"Everything has finally begun; after so much preparation, the day has come at last." Chen Xi clutched the letter, a flash of excitement crossed his face before he calmed down again.
Under the leadership of Yellow Turban Commanders Chen Bai, Hou Qian, and Fuyun, the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou burst forth, feasting upon Qingzhou and Yanzhou, their numbers exceeding a million.
"Although I was mentally prepared, this number is too vast," Chen Xi could hardly find the words as he looked at the intelligence report in his hands.
"Over a million Yellow Turbans," Lub Su twitched slightly too.
"Eating them up would be the death of us," Liu Ye added.
"Failing to eat them will get us killed later," Chen Xi turned and said, "Give it your all; seize as much as we can."
"They’re just Yellow Turbans after all. I caught plenty of them while I was in Qingzhou," Fa Zheng said dismissively, seeing them as no pressure at all.
"Alas, still too young," Guo Jia said with a look of loneliness, placing a hand on Fa Zheng’s shoulder, "Young man, you still need more training!"
"I’ve already come of age!" Fa Zheng angrily swatted Guo Jia’s right hand from his shoulder, then said loudly.
"Physical maturity does not represent the maturity of your mind," Guo Jia said with a look of melancholy, as if blaming himself for not educating you well, and deeply hurt Fa Zheng’s feelings.
"Leave it to me; I can take care of these Yellow Turbans. Just give me fifty thousand men, and I’ll swallow them all up." Incited by Guo Jia’s provocation, Fa Zheng became somewhat agitated. It seems at this age, he really only remembered the rewards but not the beatings; despite being soundly rebuked by Guo Jia several times before, Fa Zheng hadn’t learned to keep his cool. A little provocation from Guo Jia had sent him into a frenzy, and in a few minutes, he would likely be rendered speechless by Guo Jia once again, then fall into a slump. Poor Fa Zheng.
Chen Xi turned to look at Fa Zheng, thinking how foolish he could still be. At other times, he was alright, but why did he have to fight upon seeing Guo Jia?
Lub Su and Liu Ye exchanged glances and sighed; they couldn’t count on those two anymore. Guo Jia had already done what he could, but now Fa Zheng always seemed a little too reckless – what’s the point in playing so dangerously?
"Report! A message from the Eastern Commandery!" a messenger shouted loudly, presenting the latest intelligence.
Chen Xi casually opened the report and then sighed repeatedly; Liu Dai had died. He had held out for three days under the million-strong Yellow Turbans before being slain. As a Han Imperial Kinsman who was neither scholarly nor martial, he had actually led his men into the fray – an act only a brainless person could commit.
After the group had taken turns looking at the report, they gained a certain understanding of the Yellow Turbans’ combat power, a force undoubtedly built up by sheer numbers.
Chen Xi initially felt that the Yellow Turbans, with their complete lack of military formation among the miscellaneous soldiers, were easy to deal with. After all, in this world, a top general possesses great martial force and can scatter unorganized troops without pressure; it’s only when they form a military formation that things get tricky.
Once a formation is established, the synchronized movements of the soldiers, the enveloping breath of Qi binding together, can mitigate the damage from the top general’s Inner Qi. Of course, this mitigation is similar to sharing the load; those close by share more burden and those further away share less, but all are reducing the effects of Inner Qi.
It could be said that an excellent commander, leading seven or eight hundred soldiers of elite rank, as long as they can link their Inner Qi into one, would mean certain death for someone of Guan Yu’s caliber if he were to charge in alone.
However, this distribution of Inner Qi isn’t exactly reliable, as where the military general strikes, more is shared, and less is distributed among other enemy troops. In reality, even if a military formation is formed, the Cloud Qi created by the soldiers is just enough to counter the general’s Inner Qi. As for defending against arrows or javelins, forget about it—physical, tangible attacks can’t be stopped by the soldiers with their shallow Inner Qi Cultivation. To be precise, Inner Qi isn’t particularly effective in defending against physical attacks.
In fact, having studied Inner Qi problems for so long in the Late Han era, Chen Xi knew that indeed, everyone has the potential to generate a stream of Qi—or to put it plainly, everyone could—but the issue was that hunger didn’t provide the chance to cultivate it.
The energy for Martial Dao Internal Qi actually all stems from food. If you can’t get enough to eat, there’s no point in struggling. This is why despite the nine-rung ladder being so low, the common people still don’t have Inner Qi—the simple reason is they’re not full.
As for the difference between someone who has cultivated their first stream of Qi and someone who hasn’t, the former can burst forth with strength beyond the normal in critical moments. To put it simply, one second they’re an ordinary person, and the next they could lift and hurl a several-hundred-pound boulder. But that difference only lasts for an instant; otherwise, those with an extra stream of Qi are only a bit stronger than normal people in overall physical quality.
As for the impact of forming a military formation, it’s significant. Those with Inner Qi who form a formation greatly enhance their defensive ability compared to miscellaneous soldiers without Inner Qi.
In Chen Xi’s previous assessment, the current Yellow Turban bandits should belong to the category of miscellaneous soldiers without Inner Qi and without a military formation.
What the current situation proved to Chen Xi was this: even without cultivating the first stream of Qi, the people of this world differ slightly from those of his original world; those who have not cultivated Inner Qi in this world still emit a faint Qi that is barely perceptible.
Liu Dai died precisely because of this; no one would have expected that even without Inner Qi or a military formation, the Yellow Turbans, with a sufficient number of troops, could undergo a tremendous transformation.
Most of the Yellow Turbans, starved as they were, lacked Inner Qi. Their raid on Qingzhou had been born of desperation, but presumably, even the Yellow Turbans themselves didn’t anticipate that their massive numbers would greatly enhance their combat power, especially after anomalies began to arise.
Even without the efficiency of tightly connected Inner Qi in a military formation, and though most were too underfed to have even a hint of Inner Qi, the sheer number of over a million had visibly materialized their unseen Qi, forming a clump of earthy yellow Cloud Qi above their heads. This produced the same effect normally seen in military formations, and it was precisely because Liu Dai hadn’t anticipated this that he was easily killed by the Yellow Turban Army when charging their lines.
Upon receiving this news, Chen Xi knew that dealing with the Yellow Turbans this time would not be an easy task. The difference between the Yellow Turbans with Cloud Qi and without it was stark. If without Cloud Qi, Guan, Zhang, and Zhao could lead three thousand men charging in, ensuring a safe retreat. But with Cloud Qi mitigating Inner Qi, the same three thousand men could be engulfed without leaving so much as a ripple.
"The Yellow Turbans truly are a troublesome group," Chen Xi thought with a furrowed brow. Fortunately, these Yellow Turbans needed to maintain their numbers to have a defense equivalent to a military formation; once separated, they were like fish on a chopping board.
Having a weakness made things easier. If they were impregnable, a brute-force attack would be much more difficult. Since they needed vast numbers to maintain the Cloud Qi, then the solution was to split them up, Chen Xi reasoned.