The Seventh Prince said there would be no more leisurely days, and so there were none.
For the next half month, he divided the army into twenty small units. Every two or three days, they would encircle and attack the Black Butcher Fortress.
However, these were not all-out assaults. The moment the Black Butcher Fortress showed any sign of movement, his troops would immediately retreat as if terrified, sometimes even abandoning their armor and weapons in their haste.
The bandits of the Black Butcher Fortress, brandishing their swords, were utterly baffled.
Hey, big brothers, who are the bandits here? You're the army, the soldiers. Shouldn't you fight to the death when your general gives the order? Why do you run away with such practiced ease?
Inside the fortress.
The Big Boss was fuming with frustration. "Let's just charge down there! Damn it all! They're treating us like dogs to be walked! Let's go teach them a lesson. The Provincial Governor sent them plenty of supplies."
Those cartloads of grain and military supplies were brazenly displayed behind the village. They had secretly circled the mountain to take a look and couldn't help but covet them.
If they could seize some, it would be worth looting many villages or robbing numerous wealthy households.
Unfortunately, Old Third kept stopping them from going down.
"Would the man who rooted out all our spies be that simple?" Yu Ruo had really worn himself out trying to reason with these bandits who rose from rabble. "His tactic is precisely to lure us down, or to tempt us into descending the mountain to raid, so he can divide and destroy us."
The Second Boss picked his teeth. "Tu Er went down the mountain and never returned. Even though the other villagers don't know his identity, with no sign of him by now, he's likely met a bad end."
Outwardly supporting Yu Ruo, he waited until Yu Ruo had left before whispering to the Big Boss.
"Big Brother, let's wait and see a bit more. If we're really sure the Seventh Prince is a coward, then we'll go raid!" Greed and ferocity flashed in his eyes. "It's not like we haven't killed government men before."
The Big Boss clapped his hands. "Now that's more like it! At worst, we just run. Old Third is smart, sure, but he's too timid. 'Don't do this, don't do that.' Makes everything so damn frustrating."
After returning to his room, Yu Ruo spread out a sheet of paper.
He pondered the Seventh Prince's strategy.
However, a moment later, Gu Xin appeared, delivering a letter. "A message from the Fourth Prince."
The Fourth Prince was the most favored son of the Emperor of Nanning. His position as Crown Prince was practically set in stone, just waiting for a suitable opportunity to be formally announced.
Yu Ruo opened the letter. The command inside was brief: [Kill the Great Zhou Seventh Prince, force the bandit chiefs of Qing and Ji provinces to rebel.]
Currently, if these bandits surrendered, some might still have a way back, as the court had always pursued a policy of amnesty. But if it involved the killing of a prince, it would become a fight to the death.
Killing a royal family member sent to suppress bandits was tantamount to rebellion.
Yu Ruo let out a scornful laugh.
Gu Xin: "Your Highness... what are you laughing at?"
Yu Ruo: "He's too impatient. Father Emperor's original intention was merely to disrupt Great Zhou's focus." He estimated the time. "Ignore him. I don't know how much longer I can stay here, or if it's enough time to settle the contest with the Seventh Prince."
Ling'an Village.
After being cleaned up, this place had completely become the main base for the bandit-suppression army.
Qu Dubian sat cross-legged on the ground, fiddling with a handful of dark granules in a mortar. In the distance, soldiers who had just run down from the mountain wore smiles, still comparing who had run faster during the retreat.
Staff Officer Zhang crouched beside Qu Dubian. "Your Highness, they still haven't come down."
Qu Dubian: "Hmm."
He raised his head and glanced towards the bandit fortress on the mountain.
"It seems their Third-in-Command is quite a character."
He had read the files in the bandit-suppression records. The Big Boss and Second Boss of the Black Butcher Fortress were blood brothers with no living relatives, pure refugees originally working as butchers.
It wasn't that he thought refugees couldn't produce formidable leaders; after all, throughout thousands of years of history, many great leaders came from common backgrounds.
But judging from past suppression records, these two brothers weren't particularly intelligent, possessing at most some petty cunning and decisiveness, coupled with all the greed and brutality that comes with suddenly holding power.
In other words, their brains might not even be as sharp as his eldest and sixth brothers'.
The only other person with a say besides them was the mysterious Third-in-Command.
Staff Officer Zhang: "But Commander, our brothers are getting restless too. When do we really go at them with swords and spears?"
Qu Dubian: "Wait a little longer. Have the brothers continue the lure. See if the 'mob' comes out. If not, it'll be time to wrap up the dumplings."
After he finished, Staff Officer Zhang didn't leave.
Qu Dubian: "Is there something else?"
"..." Staff Officer Zhang held back for a moment. "Commander, that word... probably shouldn't be 'lure'."
Also, what's a 'mob'?
Was the capital's slang this trendy now?
Qu Dubian: "I mean 'attract'. Ah, my education in the capital was quite poor. The meaning is similar, don't mind it."
During his leisure time, slacking off reading novels, some with modern gaming themes, the words just came to his lips, whichever felt natural. Occasionally blurting out anachronistic phrases was one of the few remaining links to his modern past.
Staff Officer Zhang: "..."
That's a huge difference, okay!
He went down to arrange the troops going up the mountain the day after tomorrow. Xi Zixing walked over holding a brush, placing a rolled-up long scroll in front of him. "The terrain map. More than half done. Take a look."
Qu Dubian: "My hands are full. Unroll it for me."
Xi Zixing had no choice but to put down the brush and unroll the terrain map.
In each group sent up the mountain for harassment, Qu Dubian had picked the soldier with relatively better memory, tasking him with recording various terrain features on the mountain and the checkpoints set up by the Black Butcher Fortress along the way.
After half a month of frequent ascents, a general overview map was roughly half complete.
Qu Dubian studied it for a while, then circled an area with his brush. "This stretch of mountain forest connects Qing and Ji provinces. Relying solely on data from local villagers isn't accurate enough. Have Zuo Tianlang secretly send someone to measure it."
"Alright," Xi Zixing glanced at the dark substance in his mortar. "No offense, but that's black powder. Even with your internal energy, you need to be careful."
Qu Dubian: "It's not that powerful anyway."
Current warfare was in a transitional period between cold and hot weapons. Black powder had only recently been used in war. At this stage, the mixture contained about ten percent saltpeter, making its power rather limited.
At first, black powder could still startle horses, but later the horses almost got used to it.
Moreover, people nowadays didn't seem to realize the primary function of black powder was its explosive property. They added ingredients like clear oil and hemp to aid combustion in the formula.
It was great for fireworks, but on the battlefield, its killing power was quite limited. Charges were still primarily made with cold weapons.
Even so, the Northern Frontier still hated Great Zhou. Because they were split, they lacked a complete system for manufacturing black powder and often suffered disadvantages in this regard.
He remembered the "one sulfur, two saltpeter, three charcoal" rhyme from his school days, but Qu Dubian never imagined he'd have a day where he'd be personally improving black powder, so he never memorized the optimal ratios.
Now he had to remove the combustibles and slowly adjust the proportions bit by bit.
The later stages would be more dangerous. Good thing he had internal energy.
Qu Dubian said, "Just wait. Once this thing is improved, it will be of great use."
Xi Zixing asked, "How long will the improvement take?"
"I don't know."
Qu Dubian said worriedly, "Let's adjust it slowly for now."
The simulator wouldn't give him any backdoors, and when he was at the prince's mansion, he couldn't get batches of gunpowder for research either. Now, at least he was out, and he could use his position as the Commander-in-Chief to openly research gunpowder.
Great Zhou Dynasty.
The Imperial Palace.
Emperor Chongzhao looked at the report from Zuo Tianlang concerning the recent progress of the Seventh Prince's bandit suppression in Qingzhou.
Reports came once a month. This was the first one.
Suppressing bandits wasn't something that could be done overnight. There hadn't been any major movements in Qingzhou yet, but upon receiving this first report, Emperor Chongzhao fell into silence.
It was completely different from what he had imagined. He had thought that although Little Seven was the Commander-in-Chief for bandit suppression, Zuo Tianlang was the one actually in command.
In Zuo Tianlang's report, the Seventh Prince alone had intimidated the Provincial Governor, captured the inside traitor with a plan, used the method of collective punishment to sever the connection between the bandits and the villagers, investigated the County Magistrate, thoroughly eliminated internal threats, commanded two thousand soldiers, and deployed troops at the foot of the mountain.
Each and every action was swift and decisive, displaying a level of wisdom and capability he had never shown in the past sixteen years.
Emperor Chongzhao picked up the paper and held it up to the sunlight to look.
Eunuch Yu: "Your Majesty, what are you doing?"
Emperor Chongzhao: "I'm checking to see if my old eyes are failing me and I misread it."
Eunuch Yu didn't know what was written on it, but that didn't stop him from agreeing: "What are you saying, Your Majesty? It's written in black and white, how could it be wrong?"
"Yes," Emperor Chongzhao slowly lowered his hand, his expression complex. "Zuo Tianlang wouldn't lie to me about such matters."
It's just that he had always thought that aside from some interest and research in martial arts and weapons, Little Seven wasn't proficient in anything else.
Black Butcher Stronghold.
For ten days in a row, the bandit-suppression army below would come up to harass them from time to time.
Many bandits who had driven off the government soldiers heard their complaints: that the Seventh Prince was just here for show, didn't understand warfare at all, gave chaotic orders, and was waiting to spend another month here so he could return to the capital to receive rewards based on his bandit-suppression experience.
Those at the top eat till their mouths are greasy, while we run our legs off every day.
It was a very far-fetched rumor. Anyone familiar with the struggles among the princes would see through it at a glance, as only success in suppressing the bandits would lead to rewards.
But the Big Boss and the Second Boss didn't know that.
They grew anxious.
"I told you Old Third was wrong this time!"
"The army brought so much grain. If they really leave, where will we get that much grain?!"
"Our place is easy to defend and hard to attack. Even if all two thousand soldiers charge up, we can still escape. Big Brother, what exactly are we afraid of?"
The Big Boss decided immediately: "Let's do it!"
The Second Boss: "Should we still roll down the stones that Old Third told us to prepare?"
The Big Boss: "Roll my ass! We'll raid tonight to steal grain. We'll roll the stones when they chase us up. Kill two birds with one stone."
"The Black Butcher Stronghold has withdrawn two sentries?"
Qu Dubian smiled: "Good. They're finally unable to sit still."
Adjutant Zhang: "Commander, do we kill them?"
Qu Dubian: "Put yourself in the bandits' shoes. They want to steal grain. This time, we'll still pretend to be defeated, let them have a taste of success."
"Ah, why?"
Qu Dubian unconsciously rubbed his fingertips, looking at the distant mountain: "Their Third Boss is a clever man, similar to a military advisor. What we need to do now is undermine the 'military advisor's' prestige."
Xi Zixing: "I have an idea that can ruin his prestige even more thoroughly."
Qu Dubian raised an eyebrow: "What a coincidence. So do I."
That night.
The bandits of the Black Butcher Stronghold took advantage of the darkness, took a long detour, and went straight around to the rear of the army.
Cartloads of grain were placed there openly, with only a few scattered soldiers on guard, some even asleep.
The Second Boss waved his hand, and the men behind him immediately went to steal.
Before long, someone woke up with a start: "The bandits have come down the mountain! The bandits have come down the mountain!"
"Quick, someone!!"
The Second Boss cursed, but unwilling to steal too little, he ordered fifty men to cover the rear while the rest each carried two sacks of grain and started running back up the mountain.
As soon as they ran past the sentry post, he shouted: "Release the stones!"
"Quick, release the stones!"
Stones rolled down the hillside as they ran all the way back.
When they all ran back to the stronghold, the Second Boss slammed the rice sacks onto the ground with a thud and let out a loud laugh.
"Hahahaha! The government soldiers are still nothing special!"
Hearing the noise, the Big Boss hurried out. "Brother! How did it go?"
The Second Boss, brimming with pride, waved his hand. The brothers following him, carrying the grain sacks, threw the sacks onto the ground one by one, quickly piling up two small hills.
"Great! How many were injured?"
The Second Boss counted: "Three hit by arrows, one got slashed. Not serious."
"Hahaha! They definitely didn't expect this move of ours! We were so sudden, who could have thought of it? It's normal they weren't prepared!"
The Second Boss nodded: "We probably won't get another chance like this later."
Looking at the two piles of grain, they let out hearty laughs.