177: Chapter 177 A Matter of Life and Death

Just as the technological tree of the Northern Territory was climbing frantically at a speed akin to riding a rocket.

An unprecedented "Panshi Army Grand Exercise," aimed at integrating new and old generals and promoting military Fusion, was already unfolding in full swing on the massive training ground in the suburbs!

On the vast drill ground, dust billowed, and the sounds of battle shook the heavens!

Tens of thousands of Panshi Army soldiers, clad in exquisite armor, were divided into several massive phalanxes, engaging in the most intense and cruel simulated confrontation!

Du Wei's Tiger Guard Battalion remained as disciplined as ever, with a formidable Formation. Holding tower shields and long spears, they formed an airtight steel phalanx, slowly advancing like an immovable, towering mountain.

Every step they took made the entire earth tremble; that iron-blooded Evil Qi, condensed from pure discipline and will, was enough to make any army look upon them with fear!

Wulu's Green Wolf Battalion transformed into a pack of the fiercest and most fearless prairie wolves! Forsaking bulky armor, they wore only light leather armor, wielding sharp scimitars as they swept wildly from the flanks of the Tiger Guard Battalion like a tidal wave!

Their attacks were filled with boundless bravery and agility; although they could not shake the impenetrable shield Formation, they greatly hindered the Tiger Guard Battalion's speed of advance!

Opposite them, those specialized legions led by the newly surrendered star generals also displayed terrifying combat power that was truly stunning!

Zhao Yu's cavalry came and went like the wind, elusive and unpredictable! Every one of them was a master archer with superb horsemanship. They never engaged the enemy in head-on collisions; instead, like ghosts, they roamed the edges of the battlefield, using their precise and lethal arrows to relentlessly harass and pick off the enemy's flanks and rear!

Their tactics were so agile and impossible to defend against that even Du Wei, who was known for his steadiness, felt a headache coming on!

Ma Qianli's light cavalry pushed the word "speed" to the absolute limit! Each man had two or even three horses, and the warhorses they rode were the finest, most spirited steeds captured from the Heavenly Wolf Army!

Like white lightning, they wove and flanked wildly across the vast battlefield at a terrifying speed that completely exceeded everyone's imagination!

Every charge of theirs was like the sharpest blade, fiercely piercing into the enemy's Formation, and then, striking once and leaving immediately, never lingering in battle!

But what was most shocking was the three thousand "Divine Power Battalion" heavy infantry led by the Southern Chu warrior Xiang Hao!

Each of these three thousand soldiers had been carefully selected from the hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war; they were terrifying existences born with Divine Power!

They wore custom-made, three-inch-thick, ultra-heavy plate armor crafted by the Hundred Crafts Institute, and wielded giant maces weighing one hundred and fifty jin!

They didn't even need any Formation or technique!

They simply lined up in a simple horizontal line, then, striding with legs like pillars that could hold up the sky, they launched the most primitive and unreasonable barbaric charge forward!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Every step they took seemed to want to completely crush the entire earth!

That terrifying Aura, gathered from pure, unreasonable absolute strength, was even more heart-palpitating and despair-inducing than the charge of thousands of cavalry!

"Break... for me!"

Xiang Hao took the lead, his mountain-like, burly body swelling up another size under the full activation of his "Overlord Bloodline"!

The special giant hammer in his hand, carrying a terrifying might capable of collapsing mountains with a single blow, smashed fiercely toward the seemingly impenetrable Tiger Guard Battalion shield Formation!

And Du Wei, upon seeing that terrifying figure charging toward him like a demon god, saw for the first time a trace of "solemnity" appear on his usually dignified black face!

He knew that this was a Peak collision between pure strength and pure discipline!

"Hold! Everyone, hold the line for me!"

Du Wei let out a deafening roar!

He poured all of his True Qi without reservation into the tower shield in his hand!

The thousands of Tiger Guard Battalion soldiers behind him also let out a uniform roar, gathering all their strength onto that seemingly thin shield wall!

However, at the very moment that giant hammer, filled with destructive power, was about to collide fiercely with the solid shield wall, which had condensed the will of thousands!

A flash of cunning, completely inconsistent with his honest appearance, suddenly appeared in Xiang Hao's eyes!

His terrifying hammer strike, which appeared to have great force, suddenly changed in mid-air!

He actually forcibly withdrew seventy or eighty percent of that terrifying power, which was enough to split mountains and crack rocks, at the last moment!

Then, his massive body, with an extremely agile posture, suddenly dodged to the side!

And the giant hammer in his hand, like a venomous snake emerging from its hole, reached in from the gap in the shield wall at an absolutely inconceivable angle like lightning, and then smashed fiercely onto the helmet of a deputy general beside Du Wei!

"Bang!"

A muffled sound!

The deputy general didn't even have time to scream before he was smashed by this hammer, his brains splattered, and he died instantly on the spot!

And Du Wei was completely stunned by this sudden turn of events!

He never dreamed that the combat intelligence of this seemingly honest Southern Chu warrior would be so cunning and so terrifying!

"You... you cheated!"

Du Wei's eyes instantly turned red!

He let out a roar filled with endless rage, and the long spear in his hand, like a poisonous Dragon emerging from its hole, thrust fiercely toward Xiang Hao's heart!

And Xiang Hao let out a crazy laugh filled with endless pleasure!

Completely ignoring the lethal spear thrust toward his heart, the giant hammer in his hand transformed once again into a black bolt of lightning, smashing fiercely toward Du Wei's head!

He was actually going for an injury-for-injury, life-for-life exchange!

Just like that, a huge tragedy that could have left the two main generals of the Panshi Army both severely injured was about to unfold!

Just at this critical moment!

"Enough!"

A roar filled with supreme dignity and icy killing intent exploded like Nine Heavens thunder over the entire training ground!

It was Gao Feng, who had appeared on the high reviewing platform at some unknown time.

His face was covered in icy frost.

He just stood there quietly, but the terrifying pressure radiating from him, which seemed to want to freeze the entire world, made Du Wei and Xiang Hao, who had already been blinded by the heat of battle, freeze in their tracks as if struck by lightning at this moment!

Their lethal attacks, which were about to strike each other, stopped dead at less than an inch from the other's body!

"All of you, stop!"

Gao Feng's voice was cold and devoid of any emotion.

"The exercise is not for you to kill each other here!"

"Your bravery, your blood, should be shed on the battlefield to protect the country! Not wasted in this meaningless infighting!"

"Du Wei! Xiang Hao!"

"The two of you, ignoring military discipline, nearly caused a disaster! Each of you will receive one hundred military strokes! Your salaries will be docked for three months! Do you have any objections?!"

Upon hearing this, Du Wei and Xiang Hao trembled all over!

Looking at that young face covered in icy frost, their hearts, which had already been filled with rage and Battle Intent, were completely filled at this moment with an unprecedented, immense fear and shame!

They knew they were wrong. Wrong to an outrageous degree!

"This general acknowledges his crime!"

"This general is willing to accept punishment!"

The two knelt on one knee simultaneously, using all their strength to issue their loudest and most sincere repentance!

Gao Feng snorted coldly and ignored them further.

He slowly swept his gaze over all the generals who had already been scared into silence, and then, in an unquestionable tone, slowly spoke:

"This Prince knows that every one of you is a proud and peerless star general."

"Every one of you is filled with endless confidence in the troops under your command."

"But today, this Prince wants to tell you one thing here."

"Future wars will no longer be a one-man show for any single branch of the military or any single general!"

"It will be a three-dimensional war that tests the combined operational capabilities of all our military branches and all our generals!"

"From this day forward, this Prince announces the official establishment of the 'General Staff Department'!"

"right chancellor Xu Changqing will concurrently serve as the first Chief of Staff!"

"All of you generals at the rank of legion commander or above will become members of the General Staff Department!"

"Your task is to develop for this Prince a set of combined tactics that can bring the advantages of all our military branches into full play!"

"This Prince wants you to transform from individual fierce tigers into a pack of invincible wolves that understand how to fight in coordination!"

"This Prince wants our Panshi Army to become the only iron-willed army in this world that is invincible and unconquerable!"

Gao Feng's words were like imperial decrees from the Nine Heavens, branded fiercely into the hearts of every general!

Looking at that towering figure, who in their eyes was already no different from a deity, their hearts, which were already filled with endless awe and fanaticism, were completely filled at this moment with an unprecedented, immense sense of mission and honor!

The Panshi Army Grand Exercise began in an unexpected way and ended in a deafening, thought-provoking manner.

Gao Feng, with his near-Prodigy imperial art of governance and his unquestionable supreme dignity, cleverly transformed an internal feud that was about to sweep through the entire army into an excellent opportunity to promote Fusion between the new and the old and establish a new order in the military.

The establishment of the General Staff Department was like a shot of adrenaline injected into the heart of this battle-hardened army, which had a complex composition but infinite potential, allowing it to begin operating frantically in a more scientific and efficient way.

However, Gao Feng knew very well that a truly invincible army needed more than just sharp claws and teeth and a clever brain; it also needed a stable, fair, and powerful rear that could make everyone submit wholeheartedly.

And the foundation supporting this rear was that cold, ruthless, yet crucial and unshakeable — law!

On the third day after the establishment of the Staff Department, the "panshi code of law," a document hundreds of pages thick that had been painstakingly compiled by the Left Chancellor Liu Chengfeng and the newly appointed second-place scholar Zhu Zhengyu, was officially promulgated to every corner of the three prefectures of the Northern Territory.

Once the code was issued, the entire Northern Territory was shaken!

Those common people who had just been reborn from the flames of war were moved to tears and ran to tell each other the news when they saw the new laws that detailed their rights and obligations, protected their private property from infringement, and even granted them the right to "sue officials."

They had never dreamed that they, the lowly laborers who were treated like ants and slaughtered at will in the old era, could actually have a day where they were recognized and protected by the law!

They one after another set up longevity tablets in their homes for His Highness the Prince of Yan who regarded them as "human beings," burning incense and praying day and night, wishing him eternal life.

And those scholars from humble backgrounds and skilled craftsmen who had just gained new life and glory in the imperial examinations and the Heavenly Crafts Assembly erupted into thunderous cheers when they saw the legal provisions that clearly protected their intellectual property and patents, encouraging them to innovate and forge ahead!

They knew that a golden age, one that truly belonged to them and allowed them to fully display their talents and ambitions, had officially arrived with the promulgation of this code!

However, where there is joy, there is naturally sorrow.

Those old gentry who had luckily survived the previous iron-blooded consolidation were like cats with their tails stepped on, instantly bristling with rage when they saw the "treasonous" provisions aimed at limiting their privileges, cracking down on their land annexation, and even placing them on the same legal footing as the common people!

They gathered in their respective dark mansions, pounding tables and smashing cups, cursing with the most vicious language the Yan King Gao Feng, who in their eyes had long since become a "traitor" and a "tyrannical ruler."

"Rebellion! This is truly a rebellion against the heavens!"

Jizhou Prefecture, the Li family mansion.

A middle-aged man who looked to be in his early forties, but whose temples were already gray and whose face carried a sickly flush, was pointing at the "panshi code of law" that had just been sent from the government office, trembling with rage, his face twisted in a hideous expression!

He was the biggest local tyrant in Jizhou Prefecture, and also the distant cousin of the current Princess Consort Luo Qin — Liu Mao!

"He is just a traitor from a lowly background! A mere child who stole the power of the Northern Territory through conspiracies! How dare he talk about 'the prince committing a crime is punished the same as a commoner'?!"

"What does he think he is doing? He is digging up our ancestral graves! He is cutting off our roots!"

Liu Mao let out a shrill roar that did not sound human; he violently tore the code in his hand into shreds, and then, like a madman, trampled it under his feet, stomping on it frantically!

"I tell you all!" His bloodshot eyes, like the most vicious poisonous snake, swept over the representatives of the gentry below who were equally filled with fear and anger, and he roared in a hoarse voice:

"We must not sit and wait for death! We must let him know whose world this Northern Territory really is!"

"Doesn't he want to implement the new laws? Good! Then we will deliberately go against him!"

"From today on, everyone, do everything you can to find loopholes in these new laws! Go and provoke his bottom line!"

"I want to see if he dares to move against those of us who are 'royal relatives' connected to him, just for the sake of a few lowly laborers!"

A trace of near-maniacal resentment and smugness flickered in Liu Mao's eyes.

He believed that as long as he made a big scene, and as long as he dragged the Princess Consort Luo Qin into this, that seemingly strong and domineering Gao Feng would ultimately have to choose to hush things up to save face, letting the matter fade away!

And as long as he took the first step back, this so-called "panshi code of law" would completely become a dead letter!

A huge conspiracy against the new Panshi policies was quietly taking shape in this dark mansion!

The next day, Liu Mao impatiently fired the first shot of this "counterattack"!

Under the pretext of "reclaiming wasteland and building water conservancy projects," he forcibly enclosed thousands of acres of fertile land in the suburbs that had already been distributed to common people, and directed his evil servants and henchmen to beat several farmers who dared to resist to death on the ridges of the fields!

Human life is of paramount importance!

Once this incident occurred, the entire Jizhou Prefecture was instantly shaken!

The newly appointed Prefect of Jizhou was also shocked after receiving the report!

He originally wanted to send troops to make arrests immediately, but upon learning that the mastermind behind the perpetrators was actually a relative of the Princess Consort, the hot blood that had just been ignited by the new policies was instantly doused by a basin of ice water, leaving him chilled to the bone!

He hesitated, and he shrank back.

He could only report the case level by level, eventually throwing this hot potato to the Yan Kings Residence, which was already in a state of chaos.

That night, the atmosphere in the inner palace of the Yan Kings Residence was as heavy as water.

After learning of this, for the first time, an endless look of exhaustion and determination appeared on the beautiful face of Luo Qin, which was usually full of wisdom and composure.

She sat quietly by the window, moonlight spilling onto her, as if draping a layer of cold frost over her.

She knew that this distant cousin of hers had never been a good person since childhood, and since coming to Jizhou Prefecture, he had relied on his relationship with the Luo family to act tyrannically and oppress the local people, causing public outrage long ago.

"If I had known it would come to this, why did I ever..." A trace of regret flashed through her heart; she regretted not having refused to acknowledge this relative in the first place, which had led to such a stain on her husband's grand cause today.

She pondered for the entire night, and after dawn, she changed into a dignified palace gown symbolizing her status as Princess Consort, personally carried a bowl of lotus seed soup that had been prepared to clear the heart and reduce internal heat, and walked with steady steps toward the study of Gao Feng, which symbolized the supreme power in the entire Yan Kings Residence.

Inside the study, the lights were bright.

Gao Feng was still intently reviewing the mountain of official documents.

When he saw Luo Qin's beautiful face, which was slightly haggard but had eyes that were exceptionally firm, he knew why she had come, and he also knew that she had already made her choice.

He did not say a single word of reproach, but slowly put down the wolf-hair brush in his hand, stood up and walked to her side, and gently took her slightly cool small hand into his palm.

"It's so late, why haven't you slept yet?"

His voice was filled with an endless tenderness and doting that he only revealed when facing her.

Luo Qin's eyes instantly turned red, but she held back, not letting the tears fall.

She slowly curtsied to Gao Feng, performing an impeccable Wanfu salute, her voice cold and firm, yet carrying a trace of imperceptible trembling.

"Husband, I... have come to plead guilty."

"I have not managed my family strictly, and I have misjudged people, resulting in such an evil relative as Liu Mao, who has tarnished the reputation of the Yan Kings Residence, violated our iron-clad Panshi laws, and caused you difficulty. I deserve to die."

Gao Feng felt a sharp pain in his heart as he looked at her taking all the blame upon herself.

He knew that this woman always regarded his career and this land as more important than her own life.

He slowly crouched down, pulled her slightly trembling body tightly into his arms, and said softly: "This is not your fault. What crime have you committed?"

Wrapped in that broad and warm embrace, the strength that Luo Qin had been holding up finally cracked at this moment.

She buried her face deeply into Gao Feng's chest, and the grievance and pain she had suppressed for the whole night turned into silent tears, soaking his lapel.

Gao Feng did not answer immediately, just quietly letting her vent silently in his arms.

He knew that what she needed was not comfort, but a harbor she could rely on.

For a long time, a very long time.

When Luo Qin's emotions gradually calmed down, Gao Feng slowly dismissed all the maids and guards around them.

Then, he gently lifted Luo Qin's beautiful face, which was streaked with tears, and said slowly, word by word, with his magnetic yet incredibly firm voice: "Qiner, raise your head and look at me."

Hearing this, Luo Qin slowly raised her head, her eyes, already washed bright by tears, meeting Gao Feng's eyes that were as deep as the stars.

"Qiner, do you still remember? Back then, when we laid the first cornerstone in this Northern Territory, what did I say to you?"

Luo Qin was slightly stunned, then nodded gently, her voice hoarse but exceptionally clear: "You said that you wanted to build a heavenly kingdom on earth in this chaotic world, where everyone is equal, and there is no more oppression and no more bullying."

"That's right."

A brilliant light, unprecedented, flashed in Gao Feng's eyes, "And what supports this heavenly kingdom is not the majesty of me, Gao Feng alone, nor the invincible blades and guns of our Panshi Army, but the law! It is the iron law that all people, whether they are princes and nobles or peddlers and pawns, must abide by and cannot cross!"

His voice suddenly became extremely solemn and grave!

"If the law is not carried out, it is because those at the top violate it! If I spare Liu Mao's life today for your sake, then tomorrow there will be Zhang Mao and Li Mao standing up to continue challenging our bottom line! By then, our 'panshi code of law,' which has cost countless people their hard work and carries all our hopes, will completely become a dead letter! This hard-won situation that we have established with such difficulty will be ruined overnight because of this small personal favor!"

"Qiner, tell me, is this the kind of land you want? Is this the future you are willing to see?"