NIP #157 - Chapter 3 Mainland Situation (I)
#157 - Chapter 3 Mainland Situation (I)
Bran trotted upstairs, calling out as he passed the kitchen, "Nina, what's good for lunch? I want meat buns!" Bran had delicate features and was lively, making him well-liked. The female guards had watched him grow up and wouldn't refuse his request.
Seeing Bran arrive, Liu Yuan said to them, "Since you're here, practice together. You two go practice on the wooden dummies until lunchtime. Rickon, you practice too, and rest when you're tired." In the corner of the side room were three small, hanging wooden dummies, adjustable in height and size, suitable for children under ten.
These were designed by Liu Yuan based on the basic moves of Bajiquan, with some modifications based on the actual situation. The wooden dummy was invented by Qi Jiguang and is not unique to Wing Chun, although the Wing Chun wooden dummy is the most refined. Many schools of martial arts have them, such as Xingyiquan, Taijiquan, and Bajiquan, each with its own unique wooden dummy.
The three guys outside had practiced it a few years ago, but their talent was really average. After five years, only Robb and Jon barely made it into the entry level, and Theon had already given up, now focusing on archery. He was quite satisfied with the two little ones, though. They were quick and agile. Rickon was still too young to tell, but Liu Yuan planned to teach Arya the more complex Baguazhang. Listening to the "crackling" sounds from the room, Liu Yuan squinted his eyes, enjoying the sunlight, occasionally throwing berries to hit the lazy guys below.
After a while, a grey raven flew in. It circled the main keep twice, then flew straight to the rookery on the top floor. The raven landed on the railing, flapped its wings a couple of times, and then went into the rookery. Nina, who had been busy on the second floor, also saw the raven returning to its nest. She quickly ran to the top floor, where she gently removed a small message tube from the raven's leg.
After carefully checking that the seal was intact, she returned to the third floor and handed the letter to Liu Yuan. "My lord, the letter is from Claw Isle. I've already checked it, and the wax seal hasn't been tampered with."
Liu Yuan took it, tore open the seal, and smiled as he read it. "Nina, you see, I told you that as long as we're patient, we'll catch them all eventually. Now, from the east at the Antler River to the Land of Always Winter, there's not a single wildling to be found north of the Wall. Grig sends word that if we continue to capture wildlings, they'll continue to move south. Oh, and our search team encountered the Others again. We lost forty-seven men and injured over two hundred. But they killed twenty-two wights and destroyed nearly 3,000 corpses, and all the fallen bodies have been burned."
Nina massaged his shoulders and said, "Our operations beyond the Wall have been going on for seven years, and we've captured hundreds of thousands of wildlings. If it weren't for your orders not to excessively plunder the population, there would be no one left beyond the Wall."
Liu Yuan recalled, "We've captured about seven hundred and twenty thousand wildlings, and about thirty to forty thousand have died in the conflicts. The wildlings in the south have mostly joined Mance Rayder's forces. There's no need to fight them head-on. Let the remaining people slowly wear down the Others. Nina, write a letter back to Bick and Grig, telling them to withdraw all the troops beyond the Wall."
Nina gave him a charming glance, her soft little hand stroking his lower body. "Yes, my lord, I'll go now." After speaking, she twisted her graceful waist and went to the study on the other side. At twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, she was ripe and dripping with allure, exuding an irresistible charm.
Liu Yuan smiled wryly with some helplessness. He ultimately couldn't resist and ended up devouring Nina. Perhaps it was because this body possessed dragon blood, coupled with practicing martial arts and growing to a certain age, that hormones indeed needed to be released. He wasn't practicing the Sunflower Manual and couldn't resist being teased by beautiful women so often. In the end, he fell into the decadent life of a feudal lord, and it was irreversible. These four maids were equivalent to the concubines of ancient times. But he didn't know why, none of these women had become pregnant in the past five years.
After his years of construction, the entire Skagos island was managed like an iron bucket. The catch-pole army he formed had been constantly plundering the population beyond the Wall for several years, especially using the former land of the Thenns to set up ambushes. They only captured people, and never took away any production tools or food, using them as bait to attract 'prey'. Countless wildling settlements, like moths to a flame, fell into the trap one after another. Of course, there would be some who slipped through the net, and the name of the Black Devil was spread by the survivors.
For seven whole years, such capture operations had not stopped. It was estimated that he had captured at least 70% of the population beyond the Wall. Due to Liu Yuan's orders, the catch-pole army had never penetrated deep into the Haunted Forest. Including the Great Northern Plain and the Frozen Shore, which he had never been to, it was estimated that there were less than 200,000 people left for Mance Rayder, maybe even fewer, only a hundred thousand or so.
During this process, the Three-Eyed Raven and the Children of the Forest also provided a lot of help. Originally, the Three-Eyed Raven was strongly opposed to Liu Yuan capturing people, but Liu Yuan's attitude was tough, even to the point of turning hostile. With the power of the Three-Eyed Raven and the strength of the Children of the Forest, they couldn't stop him at all. In the end, the old guy understood. Although the wildlings' power to resist evil had weakened, there was an essential difference between tens of thousands of enemies and an army of millions of corpses. Liu Yuan's approach was to solve the problem from the root, and the Three-Eyed Raven began to provide some help to the catch-pole army. They guided the hundred-man teams to avoid large wildling forces of more than three hundred people, and only targeted those scattered small tribes. At the same time, they avoided contact with the Night's Watch.
A total of more than 700,000 wildlings were transported away, and no wild animals encountered along the way were spared. Those that could be captured alive were taken away as much as possible, and the corpses of all humans and animals were burned as soon as they were found.
The wildling prisoners, except for some elite population that was incorporated into his forces, were all transported to the eastern continent across the Narrow Sea.
Together with the slaves captured by the Sun and Moon Legion in the Disputed Lands, they were transported to Slaver's Bay. A large influx of strong slaves from the north forcibly lowered the slave prices throughout Essos by more than 30%.
Although Liu Yuan's agreement with the Unsullied of Astapor had ended, he was still the most popular person in the city. Because his White Tiger Fleet brought a steady stream of slaves, these tall and strong wildlings were generally much stronger than the slaves in the south. The most important thing was that the purchase price was cheap, making them very popular in the Astapor market. Even if they were trained into ordinary war slaves, the sales were very good. Volantis alone provided an order for 20,000 war slaves.
According to intelligence reports, the Tiger Party in Volantis had already won two seats and was working hard to strengthen the strength of the army, possibly planning the next Northern Expedition.