Chapter 60: Three Steps

The Heavenly King's Happy Stick scared the people of Black Dragon Mountain out of their wits.

It also ignited Cao Yao's fondness for the thing — a ten-year fugitive old bandit like him absolutely loved this gadget.

Liu Chengzong had originally wanted the blacksmith to make two, positioned directly opposite the two sides of the door bar, but Liu Chengzu wanted four made, saying what if the blast missed.

Perfectly reasonable.

Cao Yao opened his mouth and told the blacksmith to make eight first, and after finishing those, make eight more.

He said they could keep them for later use — with this thing, no fortress gate anywhere could stop him.

He also said to just give it some casual name for now, and later when conditions improved they'd upgrade it and formally name it the Invincible Divine Might Spear.

Liu Chengzong was baffled — what's there to upgrade on this thing?

Cao Yao said you could upgrade it with a steel-wheel ignition; later when the craftsmen's skill was higher, they could install the steel wheel from a landmine inside it and use it for stabbing people.

Great minds think alike — Liu Chengzong had thought of that too, but it wasn't practical. "I've thought about it too, but it can only be used once. What are you going to do with a broken pole left over, beat people with it?"

"We're at war, brother. We hand this to some big-bellied soldier, have him trade with some bastard on the other side armored head to asshole in full plate — forget one-for-one, even ten-for-one is a massive win."

Cao Yao didn't consider human cost at all, only ran the economic numbers. "And it's cheap. A single waist saber costs five mace of silver, a suit of armor costs ten taels. That's ten taels and five mace of silver — can that kill an elite soldier? How much does yours cost?"

"One catty of raw iron, three catties of gunpowder, fifty cash, one long pole — and if you use it for stabbing you can save half the materials. Works out to less than five mace of silver."

Liu Chengzong said, "But your steel-wheel ignition makes it expensive. And without the steel-wheel ignition, it can't be used for stabbing either."

"True enough."

Cao Yao had just had a flash of inspiration, and besides, this was only a product of Black Dragon Mountain now being able to serve as a logistics base. Without stable conditions, with government troops chasing them all over the place, they wouldn't be able to make anything at all.

With that, the idea was dropped.

But it did broaden Liu Chengzong's thinking. He asked, "Brother Cao, you've seen the eastern invaders — do they have double-armored heavy infantry?"

"You want to use this to stab the eastern invaders?" Cao Yao laughed and shook his head. "Unless the court amnesties and recruits you, how would you even get beyond the passes to fight the eastern invaders? Besides, their heavy infantry can not only fight, they can shoot too."

His expression grew very complicated. He closed his eyes briefly and pursed his lips, seeming to actually consider the feasibility for a moment. "You get amnestied and recruited, the court transfers you beyond the passes, they don't feed you on the road, you starve for three days and fill your belly with grass roots, they issue you a three-chi pole that should have a steel-wheel ignition but only has a paper fuse — the moment you light it, the eastern invaders cut you down. Heh, my five hundred brothers died worse than that."

"Enough nonsense with you. I'm going to have a little drink. Don't come looking for me again — tonight I've got to have a happy time with your sister-in-law, been held up for days now."

Cao Yao swayed off, each step a swagger, humming some nameless tune, leaving Liu Chengzong with an extraordinarily melancholy view of his back.

Liu Chengzong very much wanted to tell him that fighting the eastern invaders didn't require being amnestied and recruited.

He very much wanted to tell him that fighting the eastern invaders without amnesty and recruitment only took three steps: stay alive, enter the capital, go beyond the passes.

Over the next few days, Liu Chengzu and Cao Yao simulated the many unexpected situations that might arise when assaulting a fortress, and prepared multiple contingency plans — for success, for failure, and for failure after fighting their way inside.

Liu Chengzong didn't get involved in this. Most of the time he didn't offer his own opinions, only listened.

Cao Yao had more combat and raiding experience, while Liu Chengzu had received the court's orthodox military officer education at Fish River Fort — they were more professional.

But he wasn't idle either. While the blacksmith was making the thunder poles, he assembled all the craftsmen, organized them into an artisan squad, and specially selected five cave dwellings and an open area for them to rest and work.

The success of the thrusting thunder in piercing through three wooden doors made Liu Chengzong place even greater importance on that other set of memories, and also made him recognize the importance of productive power.

This sense of importance came from a fear deep within his soul.

He had always thought himself brave and fearless — until last night, when the thunder pole punched through three wooden doors.

Not fearing death became meaningless. Steel and gunpowder feared death even less than he did.

Productive power was far too ruthless. In the hands of the cowardly, it made them divinely brave; in the hands of the vicious, it swept aside the kind; in the hands of the base, it could also hammer down the righteous.

Organize his own laborers, make better tools of production, and dig out that other set of memories to raise productive power.

On the second day of the fifth month, Black Dragon Mountain seemed very quiet.

The young men who normally ran wild all over the mountain were like they'd drunk heavily the night before last — the sun was three poles high and they still hadn't gotten out of bed, leaving the old folks utterly astonished.

Not until the afternoon did people start getting up one after another. Over forty young men quietly pushed their household four-wheeled carts, two-wheeled handcarts, and even wheelbarrows to the mountain pass.

After that, Liu Chengzong brought Gao Xian and the other border troops, loaded the armor and helmets, bedding and ropes, arrows and water and rations into the carts, and rode light out of the mountain, spreading out westward.

Not long after, a cavalryman waved his arms at the mountain pass in the twilight. The waiting able-bodied men, under Liu Chengzu's command, set out.

Liu Chengzu had also decided to take part in this operation. He would scout the enemy situation from the cliff face and choose the right moment to descend by rope into the fortress and go straight for the estate steward.

The cavalrymen spread out, one man standing every li. Once the column passed, they led their horses and followed, until they had advanced thirty li and the sky had grown dark. The column turned into a mountain pass to rest briefly, and when they set out again, the formation had changed.

The spacing between the cavalrymen serving as patrol scouts shrank to a hundred paces. The lead rider was switched from Liu Chengzong to a colorblind infantryman from the border troops.

Behind them, the village soldiers pushing carts lit a single torch at the very front of the column. Cart pressed against cart, man pressed against man behind, they slowly advanced.

At a time like this, there was no need to worry about a night ambush — what they ought to worry about more was carts falling into ditches or people getting hung up on trees.

The village soldiers of Black Dragon Mountain were probably among the people with a relatively higher standard of living in Yan'an Prefecture.

There were plenty of people whose standard of living was even higher than theirs, but those people wouldn't have shown up in the wilderness in the middle of the night before, and now they were even less likely to.

And the border troops and guard-post troops — none of them ate as well as these men, and they generally suffered from very severe night blindness.

They pressed on, resting a while after every ten or twenty li.

When the moonlight dimmed and the sky entered its darkest hour, Liu Chengzong finally lit a torch, rode out to find the valley where they planned to rest, and guided the column inside.

This valley had once had a village too, located on the lower north bank of the West River. Now, having lost its water source, it was already ruins — just right for them to hide the carts and rest for a day.

Before sleeping, Liu Chengzong went up the mountain north of Wang Estate Fort once more. In the pitch black he didn't dare climb too high, only gazed at Wang Estate from a distance.

By the time he returned, the sky was already showing a glimmer of white. Liu Chengzu still hadn't slept and asked, "How were the Wang Estate guard troops at night?"

"Pretty lax. One man outside the main gate, two in the gate tower, didn't see anyone on the east wall, three men sitting motionless on the west wall — probably dozing."

Liu Chengzong yawned and heard his elder brother ask, "Are you confident you can kill the gate guard?"

His brother meant killing them silently, without a sound.

He shook his head. "Very hard. There are torches at the gate, a fire basin twenty paces out, and who knows if there are hidden sentries. Besides, the fortress wall is so low, any sound would be heard."

"But from below the wall, I'm confident I can shoot dead the men on top. Tomorrow we'll first try tricking them into opening the gate. If that really doesn't work, we'll shoot the men on the wall and blast the gate open with the thunder pole."

Liu Chengzong smiled. "Sleep, brother. When we wake again, it'll be the day we do something big. We'll never lack for money and grain again."