Chapter 677: Taking Action

Chapter 677: Chapter 677: Taking Action

After the Blue Moon Festival, the brief psychological comfort was over, and what remained was the same old routine in the military: training and killing enemies.

By mid-March, the heat had already set in around here, and just a bit of movement left everyone drenched in sweat. Cultivators with lower cultivation levels felt it intensely after training, and ordinary soldiers suffered even more.

So Shen Hao had to speak up again, reminding Chen Zifang to make sure that enough diluted saline was provided to the frontline soldiers in every unit for supplementation.

Salt was certainly not something for sale everywhere, nor was it cheap— even though the Dynasty had limited its price as a necessity, it was absolutely not something that could be supplied in infinite quantities. To dilute it and distribute it to the entire army to drink was almost an "extravagant" idea.

Back during the Jianchuan campaign, Shen Hao had mentioned to Chen Zifang that saline water could better replenish stamina. Chen Zifang did follow through at the time, and the effect was good, but that was a life-and-death moment—no commander in the army would nitpick details; every possible method would be used to ensure the soldiers’ combat effectiveness. But now, it wasn’t so easy to popularize it across the entire army.

If it weren’t for the obviously effective results of "boiled water" and the "emergency team," Shen Hao’s proposal about "saline water" would’ve sparked another round of debates, with surely someone jumping out to mock Shen Hao. But after past lessons, no one came out to challenge him, leaving the decision to Zuo Yuliang.

Of course, Zuo Yuliang agreed to Shen Hao’s suggestion, but imposed a restriction: only frontline combat units could be issued saline water during wartime, while all other units and non-combat times could only drink boiled water.

Shen Hao knew well the difficulties of acquiring salt in this world; it all depended on painstaking evaporation methods along the coast, with basic techniques and craftsmanship, and rarely any cultivator methods involved. It seemed everyone understood salt’s importance, yet no cultivator was willing to invest effort into improving its production or efficiency.

So, Shen Hao really wanted to bring over technology from another world to benefit the people, but realized he only had a superficial grasp—he knew some theoretical formulas, but his practical skills and ability to popularize them were very limited. He could only plan for the long term and wait for a chance when he was less busy.

Afterwards, from Chen Zifang’s excited feedback, the frontline soldiers did indeed experience noticeable improvement in stamina during wartime after being issued saline water. Chen Zifang even said salt would now become a combat supply and that provisions for the military would be increased accordingly, and this had already been reported to the Ministry of War.

The rush was, in fact, due to the renewed bloodshed on the battlefield after mid-March. Any method that could boost the soldiers’ physical strength—even at a higher cost—would drive Zuo Yuliang to see it through.

In early March, troop deployments between Jianchuan and White Head Gorge were still being adjusted, but by mid-month, the fighting rapidly intensified.

Zuo Yuliang’s approach was blunt and forceful, entirely unlike the cunning and sinister style he used to take Jianchuan. Instead, he chose a straightforward strategy, launching a direct offensive against the enemy at White Head Gorge with an extra thirty thousand troops.

At the same time, north of White Head Gorge—from the direction of Jianchuan—the Jianchuan unit pressed forward, gradually encroaching upon White Head Gorge’s territory. This forced the Barbarian Race to reallocate some manpower to cope with pressure from Jianchuan, further stretching their forces thin.

Based on feedback received, Shen Hao was surprised to find that even under such urgent circumstances, the Barbarian Race still hadn’t unified their Royal Court. Not even the Red-eyed Wolf Race dared break away from the Red Earth Clan to establish their own Royal Court independently. Otherwise, with White Head Gorge in such crisis, it would be impossible for the Bear Race and Monkey Race aligned with the Red Earth Clan not to come to the rescue.

At least, it seemed that the Barbarian Race’s internal conflicts were more urgent and difficult to resolve than those of the Jingjiu Dynasty.

Anyway, from Shen Hao’s current understanding of military affairs, his intuition was that Zuo Yuliang was preparing a new, major operation—most likely at White Head Gorge.

If White Head Gorge were cleared out, it would threaten Sangbi Hill directly and sever the Barbarian Race’s main grain-producing region from their heartland. This would likely force the still-disunited Barbarian Race to take a decisive stance at Sangbi Hill.

If things really unfolded as Shen Hao imagined, and a rushed decisive battle broke out, then the Jingjiu Dynasty would have a much higher chance of victory than the Barbarian Race. The outcome would affect not only the southern front, but also the internal affairs of the Jingjiu Dynasty.

Recent reports from Black Water were gradually confirming Shen Hao’s prior suspicions: the southern war seemed unrelated to the Royal Family’s "Major Examination," but its timing was closely tied to the war’s progress.

After Jianchuan was breached by Zuo Yuliang, the "Major Examination" immediately skipped the groundwork and entered the heated phase of contending for the "Knife Master" of the Imperial City. Now, anyone could see that Zuo Yuliang was about to launch another grand offensive; would it result in another swift victory as before?

Given the awareness of the Barbarian Race’s weakness and Zuo Yuliang’s prior brilliance, most people believed the prospects favored another positive turn in the war. So the "Major Examination" was accelerated once again.

The most representative event happened on March nineteenth: the Eldest Prince, Yang Baicheng, was attacked by death warriors of unknown origin at a night banquet with a cultivator clan chief. He was struck twice in the back, but fortunately wore top-grade soft armor for protection and carried a magical artifact, which absorbed much of the damage. Otherwise, Yang Baicheng’s fate would’ve been dire.

Although the attack ultimately failed, the clan chief—a cultivator at the Middle Stage of the Primordial Core Realm—was killed on the spot. This reflected just how dangerous the assailants were.

Of course, since Yang Baicheng survived, there was no chance those who failed to kill him would live—they all committed suicide by taking poison pills.

Outraged, Yang Baicheng fixed his suspicions on the Second Prince, Prince Qian, namely Yang Ye. The two were close in age and matched in power, with sharply conflicting interests and structures—so they had always been at odds, like needle against wheat; neither yielded. Now that Yang Baicheng nearly died, his first thought was of his second brother, followed swiftly by retaliation.

Unfortunately, Yang Baicheng’s anger resulted in poorly organized action, and his move was detected early by Yang Ye’s vigilant subordinates. The two ended up fighting openly on the streets of the Imperial City, with each side suffering more than ten casualties—not too surprising, but when cultivators fought in public, the collateral damage was immense.

Reportedly, the Ministry of Justice later announced that the street brawl between Yang Baicheng and Yang Ye directly caused three civilians to be seriously injured, dozens more lightly injured, and over ten houses damaged. Fortunately, no one died.

But even so, the Emperor was furious, and directly ordered the Major Case Department of the Ministry of Justice to arrest Yang Baicheng and Yang Ye. Now, with April approaching, there’s no news of them being released...