Columns of Ji soldiers fled across the rugged mountains, disheveled and covered in grime.
They had originally been the defenders of Dingnan Pass, living peaceful lives behind the mighty pass's towering walls. Even when rebel armies arose outside, they had not felt particularly alarmed.
Everyone knew the rebels were merely a ragtag rabble. Years ago, even the main rebel force led by Lu Jiande had ultimately broken against this very pass.
Dingnan Pass was a premier stronghold in the State of Ji. When built, its primary purpose had been to fend off the Mountain Folk to the south, and in several centuries, it had never fallen.
If even the Mountain Folk could not breach Dingnan Pass, the defenders did not believe anyone else could.
Then today, they had suddenly suffered an exceedingly bizarre assault. The magical implements screaming into the stronghold were blindingly fast and devastatingly potent. The Dharma Idol generals could not even lock onto the strange devices, left to watch helplessly as they plummeted.
Though many government soldiers lacked personal prowess, they possessed discerning eyes. Many had seen that the moment the generals' divine senses touched the incoming implements, their minds were deflected instantly as if touching red-hot iron. This meant the generals had suffered an utter defeat in the clash of divine will imbued into the implements.
With Wang Hu's terrifying cultivation at the perfection of the Dharma Idol realm—one of the Twelve Celestial Idols—his divine intent imbued into the missile allowed him to face numerous foes at once, effortlessly crushing all five or six Dharma Idol generals within the pass.
From the moment the first missile hit, the defending generals scattered and fled, leaving no one behind to intercept the rest. By the time dozens of high-yield missiles landed, not a single Dharma Idol remained on the ramparts, nor was there any cultivator at the perfection of the Dao Foundation realm. Only one unlucky Dao Foundation cultivator in the late stage had been wounded by the first blast, ultimately dying for his country.
Few other Dao Foundation cultivators perished. After all, the generals had already fled. Though the Dao Foundation cultivators were a step slower in their retreat, many still managed to escape beyond the lethal zone.
Qingming's new missiles were tremendously powerful, but against heavy-armored Dao Foundation cultivators, the absolute lethal radius shrank significantly to less than thirty zhang.
When the heavy artillery later carpeted the area, seven or eight out of ten defenders had already fled. Only the civilian residents inside the pass were unable to escape, and every one of them was taken prisoner.
Qingming's bombardments were now handled with great precision. High-level cultivators observed from the sky, correcting shell impacts at a moment's notice. The barrage covered only the defensive perimeter along the walls, leaving civilian residences completely untouched.
The Ji defenders were remarkably cooperative: the instant artillery roared, they scattered in all directions. Just like that, a mighty stronghold fell without difficulty.
After entering the pass, Wang Hu went out of his way to inspect the bombarded section of the wall, analyzing the missile impacts and the damage to the fortifications. The Qingming missiles packed immense power, each equivalent to the full-strength blow of a Dharma Idol cultivator.
Furthermore, the protective array guarding Dingnan Pass was designed primarily to withstand Daoist magic. A strike from a Dharma Idol art would have most of its force neutralized, but against a missile that was essentially a chunk of mundane iron, the array proved virtually useless. Yet the missile's physical destructive power was astonishing, shattering the defensive grand formation in a single volley.
Seeing their formation crumble, the defending generals had turned tail and fled at once.
Having easily captured Dingnan Pass, the main body of the rebel forces pushed deeper into the heartland. At this juncture, Li Zhi raised banners proclaiming his intent to aid the monarch and purge the imperial court of traitors. Displaying an edict from the Emperor of Tang to declare his legitimacy in suppressing rebels, he marched his army into the State of Ji.
At the same time, Southern Qi continued massing troops along the border. Renowned generals including Duke Huien, Duke Yangwu, and Marquis Huai all took to the field, amassing over a million soldiers.
Not only did the State of Ji mobilize massive reinforcements, but the neighboring State of Wu also began deploying forces to its border. After all, who could say whether Southern Qi's grand army might suddenly swing southeast and mount a surprise assault against Wu instead?
Meanwhile, rebellions erupted across southern Ji like swarming hornets. Lu Jiande, who had disappeared for years, reemerged into the world. Raising his call, he drew immediate responses from multiple rebel outfits, which gathered under his banner as the New Eighteen Routes of Smoke.
Yet compared to his first uprising a decade earlier, all eighteen routes combined numbered merely a hundred thousand men. The smallest route counted barely two hundred fighters, brought along solely to make up the numbers.
Nevertheless, despite their smaller numbers, the southern rebels possessed considerable combat power. They sent the southern armies of Ji fleeing in disarray, wiping out unit after unit. Reports of lost cities and fallen territory flew toward the royal capital like snowflakes every day.
Flying into a rage, the King of Ji immediately dispatched a second imperial inspection team to oversee the fighting in the south. This envoy mission was likewise dominated by clean-stream officials, mingled with military nobility and palace eunuchs. Yet merely days after leaving the capital, they encountered an inexplicable ambush and were wiped out to the last man.
Refusing to give up, the King of Ji sent a third inspection team, this time comprised mainly of palace eunuchs and military nobles. Seven days after departing the city, the mission was ambushed and completely annihilated.
A fourth inspection team was quickly assembled, and this time Sun Chao'en was named Imperial Envoy. Leading his envoy party through winding detours, traveling by night and lying low by day, he covered over ten thousand li in ten days. Yet the moment they entered the southern region, they walked into an ambush. The entire party was slaughtered; only Sun Chao'en escaped with his life, fleeing back to the capital alone.
With that, no one in the court could touch Sun Chao'en.
Against the southern rebels, the Ji forces crumbled almost on contact. Yet when those same rebels faced Li Zhi's Zhenshan Army, they proved utterly vulnerable.
Thus, like herding a pack of wolves, Li Zhi drove the rebels northward into the heartland while trailing unhurriedly in their wake, reclaiming lost territory and resettling displaced farmers.
The autumn harvest in southern Ji had concluded, and winter had set in—the prime season for military campaigns. As Li Zhi pursued the rebels, he raised banners across southern commanderies to take in refugees on a massive scale, broadcasting the slogan: "No one goes hungry in the Zhenshan Fief."
In no time, millions of war refugees, traveling with whole families in tow, streamed toward Zhenshan Fief. Along the routes, Li Zhi indeed erected numerous porridge sheds, distributing rations to the refugees who arrived and directing them toward the next rest camp.
There were no fewer than several hundred such porridge sheds, consuming a staggering amount of food every day. Some had previously sneered at Li Zhi, dismissing his efforts as angling for fame. But once the reality of the porridge sheds became evident, the gossiping voices fell silent, replaced by praise for Li Zhi's benevolence and virtue in the grand spirit of antiquity.
This shift in public opinion was half due to Wei Yuan. After all, more than twenty thousand writers were on the Qingming Development Bureau's payroll, every one of them adept with a brush, equally skilled at glorifying achievements or undermining political adversaries.
The other half lay with Li Zhi's father and the King of Qi. Slandering Li Zhi would inevitably offend Duke Huien, who was currently the most favored noble in Southern Qi. The King of Qi also maintained an ambiguous stance toward Li Zhi; rumors even circulated that the King intended to adopt Li Zhi into the royal line.
Thus, the State of Ji was like meat on a chopping block, surrounded by wolves, leopards, and tigers eyeing it with ravenous greed.
As the military situation in southern Ji collapsed, Wei Yuan slipped quietly into the south, showing himself in the southern commanderies. By now, the two border commanderies had fallen completely into Li Zhi's hands, and troops were steadily marching through Dingnan Pass, sweeping across adjacent regions.
Li Zhi had established his headquarters in a small county seat within Ji territory, reminiscent of when Wei Yuan had set up his command center in Guantun County years ago.
Seeing Wei Yuan arrive, Li Zhi was naturally overjoyed and personally accompanied him on an inspection of several vital areas.
The first stop was the grand camp where the incorporated southern border troops of Ji were quartered. Here, every five hundred former Ji soldiers were reorganized into a battalion, systematically drilled in the Zhenshan Army's discipline and regulations, and put through retraining.
Li Zhi had not accepted everyone unconditionally. Instead, he screened every soldier, dividing them into groups based on background and household circumstances. Those from impoverished families were given priority for service, whereas those from wealthy backgrounds with families residing in Ji's heartland were entered into separate registries and dispersed across the Zhenshan Army. Even Dao Foundation cultivators among them were permitted to serve only as deputies.
As for those still loyal to the State of Ji, they were sent to prisoner-of-war camps for hard labor.
Seeing Li Zhi handle the reorganization of the captured troops so methodically, Wei Yuan nodded inwardly. Over the years, Li Zhi had passed forty years of age, having governed territory and led armies for more than two decades, gradually revealing his great talent.
At present, more than a hundred thousand captured southern troops were in custody. A total of a hundred thousand would be integrated directly into the Zhenshan Army after reorganization and retraining. Fully ninety percent of the Zhenshan Army's equipment now came from Qingming, and Wei Yuan was supplying the gear for the new army as well, preventing any logistical disarray.
The second stop was the refugee camp, which was of direct concern to Wei Yuan. Tents stretched across the camp in an endless sea. It was midday mealtime, and smoke rose everywhere, carrying the aroma of cooked rice. Refugees stepped out of their tents holding assigned mess kits, waiting in line to receive their meals.
Wei Yuan swept the entire camp with his divine sense, taking in the full scene. Order prevailed throughout the grounds, porridge and rice were plentiful, and the portions distributed to each refugee were decent—at least enough to stave off starvation.
While such conditions could not compare to Qingming, compared to the Nine States, this was already a rare realm of peace and abundance.
Chapter 1095