Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 100 Great Bureaucracy Always Finds a Way Out
The strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside is usually kept secret.

Today was just the perfect day to say that, and I accidentally let it slip, giving Miss Hong a huge advantage.

The situation in the cities of Izumo Prefecture is perfect for the strategy of surrounding the cities from the countryside. First of all, the cities here have almost no output and rely entirely on taking advantage of the trading center to leech off the villages in the wilderness in order to maintain the operation of the cities.

To be precise, the only important group in the city is the merchant community. If Hong Guniang can unite all the poor people in Yunzhou and the villages in the wilderness, they can bypass the city as a distribution center for goods and directly connect with the merchants.

By bypassing all the middlemen like city lords and city officials, even if they don't occupy any cities, they will still have the final say in Chuyun Prefecture without the intervention of the Han Dynasty.

Vampires will soon die in the sunlight if they run out of blood to drink.

Yun Ce really looked at Hong Guniang differently. It was obvious that she and Pei Chuan had become husband and wife. Even if they hadn't officially said it, judging from their furtive behavior, it was clear that they had already made substantial progress. In this relationship, Hong Guniang had Pei Chuan completely under her thumb.

On this point, Yun Ce admitted that he had misjudged Pei Chuan. He had thought Pei Chuan was a schemer, but now he realized that he was just a sycophant, and a sycophant of an ugly woman at that.

I really can't figure out what he finds enjoyable about licking.

Eji was different; she personally helped Yun Ce put on the armor that Pei Chuan had taken off. Yun Ce looked at his reflection in the water and saw that it was very much like Lü Bu, both in appearance and martial prowess.

"Such fine armor is only fit for a peerless hero like you. It looks good on you. It's a waste for Pei Chuan to wear this armor."

As for the way Feng An, Liang Kun, and Lao Chou looked at Yun Ce, it was as if they were looking at a god.

The enemy brought 100,000 troops to their door, yet the host managed to use his silver tongue to rob the enemy's two commanders cleanly. This kind of ability is not something ordinary people have.

After seeing off Hong Guniang and Pei Chuan, Feng An leaned close to Yun Ce and said, "Since the Han Dynasty is no longer allowing anyone to leave Yunzhou, will your title of Shangzao still be valid?"

Yun Ce thought for a moment and said, "I knew we had waited in vain from the moment Zhang Min ran away."

Liang Kun hissed as if he had a toothache, and said, "In that case, our chances of entering the Han Dynasty are even lower."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "On the contrary, we have a greater chance of entering the Han Dynasty."

"How to say?"

Yun Ce gestured towards the Hunter Palace, who had just stopped crying.

Feng An asked, puzzled, "Those women and children?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "It's those bureaucrats in Chuyun City."

Liang Kun said, "They will die in the city."

Yun Ce raised his hand and said, "Let's make a bet."

Feng An and Liang Kun shook their heads repeatedly. They wouldn't bet with Yun Ce because they always lost. The money they had was hard-earned from E Ji, and there was no need to return it.

In this world, the most well-informed group of people are bureaucrats, especially in an era where bureaucratic positions can be inherited. Top bureaucrats form their own system, but middle and lower-level bureaucrats also have their own comfortable ecosystem.

All the harsh laws and severe punishments in the world are actually formulated by bureaucrats themselves. The legal provisions they formulate are very difficult to understand. The reason why they do not use the clearest and most understandable language to explain the provisions is to make it easier for them to exploit loopholes.

If the law cannot prioritize their interests, then such a law has no reason to exist.

In this respect, both Earth and the Han Dynasty are inevitably the same, because this is something that exists in their very bones, which began as early as the time of the Yellow Emperor, and no one can eliminate it.

The moment Yun Ce saw Cao Cao, he knew that Cao Cao was definitely not a loyal and righteous man, much less a brave warrior who was devoted to his duty and willing to live and die with the city.

The only reason they haven't escaped from Izumo Castle is that there are still benefits they haven't obtained inside the city.

The potential profit must be enormous, so enormous that they would rather entrust their families to Yun Ce, a complete stranger, than risk their lives for him.

No one understands the mindset of bureaucrats better than Yun Ce, this lowly bureaucrat on Earth. You have to understand, when a building is about to collapse, termites and rats are the first to know.

The great building of Chuyun Prefecture is about to collapse. As long as Yun Ce follows these termites and rats, he will naturally find a way to enter the Han Dynasty, and a way to enter the Han Dynasty in a reasonable, legal and respectable way.

Yun Ce thought highly of Lao Cao, believing that as long as his family was protected, Lao Cao would be able to lead his group into the legendary Han Dynasty.

Both Lao Cheng and Hua Ji were embedded in the earthen wall by Yun Ce, so if they wanted to communicate with the people in the Hunting Palace and explain the situation, the only one left was E Ji.

Eji, carrying the puppy, led all the women of her family into the hunting palace. The group of girls, big and small, looked harmless and quickly became friends with the group of uninformed women and children.

After a good start, Eji led people in every day. Five days later, with Anji's help, Eji had completed the registration of the women and children inside.

In their spare time, following Eji's instructions, Feng An and Liang Kun also compiled a register of the population of the Hunting Grounds camp. As a result, the Yun clan's population, including their retainers, surged to 316. "This was at the insistence of Lao Chou and the others; the young lord only took them in as retainers out of pity,"

"Nonsense! Why would a perfectly good free citizen be so foolish as to become someone else's servant?"

"Yes, Lao Chou and the others are very willing."

"What?"

"Three days ago, they wiped out all the men in Weijia Village and also kidnapped a lot of young women and children under the age of three."

After Feng An finished speaking, Yun Ce looked at him and sighed, "Do you think there are too few women and children in your family?"

Liang Kun shook his head and said, "Wei Dun'er has been harming the hunting camp for many years, resulting in a severe shortage of women and children here. If the young lord wants to expand the family population, he has no choice but to do so."

I even thought that while we could do this secretly in Izumo Province, once we entered Han territory, we probably wouldn't have such a good opportunity to gain people for free.

Seeing Feng An and Liang Kun acting as if this was how it should be, Yun Ce suddenly realized that this was not the agricultural society on Earth that he was familiar with. The Han Dynasty had never experienced an agricultural society; they had always practiced a nomadic and gathering lifestyle.

In an agricultural society, what happened at Weijiazhai would be considered murder and should be punished. However, in a nomadic, hunter-gatherer society, this method of integrating resources to grow stronger is not at all reprehensible.

Red Girl, Pei Chuan and his men have left. They bypassed Chuyun City and focused their attention on conquering some smaller towns.

Judging from the message that the Red Maiden sent back by the messenger bird, her rectification campaign has already begun, only it is particularly cruel.

Pei Chuan's methods were quite good. He deliberately supported a group of people who did not belong to them, and then used these people to deal with another group of people who did not belong to them. When these two groups actively participated in attacking the city in order to compete for credit, and when they were almost dead and about to wake up, the fair and honest Hong Guniang took action to completely incorporate the remaining elite forces.

They conquered six cities along the way, and many poor people volunteered to join them. However, their numbers decreased from 100,000 to 70,000.

Among those who died, there must have been some who were wronged, but in the face of overwhelming circumstances, bad luck is also a form of guilt.

After the twilight of the year comes the beginning of spring.

The full moon, which had been growing smaller and smaller as it moved away from the Han Dynasty, finally began to slowly grow larger. Although it wasn't very noticeable, it was indeed gradually getting bigger, especially on the night of the full moon, when the earth gradually took on a silvery-white hue.

As spring returns to the earth, Eji is always the first to know. She changed into her spring clothes early, but ended up catching a cold. She had a fever all over her body and just wouldn't get better. Even though Yun Ce fed her the special medicine he brought from Earth, it didn't help much. Seeing her flushed face from the fever, if Gouzi hadn't strongly advised him not to take out the Pengzeng extract, Yun Ce would have given it to her himself.

"Haven't you noticed that whenever she's sick, you stay by her side?"

"She's sick, shouldn't I be with her?"

"Okay, then you should stay with her. As long as you're there, her illness won't get better."

"Huh? You mean..."

"Yeah, only you idiot didn't know she deliberately kicked the blanket at night..."

"Didn't I tell you not to pry into my sex life?"

Is mating a beautiful sight?

"I don't know, but I used to really enjoy watching it."

"Alas, as long as you remain indulging in the pleasure of this simple exchange of fluids, your evolutionary process cannot be accelerated."

Yun Ce thought for a long time before saying, "If pleasure cannot be generated during the process of liquid exchange, who would want to evolve? It would be better to just extinct them."

Yun Ce felt he couldn't take good care of E Ji, so he had An Ji come and sleep with her so it would be easier to take care of her. As a result, two days later, E Ji's high fever subsided, and other minor ailments such as chest pain that needed to be massaged and buttock pain that needed to be massaged after sleeping for a long time were also cured without any medicine.

Old Chou built fifty carriages, which, together with those he had previously brought back from Chuyun City and Weijia Village, made a total of one hundred carriages. These carriages were enough to move the entire Hunting Camp.

Now, everyone is waiting for the battle in Chuyun City to end. Yun Ce rode his chestnut horse to Chuyun City several times to check. The city stood there quietly, and apart from the occasional thick smoke rising from it, the sounds of fighting were rarely heard.

It seems the fighting is nearing its end.

The Thunder Smoke Beast left behind by Lao Cheng eventually died. Although Yun Ce deliberately prevented the Thunder Smoke Beast from seeing Lao Cheng's corpse after killing him, the Thunder Smoke Beast, with its keen sense of smell, still managed to detect the scent of Lao Cheng's death in the crater in the earthen wall.

So, one morning, the Thunder Smoke Beast crashed headfirst into the earthen wall, breaking its neck and collapsing the wall in the process.

(End of this chapter)