81: Chapter 81 A Resounding Victory

The "Great Victory at Twin River Valley," which would be recorded in the annals of Panshi Stockade for generations to come, yielded results that far exceeded everyone's imagination.

After the battle, the count revealed that more than half of the two thousand elite troops of the Wuhui Tribe who had marched north were killed on the spot. Of the nearly one thousand remaining warriors, aside from a few who escaped into the deep mountains during the chaos and vanished, the other eight hundred or so all knelt and surrendered.

The price paid by Panshi Stockade was a casualty count of less than two hundred.

This was a truly resounding, thorough victory!

Even more staggering was the loot from this battle.

When Luo Qin brought her team to finish tallying all the spoils of war, summarized them in a register, and presented it to Gao Feng, even Liu Chengfeng, who had seen many grand scenes, could not help but gasp.

The Wuhui Tribe, a barbarian tribe from the Million Mountains, might not have been highly civilized, but the wealth they had accumulated was astonishing.

First were the carcasses of dozens of Black-Scaled Giant Pythons.

These Tier 2, and even Tier 3 Yao Beast, were treasures from head to tail.

Their indestructible scales were excellent Materials for crafting top-tier armor, and their toughness far surpassed any type of steel Panshi Stockade could currently produce.

Their tendons could be used to make bowstrings and crossbow strings; their elasticity and toughness were enough to take the power of Panshi Stockade's ranged weapons to the next level.

Their flesh and blood contained vast amounts of Qi and blood energy, which was a supreme tonic for soldiers who were tempering their Physical Body and Cultivate external martial arts.

As for the Python King that Gao Feng had personally slain, the pair of lumps on its head resembling Dragon horns, along with the Yao core inside its body, were rare treasures at the Peak of Tier 3, worth a fortune.

Secondly, there were vast amounts of unknown Ore, medicinal herbs, and animal hides from the Million Mountains.

Although these items were mostly just crude raw Materials in the hands of the Wuhui Tribe.

In the eyes of knowledgeable craftsmen like Uncle Sun and Sun Jiu, they were a massive treasure trove capable of sparking a technological revolution!

Among them, a crimson-red Ore called "Blood Copper," with its hard yet flexible texture, was a superior Material for forging sharp weapons.

Another type of plant fiber called "Spider Silk Grass," which was impervious to water and fire and incredibly tough, was an excellent choice for making ropes, armor linings, and even lightweight grappling hooks.

What surprised Gao Feng the most, however, were several huge animal-hide chests found on the Snake Shaman's eerie carriage, which was decorated with the bones of giant beasts and human skin.

Inside the chests were no gold or silver treasures, but rather a variety of bamboo slips and animal-hide scrolls recorded in ancient barbarian scripts.

They contained detailed records of the various witchcraft, curses, and poison-refining methods passed down by the Wuhui Tribe for hundreds of years, as well as a large number of detailed illustrations of the various exotic flowers, grasses, venomous insects, and fierce beasts in the Million Mountains!

This was a mobile library about "Witchcraft" and "Gu"!

It unveiled the tip of the iceberg of this world's mysterious and unfathomable supernatural power System for Gao Feng!

With the surrender of these eight hundred-plus Wuhui warriors, a much larger and heavier "dowry" followed.

That was the more than three thousand Family members of the Wuhui Tribe—the elderly, women, and children—who had followed them north.

When Gao Feng's army, escorting the surrendered soldiers, arrived at the temporary settlement established by the Wuhui Tribe on the outskirts of the mountain range, everyone was shocked by the scene before them.

It was a massive camp composed of countless crude tents and wooden huts.

Thousands of Wuhui tribespeople, dressed in animal skins with expressions of terror and anxiety, huddled together like a frightened herd of deer, watching the Panshi Stockade soldiers who held sharp blades and exuded an iron-blooded Evil Qi.

Some young children were so frightened that they hid in their mothers' arms and cried loudly.

How to deal with these thousands of barbarian survivors, who held a blood feud with the Qian people, became a huge problem for Gao Feng.

Inside the council hall, a fierce debate erupted once again over this matter.

The hardliners, represented by King Tiger, advocated for burying all the adult Wuhui warriors alive to eliminate future trouble!

"Those who are not of our race must have a different heart!"

King Tiger's voice was filled with bloody Killing Intent, "Stockade Master! These barbarians have hands stained with the blood of our Qian people compatriots! Keeping them is no different from burying a bomb next to us that could explode at any time!"

His words received agreement from many of the veteran soldiers of Panshi Stockade.

The tragedy at Twin River Valley and the sacrifice of the scout team filled them with bone-deep hatred for these barbarians.

The rational faction, led by Liu Chengfeng, vehemently opposed this.

"Absolutely not!"

Liu Chengfeng stood up and analyzed, "Stockade Master, General Wang, slaughter is the most foolish and lowest form of means."

"If our Panshi Stockade wants to develop, what do we lack the most? People! We need a large number of young people who can be transformed into productivity and combat power!"

"These 1,500 Wuhui warriors, although they are our enemies, are also the most elite and fearless warriors! Their physiques and combat instincts far surpass those of the refugees we have recruited!"

"As long as we can use the right methods to subdue, domesticate, and reform them, they will become the sharpest blade in the hands of our Panshi Stockade!"

"As for the elderly, women, and children, they are even more precious wealth! They can weave for us, farm for us, and help us produce more of the next generation that belongs to Panshi Stockade!"

"If the Stockade Master wishes to achieve hegemony, he must have a mind as vast as the ocean. Blind slaughter will only drag us into an endless cycle of hatred, eventually leading all forces in this land to attack us together!"

Liu Chengfeng's words were reasonable and logical, causing many who originally advocated for slaughter to fall into deep thought.

Gao Feng listened quietly to the debate between the two factions without immediately expressing his stance.

He had already made up his mind.

Slaughter? That is the most foolish method that only the weak choose when they are afraid and helpless.

What he, Gao Feng, wants to do is conquer!

A thorough conquest, from the body to the Soul!

He wants these once-proud, fearless barbarian warriors to willingly kneel at his feet and offer him their loyalty and lives!

"Stop arguing."

Gao Feng raised his hand to stop the argument.

His gaze swept across the room and finally landed on Du Wei.

"Du Wei."

"This general is here!"

"I order you to select five hundred of the most loyal and reliable Tiger Guard Battalion veterans to take over the camp of all the Wuhui surrendering soldiers and their families immediately."

"I want you to use iron discipline to tell them who the new master here is."

"Within three days, I want to see a Wuhui surrender camp that is absolutely obedient and follows every order!"

"This general accepts the order!" Du Wei's voice was resolute and decisive.

Then, Gao Feng's gaze turned to Liu Chengfeng.

"Military Advisor Liu, your task is even heavier."

"I give you maximum authority. You can select any talent you need from the Political Affairs Hall or the night school."

"I want you to formulate a complete 'Fusion and Transformation' plan for the Wuhui Tribe within the next month."

"What I want is not simple military suppression; what I want is a thorough Qian-ization, from language to script, from customs to beliefs!"

"I want their next generation to know only Panshi Stockade, and not the Wuhui!"

"I want their totem to change from a venomous snake to the black-background stone-pattern banner of my Panshi Stockade!"

"Can you do it?"

A brilliant light, never seen before, burst forth from Liu Chengfeng's eyes!

He knew that this was Gao Feng's greatest trust in him, and also the greatest test of his abilities!

He took a deep breath, then bowed deeply to Gao Feng until his hands reached his knees.

"Chengfeng is willing to die ten thousand deaths for the Stockade Master!"

The following month was a month of earth-shaking changes for the entire Panshi Stockade and all the survivors of the Wuhui Tribe.

Du Wei's iron-fisted methods quickly established a new order in the surrender camp. Any troublemaker who dared to challenge the rules or harbor malicious intent was mercilessly rooted out and subjected to the harshest military law.

The bloody reality made all the Wuhui warriors realize who the new, absolute ruler of this land was.

Meanwhile, Liu Chengfeng's "gentle" policy quietly permeated every corner of the Wuhui Tribe like a silent spring rain.

Large quantities of food, clothing, and medicine were sent into the camp of the elderly, women, and children, and Panshi Stockade's physicians and midwives began providing free medical treatment and childbirth assistance.

"Panshi Academy" also set up special new classes for the children of the Wuhui Tribe, teaching them to speak the Qian language, write Qian characters, and learn the culture and etiquette of the Qian people.

At first, the people of the Wuhui Tribe were full of vigilance and resistance toward all of this.

But under the dual influence of Du Wei's "stick" and Liu Chengfeng's "carrot," their attitudes began to change quietly.

They discovered that by following this new master, not only did they no longer have to starve or suffer from the cold, but they even lived better than they had before in the deep mountains and forests.

Their children could wear clean clothes, eat hot meals, and even learn to read and write; this was a heavenly life they had never dared to imagine before.

Human hearts are made of flesh.

When the seeds of goodwill were planted, and when the light of hope illuminated the dark world that had been shrouded in hatred and despair for too long, the change happened silently.

With the smooth progress of this unprecedented ethnic integration, the overall strength of Panshi Stockade experienced an explosive surge.

The total population leaped past the five-thousand mark!

In the former Great Qian Dynasty, this number would have been enough to support a prosperous county town.

And in this Northern Territory, it was enough to make any force look at it with wariness—a behemoth!

The territory of Panshi Stockade also logically pushed northward for hundreds of miles, taking into its possession the lush, fertile plains in front of the mountains originally occupied by the Wuhui Tribe, as well as the continuous dense forests.

By this point, the sphere of influence of Panshi Stockade was no longer limited to the corner of the Gui Jian Chou Mountain Range.

It had become a true hegemon of the Northern Territory, bordering the Cliff of Broken Souls in the east, the Black Water River in the west, reaching the outskirts of the Million Mountains in the south, and looking toward the fertile plains of the Central Plains in the north!

After this battle, Gao Feng's prestige in Panshi Stockade reached an unprecedented Peak.

Whether it was the veterans of Panshi Stockade or the newly annexed Wuhui tribespeople, everyone viewed him as a god-like existence.

They firmly believed that as long as this Stockade Master, who descended like a Heavenly God, was present, there was no difficulty they could not overcome, and no enemy they could not defeat.

However, beneath the joy of this glorious victory, new challenges quietly emerged, like undercurrents lurking beneath the ice in winter.

The most pressing of these was the problem of management.

Inside the council hall, the lights remained bright late into the night.

Luo Qin, the Chief of Internal Affairs, was facing a mountain of animal-skin dossiers, her delicate brows knitted tightly together, her face showing a trace of undisguised exhaustion.

"Husband, look," she said, pointing to a scroll recording the distribution of population and supplies to Gao Feng, who had just walked in after finishing his Cultivation. "Our population is now nearly three times what it was before. Yet, our administrative staff is still the same few dozen people. Everyone is juggling multiple roles, running around frantically, and even then, many things still cannot be managed."

"Take the simplest matter of food distribution, for example. The eating habits of the Wuhui Tribe are different from ours; they prefer raw meat and have little demand for grain. If we force them to accept food distributed according to the standards of the Qian people, it will not only cause massive waste but also easily provoke their dissatisfaction."

"And then there is the cultural conflict," Luo Qin said, rubbing her sore temples. "The Wuhui Tribe worships the Snake God, and many of their customs are full of blood and primitivism."

"For instance, they have a tradition of human sacrifice. Although they dare not do it openly under the strict orders of General Du Wei, small, covert activities continue to happen despite repeated prohibitions."

"A few days ago, the Law Enforcement Hall caught a few people secretly sacrificing live chickens. How to punish them so that it serves as a deterrent without intensifying conflicts is a difficult balance to strike."

Gao Feng listened quietly. He knew that everything Luo Qin mentioned was only the tip of the iceberg.

The expansion of a force is by no means a simple accumulation of population and territory.

It requires a matching, more refined, and more perfect management System, as well as enough qualified management talent capable of implementing this System.

And this is exactly what Panshi Stockade currently lacks the most.

"I have already discussed this matter with Military Advisor Liu," Gao Feng said after a moment of contemplation. "We cannot always treat the head when the head hurts and the foot when the foot hurts. We must establish a System that can solve problems at their root."

He took a blueprint he had long conceived from his bosom and slowly unfolded it in front of Luo Qin.

"I have decided to officially establish the prototype of the 'Three Departments and Six Ministries' above the existing Political Affairs Hall, Law Enforcement Hall, and other departments, to clearly divide and balance all power."

"I will take the position of 'Panshi Stockade Master' myself, overseeing both military and political power. Under me, I will set up the 'Political Affairs Hall', with Liu Chengfeng as the right chancellor and you as the right chancellor, to assist me in handling daily administrative affairs."

"Under the Political Affairs Hall, I will establish the six ministries of Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works. They will be responsible for the appointment and removal of officials, household registration and farmland, education and rituals, military mobilization, laws and punishments, and construction projects, respectively."

"At the same time, I will establish the 'Censorate', which will be concurrently led by Du Wei and report directly to me. Its authority will be to supervise all officials, report on hearsay, and ensure that no one within our Panshi Stockade dares to engage in corruption, violate the law, or act in disobedience!"

This political structural reform plan, born from the memories of his past life and combined with the current situation of Panshi Stockade, left even the intelligent Luo Qin stunned and deeply shocked!

Although she could not fully understand all its profound implications, she could clearly feel that once this System was implemented, it would unleash terrifying efficiency and energy!

It would completely change the rough, Family-style management model of the past at Panshi Stockade and truly lead it onto a path of formal, institutionalized Dynasty development!

"Husband... you..." Luo Qin looked at Gao Feng, her bright eyes filled with indescribable shock and admiration.

She discovered once again that she seemed unable to ever see through the man in front of her.

His mind seemed to hold an inexhaustible treasure trove of wisdom.

Gao Feng smiled, pulled her into his arms, and gently stroked her hair: "This is just the first step. There is still much for you to learn in the future."

Besides the challenge of management, another thing that caused Gao Feng deep concern was his new understanding of "power".

The Peak duel with the Snake Shaman at the top of the Twin River Valley still often appeared in his mind.

He would never forget the Snake Shaman's strange and unpredictable witchcraft, the illusion of poison fog summoned out of thin air, and that terrifying ability to control ten thousand snakes.

He would also never forget that even though he clearly held an absolute advantage in strength and Martial Skill, he was still driven to the brink of danger by the opponent's endless, bizarre tricks, and in the end, he had to resort to a tragic method that was almost mutual destruction to barely achieve victory.

Although he won that battle, it rang an alarm bell for Gao Feng.

He profoundly realized that pure Martial Artist strength had huge limitations in this world full of mystery and the unknown.

If he hadn't happened to Cultivate the "Wind Thunder Guide" which restrained evil, and if the Snake Shaman's witchcraft had been a bit more bizarre, then it might have been his own corpse lying in the Twin River Valley.

He began to crazily study the animal-skin scrolls captured from the Snake Shaman.

With the help of Liu Chengfeng and several captured Wuhui Tribe elders who had surrendered and could read the ancient barbarian script, a door to a whole new world slowly opened for him.

For the first time, he systematically learned about another extraordinary power System in the Million Great Mountains that was completely different from the Martial Dao of the Central Plains—the Dao of Witchcraft.

The witchcraft of the Wuhui Tribe was just a small branch of this vast System, known as the "Snake Shaman lineage". They obtained the ability to control poisonous insects, cast illusions, and place curses by signing contracts with venomous snakes and sacrificing living beings.

And in the deeper parts of the Million Great Mountains, there existed even more powerful and ancient Witchcraft Legacies.

For example, the "Beast Shaman" who could communicate with the giant beasts of the mountains and rivers and borrow their power; the "Wood Shaman" who could control plants and set up deadly vine forests and poisonous flower miasmas; and even the legendary "Bone Shaman" who could communicate with the deceased, summon ancestral spirits to possess them in battle, and were immortal!

These records left Gao Feng deeply shocked and made his sense of awe for this world even deeper.

He organized and translated all the books about the Dao of Witchcraft, stored them on the top floor of the library, and ordered that only core generals above the rank of Company Commander were eligible to borrow and study them.

What he wanted to do was not to make Panshi Stockade Cultivate this kind of evil power, but to know himself and his enemy, so as to be invincible in a hundred battles.

More importantly, he wanted to find a way to crack it from within.

After studying a large number of witchcraft classics, Gao Feng keenly discovered that the root of the power of almost all Witchcraft was the resonance between Mental Energy and a certain specific element in heaven and earth.

This immediately reminded him of the "Wind Thunder Guide" he was Cultivating, as well as Lin Xuan's miraculous Daoist Talisman.

"The Martial Dao Cultivates the Physical Body and blood energy."

"Witchcraft Cultivates the mental contract."

"And the Daoist arts seem to Cultivate the Primordial Spirit that can trigger the power of heaven and earth!"

A vague yet grand framework of power began to slowly take shape in his heart.

He also finally understood what the key thing he was missing was if he wanted to reach the Fourth Rank and step into a higher level.

It was not resources, nor was it a Cultivation Technique, but a kind of realization of the "Great Dao of Heaven and Earth"!

Having figured this out, Gao Feng's state of mind suddenly cleared.

He no longer obsessed over closed-door Cultivation but began to try to completely integrate his mind into this world that he had conquered with his own hands.

He would go up to the highest Peak of the Gui Jian Chou Mountain Range alone, sit quietly in the biting cold wind for a whole day, and feel the flow of the wind and the changing of the clouds.

He would go deep into the newly discovered mines of Panshi Stockade, touch those cold Ores that had formed over hundreds of millions of years, and feel the steady and heavy pulse deep within the earth.

He would stand under the rushing waterfall, letting the cold torrent wash over his body, feeling the violence and resilience of the water.

This process was boring and long.

His Cultivation did not improve immediately.

But his heart became more and more tranquil, more and more transparent.

His eyes also became deeper and deeper, as if containing a starry sky.

...

The harsh winter would eventually pass.

When the first ray of spring breeze, symbolizing hope, blew over the Gui Jian Chou Mountain Range and melted the last pile of snow in the valley.

Panshi Stockade also welcomed its first spring after its rebirth.

After a winter of recuperation and internal integration, the current Panshi Stockade had completely shed its old skin.

The population of nearly five thousand was managed in an orderly manner by Liu Chengfeng and Luo Qin.

The estrangement between the Qian people and the Wuhui Tribe people gradually dissolved under common labor and unified education.

On the drill ground, the Panshi army under Du Wei's command had expanded to two thousand people!

Everyone was clad in newly forged steel armor, holding sharp spears, with neat military appearance and surging Killing Intent.

That military Soul, honed by iron and blood, had taken initial shape.

In the craftsman camp, the first improved steel-smelting blast furnace was already able to stably produce a hundred catties of refined steel per day.

Sun Jiu even drew inferences from one instance and began trying to build a second and third blast furnace.

In the fields, Wang Laosi and his fellow villagers who used to be tenant farmers were looking at the golden wheat waves about to ripen before them, their faces overflowing with a happy smile they had never had before.

Improved by the Spirit Spring water, this season's wheat was growing gratifyingly, and its yield was at least more than double that of fertile fields in the outside world!

A powerful force that was self-sufficient, had strong soldiers and sturdy horses, and enjoyed the support of the people had quietly risen in this northern mountainous area once known as the "barren land"!