Dragon Canon

The Northern Liao’s light arrow measured three chi in length and weighed one catty. Its conical arrowhead was fused seamlessly with the shaft. The heavy arrow measured four chi in length and weighed ten catties. It featured a triangular-bladed tip with serrated edges. The armor-piercing heavy arrow also boasted a triangular-bladed tip, but without serrations. It weighed fifteen catties. Finally, the swift-wind arrow—the only mystic artifact in their entire arsenal, and each scout cavalryman carried only one—could fly for five hundred zhang once loosed. Beyond that range, its destructive power equaled that of an armor-piercing heavy arrow.

An ordinary Liao cavalryman possessed just enough mystic power to activate the swift-wind arrow one time. That was why a pocket of mystic energy was usually sealed within the arrow beforehand. When it was time, they could simply activate the arrow and loose it immediately.

By the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s standard, the swift-wind arrow was just a crudely-made, one-time-use mystic artifact. However, this weapon gave every Liao cavalryman the ability to unleash an attack that was equal to that of a mystic artifact.

Finally, Wei Yuan picked up a bow and gave it a tentative pull. It was far heavier than a human’s bow and easily weighed tens of catties. It also had two bowstrings. Most human long bowmen would not be able to draw a Liao bow in full, and ordinary soldiers would struggle to draw it in any capacity.

Even with his physical strength, it took him a bit of effort to fully draw the Liao bow. Roughly speaking, it would probably take around one thousand and two hundred catties of force to draw it in full.

After personally inspecting the Liao’s armaments, Wei Yuan finally understood exactly how difficult it was to repel the foreigners. If not for Fang Hetong’s leadership, two or three Liao cavalrymen would be all it took to slaughter these three hundred peasants to the last.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan turned around and stared at a bunch of men carrying axes. They stopped beside the Liao corpses before hacking away at their necks. The Liao of Vast Sea boasted thick, large bones. Despite swinging their axes with all their might, it still took the peasants a dozen or so swings to cut through the neck bones and chop off their heads.

“What are you doing?” Wei Yuan asked.

A man beside him answered, “A Liao barbarian’s head can be used to exchange for silver in the cities. It’s worth a tael of silver each!”

Prior to the battle, the intel issued by the Palace of Absolute Beginning clearly stated that killing a Liao cavalryman was worth one point, a captain was worth twenty points, and a centurion was worth two hundred points. One point of merit could be exchanged for one tael of immortal silver, and one tael of immortal silver was worth around one hundred taels of mundane silver. This was just a rough estimate, however. It was easy to exchange immortal silver for mundane silver, but practically impossible to exchange mundane silver for immortal silver. That was why one tael of immortal silver was usually worth far more than a hundred tael of mundane silver.

It wasn’t just fellow disciples Wei Yuan, anyone fighting on the battlefield could bring a Liao barbarian’s head to the Palace of Absolute Beginning and exchange it for immortal silver as well. Of course, they could bring the heads to other sects, the county magistrate, the staff general, or even a commandant to perform the exchange.

Unless he was misunderstanding something, it seemed like the villagers were selling the heads to the local county at a rate of one tael of mortal silver per head. The county magistrate could then exchange them at the Palace of Absolute Beginning or other sects for ten taels of immortal silver, which they could then convert back to mortal silver. In other words, each head netted them at least a thousand taels in net profit!

“Is this how you’ve always performed these transactions?” Wei Yuan asked.

The man answered, “But of course! It’s not like the barbarians’ heads are good for anything, and no one besides the county magistrate would accept them. Besides that, we’re not barbarians who feast on barbarian flesh. Teacher Fang specifically taught us not to eat anything that’s humanoid-shaped or intelligent, and he is always right.

“Luckily for us, the county magistrate is kind and willing to take these useless heads from us. It is how we were able to exchange for a dozen or so taels and use that money to buy food. Otherwise, we would have starved to death long ago. Teacher Fang is kind enough to sell his field and house to feed us, but he is almost as poor as us. The money he got from the sale was used up within the first month.”

Later, Wei Yuan sought out Fang Hetong and asked, “Did you give up all the heads you’ve gotten to the count magistrate? Did you not know that you can exchange them at the Palace for ten taels of immortal silver per head? A captain’s head can be exchanged for two hundred taels, by the way.”

“Ten taels! Immortal silver?!” Fang Hetong’s eyes bulged when he heard this.

For the past few months, he had fought multiple vicious battles against the Northern Liao. He had been injured at least a dozen times and grievously wounded three times. One time, he was hurt so badly that he nearly died. If not for the last two life-saving immortal pills his headmaster had given him before, he would have turned into a pile of dead bones a month ago.

Despite the terrible price he had paid, Fang Hetong only managed to slay a dozen or so Liao cavalrymen and injure dozens. He had sold all of the heads he had gotten plus the equipment he looted from the bodies for a paltry sum of money. That was the only reason he and the villagers were barely able to last until now. One might say that, for the past three months, he and a couple hundred men had been risking their necks during the day, and counting the number of grains they had left in store during the night. Every. Single. Day.

Now, Wei Yuan was telling him that a single head was worth ten taels of immortal silver. That was one thousand taels of mundane silver at the minimum. Only three months had passed, yet the county officials had made nearly twenty thousand taels of mundane silver off the blood and sweat of the men of Flying Sand Village. Despite this, they were starving to death!

“I had no idea! If I knew…” Fang Hetong growled, unable to control his sorrow and fury any longer. Although he was bull-headed in the way most scholars were, that didn’t mean he was stupid. The moment he heard Wei Yuan’s words, he knew that the county had intentionally locked down the news so that they could monopolize the immortal sect’s rewards all to themselves. Not only that, these officials were so greedy, so black-hearted, that they weren’t willing to pay the people who risked their lives a single scrap. If the heads were priced at three or five taels per head instead of one, they would not have lost those eight elderly men to starvation!

Wei Yuan gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder and said, “I’ll handle these heads, so don’t worry. You won’t lose even a single coin this time. Do you want immortal silver, or something else?”

“Worthy Little Brother, you… you should keep some to yourself. You’re the one who took out most of the enemies after all. We’re originally just peasants, all we ever wanted is to drive out the Liao barbarians and live in peace. They’ll still need to tend their fields after the war is over. When the time comes, I’ll find a way to redeem their lands. Once I’m sure that everyone has enough to feed their families, I’ll return to the academy to teach. My point is, we don’t need this much silver—we deserve to receive our due compensation, of course, but a few hundred taels will be plenty!”

“We can talk about post-war matters after the war. Tomorrow, I will travel to the county and find out exactly what is going on with your provisions and pay.” Having seen blood tonight, Wei Yuan’s voice was inevitably tinged with a bit of bloodthirst.

The Palace of Absolute Beginning was a lofty existence. Verbally, they claimed that they didn’t get involved in Western Jin’s governance. In reality, keeping the borders secure was a matter of life and death. Naturally, they could not really allow the local officials to do as they pleased. If an officially registered core disciple such as Wei Yuan had solid evidence, he possessed the authority to execute any unranked official first and report the fact later. In other words, apart from the chief of records, county assistant, commandant and six or seven other officials, Wei Yuan could give a random excuse and execute them all.

If a Trueman had evidence, a county magistrate could be killed. If a True Lord was enraged, a commandery administrator could be beheaded.

The next day early morning, Wei Yuan looked at the horizon and noted that he could see eighty li ahead. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see further as clouds of yellow sand were obscuring his vision. Still, the fact that he could see this far proved that the Liao barbarians weren’t operating nearby. Thus, Wei Yuan handed his command arrow to Fang Hetong and told him to shoot it as soon as he sensed danger. Then, he departed for the county city.

The command arrow was specially made by the Palace of Absolute Beginning and could be detected by all relevant personnel within a hundred li. If the Northern Liao happened to be attacking while he was away, he would find out as soon as Fang Hetong shot it into the air.

The city of Quyang was in a bleak and desolate state right now. The streets were deserted save for the occasional passersby, and even they were making haste as if unseen hounds were nipping at their heels. Many of the homes were completely empty. The Northern Liao was invading southward, and anyone with even a sliver of connections had long fled this perilous lands.

Wei Yuan walked straight down the main road and soon reached the county yamen. A yamen attendant led him to a side room after he announced his identity. He waited for about a teatime before an official finally arrived, dawdling.