Mythical Three Kingdoms

Hua Xiong was considered quite an eccentric character. When he was with Dong Zhuo, he had done some bad things, but sometimes he’d also do good deeds like helping old ladies cross the street or sending children home. However, after joining Liu Bei, believing Liu Bei to be benevolent, he outright ignored Chen Xi’s order to look for tomb raiders.

”Strategist, digging up ancestral graves is a serious violation of morality. With your capabilities, why would you need to resort to such methods?” Hua Xiong went down on one knee and earnestly advised when Chen Xi asked about the task he was given. He simply couldn’t bear to see Chen Xi tarnish his reputation over the conquest of Pingyu City.

”What? Zijian, what are you saying?” Chen Xi asked, scratching his head.

”Dig up the Yuan Family ancestraltombs!” Hua Xiong said in a deep voice.

”...” Chen Xi brushed his face with his hand, ”Zijian, your heart is quite vicious, isn’t it, to be able to do such a thing. But indeed, it’s a good plan. Just by digging up the Yuan Family ancestral graves and placing them below Pingyu City, even if Qiaoi Rui knows he’s bound to lose, he will have no choice but to fight. Actually, you only need to make it look like you’re going to do it, and Qiaoi Rui will have to send out his troops. Hmm, this method is not bad.”

”...Strategist, please stop joking!” Hua Xiong said seriously.

”Alright, the dead are to be respected, I haven’t fallen to that level yet, don’t worry. I just want you to find some professionals. Didn’t you see Wen Ze building an Earth Mountain, and Yu Jin has even dug up water?” Chen Xi shrugged.

Hua Xiong’s mind still hadn’t caught up and was completely confused about what Chen Xi was talking about. He could only stare blankly at Chen Xi, hoping for an explanation. However, by now, he had understood that Chen Xi didn’t really want to dig up the ancestral graves of the Yuan Family outside the city.

”Sigh, don’t you think it’d be much simpler for several hundred people to dig a tunnel into the city and open the gates than to besiege it? Moreover, tomb raiders are professionals at this. After building the Earth Mountain and having a clear observation inside, asking them to estimate and dig a tunnel wouldn’t be hard, right? It’s much easier than tomb raiding; it’s just digging a tunnel, probably can be done in about a month. Without Yuan Shu returning his troops, and with the current situation, we can hold out a month with no pressure.” Chen Xi explained that not using Earth Workers to reduce casualties would be a shame.

”Ai, but if it wasn’t for giving Liu Jingsheng some face, we would’ve directly constructed an earthen slope from here to Pingyu City, which would take just three to five months...” Chen Xi said helplessly.

”What?” Hua Xiong was startled, then suddenly understood that this was an oversight in visual tactics, a clever strategy that no one had thought of. The Huns had been defeated by Li Mu, becoming as helpless as dogs, simply because they never anticipated Li Mu lying in wait under the grasslands of the Great Prairie, resulting in over a hundred thousand of them being trapped and killed.

Now Chen Xi’s tunneling strategy was another unique, unused, and excellent tactic. Hua Xiong instantly knew what he had to do.

As for the other tactic of leveling the land with a push of earth, Hua Xiong found it stunningly brilliant. With enough manpower, it was all trivial; some city walls couldn’t be taken even with a superior army after a year or two. This strategy, albeit slow and clumsy, was relentless and without solution. He took note – one never knew when it might come in handy.

”I ask for the strategist’s indulgence. I will immediately capture all the tomb raiders from Runan,” Hua Xiong said with a bow. Now that Chen Xi had spoken about military affairs, he realized he had already delayed for two days, ”I shall commence work after dusk today!”

”Dusk...” Chen Xi looked at Hua Xiong skeptically, ”You understand that?”

”A bit, a bit...” Hua Xiong said somewhat embarrassedly. Dong Zhuo was rather adept at matters like this, so naturally, he had come to understand the taboos after being with him for a long time.

”People have been found, and it’s up to you to take them to see how far they have dug, where to start working, and not to end up like Wen Ze, who only dug twice and even managed to unearth water. As for how to cover things up, I’ll leave it to you. If it weren’t for such an urgent matter, we should have employed a more clumsy method, like piling up an earth slope and pushing it over,” Chen Xi said, leaving the matter in Hua Xiong’s hands, and then he brought up Yu Jin’s case as a negative example.

But speaking of Yu Jin, it’s quite funny. When asked to pile up an Earth Mountain, he ordered people to cut trees and dig earth. Then, he made a hole at the place where they took the dirt from, not very deep, just a few meters, and the next day, water started seeping out, creating a small pond. Sigh, this is the tragedy caused by the absence of professional talent.

It was precisely because of this that Chen Xi felt it was better to bring in professionals instead of letting Yu Jin dig around and keep hitting water. If a Tomb Robber couldn’t even handle tunnels, they might as well be buried themselves.

Chen Xi knew how formidable the military’s strength was when he was in Qingzhou. Hua Xiong claimed he would capture the Tomb Robbers before dusk, and sure enough, by twilight, Hua Xiong’s men had rounded up more than two hundred of them. It seemed that the vicinity of the noble families’ ancestral tombs would never lack these professional experts, who basically relied on this craft for their livelihood.

Looking at the group of skinny, slightly hunchbacked young men with murky eyes in front of him, Chen Xi realized that tomb robbing wasn’t an easy life in this era.

”Spare us, military officer, we won’t dare to do it again,” someone in the crowd spoke up first, followed by a chorus of pleading voices, and some even started kneeling to beg for mercy. Tomb Robbers of this era, except for the yet-to-be-established Tomb Raiders by Cao Mengde, were all typically the type that should be executed upon capture.

Chen Xi gave Hua Xiong a look, and with a roar from Hua Xiong, ”Shut up!” all the Tomb Robbers trembled in fear.

Turning his head to signal Yu Jin, a box full of money was soon carried up. It is said that armies don’t generally carry money when they march, but as the saying goes, money comes with fighting. When Chen Xi’s troops left Faan County, they didn’t have money, but by the time they reached Pingyu, aside from treasures, they had more than several billion coins.

However, this was an inevitable situation. Passing by someone else’s city without emptying out the opponent’s Government Treasury to the point where horses could run through it would make Chen Xi feel like he wasn’t doing the siege justice.

Usually, as the Commander-in-chief, one should take at least thirty percent of the spoils; otherwise, it wouldn’t look good for everyone involved, and nobody from top to bottom would feel at ease. So Chen Xi openly took his share, then felt that no business was better than this.

As for death benefits, with billions of coins already taken and not many soldiers dead, Chen Xi thought that ten strings of coins for each fallen soldier, which he personally oversaw issuing, and two to five strings for the disabled, depending on their condition, wouldn’t amount to more than ten thousand strings.

As for the disabled soldiers, as long as they weren’t dead and had combat experience, they could mix into the lower ranks of the Tuntian Soldier even with their disabilities. After all, the Tuntian Soldiers rarely fight; they’re mostly there to collect prisoners and such. Chen Xi handed out compensation with composure—money that seemed to fall from the sky was just being picked up, ten thousand strings of coins were but a trifle...

Overall, disinfecting with strong alcohol and wrapping wounds with coarse cloth resulted in a far lower death rate than not treating them at all, even though there were often some scoundrels who would steal the alcohol to drink...

The sight of money opens eyes, and it was an instinct for many. The group of Tomb Robbers, who were previously shivering in fear, were now all fixated on that box of money, since most Tomb Robbers were not likely to be from rich backgrounds.

Chen Xi turned his head and looked at Yu Jin with bemusement; he remembered that he had asked for Gold Cakes to be prepared. Although they wouldn’t take up as much space as that box of money, he wondered why Yu Jin substituted them with copper coins. There was no need to be so stingy. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian ) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly passes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)