Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 118 The Cult of the High Priest

The baby bean sprouts have emerged.

This was excellent news for Yun Ce, proving that his planting method was correct. He dug up the soil and took out a sprouting baby bean. Two plump leaves grew on top of it, making the little thing look more like a white-bodied, green-haired baby.

After replanting the baby bean, Yun Ce stood up and looked at his home, which was still being improved.

As long as there is labor involved, the messy and dirty chicken farm will eventually transform little by little into the way Yun Ce hoped, and of course, the way E Ji expected as well.

Eji then led people to plant clothing trees. She felt that the more of these trees planted, the better. The bark could be washed to make cakes, and the bark fiber could be used to weave cloth. Now, the bark fiber had another use: to make white and beautiful paper.

For a poor family, having a cloth tree ensures they won't starve or freeze to death. This is Eji's most basic understanding of the cloth tree. Moreover, with food to eat and clothes to wear, the paper made from the cloth tree fiber can be sold for a lot of money, which is enough for a poor person.

Eji also said that those officials were all fools. Grain was so expensive in Chang'an, why didn't they plant more clothes trees in front of and behind their houses? That would have solved the food and clothing problems of the people in Chang'an.

"They don't eat grass or grains, nor do they wear cloth clothes. They want to eat the best food in the world and wear the most gorgeous clothes. What you think of as being well-fed and clothed is just the minimum requirement for survival. The people of Chang'an want to eat well and dress well."

"You might as well let them die than feed them grass and cloth all day long."

Eji couldn't understand Zhang Min's explanation at all, so she turned to Yun Ce, who was eating grass-fed flatbread with vegetables, and asked, "My lord, would anyone really commit suicide just to avoid eating grass and wearing cloth clothes?"

Yun Ce took a big bite of the pancake, ate it, and then casually said, "Oh, that's because they've never died."

Eji nodded and rolled up another pancake for Yun Ce, saying, "Yes, who would want to die if they could live? Don't you agree, Zhang Min?"

Zhang Min said thoughtfully, "Yes, if dying is such an easy thing, why did I drag my wounded body back to Iron Enclosure Pass?"

The soft, grass-fed pancakes filled with vegetables and meat, paired with thick, savory bean porridge, were a meal Yun Ce could never tire of, especially with a generous amount of shredded egg. There was no meal in the world more comforting than this.

"By the way, how is Peng Zeng doing?" Yun Ce suddenly thought of Peng Zeng.

"He's really successful now. He's a high-ranking official with seven acres of pasture and seven houses. His annual salary is three hundred bushels of grain. He doesn't have any work to do. He only has to donate two pounds of blood every two months, and that's considered completing his task."

"Blood test?"

"Yes, blood is used in medicine. The doctors at Panxing Tower said that medicine with his blood is more than three times more effective than medicine without his blood. In particular, wound medicine made with his blood heals more than ten times faster than ordinary wound medicine."

Is he satisfied with himself?

Zhang Min chuckled and said, "What's the use of whether he's satisfied or not?"

Yun Ce nodded. It's all about living. No matter what method you use to live, who can be more noble than whom?
Lin Weizhou came again, but this time it was different from any other time. He wore a pink robe with an embroidered cross-collar inner garment, and a lotus flower the size of a clay pot was stuck diagonally on his pure black gauze hat. When the wind accidentally blew his outer robe up, Yun Ce saw his pink underpants.

She looked like a peach blossom that was about to wither.

Yun Ce couldn't understand why he dressed like this. After all, when he wore blue robes before, although he looked simple, he had a certain scholarly elegance.

A few days ago, Yun Ce thought Lin Weizhou was going to die; now, Yun Ce thinks he might be executed along with his entire family.

Even a fool knows you can't compete with the emperor for a woman; this guy clearly knew this but did it on purpose.

Yun Ce turned to Zhang Min and asked, "Are there many fools like Liu Chengfeng in the Han Dynasty who, even after having seven generations of their family executed, still say they have no regrets?"

Zhang Min gestured towards Lin Weizhou with her lip and said, "This is another one."

Many people may have advised Lin Weizhou, but even when Yun Ce and Zhang Min cricketed at him in front of him, he didn't care at all.

Yun Ce sighed and said, "Have you found your Lady Peach Blossom?"

Lin Weizhou smiled and said, "Before she left, she asked me to repay you on her behalf, and I think this is a very suitable gift."

Having said that, he gave Yun Ce a green coin token, inscribed with "Chang'an Morning and Evening Token." "With this token, you may enter Chang'an in the morning and leave Chang'an in the evening."

"Alright, I've taken care of what Madam instructed. I'll now continue to wait at her residence."

Watching Lin Weizhou hurriedly ride away on the Thunder Smoke Beast, Zhang Min asked Yun Ce again, "Are you sure you weren't poisoned by Consort Yu?"

Yun Ce laughed and said, "If you hadn't asked and Lin Weizhou hadn't come, I would have almost forgotten about Heng Ji."

With Lin Weizhou's excellent example as a precedent, Zhang Min finally believed that Yun Ce was a normal person, not a lackey who could be driven around at will.

Feng An and Liang Kun are now completely useless. To be precise, they became useless after paper was invented.

It wasn't that they became crippled, but rather that the two of them had transformed into tireless book-copying monsters. After copying each book, they would immediately dismantle the leather-woven wooden slips and bamboo scrolls like madmen, and even ordered Angie to burn these bamboo scrolls and wooden slips as firewood as quickly as possible.

This shows how much resentment the two men had towards the ancient bamboo slips and wooden tablets.

The contents of a thousand catties of bamboo slips could not be copied onto a single catty of paper. Whenever Feng An and Liang Kun thought of this, they would both burst into tears.

Thanks to their tireless efforts, the tens of thousands of kilograms of books in Yun Ce's study were finally transformed into thin volumes, so thin that they couldn't even fill a single bookshelf.

Even so, Yun Ce used to claim that his own collection of books was quite extensive.

The imperial paper had not yet been put on the market, but the paper from the Yun family estate had finally become known to the officials due to Lin Weizhou's laziness in governance. People came to the Yun family every day to buy paper, and even if Lao Chou and his family worked day and night to make paper, they could not supply so many people.

This created an opportunity that Eji had never even considered before.

That's right, Eji raised the price of paper, and three times in one day. After the last price increase, she confidently claimed that the Yun family were honest merchants who would never cheat anyone, young or old.

As a result, seeing even more people queuing after the price increase, Eji had no choice but to repeatedly wield the price-raising weapon, sweeping away all the troublemakers. To silence others, she even preemptively declared, "I am a woman, not a gentleman, not a true man."

Zhang Min was very worried about Eji's overbearing behavior. Yun Ce didn't care. The secret recipe had already been presented to the emperor. If the emperor was unwilling to share even this small profit with the Yun family, that would be too much.

In the Han Dynasty, Yun Ce always encountered some strange and unusual people, such as Hong Guniang, Yu Gong, Peng Zeng, Zhang Min, Heng Ji, and this old gentleman with a pair of clear, childlike eyes.

The old gentleman came to the Yun family to buy paper. After Yun Ce personally led this wise, almost divine old man on a tour of the entire papermaking workshop, he was greatly impressed that the Yun family estate could produce such a miraculous product.

And after trying the newly made paper by the Yun family on the spot, this thin and old man let out a long howl that could be heard for ten miles.

The last person as awesome as Wang Yangming was mentioned in historical records. He was meditating in the military camp when he suddenly let out a long howl that could be heard for miles around, almost causing a riot in the camp.

Yun Ce felt he couldn't afford to offend the old man, who was both old and learned and had even mastered Qigong. So, when it was noon, he treated the old man to a meal of braised pork.

After eating just one piece of braised pork, the old man seemed to have the urge to let out a long howl again, but Yun Ce suppressed it with a bowl of clear mutton soup.

In the old man's eyes, everything about Yun Family Village was good. The newly built brick and tile houses were beautiful, the mutton noodles that the pretty young lady had just served him were delicious, and he was a good boy. Feng An and Liang Kun, who were diligently copying books and had turned themselves into ghosts, were also good boys.

Upon seeing the fertile fields that Yun Ce had cultivated, the neat rows of fields, and the various crops that had grown lush and green, the old man couldn't help but let out another long howl.

On this day, Liu Changsheng, the Grand Priest of the Dragon God Palace of the Great Han Dynasty, let out three long howls at the Yun Clan Manor.

This old gentleman was so kind. Although he was very old and his hands were just skin and bones, they were soft, dry, and warm to the touch, like hands that had been warmed by a fire.

Yun Ce felt that he really clicked with the old gentleman, so when he left, he gave the old gentleman a lot of paper and new things that were only available in the Yun family.

The old man didn't give Yun Ce anything in return, but just smiled and tapped Yun Ce's chest with his warm finger, saying, "It's a good thing for a young man to have a flame in his heart. You must protect your flame and never let it go out."

And make sure no one else finds out.

(End of this chapter)