Chapter 1 The way home
In the first month of the seventh year of Jian'an in the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao moved his troops from Qiao County to Junyi County (Kaifeng) northwest of Chenliu County in order to attack Hebei.

In order to solve the problem of transporting food, fodder and military supplies, corvée labor was conscripted to dig ditches, in an attempt to redirect the water from the Langdang Canal into the dried-up Sui River, so as to connect the Bian Canal and the Huai River and increase transportation capacity.

The excavated canal is located in the northwest of Chenliu County. It will restore the transportation and irrigation capabilities of the Sui River, so it is called Sui Yang Canal.

At the end of February, an excavation site of Suiyang Canal was under construction.

The clerk covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve and held a torch in his other hand to lead the way. He stood on top of a mound and began to urge: "That's it, hurry up!"

On the other side of the mound, there were vaguely seven or eight naked, bloody corpses, and two or three of them had parts of their limbs buried in the mound.

The supervising soldiers following behind were not wearing armor, nor were they carrying swords or helmets. Only the red military uniforms on their bodies could prove their identity.

Two soldiers carried a weak corpse to the slope. In the light of the torches, they skillfully took off the corpse's warm clothes, which were no longer needed anyway. They even pulled away the white scarf that bound the corpse's hair. Then the naked corpse was thrown into the pile of earth.

The petty officials were used to it. No one liked to do this kind of job of disposing of corpses, so it was reasonable for them to get some benefits.

Then came the second body, who also came into this world naked, and now would leave naked.

When the third body was thrown down, the clerk gathered his collar with his right hand and quickly walked to the front row of the returning team.

A soldier at the rear was holding a bunch of worn and dirty clothes in his arms and looking back as he walked. Soon he returned to the camp with the team.

As for the corpses here, they will soon be buried by the excavated soil and become part of the future river embankment.

Compared to the countless bones in the wilderness, being buried here intact is not that pitiful.

A flock of crows circled in the sky to detect possible dangers, and a fox approached slowly, moving lightly and flexibly in a three-step forward and two-step backward manner.

The crescent moon in the sky was obscured by clouds, and the only sound in the faint wind was the occasional neighing of horses in the camp.

Whenever a horse neighs, the fox will stop, prick up its ears, watch and listen alertly.

After getting used to the horse's neighing for a while, the fox approached the weak boy's body and sniffed it, then went to a relatively sturdy corpse nearby. Just as it was about to bite the other's belly, it suddenly jumped back, and after landing on the ground, it turned around and ran away.

The crows were still circling in the sky, but some of them had landed on the branches of nearby trees. They would not come down to feed until dawn when it was safe.

I opened my eyes, but couldn't see anything clearly. Only a strong fishy stench hit my nose, which was very refreshing.

He raised his hand to touch his slightly painful chest, struggled to stand up and touched the outside of his swollen and blue thighs. Vague memories came to his mind: this was the three or four kicks the supervisor gave him when he was checking whether he was dead or alive.

The supervisor's three-color lacquered leather shoes were really cold and hard.

As my heartbeat revived and blood began to flow throughout my body, the cold feeling from the outside world began to stimulate me.

Memories are like the tide, and also like chili sauce, you know what it tastes like without having to taste it.

As a native of Meng County, Liang State, my happiest memories are of my family fishing in Mengze, swimming in Mengze with many other teenagers of similar age to escape the summer heat, and playing in the water with a good friend of mine in a remote area of ​​the reed marsh.

Unfortunately, the faces of most people in the beautiful memory are blurry, but the shapes, faces and even voices of the three girls who often played in the water together are very clear.

I thought carefully for a few breaths, and then all kinds of bad memories started to emerge.

The imperial court wanted to establish military farms, but Mengze was too small, so fishermen, recluses, refugees, bandits, and nearby residents who had nowhere to hide were forced to relocate and settle in a centralized area.

Under the guidance of another memory, he immediately understood what the court was going to do, which was to complete taxation and control with the least manpower.

As refugees, they were very resistant to farming, let alone other groups.

After being resettled as a civilian settlement, it was inexplicably turned into a military settlement. My brother was drafted to serve in the army in place of his father and died on the Guandu battlefield.

Even without pensions, the taxes and rents for the past two years will remain the same.

Then this year it was my turn. Although I was only fifteen years old, I was considered an adult in the accounts of the military farm officials. One of the two adults in a household had to perform labor service.

He would rather die outside than endure the hardship of farming and supporting his family at home, so this body of himself serves and works.

After catching a minor spring cold, I was thrown out of the camp and stripped naked.

Then another memory emerged, an ordinary life experience that had nothing to do with the grandeur, just a speck of dust in the rise of a great country.

Only when you are at the top of the world and are free from the burden of daily necessities can you summarize your life relatively objectively.

Having failed the expectations of his loved ones, he struggles in the muddy swamp in an attempt to gain freedom.

As for the first memory, as long as I never return to Meng County, my past identity will be meaningless; as for the second memory, it is even more meaningless to the present.

Now it’s like I’ve walked out of a very far door, and my identity is determined by myself.

The prerequisite for all this is to escape from the territory of Liang State and live in a more remote place.

As he thought about it, he raised his right hand and a card appeared, with an orange border and white letters on a black background. Probably only he could see it because the surrounding darkness remained unchanged.

"Dika, Taoyuan
Provides two positive mana and two negative mana per day."

The words positive and negative flooded into my eyes, and I instinctively felt uncomfortable.

When he stared at the card, four sub-cards immediately emerged, each representing a point of mana.

As if it was an instinctive memory, he couldn't help but sigh: "How could magic power be such an inconvenient thing..."

"No, it's a bit inconvenient. Casting a spell requires a medium."

As he thought, he picked up a negative magic card and it immediately turned into liquid magic power like a round black pearl on the index finger of his right hand. There were five-colored and ten-light rays flowing on the surface, but its essence was black, a typical colorful black.

Then he closed his eyes and rubbed his index finger across his eyes. The magic power merged into his eyelids and the cool feeling of it seeping into them was very comfortable.

As he opened his eyes, the night under the dark clouds was bright everywhere, and everything, whether far or near, was covered with a layer of bluish-white color, as if it was illuminated by rich moonlight.

His eyes were cool, and as he thought about the duration of his mana, relevant information emerged. The total amount of mana remained unchanged and would not dissipate for no reason; if the medium of mana was broken, it would also gather towards the largest fragment.

He climbed up with his hands, looked at the dead bodies around him and immediately took a step away, but the bruise and pain on the outside of his left thigh made him stagger and almost fall to the ground.

He immediately took out a positive magic card which turned into a drop of white pearl-like magic power. The surface of this drop of magic liquid bead was similar to the beads he had seen when opening clams. He then slapped it on his chest. This drop of magic power activated the body's potential and accelerated the circulation of Qi and blood. He immediately felt warm all over and the pain in his left leg was temporarily relieved.

After the spell took effect, I felt even hungrier and my feeling of physical weakness became more intense.

He slowly stepped back a few steps and cast another drop of negative magic power under his feet. A corpse covered in blood but with a strong skeleton slowly crawled up and staggered. In addition to the marks of being pecked by birds and beasts and bitten by teeth, there were also obvious knife scars on its body.

Obviously, this was the body of a veteran soldier who had died of illness, but his colleagues still stripped him of his clothes and left him here naked, waiting to be buried.

He stretched out his hand and the corpse slowly disintegrated, and a card floated in front of him.

"Follower card, Inferi servant, slow to react, can be strengthened, can be combined."

Giving more negative mana will strengthen it, and the specific amount of mana depends on the opponent's qualifications; as for the combination, multiple cards form one card... The biggest advantage is that you can summon a team at a time.

He grabbed the card in his hand and looked at the slope again. Perhaps if he climbed over and returned to the camp now, he could still serve the court after causing a brief panic, and continue to dig the canal and transport earth and rocks to contribute a little to Cao Gong's great cause.

But the corpses around him were a little scary, so he turned around without thinking and limped away.

They walked three or four miles and hid in a grove of bushes before they dared to rest. There would be no soldiers patrolling here, and the spring chill was not yet gone, so the nights were cold and there were no insects to bother them.

Sitting on a half-broken tree stump, he broke off a new branch and put two tender leaves on it into his mouth to taste it. It had the unique bitter taste of willow wood.

Then the last drop of positive magic power poured into the willow branch, and a white flower bud grew at the broken branch at a speed visible to the naked eye. Soon the petals detached and were blown away by the wind, and a green fruit the size of a soybean grew rapidly. After a dozen breaths, it became a bright red berry.

When you put the berries in your mouth, they melt in your mouth, and you don't even have time to swallow them. The sweet taste of the berries spreads and is released.

Hunger and weakness were swept away, the willow branch turned into a prop card and disappeared into the ground card, then he took out the follower card and raised it ceremoniously, smashing it three or four steps in front of him as if summoning a little elf.

Without the expected smoke effects, the Yin corpse servant appeared quietly. After being refined by the magic power, the torn wounds on the surface of the Yin corpse had healed, the black bloodstains had disappeared, and the bluish white skin had turned blue-black... and all the moisture in its body had evaporated, making it look like a withered mummy, a blue-black mummy without any peculiar smell.

I subconsciously looked between the other person's legs, but I felt nothing...

Ignoring this unimportant matter, he looked down at a pair of calloused, rough hands, blinked, and said to the Inferi in front of him, "I need a new name to celebrate my new life."

The corpse was motionless, and heard the person in front of him muttering to himself: "This is Suiyang, Liang State. My original body was in Meng County in the north. The surname is Liang or Meng... or I can call myself Su Fu. My previous life was too tiring. I want to change my way of life. It's okay to call it comfortable, but it sounds like restraint."

"Flying in the sky, swimming in the water, dragon and phoenix are not good either. Crane in the Cloud is a good name."

After thinking it over again, he said, "I don't know if there are gods in this world... or I should call myself Black Bear, so that others will think I am a rough and crude man, and then let them see my skills."

"With my mathematical ability, I deserve the title of Mohist Master!"

"It is normal for me, a Mohist, not to understand Confucian classics."

"Black Bear, Black Bear. I thought about it for a long time, but I think taking one character from each of my past and present lives is appropriate."

After that, the black bear raised his hand and pointed at the winding path in the forest: "Lead the way!"

The Inferi turned around and walked slowly towards the winding path, with the black bear following behind.

Even if you don't freeze to death while spending the night in this small forest, you'll have a hard time surviving tomorrow.

The camp needed fuel, and during this period of time, all the trees outside the grove had been cut down. The vegetation was not as good as in summer and autumn, and it was difficult to hide people here during the day in early spring.

Besides, even if we escape for one day, we will have to travel at night tomorrow, just like the current situation.

They were in a desperate situation with no clothes or food. They had to avoid patrolling soldiers as well as wild beasts, bandits and traps that might appear at night.

After walking about thirty steps, the corpse in front missed a step and fell into a trap.

The black bear moved closer and looked inside. It saw that the trap was three feet square, with sharp bamboo sticks stuck underneath.

The Yin corpse had lost all its moisture and its body became solid and slender. It was not injured when it fell down, but was stuck in the sharp bamboo bushes.

Then he raised his hand to retrieve the card, threw the card again to summon it, and ordered it to scout the way ahead.

He carefully went down to the edge of the trap pit and pulled out three sharpened bamboo thorns of relatively good quality. Two of the bamboo thorns were caught in the hands of the Yin corpse, and he kept one for his own use.

After walking another two or three miles out of the woods, I finally set foot on a hard, flat path in the countryside. Standing in the middle of the road and looking up at the night sky covered by dark clouds, I was unable to tell the direction.

I could only think carefully and remember. After extracting information from countless memories, I naturally understood that this was the upper reaches of the dried-up Sui River and the far suburbs of Chenliu County.

The south of the mountain and the north of the water are called Yang, so the northern bank of the lower reaches of Suishui is Suiyang County, the center of Liang State.

Meng County is located in the north of Sui Yang, and Mengze is located in the northeast of Meng County.

After dredging the Sui River, you can drift downstream quickly to Sui Yang, and then go north for another seventy or eighty miles to reach your home.

Going home is an instinctive memory, and the faster another message of going home quickly is extracted.

Cao Cao's main force was stationed in Junyi, a hundred miles northwest of here. There was a river in Junyi that led directly to Mengze, called the Weishui River (pronounced Bian, the ancient Bianshui River). After leaving Mengze, it flowed into the Sishui River and the Huaishui River.

This is the geographical knowledge of mountains and rivers that my original father always told me, and it is also something I repeatedly reminded him of when we parted.

As long as they go to the Weishui River basin, make a reed raft or a wooden boat, hide during the day and come out at night, they can float downstream back to Mengze, where there are fishing boats and other treasures hidden four or five years ago.

Thinking of this, he continued on his way in the direction of the camp. As long as he could reach the Wei River, he could quickly get away from the main camp of Cao's army.

As for Wei Wu Cao Gong, although the opponent is very charming, Black Bear is not prepared to make contact with him until his fists are strong enough.

　Please don't say anything at the end of the chapter to avoid disturbing the reading experience. If I stop updating, I will ask for leave in advance. I have 100,000 words in the manuscript, which should last for a long time.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)