iron. The projectiles were stone balls, some as small as ten pounds, others up to thirty or forty pounds. The heavier the stone, the farther it could be hurled.

How could such small machines launch stones so far? Where did the power come from? Shouldn’t catapults be huge and have long swinging arms?

All these questions were solved by various array discs attached to the catapults. With a few general spirit stones powering them, these catapults could hurl thirty-pound stones up to three li away.

Besides stone balls, fire oil bottles could also be lobbed. Shen Hao once saw, at the central army’s perimeter, a captain guarding these bottles. The man had half his face ruined—supposedly from an incident—after which he lived in the oil depot, ready to draw his blade at anyone who approached carelessly.

Shen Hao had personally watched soldiers practicing with catapults, and quietly gauged the weapon’s lethality. With his current Gathering Spirit Realm Ninth Layer cultivation, just using True Qi defense, he could easily withstand a thirty-pound stone and remain unhurt. He could even avoid the stones entirely or cleave them apart with a single slash if he liked. But an ordinary soldier couldn’t possibly endure such bombardment; even sturdy city walls couldn’t take such pounding for long.

They’re certainly effective for hammering enemy formations.

Besides catapults, Shen Hao found many strange weapons in the army, most of them built by combining arrays with basic mechanical principles. There was, for example, a "beast vehicle" that could spout flames, and "spider legs" that could be worn by a single person to climb cliffs like a gecko.

Gaining insight, Shen Hao also kept in mind the advice Jiang Cheng and Zhang and Gan had given him earlier: keep your head down, watch and listen more, speak less, and most importantly, stay out of trouble and don’t meddle in Zuo Yuliang’s affairs.

As the saying goes, "taking advice fills your belly"—Shen Hao benefited greatly. At least in these days after leaving the pass, he got a feel for army rules, and because he behaved "honorably", the generals’ impression of him changed; they thought this Lord Shen, rumored to be menacing, was not as difficult as described.

But this morning, Shen Hao received the latest frontline battle report through inspector channels, forcing his somewhat relaxed mood to tense up again.

Just last night, Jianchuan was again savagely attacked by the Barbarian Race—they even broke through part of the defenses and entered central Jianchuan, launching a fierce assault on Fish Stone Military Station.

In the end, a mixed army arrived in time, broke the siege at Fish Stone, and pressed the attack, wiping out over three thousand of the enemy.

Sounds like a victory. But Jianchuan seems to have been punched full of holes by the Barbarians? With a defense like that, holding out for long seems tough. At least, from Shen Hao—this half-baked outsider’s—point of view.

But ultimately, it depends on how effective Zuo Yuliang’s forward movement of the central army and the shortened front line end up being. If it’s good, everything else can be discussed.