One beagle exhausts its owner’s energy, while two beagles exhaust each other—creating a perfect cycle. By the time the two of them had completely settled down, the rope Jia Xu had “sponsored” had already become a tool for tug-of-war.
Zhang Xiu and Dian Wei sat on either side of the doorway, each wishing to be as far away from the other as possible. The distance between them was maintained solely by the rope in their hands. Both gripped the rope tightly, and aside from the sections they each held, the middle portion was stretched taut between them. They were secretly exerting force, trying to outdo each other while refusing to show any sign of weakness.
Watching them, Jia Xu saw a vivid image of Tarzan and an ape, the contrast between the two starkly clear. He only wanted to advise Zhang Xiu to drain some of the water from his brain. Who else to compete with but Dian Wei? Was Dian Wei an ordinary person? He was a purebred gorilla! Jia Xu could already see the veins bulging on Zhang Xiu’s hands.
Dian Wei remained relaxed, sitting there holding the rope. In fact, the difficulty posed by the rope was less troubling to him than the predicament of being bound hand and foot.
The latter was also thanks to Jia Xu, whose youthful appearance belied a cunning heart, having tied him to a chair again.
“This chair is quite nice!” Huang Yueying circled around Dian Wei. “Is it called a chair? Tall, with a place to lean back—why wasn’t this set used at the banquet? And now it’s given to him?”
Of course, it had been used at the banquet as well, but Huang Yueying’s words made Dian Wei feel quite pleased.
Hmph, even though I’ve become a prisoner, Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu still have to show respect for my lord Cao Cao! They wouldn’t dare treat me poorly. Even an uncommon chair like this is given to me!
Dian Wei, whose cunning likely weighed less than an ounce on a scale, curled the corner of his mouth. The few cats present, who treated human hearts like abacuses to manipulate, immediately judged—this man was truly easy to appease.
Easy to appease, and that was a good thing!
Zhuge Xuan’s lips had already curled into a smile. Rubbing his hands together, he was about to step forward to try—or rather, directly coax Dian Wei into joining their ranks. Since he had already pledged allegiance to Jia Xu and Zhang Xiu was here, he naturally had to demonstrate his abilities first.
But Huang Yueying beat him to it again.
Huang Yueying had just acted as if she were seeing a chair for the first time, but now she produced a crude little clay pot from her hand. Before she could even strike a pose, Zhang Xiu cut her off.
“Is this… dinner? Don’t give him dinner! Feed it to the dogs!” After saying this, Zhang Xiu snorted at Dian Wei, as if afraid Dian Wei didn’t realize who “him” referred to.
Dian Wei tilted his head to the side, looking away, as if unwilling to acknowledge Zhang Xiu.
Hmm…
No wonder dogs share a common language…
Watching their familiar interaction, Jia Xu was utterly speechless. Huang Yueying almost forgot what she was supposed to do because of this little interruption, reacting a beat slower. Still, she reached out and handed the clay pot to Jia Xu.
“This is your secret weapon.”
But she hadn’t said what she intended to do with this little clay pot.
Did he figure it out? Damn it, I knew it. In time-travel dramas, the idea of modern people outsmarting ancient folks with their intellect is just fiction!
The cleverness of ancient people—if someone from the comfortable modern life were to travel back, forget about surviving until the grand finale, they’d be lucky to last three episodes.
Jia Xu, whose goal was to survive until the grand finale, now felt a touch of melancholy. But melancholy aside, it didn’t stop him from picking up the small clay pot.
“Bring some water,” Jia Xu called to the guard standing nearby.
This was something he had long planned—a substitute for gunpowder.
After all, he was about to face Cao Cao! He had to prepare well in advance.
He didn’t have any brilliant strategies. High-level schemes that left no room for error were hard to devise, and even low-tier tactics that could ruin someone’s reputation but were highly effective were difficult to conceive. However, the kind of thing that could overpower ten tricks with sheer force had been taught in school long ago.
The most famous gunpowder formula—one part sulfur, two parts saltpeter, three parts charcoal—he still remembered the ratios: 10%, 15%, and the remaining 75%. Add some sugar for a “Tsar Bomba” effect. Sugar directly alters the reaction properties, causing complex reactions. The power would be immense, but the explosive effect would be unpredictable—it might detonate on the spot, making it suitable for a mutual destruction scenario.
But right now, he truly couldn’t produce this. Sugar simply didn’t exist yet, and besides, purifying the raw materials for gunpowder also required time!
Fortunately, mastering mathematics, physics, and chemistry meant he could travel through the Three Kingdoms without fear.
If traditional gunpowder explosions were out of reach, he could still create chemical combustion explosions like “Dust Explosions” or physical steam explosions from Quicklime-Water reactions—both would surely astonish the world!
“Boom!” “Sizzle—”
The small clay pot thrown from Jia Xu’s hand effortlessly blasted the dilapidated house before him into pieces. Fragments of the pot scattered everywhere inside, and no one dared to approach, partly because of the immense power and partly because the sizzling, crackling scene on the ground made them keep their distance.
“This… this!” Dian Wei watched in shock. If he weren’t still tied up, he would have… Wait, he just stood up? The chair was still bound to him, but it didn’t hinder Dian Wei from rising—the chair hardly counted as a burden for him.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Jia Xu smiled. He had shown this to Dian Wei to create a “misunderstanding”—the idea that this thing was easy to make.
Jia Xu didn’t have the grand ambitions of Zhuge Xuan, who actually wanted to persuade Cao Cao’s subordinates to surrender! Jia Xu was different. He wanted to learn a bit about Cao Cao from Dian Wei—for example, whether Cao Cao treated prisoners of war well, why defeated cities were often massacred, and if there was a chance to evacuate the entire city together.
“Of course, prisoners of war are treated well!” Dian Wei swallowed nervously, looking at Jia Xu, whose smile sent chills down his spine just like Advisor Guo. He felt a bit uneasy. He wasn’t sure whether he, along with the just-exploded clay pot and the wooden door blasted away—Dian Wei had sharp eyes and even noticed a shallow pit had formed beneath…
This Jia Xu, this Jia Xu truly was a Poisonous Strategist! How ruthless! Was he going to say he’d put him in a house and blow it up together?
“You… you… if you want to blow something up, just blow me up…”
“What? Massacre after defeat?” Dian Wei had just resolved to sacrifice himself for his lord when he heard Jia Xu’s second question: Would his lord massacre a city?
“How did you know we were coming to attack you?”
Dian Wei seemed quicker to react than Zhang Xiu. Zhuge Liang, watching from behind, saw clearly that Zhang Xiu’s first reaction was still, “Cao Cao massacring a city? Cao Cao would have to defeat us first!” Meanwhile, Dian Wei had already realized that asking such a question required a premise: “The two sides are about to fight.”
Jia Xu didn’t respond. Dian Wei seemed to realize something, staring blankly down at his bound hands and feet before letting out a bitter laugh. “Right, I’m not dead, but I’ve delayed my lord’s plans… I’ve missed the critical moment. Just kill me.”
Kill? Kill you?
Jia Xu felt this Dian Wei was far too cunning!
This was Zhang Xiu’s first confrontation with Cao Cao. He had surrendered, but because Cao Cao took a liking to Zhang Xiu’s young aunt, Zhang Xiu grew resentful and rebelled. This rebellion caught Cao Cao completely off guard, inflicting heavy losses on Cao’s camp—including the very man before him, Dian Wei, as well as Cao Cao’s eldest son, Cao Ang.
These two were extremely important to Cao Cao. There were even unofficial histories suggesting that Zhang Xiu’s eventual death might not have been from natural causes, hinting at hidden circumstances!
Jia Xu had no desire to become the one who killed Dian Wei and earned Cao Cao’s enmity—it would only hinder his future employment prospects with Boss Cao!
“Don’t talk to me about all that. Answer my question first. After that, whether you live or die is your own business,” Jia Xu rolled his eyes.
“Massacring cities—how could anyone do that casually or frequently?” Dian Wei was well aware his lord had carried out massacres, but he saw nothing wrong with it. “My lord’s own father, Cao Song, was killed by Tao Qian. Slaughtering Tao Qian’s stronghold and wiping out his remaining loyalists—wasn’t that justified?”
“When my lord was away campaigning, there were those who rebelled behind his back—scheming men like Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, along with all those who sided with them against my lord. Shouldn’t they be punished?”
The more Dian Wei spoke, the angrier he became. He dragged the chair he was tied to, spinning around as he talked. If not for his bound feet, Jia Xu thought the man might have lunged at him!
“But you… forget it. Just kill me.”
Dian Wei had originally intended to say that since Cao Cao valued Jia Xu, if Jia Xu intended to join them, Cao Cao would surely ensure he lived comfortably in Cao’s camp.
But then Dian Wei noticed the clay pot in Jia Xu’s hand. The pot itself was ordinary, but what was inside was extraordinarily destructive—and most importantly, incredibly simple to make, with a deafening noise.
On the battlefield, soldiers in armor might survive, but horses would panic.
With this trick alone, Jia Xu could achieve unexpected victories in warfare—let alone the fact that Dian Wei himself had handed them such a glaring weakness!
Better to just let him die!
“Release him.”
“Huh?!” Both Dian Wei and Zhang Xiu exclaimed in shock, their overlapping voices once again assaulting Jia Xu’s ears.
“Listen to me! Don’t try to deceive me with lies! Even though I’m a military officer, I still have a brain! Hey, hey, hey?! What are you doing? Don’t just pick me up and carry me off! What are you doing? Let me go!” At first, Dian Wei wanted to declare his loyalty to his lord, vowing he wouldn’t betray him or be easily swayed by sweet talk. But after Jia Xu’s order, before Zhang Xiu could even agree, everyone swarmed over, grabbing Dian Wei and carrying him away.
Oh, right—Zhang Xiu didn’t have time to agree with Jia Xu either. He was among the many hands and feet, even kicking the struggling Dian Wei with one foot because… when Dian Wei struggled, he was harder to hold down than a pig being slaughtered for the New Year.
And so, with Zhang Xiu carrying and Dian Wei struggling, they made a noisy exit through the city gates. Jia Xu climbed the city wall, directing Zhang Xiu to set Dian Wei down and return, while also calling back the others from the fields.
It was now mid to late November. The frantic harvesting in the fields had ended, though some still wanted to tidy up the land for better planting next year. However, upon seeing Jia Xu’s signal, they all retreated into the city gates with trained discipline.
“Wenhe! I threw him back!”
Zhang Xiu was twice as happy throwing the dog back as he had been when he retrieved it.
A dog that growled at Wenhe the moment they met was not worth keeping!
“He broke free.” Zhuge Jun had followed Jia Xu up the city wall and was now watching Dian Wei below. Somehow, Dian Wei had used brute force to tear off the ropes binding him. He first charged several meters toward Rangcheng, then suddenly halted as if he had noticed something and ran in the opposite direction.
Seeing this, Zhang Xiu mocked, “I thought he would ram into the city wall! Still afraid to die!”
“No, he noticed something—perhaps he heard it.” On the other side was Zhuge Liang. Dian Wei’s behavior was strange, and Zhuge Liang immediately suspected something was amiss.
Huang Yueying, meanwhile, watched the flock of birds flying toward them from the distance. “There are people over there.”
Dian Wei had already run so far that he was no longer even a speck on the horizon. Soon, he converged with the footsteps he had heard.
It was the military advisor!
“Military Advisor Guo! It’s me, Dian Wei! Don’t go that way—Zhang Xiu and the others have developed something that explodes!… Boom!”
Guo Jia had expected to see Dian Wei again in Jia Xu’s hands, atop the city gate. Instead, he encountered him outside Rangcheng, just in time to watch Dian Wei tumble into a large pit.
Was this Jia Xu’s method of capturing Dian Wei?
And in this situation, had Jia Xu anticipated it all along?
Back on the city wall, Jia Xu and the others gradually saw Cao Cao’s war banners fluttering in the wind. At this moment, Zhang Xiu, Huang Yueying, and Zhuge Liang all turned their gazes toward Jia Xu.
Finally, Zhuge Liang understood Jia Xu’s intention.
By demonstrating the exploding pottery jars and releasing Dian Wei, was it all to let Dian Wei spread word of these jars? Whether Cao Cao’s camp believed it or not, they would surely grow wary.
“You anticipated this long ago?”
Huh?
Jia Xu didn’t understand what Zhuge Liang was saying. Anticipated what? That birds would fly?
His eyesight was also slightly worse than these ancients’, and he hadn’t yet made out Cao Cao’s banners among the distant specks.
————————!!————————
Guo Jia: Someone save little Jiajia [cat paw]
We’re in a parallel universe blending both Romance of the Three Kingdoms and historical records, hehe [sparkling eyes]