Chapter 80: Confucianism

Three minutes later, Lv Dazhi arrived at the scene on a fast horse, clutching the Luolong County Great Seal; seeing the field littered with corpses all around, he felt a churning in his stomach and nearly vomited.

Lv Dazhi was a civil official who had never once been on a battlefield; in his youth, he had spent twenty years of bitter study reading and writing, earning the degree of Licentiate, but after taking the exams for another nine years, he failed every time, and by the age of thirty-five, he was middle-aged, disheartened, and truly unable to study any further.

Consequently, Lv Dazhi sold his family's fertile land and property, scraped together a large sum of money, pulled strings, and used his Licentiate degree to become the County Magistrate of this Luolong County.

After taking office, Lv Dazhi engaged in graft and invented various pretexts, quickly earning back the money he had spent.

Lv Dazhi usually sat in the county office reviewing official documents and issuing orders; when had he ever seen such a cruel battlefield? These successive bloody scenes dealt him a powerful shock.

The descriptions of battlefields one sees in books and the battlefield one sees with one's own eyes are two different things.

"My Lord, are you alright?" Zhang Butou noticed that Lv Dazhi was very uncomfortable and asked from beside him.

Lv Dazhi steadied his mind, mobilized his Vast Righteous Qi, and forcefully suppressed the urge to vomit; he knew that a critical moment had arrived and he absolutely could not lose his composure.

Civil officials all follow the path of cultivation of Confucianism, a very unique path that does not require moving True Qi and tempering the body like a Martial Artist, nor does it require refining Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and pursuing immortality like an Immortal Cultivator.

The cultivation method of Confucianism begins with the bitter study of the classics of sages, cultivating one's character, and nurturing the Vast Righteous Qi within one's chest.

If one possesses Vast Righteous Qi in their chest, the articles they write will be flowery and fragrant with ink, causing readers to slap the table in admiration.

If one cannot nurture Vast Righteous Qi in their chest, the articles they write will be dry, dull, and incoherent, naturally making it impossible to pass exams and thus impossible to become an official.

Walking the path of Confucianism is not easy; it requires spiritual aptitude; some people study the classics of sages for a lifetime yet are simply unable to nurture Vast Righteous Qi, and even when their hair turns white, they cannot pass the exam to become a Cultivated Talent.

Some scholars are still mere pupils at over seventy years old, trembling as they walk, yet they must take exams in the same hall as their own grandsons; just thinking about it feels tragic and pitiful.

The Confucian cultivation method is also divided into nine grades: First Grade is Pupil, Second Grade is Cultivated Talent, Third Grade is Licentiate, and Fourth Grade is Advanced Scholar.

Confucian scholars of these four grades have no direct combat power, but if they serve as officials and hold power, they can use their own Vast Righteous Qi to mobilize the Dynasty Luck within their jurisdiction and exert astonishing combat power.

"Magistrate Lv, the hunters in the courtyard just said they want to surrender; do you think we should accept their surrender?" Zhang Butou asked.

Lv Dazhi let out a cold snort; they had wiped out his uncle's entire family and killed so many yamen runners and constables, committing a capital crime punishable by the extermination of their entire clan, so they were certain to die; how could there be such a good thing as surrendering now?

Lv Dazhi's eyes rolled, and he said in a loud voice: "Hunters in the courtyard, listen: I am the Luolong County Magistrate, Lv Dazhi. If you want to surrender, put down your weapons and walk out immediately."

"My Lord, we are too far apart and cannot hear clearly what you are saying. Could you come closer, or let Zhang Butou come over to represent you and discuss it with us in detail?"

Meng Yifan pretended he hadn't heard clearly, intending to lure Lv Dazhi or Zhang Butou over; as long as they could manage one volley of fire and take out one of the two, the subsequent battle would be much easier to fight.

Lv Dazhi shook his head; he was a civil official and naturally could not place himself in danger, so he said again: "Since you do not wish to surrender, then wait to be blasted to death by the Shenwu Great General Cannon."

The two sides could not continue the discussion, and after another five minutes of stalemate, the four Shenwu Great General Cannons were finally pushed over.

"Set up the formation, prepare for a volley, and strive to blast all the hunters in the courtyard to death in one round of artillery fire," Lv Dazhi ordered.

"Yifan, their Great General Cannons are set up; should we retreat first? We can't just stay in the courtyard and get blasted," Meng Dayong asked anxiously.

Meng Yifan calmly picked up a Congreve Rocket and smiled: "I was waiting for them to push the cannons over."

The Congreve Rocket that Meng Yifan produced was a low-spec version, but its range reached as high as seven hundred meters, far exceeding the range of the Elm Cannon and also exceeding the range of the Shenwu Great General Cannon.

Zhang Butou thought he was safe hiding five hundred meters away, but that was because they did not know Meng Yifan held such a great weapon of mass destruction as the Congreve Rocket in his hands.

The reason Meng Yifan did not use the Congreve Rocket from the start was because time was limited; he had only produced three rockets, and Zhang Butou possessed the Artifact Demon-binding Rope, so even if he fired all the Congreve Rockets, it might not be enough to blast Zhang Butou to death.

What Meng Yifan was waiting for was for Zhang Butou to move the Great General Cannons over, and then give them a massive surprise.

Zhang Butou stood near the Shenwu Great General Cannon, personally directing the firing.

"Are you all ready?" Zhang Butou asked.

The yamen runner responsible for firing nodded and said: "Chief Zhang, everything is ready, you can rest assured."

Zhang Butou raised his large hand, preparing to order the fire.

"Whoosh!" Suddenly, three rockets, each a meter long and as thick as an arm, with flames spraying from their tails, flew over with a whistling sound through the air.

The initial speed of the Congreve Rocket launch was not very fast, only about 40 meters per second, but as the tail flames pushed it, the speed became faster and faster, quickly reaching 200 meters per second, 300 meters per second, and then exceeding the speed of sound.

At a distance of five hundred meters, the rockets flew over in less than two seconds.

"What is this thing? It looks a bit like a Divine Fire Flying Crow, but how did they manage to fly in a straight line?"

Zhang Butou had seen the rockets of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty, but that thing had very poor combat effectiveness; after ignition, even the archer could not be sure where the impact point would land.

There had even been cases where a rocket flew out, turned a large circle, and circled back to blow up its own launcher, so in the army of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty, very few people were willing to use rockets like the Divine Fire Flying Crow.

"Oh no! Their target is the gunpowder barrels for the Great General Cannons." Zhang Butou was shocked; four gunpowder barrels were placed next to the Great General Cannons, and if these were detonated, all four cannons would be blown to scrap, and the surrounding gunners would be blown into fragments.

"Get out of here!" Zhang Butou brandished the Binding Demon Rope, opening a large net once again, wanting to bind the rockets just as he had intercepted the Iron Ball.

The speed of the rockets had already exceeded the speed of sound, but the speed at which the Binding Demon Rope was whipped over was even faster; like a predatory python, it bit onto one of the rockets in a single gulp.

The net, as thin as a strand of hair, was made of an unknown material and was incredibly tough; even the supersonic rocket could not tear through that fine net.