Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 109 The Human Heart and Hell Are Connected

Yun Ce, Lao Cao, Lao Zhao, and Lao Ding stood at the Longmen Bridge pass, watching their convoy slowly cross the bridge. They then received their identification tokens from a middle-aged man who was selling bridge documents. Lao Cao chuckled at Yun Ce and hurriedly left with his men without even saying goodbye.

Yun Ce himself didn't have much to say. Everyone had gathered together to survive, and now that the goal had been achieved, all the favors had been used up, so it was time to part ways.

I thought these people would rest at Longmenqiao Post Station, but to my surprise, Lao Cao and his men simply changed horses there and left in a hurry.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. Having done something extremely illegal here, now that he's succeeded, he should naturally flee far away.

Yun Ce himself is not clean either, especially since he recently killed a governor. No one knows about this yet, but once Daizhou discovers that the governor has disappeared, it will surely cause another uproar.

Therefore, Yun Ce hurriedly arranged for Eji and the others to change horses, and they had to leave as soon as possible, since Hong Guniang's army was about to attack.

The moment the carriage started moving, Eji grabbed Yun Ce's arm and said, "Let's go together."

Yun Ce said in a low voice, "Your gold savings are almost gone, aren't they?"

Eji whispered, "I've hidden some more."

Yun Ce stroked E Ji's hair and said, "We now have more than three hundred people, and that little bit of gold is not enough. Now that we've entered the Han territory, many of our ways of making money are no longer viable."

Eji whispered, "Do you want to take back the gold that was just given away?"

Yun Ce said, "Of course, that's our gold."

Eji nodded emphatically.

With Zhang Min around, Yun Ce was relatively reassured about E Ji and the others' safety. He wanted to talk to Zhang Min and tell her to be careful, but Zhang Min turned her head away and wouldn't look at him.

"What's wrong with her?"

Eji sneered, "Who knows?"

After entering Daizhou from Longmenyi, there are basically no choices on the road, because there is only one road. The majestic Daheishan Mountain stands on the left bank of the Longhe River, and on the right are the continuous Cangshan Mountains. If people want to continue to advance into the heart of the Han Dynasty, they must travel along the Longhe River for 1,600 li in the Longhe River Canyon area.

Since Zhang Min was disobedient, Yun Ce had no choice but to entrust his safety to Feng An, Liang Kun, and the hunters led by Lao Chou.

The convoy continued on its way, and Yun Ce stood by the roadside watching them leave. When the grain cart passed by, three heads popped out from under the tarpaulin. They didn't say anything or disturb anyone, but just stared at Yun Ce for a long time until they were out of sight, and then they crawled back under the tarpaulin.

Yun Ce embraced the chestnut horse that was lying on the ground, munching on a flatbread as he waited for the sun to completely set.

Hong Guniang said that after dark, they would launch a major attack on Longmen Post Station. After capturing Longmen Post Station, they would build a series of fortified villages at the narrowest point of the Longhe Gorge to guard against a counterattack by the government troops from Daizhou.

It seems that seizing Longmen Post Station was a strategy they had planned long ago. If they could withstand the counterattack from the Daizhou troops, they would use Longmen Post Station as their base and slowly expand the protection area of ​​the Daizhou folk performance to Chuyun Prefecture by using the lights of thousands of homes.

Perhaps because they received three thousand taels of gold at once, Longmen Post Station closed early. Watching the two sections of the Longmen Bridge being slowly pulled apart, Chuyun Prefecture and Dai Prefecture were transformed back into two unrelated prefectures.

Yun Ce felt that he had gotten used to this world and no longer considered himself an outsider.

He grew accustomed to the strange and wonderful things in this world, such as spirits, dragons, folk performances, folk songs, and dragons.

Shehuo is very important. On Earth, Shehuo is still a popular folk activity. However, few people can say for sure what Shehuo originally represented.

All I remember is that there was Nuo dance, iron-headed lion, land boat rowing, stilt walking, big-headed dolls, and people throwing charcoal powder onto torches to create bright flames.

It was a lively affair, but people have forgotten why they did it in the first place.

Zhang Yi must have bought a lot of meat and wine today. Yun Ce saw that the courtyard of Longmen Post Station was brightly lit, with many people eating meat and drinking wine, and some brightly dressed women dancing.

The music of the Han Dynasty wasn't particularly pleasant; it was mainly upbeat and suitable for dancing. However, the people here were generally quite good at drumming, with clear rhythms that seemed to be synchronized with their breathing. The dark clouds over Chuyun Prefecture had broken apart, and streaks of moonlight pierced through the gaps, eventually falling on the earth and slicing it into pieces.

Some moonlight fell on the Dragon River, giving the already turbulent and murky surface an eerie rusty color.

Yun Ce saw a steel hook being launched by a crossbow. The hook had a tangled rope attached to its back. Once the hook was attached to the raised bridge surface, a small, thin figure climbed up the rope like a monkey.

This person climbed the rope very quickly; in just a dozen breaths, he was already standing at the highest point of the bridge.

Yun Ce felt that this person had no way to deal with the four iron chains hanging on the bridge. He had specifically checked them during the day and found that they couldn't be broken in a short time.

The reality was different from what Yun Ce had guessed. The small, thin person did not try to break the chains, but instead pulled on the rope beneath his feet. Yun Ce had excellent eyesight and could see that the thin rope was connected to a thicker rope.

After the thick rope was connected to the steel hook, Yun Ce saw a strange sight: a string of people were being pulled up slowly onto the bridge by the thick rope.

This is a very ingenious pulley mechanism. By relying on the continuous back-and-forth sliding of the rope, it sends a string of people up to the bridge surface that has been raised high.

Such a surprise attack was actually quite entertaining. Once the high bridge was filled with people, they quickly slid down the bridge towards the workshop that controlled the four iron chains.

Without hearing any screams, they took the bridge deck that had been pulled up and slowly lowered it until it finally landed on the bridge pier with a thud, rebuilding a broken bridge into a proper bridge.

Then, many people silently stepped onto the Dragon Gate Bridge from the darkness of Izumo Prefecture.

Yun Ce didn't continue watching Hong Guniang and the others fight. At this moment, Gouzi and Longzhu were not around, and if he didn't have any gold, he didn't know how he would survive. Every day when he woke up, more than three hundred mouths would ask him for food. He couldn't bear to think about such a thing.

The bell at Longmen Post Station finally rang. Yun Ce saw Zhang Yi and Lao Huang hurriedly putting on their armor. However, Zhang Yi was genuinely putting on his armor, while Lao Huang seemed to be just pretending.

A fire has broken out over Longmen Bridge. The fire was started by people from Longmen Post Station, who also poured oil on it. Hong Guniang's people are fighting the fire, and they chose to use sand and stones instead of water.

Looking back at Lao Huang and Zhang Yi, it was discovered that Lao Huang had plunged a knife into Zhang Yi's back. The knife was deeply embedded, with the tip protruding more than two inches from his chest. Zhang Yi's breastplate had fallen to the ground. It seemed that Lao Huang had used the opportunity of helping Zhang Yi put on his breastplate to assassinate him.

Yun Ce thought that this was not Lao Huang's fault. When Zhang Yi decided to fight the rebels, he made the wrong choice. Lao Huang saw it very clearly: the number of rebels was too large, and their small Longmen Post Station could not handle them.

At this point, a qualified bureaucrat should pack their belongings and flee immediately, escaping the brutal battlefield, instead of recklessly trying to fight.

If Zhang Yi didn't have that much gold, Lao Huang would definitely have abandoned Zhang Yi and run away himself. But since this guy had three thousand taels of gold, Zhang Yi had no choice but to die, which is perfectly reasonable.

Because he knew Lao Huang and had used many of his favors, even though he eventually repaid them with gold, Yun Ce still didn't want Lao Huang to know that he had died at the hands of someone he had just helped. Even Yun Ce felt that doing so was very immoral.

So he hid behind a pillar, and when Lao Huang came out of the house carrying two heavy boxes, Yun Ce's lance pierced through his slightly open mouth and out of his brain.

Yun Ce did not emerge from behind the pillar. The dying Old Huang could only see a lance and a pair of strong arms. As for who killed him, he saw nothing at all.

Yun Ce twirled the lance, stirring up Lao Huang's brain. Only then did the two boxes Lao Huang was carrying fall to the ground with a thud.

Old Huang's body was still hanging on Yun Ce's lance, trembling violently. At this moment, he was actually dead, but the remaining nerve endings still thought he was alive.

Yun Ce waited for a while until Old Huang stopped convulsing, indicating that his last nerve ending had died. Only then did he come out from behind the pillar, throw Old Huang's body onto the bed with a horse spear, and then pick up the two boxes of gold to weigh them. They should weigh more than 500 jin.

The horse was somewhat reluctant to have the gold placed on its back. Only after Yun Ce hugged its long face and made many humiliating promises did it finally agree to carry Yun Ce and the gold, trotting into the dark night.

Behind them, at the Longmen Post Station, only continuous screams could be heard. This must be the rebels cleaning up the battlefield. No one set fires, which seemed to be the result of Hong Guniang's stern warning.

When Yun Ce looked back, he didn't see the Red Girl or Pei Chuan. There was only a golden-armored man standing in the light, making exaggerated command gestures, waiting to hunt down the unknown assassin.

It's better that he didn't see them. Yun Ce felt that from now on, he and the two traitors would be two different kinds of people, and they would probably never see each other again.

(End of this chapter)