RPAGF Chapter 7243 When it rains, it pours
Chapter 7243 When it rains, it pours
Chapter 7243 When it rains, it pours
The most important thing Chen Xi has done over the years, besides enriching the country and strengthening its people, is to establish the credibility of the nation and its government.
Therefore, when Zheng Ke used the official seal to forcibly order the local people to relocate, the village chiefs and militia captains, though very puzzled, knew that the military situation was urgent. After hesitating for a long time, they still quickly mobilized the troops.
“Zheng Zuogeng, we have already organized our manpower. The able-bodied men have led the women, children, and the elderly to the countryside. However, if we migrate like this, we will leave behind a lot of supplies. Moreover, the temperature is low now. If there is a sudden snowfall like the two years ago, the elderly who are migrating could easily have problems.” The militia captain came to find Zheng Ke as soon as the villagers were organized.
Zheng Ke was previously a rank eleven, but he performed quite well in the Grand Martial Arts Competition, achieving a good ranking and killing a Xiongnu, so he was promoted to Left Guard.
However, Zheng Ke relies entirely on individual strength to fight on the battlefield, and can only lead a maximum of two hundred people. His upper limit should be his current level.
No matter how outrageous Chen Xi is, he wouldn't arbitrarily promote a veteran of this caliber by one rank. As for Zheng Ke, unless he encounters another Xiongnu commander of a thousand cavalry and brings back his head, he probably won't be able to get promoted to the thirteenth rank in his lifetime, relying on him to behead the Kushans on the battlefield.
"Does it snow here too?" Zheng Ke looked at the militia captain in front of him, who was a bit older than him. He seemed rather weak, probably just an ordinary retired soldier with dual talents. Of course, considering his age, it was also possible that he had once been a member of the Imperial Guard, but was suppressed by the change in the weather.
To be honest, the militia captains in Jingxiang Yunmeng are the ones who seem normal, unlike the bizarre situations like the Wuji Subdistrict Office in Zhongshan and the Laoshubao Militia Team. What kind of joke is it that a veteran who has been tempered six or seven times is serving as the deputy director of the subdistrict office?
“It didn’t snow much before, but the weather has been a bit off these past few years. Ever since that year when a heavy snow fell, we’ve had sporadic snowfalls here every year,” Su Lin said to Zheng Ke with a hint of awe.
Having spent a lot of time in places like Chang'an, it's hard to feel the difference between top veterans and ordinary people. But in the eyes of normal villages like Su Zuo Village, Su You Village, and Yun Village, Zheng Ke, who has undergone six levels of refinement, is practically no different from a god.
Not everyone is like Zhang Yong, Yu Mang, Chen Hong, and their group. After discovering the boundary, they not only dared to attack but also prepared to keep the other party there. In most villages, when they encounter such people, just by seeing them from afar, they can feel the difference in their level of life as long as the other party does not restrain themselves.
After all, in most normal places, there really aren't any veterans who have undergone five or six levels of forging. In the entire Han Dynasty, there are currently less than 1,400 veterans who have undergone five or more levels of forging. Excluding those on the front lines and those who hold official positions in various places, it's very difficult to find them even in normal counties.
Therefore, Su Lin looked at Zheng Ke with a degree of awe.
"Will it snow today?" Zheng Ke looked at the gray sky, unsure of the situation.
"I don't know, but it has definitely been getting colder recently," Su Lin said with some concern.
A major mess has occurred in Yunmeng. The fact that a 12th-rank nobleman came with the seal of the Nine Ministers to inform them is enough to show that the problem is serious. But no matter how big the problem is, it's still just death. If they encounter snowfall on the way to migration, they might as well stay here. Either way, they're going to die. At least being beaten to death is much more comfortable than freezing to death.
"Where is the nearest weather observation point?" Although Zheng Ke wasn't good at giving orders, he was still somewhat intelligent. Su Lin hadn't directly refused throughout the conversation and had indeed been very cooperative. But he understood what Su Lin was trying to tell him by asking him this question.
This wasn't about shirking responsibility, but about genuinely preparing Zheng Ke. Having experienced turmoil himself, Zheng Ke knew very well what winter snow meant for an unprepared migration. So, after a little thought, Zheng Ke decided to quickly find a weather observation point.
Normally speaking, even if Zheng Ke were to go to a meteorological observation point, the other party might not pay him any attention. The calendar and meteorology of the Han Dynasty were relatively closed systems. Although the level was only 1,000 shi, Zheng Ke was not much different in terms of level, but in terms of influence, there was really no way to compare.
But given the current situation, it's definitely necessary to confirm this.
Meanwhile, Gan Tong, stationed at the Yunmeng North Observation Point, was comparing hydrological data. The abnormal climate in the past two years was only one aspect; another aspect was the decline in average temperature. Although the decline was not significant, based on data from the past thousand years, both the Gan and Shi families vaguely felt that the temperature might drop to the level during the reign of Emperor Wu. Of course, this speculation had not yet been reported.
After all, this is just a calculation, and it still needs to be verified. In addition, the current hydrological data of the Han Dynasty has the huge interference factor of Chen Xi. The Gan and Shi families are not sure whether the current situation is the backlash of the Blazing Sky Ring, the fluctuation of Chen Xi's mind, or the climate cycle.
Ultimately, they lacked supercomputers and could only rely on experience and intuition. Even with thousands of years of hydrological and climatic data, the Gan and Shi families dared not be certain about such a major event. If it were a climate cycle, the snow line would shift southward within the next twenty or thirty years. Unless the Gan and Shi families were absolutely certain, they would not dare to make such a judgment.
After all, they had been receiving offerings from major families for over a thousand years, and now that accurate news had finally arrived, it was particularly bad news. That was terrifying.
The news of the snow line encroaching southward in the next two or three decades, even if it had been predicted, would probably have driven other families crazy. Therefore, after the Gan and Shi families communicated internally, they only mentioned it tentatively in a small circle and did not make a large-scale announcement.
Of course, while we can't say it out loud, we still have to do it. At the very least, we've increased the number of staff at the weather stations in the south, and our defenses against severe weather are now more effective.
For example, it's now basically confirmed that snow is expected in Gantong.
"Make a copy of this and send it to all the localities. Tell them that a cold front is moving south and there is a possibility of heavy snow in the Yunmeng and Yanbian areas. Tell all the localities to prepare for the cold." After calculating four or five times, Gan Tong finally confirmed that there was no problem. The probability of heavy snow was eight or nine out of ten. So he handed the written document to his servant and asked him to give it to the yamen runners stationed outside to protect him.
"What, Mr. Gan? Is it going to snow again in Jiangling?" The yamen runner looked grave after receiving the document. As a local, he had only seen snow once before the seventh year of the Yuanfeng era, but since then, it had snowed every year.
"Yes, this should be the only one," Gan Tong said simply. "Go and inform them quickly, don't delay, it won't be long, hurry up."
Upon hearing this, the constables dared not delay. In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, when there were no cotton-padded clothes, there was a snowfall. It was in Jiangling, a place close to Yunmeng with extremely high humidity. Even though Liao Li collected a large number of cotton-padded clothes for distribution at the first time, the locals who had not prepared any winter clothes encountered such severe weather for the first time. Some elderly and frail people froze to death due to hypothermia.
Starting from that year, the people of Jiangling also had to spend money on winter clothes. However, unlike the situation in the north where people are now wealthy and keep winter clothes on hand, people here usually buy winter clothes in winter and then either pawn or sell them in the spring.
"Zichuan wants me to deal with this kind of thing?" Sun Qian had people under his command who could observe the heavens and the earth, so they were aware of the cold wave and snowfall on the march. Therefore, before heading to Yunmeng, they had already begun to requisition cotton-padded clothes to prepare for the cold.
After all, he's a big shot in the construction industry; even if he doesn't want to understand celestial phenomena, he has to.
Therefore, when Huang Tao's first wave arrived, Sun Qian was already making purchases. When he received the news, although he was prepared, he thought that he could only play a supporting role. To really wipe out those guys, he would have to rely on the strong men in Chang'an.
Before they could even finish their procurement, Huang Tao arrived with Chen Xi's orders, instructing Sun Qian to advance at full speed and quickly head towards Yunmengze to defend the eastern side of Jiangling.
Sun Qian was completely stunned when he heard this. Didn't Chen Xi know his own level? Did he, Sun Qian, even deserve to fight against the tough guys from Yunmengze? What a joke!
"Lord Chen instructed me to give this seal to the physician." Huang Tao presented the Divine Seal of Laws with both hands, and Sun Qian shuddered upon seeing it.
To reiterate, even Sun Qian himself may not fully understand how special he is, but if judged by his achievements, Sun Qian's accomplishments are probably second only to Chen Xi's. He has been working diligently on roads, logistics, and transportation for over a decade, making steady progress day by day, and his efforts have not been in vain. That's exactly what Sun Qian is doing now.
Therefore, the Divine Seal of Laws is of little use in the hands of others, but in the hands of Sun Qian, it can still play its due value as a divine object. After all, the veterans who followed Sun Qian still recognized him. Even though Sun Qian made himself look like a beggar while working on the construction site, it did not affect his personal charm at all. It only made the veterans who returned from military service and followed Sun Qian more convinced of his identity.
While laws and oaths are within the realm of human comprehension in terms of their applicability to the general scale, the methods employed by Chen Xi and Sun Qian to mobilize the very foundations of a prosperous era are beyond comprehension; they truly unleash immense power to its limits.
"Where did this thing, Son Chuan, come from?" Sun Qian couldn't help but ask this question the moment he received the Divine Seal of Laws, and Huang Tao naturally had no answer.
“Even with just this, I can’t beat the stuff in there. I have over six thousand men here, all of whom are skilled in smelting, but if you’re talking about fighting the kind of thing you mentioned in Yunmeng, I’m afraid we really can’t beat them.” Sun Qian accepted the Divine Seal of Law, feeling somewhat more confident.
Huang Tao fell silent upon hearing this, feeling that he didn't even have the right to speak. Sun Qian, seeing this, was also helpless and waved his hand, indicating that Huang Tao should return to Yunmeng first, and let the group that had already arrived stall for time. Sun Qian was still very confident in Li He's group.
In any case, Sun Qian had seen that group of people. They were the imperial guards that Chen Xi had prepared for Xu Chu to protect Liu Bei. They were a true iron wall!
Huang Tao clasped his hands in a salute and then quickly left. Sun Qian took out the Divine Seal of Laws and thought for a while before having someone notify the leaders of his various construction teams to come over for a meeting.
"Foreman, the brothers are still purchasing. Is there something you need to take care of?" Dong Zhe arrived the fastest and showed no respect for Sun Qian. They had known each other for a long time and were quite familiar with each other.
"Just sit down," Sun Qian said, waving his hand. Dong Zhe immediately straightened up. Sun Qian didn't care much about etiquette. As a Confucian, he was very open about these things and could get along well with the lower classes. But that was only when there was nothing to do. When it came to actual work, Sun Qian's orders were no different from military orders.
Soon, Tan Guang, Li Ma, Xing He and others arrived. The stronger ones had reached the sixth level of fusion, while the weaker ones only had the second level. However, these people belonged to the management team. In other words, they could break down the tasks assigned by Sun Qian and hand them over to their subordinates to complete.
"This is not a construction mission, it's a military mission." After everyone had arrived, Sun Qian set the tone. Construction missions are something you can do if you can, and if you can't, you can change direction or bypass if all else fails, as long as the final result is achieved. But military missions are something that, once issued, have no room for turning back and must be completed, even if it costs you your life.
"Which barbarians have provoked the construction legion again?" Xing He said with a hint of coldness. Last time in Yizhou, he led the team to pacify several tribes, killing and burning all those who insisted that road construction was disrupting the feng shui. The ashes were then poured into cement to be cast into foundation piles.
“Yunmeng,” Sun Qian said in a deep voice, “something has gone wrong in Yunmeng. We had originally planned to conduct on-site research in Yunmeng during this trip south, but now we need to suppress the trouble in Yunmeng first. This time, our opponent is no ordinary one.”
"Yunmeng?" As a local, Zhuang Ji was somewhat familiar with the local stories, especially since he had reached the sixth level of refining. He had carefully considered many of these ghost stories and felt that the logical chain within them seemed to be fine, which was quite terrifying.
“I remember Lao Zhuang was a local,” Li Ma said with a hint of reminiscence.
"General, what exactly happened in Yunmeng?" Zhuang Ji asked with a heavy heart.
These people present were all confidants who had followed Sun Qian for many years, and they knew to some extent what kind of great power Sun Qian possessed. Even though they were like dogs, as long as they were involved with him, Doctor Sun was a great man with extraordinary talent and ability, a true superior being. He just didn't look down on them, these dogs. For such a person to personally lead the team, then the situation in Yunmeng must be...
"There's been some trouble in Yunmeng. Apparently, some veterans at the sixth or seventh level of the smelting realm have emerged." Sun Qian explained simply. The people present looked at each other in bewilderment. What did he mean by "veterans at the sixth or seventh level of the smelting realm have emerged"? Not the boss, but someone at the sixth or seventh level! We're all pretty powerful, right? But there's not a single seventh-level smelting veteran here!
"Can we stop them?" Che Zuo looked at his thin arms and legs. He was only at the second level of the Fusion Realm. Even if he was good at commanding, he could only manage 50,000 people and coordinate operations in several regions. That was not even his limit. But what use would commanding be if tens of thousands of seventh-level cultivators rushed out?
After all, he hadn't seen many seventh-level cultivators, but he had seen sixth-level chariot officers. Dong Zhe, a standard sixth-level backbone member, had hundreds of spiral force fields rushing over. To be honest, the chariot officer had no idea how to stop him. However, Dong Zhe was only a standard sixth-level cultivator.
“We’re just the first batch. The vanguard has already arrived in Yunmeng, but those things haven’t come out yet,” Sun Qian explained simply. “If we stall for time, General Guan should arrive soon. And if all else fails, we have other tricks up our sleeves, right?”
The people present seemed to understand but not quite, but they vaguely realized that the other party was probably not human, because if it were a human with clear thinking like them, then tens of thousands of layers would definitely not be able to stop it. No matter how much they tried to stop it, someone would definitely break through.
"Zhuang Ji, take a group of people over there first. Dong Zhe, take a team of people skilled in construction and go there too. Set up the base first." Sun Qian quickly gave the order, seeing that the group had a pretty good grasp of the nature of the mission.
As mentioned before, although some veterans call Sun Qian a general, he is not good at commanding. He can mobilize a million young men and women, but this is mostly due to the coordination of each layer. This is the first time for Sun Qian to command these people as a general to block the demon god.
Fortunately, Sun Qian is not good at fighting, but he is good at construction. Just because he can't defeat the demon god from Yunmeng doesn't mean he has no way to hold off the demon god there.
"The defensive structures we built using local materials and the concrete we prepared shouldn't be able to withstand the attack of the Sevenfold Forging, right?" After Zhuang Ji and Dong Zhe received their orders and left, Che Zuo asked with some doubt. Although the teams led by these two were extremely fast at building, able to establish a village on the spot in just a few days, even with the use of special Xuanxiang for powerful nurturing and reinforcement by cloud energy, it was impossible for them to withstand the attack of the Sevenfold Veteran.
Such defensive structures are meaningless in the context of war, and their effect on delaying the enemy is likely minimal.
“There’s no need to worry about that,” Sun Qian said, shaking his head.
Unlike Chen Xi's method of use, Sun Qian believed that the Divine Seal of Laws was better used on things he had built than on people. By calling on the collective will to form a layer of protection, even a Seventh-Level Demon God would find it very difficult to dismantle such a thing with this double reinforcement.
This creates the conditions for executing the plan to delay.
Xing He and the others were somewhat puzzled, but they didn't press the matter further. It was perfectly normal for such a big shot as Sun Qian to have things they didn't understand. In fact, it would be abnormal if Sun Qian didn't possess any special treasures.
"You should all think about it and see if there are any better ways to deal with this. I'm really not good at fighting," Sun Qian said.
I forgot to send it; I only remembered on the way.