Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 112: Flaws Everywhere, Storms Everywhere

When they left Chuyun Prefecture, it was still the Flowery Moon season. From Longmen Post Station to Lantian County, Yun Ce and his group traveled for a total of four months: Flowery Moon, Springtime, Springtime, and Midsummer.

The journey covered 27,000 li.

He had traveled a lot and traveled quickly, and with the help of Miss Hong to clean up the mess, his traces in Daizhou were completely erased. Therefore, the death of the Daizhou governor in Chuyunzhou had nothing to do with him, and the Han government simply assumed that he had died at the hands of the traitor Miss Hong.

During his four-month journey, Yun Ce truly witnessed the grandeur of the Han Dynasty.

Eji and Anji always assumed that the people of the Han Dynasty must be well-fed and clothed in gold and silver. However, as they traveled, they found that many places were even worse than those in Chuyun Prefecture.

If the people of Hekou Village were in the Han mainland, they probably wouldn't have been able to survive at all. However, in Chuyun Prefecture, because of the small population and abundant resources, they were able to survive.

Originally, such a vast land could easily support 600 million people. Unfortunately, their agriculture was still largely in the slash-and-burn stage, and the land utilization rate was extremely low. As a result, many places in the Han Dynasty became poorer year by year due to population growth.

Moreover, this problem of people becoming poorer due to population growth will only intensify.

Because with a larger population, more people participate in gathering, which reduces the number of seeds of edible plants that exist in nature, resulting in fewer edible plants that can be gathered the following year.

In fact, animal husbandry simply cannot support a country of 600 million people, which is why ancient nomadic peoples always split up and eventually disappeared.

Looking at the Han Dynasty from these perspectives, it is clear that it has grown old. This should be evident from the fact that they have taken back the Shehuo (a type of folk performance) in Haikun Prefecture and Chuyun Prefecture.

Their enterprising spirit has begun to crumble.

For nomadic peoples to survive, one of the most important means is to expand their territory and grasslands, striving to ensure that everyone has enough pasture for grazing, thereby achieving the goal of feeding a large population.

The population of Jingzhao Prefecture was 30 million, according to Lin Weizhou, the magistrate of Lantian County. This should be official data and therefore credible.

However, Jingzhao Prefecture is not very large, even less than one-tenth the size of Chuyun Prefecture. It is mountainous and has many lakes. Its resources may have been extremely abundant at first, but Chang'an has stood here for more than 1,600 years, which has long since exhausted the resources here.

Putting aside everything else, the vegetation here is far inferior to that of Chuyun Prefecture. There aren't even any trees on the high mountains surrounding Chang'an.

Eji calculated that the biggest expense for the family now is food, followed by fuel, namely firewood and charcoal.

Nomadic peoples have always relied on the mountains and rivers for sustenance, and they don't understand what recycling is.

The most critical problem is not even here.

Rather, they made a mistake from the very beginning.

Nomadic peoples are born to wander and graze their livestock. They shouldn't have hastily built cities before their productivity had increased. Such cities wouldn't have been able to last 1,600 years; they would have been lucky to last 100 years. In Yun Ce's view, it was the strong cohesion of the Han people that allowed cities like Chang'an and Luoyang, which had been so costly, to survive.

To be precise, from the day Chang'an and Luoyang were established, they lived by sucking blood, and what they sucked was the blood of the entire Han people.

This branch of the Han Dynasty never experienced a period of disintegration. With the ancestral fire, the emperor divided the world into thirty-six provinces. It wasn't until the powerful Huo Qubing overturned this long-standing era that a Han Dynasty, far more powerful than the Yellow Emperor's legacy, was established on his remaining body.

The transition from a clan society to a semi-slave, semi-feudal society should be attributed to Huo Qubing, not to the development of a social system on his own. While he could initially reap some social benefits, he would eventually have to give them back.

Chang'an is currently at its most glorious moment, flourishing like flowers in full bloom and oil in a blazing fire. However, if the surrounding prefectures and counties cannot bear the consumption of Chang'an, then the prefectures and counties responsible for supplying Chang'an will extend to distant places. The farther away, the greater the consumption along the way. The greater the consumption, the more prefectures and counties need to participate. This is a vicious cycle.

Unless, of course, they can develop efficient agriculture at this time.

As Yun Ce spoke to Gouzi, he glanced up and saw Lao Qiu and the others clumsily tilling the field with the newly made plow.

Yun Ce then said to the dog, "I hope it's not too late. If it's not, it doesn't matter. This society will collapse sooner or later. Chang'an and Luoyang are just bloodsuckers, and they're just one of the big problems."

Whenever Yun Ce has time, he makes such a social survey report for himself, and then Gouzi organizes, records, and archives it.

During his long journey of 27,000 li back home, Yun Ce witnessed too many social realities, and he felt that he had gained a preliminary understanding of the Han Dynasty.

Now, all the people of the Han Dynasty believe that the Guifang people are hindering the development of the Han Dynasty. They believe that as long as the Guifang are eliminated, the Han Dynasty can return to its heyday a thousand years ago.

"How can you farm without water?"

Yun Ce, who was watching Lao Chou and the others plowing the fields through the window, was startled awake by Zhang Min's words. He frowned and looked at Zhang Min, asking, "Why haven't you left yet?"

Zhang Min shook her head and said, "I want to see how you farm. Now tell me, there's no water, yet you've started digging irrigation ditches. I'm asking you, where does the water come from?"
"I see your irrigation canal ends at Longhu Lake, and the lake's water level is lower than the canal. How will you extract water from Longhu Lake? I see you've had many large ladles made. They're so big, are you going to use them to scoop water?" Yun Ce nodded and said, "You know I'm strong. If others can't use those big ladles, surely I can. I reckon you can use them too, it'll just be a bit strenuous. But it's only seven or eight hundred acres, so the two of us working hard won't be a problem."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Min's beautiful eyes widened, and she quickly said, "The spoon is too big. I can scoop for a while, but not for a long time. My internal energy can't sustain it for long. By the way, how long do you want to scoop the water?"

Yun Ce stroked his chin and said, "A day should start from sunrise and start from sunset, fetching water."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Min's face turned deathly pale, and she waved her hands repeatedly, saying, "I can't take it."

Eji poked her head in through the window and looked at Zhang Min, saying, "You're a concubine in this house, not much different from a cow or a horse. You'll work yourself to death if you don't die from it."

After scolding Zhang Min, Eji smiled at Yun Ce and said, "My lord, the ox you requested has arrived. Shall we slaughter it and eat meat today?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "We bought them to work, not to eat."

Zhang Min asked, puzzled, "Cows are for eating meat."

Yun Ce's gaze swept across E Ji and Zhang Min's faces. He painfully held his forehead with his hand. He knew that he had another task to do: to train the oxen to work obediently, such as pulling the waterwheel so that it could continuously scoop water from Longhu Lake into the irrigation canal to irrigate the more than 800 acres of crops at home.

Upon seeing the cow, Yun Ce sighed again. He had expected the cow to be very large, but he hadn't expected it to be this big. This thing was almost as big as an Asian elephant. How much grass could such a large animal eat in a day?
Is 500 jin enough?
No wonder this thing can only be used to eat meat.

When the chestnut horse saw a new animal in the house, it ran up to the cow out of curiosity, stood on its hind legs, and pawed at the cow's head with its hooves.

This kind of cow seems to have an extremely docile temperament. When the chestnut horse's hammer-like hooves hit its head, it only mooed twice and supported its head as the chestnut horse hit it.

Yun Ce's eyes suddenly lit up, and he asked Zhang Min, "Can the method for taming Thunder Smoke Beasts be applied to cattle?"

Zhang Min shook her head and said, "Yes, the method of taming Thunder Smoke Beasts is basically applicable to many large livestock. It's certainly feasible for cattle. However, the cost of performing the secret technique once is quite high. Are you really going to use the secret technique on cattle?"

Yun Ce smiled and said, "We have to give it a try."

"This thing is already quite docile."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "What I need is obedience, not docility."

Zhang Min looked at the ox, then at Yun Ce, and suddenly jumped up and punched Yun Ce on the head. Then she quickly ran away, shouting as she ran.

"You want to use a cow to help you fetch water, right? You liar! I was just seriously considering helping you fetch water."

Eji tiptoed and tenderly used a handkerchief to rub Yun Ce's head, while angrily saying to Yun Ce, "She deserves to fetch water day and night."

Yun Ce pulled E Ji's hand away and said with some worry, "We don't have any pasture, how are we going to feed these six cows?"

Eji pointed to the extinct volcano Mingyu Mountain not far away and said, "When we need it, we pull it in to work; when we don't need it, we let it go into the mountains to find its own food."

Yun Ce looked at Mingyu Mountain and said, "I wish that mountain belonged to our family."

Eji asked in bewilderment, “That’s a barren mountain, only grass grows there, and all the trees have been cut down by the people around here.”

Yun Ce laughed and said, "The soil on that slope is very fertile, it's a pity that it's only covered in grass."

Eji tentatively suggested, "Why don't you go to Lantian County and find the magistrate to buy that barren hillside?"

Yun Ce patted E Ji's cheek and said, "You are truly a qualified housekeeper. With you around, there's no reason why the Yun family won't prosper in the future."

The sheep pulling the cart were harnessed to a sharp, earth-breaking plowshare. The plowshare went in about a foot and a half into the ground, but it wasn't deep enough. However, if the plowshare continued to go deeper, the sheep would be unable to pull the cart.

Knowing that the first plowing required deep tilling, Yun Ce had no choice but to let it be. He was just trying to catch up with the farming season and would figure out a solution after the first harvest when he had more time.

Now that we have established our home here, we should have the belief in building it well, whether on Earth or in the Han Dynasty.

As for the Great Han Imperial Court, that's a different matter altogether.

(End of this chapter)