Chapter Ninety: The Eve of Battle

But Xu Wenshan soon fell straight into the pit he had dug for himself.

Incendiary bottles required bottles. And bottles meant some kind of container for alcohol. There were no glass bottles in Luhe Gully, and even if the crude bellows he had cobbled together with the blacksmith could somehow blow glass, there was no way to build an entire production line in just a few days.

And he needed at least fifty incendiary bottles.

If glass would not do, then clay jars would have to suffice. After all, the only purpose of the container was to break.

So Xu Wenshan first made a trip to the Yao household.

The Yaos had made pottery for generations. Even in a remote place like Luhe Gully, pottery had long since been split off as a proper technical trade. These days, the Yao kiln was simply being run by the family themselves.

The moment Xu Wenshan saw the Yao kiln, he said, "No good. Too small."

The head of the Yao family, Old Man Yao, looked a little embarrassed. "Young Master, one firing can produce a dozen jars or so. How many jars do you need, exactly?"

Xu Wenshan said, "I need at least two hundred jars this size. How many days would that kiln take?"

Old Man Yao counted on his fingers. "If one firing yields ten jars, then two hundred jars would take forty days..."

Xu Wenshan said, "I need you to have them ready within three days."

"That is rather much to ask..."

Xu Wenshan patted the old man's shoulder. "This is no joke. If they are not ready in three days, then I will not be able to go to Windstone Village in three days, and you will all go three days without salt. If they are not ready in ten days, then you go ten days without salt. Tell me, is it important or not?"

Old Man Yao squatted on top of the kiln and thought for a while. Then, gritting his teeth, he said, "Young Master, it is not impossible. But to turn out that much in three days, either we build one large kiln or else make more than a dozen disposable small kilns at once. The problem is, we do not have enough hands..."

He paused. "My family only has so many people. We truly do not have the money to hire more..."

"No need to worry about that. I have money enough."

Xu Wenshan waved a hand. Lu Ze, standing nearby, tossed out a small pouch, heavy in the hand. Xu Wenshan said, "Twenty strings in all. Enough to hire labor, build the kilns, and make two hundred jars?"

Old Man Yao stared in dumbfounded silence.

After Xu Wenshan left, the old man's son came over and asked, "What is the Xu family young master trying to do, needing so many jars? Is he planning to invite the whole village to a feast?"

Old Man Yao swatted him. "Back to work!"

...

The same problem appeared everywhere else: distilling alcohol required a great deal of fuel, and that fuel meant vast quantities of firewood. The wicks for the incendiary bottles also required large amounts of cloth strips, and the final assembly required manpower as well.

This was precisely where an agricultural civilization lagged behind an industrial one: industrial power was simply too difficult to mobilize.

Xu Wenshan gathered the entire village before the archery range. That night, he ordered the guards to light torches, and in front of all the villagers, he began his speech:

"At present, Luhe Gully has reached a point of life and death. Only with every one of you giving your strength can we defeat our powerful enemy."

"Now, in preparation for war, the guard unit needs large amounts of firewood, cloth strips, and manpower. To encourage the villagers to join in actively, I have prepared one hundred and fifty strings of war funds. One hundred and fifty strings, which is one hundred and fifty thousand coins. I intend to put all of this money into our preparations. Whatever you can make, I will buy. Whether or not you can earn that one hundred and fifty strings depends entirely on your own ability."

At this, the villagers erupted in excitement. But a few sensible voices still rose above the noise. "If we all go do this, what about our fields? What will we eat?"

Xu Wenshan said, "Once Windstone Village is taken, there will be everything we could want. Why worry about food?"

The villagers below all had their eyes shining now, and Xu Wenshan was certain it was no illusion.

...

Guo Decai returned, and with him came three enforcers from Windstone Village.

His current identity was that of a spy for Windstone Village.

As the saying went, there was no such thing as guarding against thieves for a hundred days, only stealing for a hundred days. The leader of White Dragon Hall had chosen the middle course, and so had placed himself in a passive position. He did not know when the Xu family of Luhe Gully would launch their attack, so he decided to put Guo Decai to use. He sent him into Luhe Gully and had him contact the village on the day before Xu Wenshan's attack.

The condition Guo Decai put to the leader was that once Luhe Gully was breached, the Guo family must not be touched. Qian Dabin agreed without hesitation.

Naturally, Xu Wenshan's military training could not be hidden from the Guo family, and so Guo Decai sent the news back to Windstone Village.

"Who wages war like this?" the leader said after hearing the report, sneering with contempt. "He spent so much effort, so much money, and managed to train only fifty men. No blades, no shields, no bows, only spears. That Xu family young master must be an idiot."

Qian Dabin shook his feather fan. "Leader, you govern Windstone Village, so of course you do not know the difficulties of other villages. They must farm in peacetime and cannot gather many men. Those rustic farmers do not practice martial arts either. It is already not bad if they can learn to use one weapon properly. How can they be compared to our Windstone Village's sons, who are skilled in every manner of warfare? It is not that he does not wish to; it is that he cannot."

The leader gave a cold laugh. "With abilities like that, and he still dares oppose my Windstone Village?"

...

A few days later, Guo Decai reported to Windstone Village on Xu Wenshan's drill exercises.

"This is truly child's play! He is treating war as a game!" the leader said after hearing the report, laughing himself red with anger. "You fight a battle against yourself on a hillside, and even if you win, what does that count for?"

Qian Dabin said, "Leader, the Xu family are only farm stock. They know nothing but imitation and copying. They do not understand the principle that war is founded on deception. They think battle is nothing more than two sides charging straight at each other."

The leader said, "Is he not merely ignorant of command? He is living on empty promises! Fifty men against a hundred, and he produces such a result? He must have had those opponents deliberately lose so as to inflate his troops' morale!"

Qian Dabin said, "Even if it does not raise morale, once we truly fight them, the situation will naturally be very different from their drill. By then, those farmhands who have only just stepped onto the battlefield will probably be completely lost."

After a moment, Qian Dabin added, "Still, this is not necessarily a bad thing. With this drill, all their true and false strengths have been laid bare before our eyes. They will be easy enough to deal with."

The leader laughed. "A force of fifty, all spears, what hidden strength could there be? At most, we need to watch out for the death soldiers in their household. From what I hear in the reports, they seem to be the only ones with any real skill."

...

A few more days passed, and Guo Decai also sent word to Windstone Village that Xu Wenshan had put out one hundred and fifty strings of money for the war effort.

When the leader heard the figure one hundred and fifty strings, his eyes nearly turned green. "Where did that Xu family young master get so much money?"

Qian Dabin said, "His family has been prosperous in Luhe Gully for several generations. They probably have quite a bit left in reserve."

The leader paced back and forth inside the hall. "With that much money, he just handed it all over to those farmhands. It pains me to think of it! I want to march over at once and raid his household!"

Qian Dabin soothed him. "Once we break the village, all of that wealth will be ours."

...

A few more days passed, and Guo Decai was captured by Xu Wenshan.

Not only Guo Decai, but the several enforcers he had brought, and everyone he had been in contact with, were all taken as well.

That night, Xu Wenshan once again summoned all the villagers. He brought the captured spies up onto the platform and spoke loudly to the crowd:

"Fellow villagers, your strength has moved me deeply. In just a few short days, you have completed such an astonishing amount of work. With your help, this campaign against Windstone Village will surely end in complete success!"

This tiny village of barely two hundred households had men cutting firewood and brewing alcohol, women spinning thread and making pottery. In just four or five days, they had somehow produced more than two hundred crude alcohol incendiary bottles.

Luhe Gully had truly created a miracle.

The villagers all wore expressions of weariness, but also of satisfaction. In those short four or five days, they had earned a handsome sum.

This miracle belonged to Luhe Gully, and it belonged to the one hundred and fifty strings of money as well.

Xu Wenshan went on, "And yet, there are also those who, though villagers of Luhe Gully, betrayed the efforts of the whole village. Such people do exist."

As he spoke, he pointed at Guo Decai. "This man is the third son of the Guo family, yet he took the lead in betraying the village, reporting every last detail of our strength and weakness to Windstone Village. If we fail, then all of us in this village will be buried at the hands of those from Windstone Village. Tell me, should such a man be killed or not?"

Guo Decai trembled so violently he seemed to be rattling to pieces.

"He should be killed!" The villagers' emotions had long since been stirred. They roared from the depths of their hearts.

Xu Wenshan swept his hand. "Good. Tonight, we cut them down and use them to consecrate our battle banners! Today, we will flatten Windstone Village and take back the salt mine!"