Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 126 The So-Called High-Level Perspective
Yun Ce didn't run far. He stood at the crossroads with a horse spear in his hand, waiting for Yu Heng and Qingfeng Mingyue to come out.

As for Zhang Min, she had already led Lao Chou and the others to capture the black-clad men who were running around everywhere.

Yun Ce felt that Yu Heng would not stay at Ren Hu's house any longer.

Sure enough, Qingfeng drove a luxury car out of Ren Hu's house looking nervous. Behind the gauze curtain of the car was a pretty face that was both embarrassed and angry.

Although he knew this woman was a member of the Guifang clan, her appearance was still too alluring. Yun Ce couldn't kill someone who could cuckold the emperor and still be forgiven, even if he caught her committing murder on the spot.

Clearly, Yu Heng understood this principle. The last time she was punched by Yun Ce, she forgave him because he had saved her. However, once was the limit. As the future mother of the King of Huo, if Yun Ce were to be disrespectful to her again, the consequences would be unbearable for him.

Qingfeng was unaware of this; he was still very nervous. He handed the reins to Mingyue, picked up his sword, and was about to jump off the carriage when he saw Yun Ce waving, signaling them to hurry up.

As the carriage slowly passed in front of Yun Ce, Yu Heng suddenly opened the window screen and looked at Yun Ce, saying, "You took the gold, didn't you?"

Yun Ce said, "That's my gold."

Yu Heng gritted her teeth and said, "How did you know I would come to Ren Hu's residence tonight?"

Yun Ce pointed at Qing Feng and said, "He said it."

Qingfeng was very anxious and hurriedly said to Yuheng, "I didn't say that."

Yun Ce then pointed to Mingyue and said, "That's what he said."

Yu Heng didn't even glance at Qingfeng and Mingyue, and directly said to Yun Ce, "As a scholar, is it appropriate for you to speak so carelessly?"

Yun Ce glanced at Yu Heng and said, "Hurry up and leave. Nobody wants to see you involved in this matter, and neither do I. I need your other men to show it to the authorities. You'd better shut them up. This is good for both of us."

Yu Heng glanced at Yun Ce again, but this time she didn't say anything. Qing Feng drove the carriage away quickly.

When Yun Ce found Zhang Min, the battle there was basically over. He was quite surprised to see that twenty-one assassins had been captured alive.

Old Chou and his hundred or so men were just pure hunters. In terms of martial arts, they were far inferior to those assassins. They might be able to launch a long-range sneak attack, but capturing them alive was out of the question.

"Did you do all this by yourself?"

"Your troops are not up to par."

Yun Ce looked at Ren Hu’s mansion, which was shrouded in darkness, and said, “Now that we have money, is it possible to buy a group of loyal, reliable, and highly skilled guards?”

Zhang Min shook her head and said, "Loyal and reliable people are usually not very capable, and capable people are usually not reliable."

Yun Ce chuckled and said, "Huo Wangjiu is a loyal, reliable person with superb martial arts skills."

Zhang Min looked at Yun Ce and said, "So, he killed three Han emperors."

Yun Ce and Zhang Min had been chatting for quite some time, and considering the time Yu Heng had spent running away, half an hour had passed since Yun Ce shouted, and no one from the Jimingyi government had come over.

The lights, which had been gradually brightening, slowly went out and eventually returned to their original state.

"It looks like I'm destined to take the blame for killing the three Ren brothers."

"Of course. You want money, and you want the slaves under Ren Hu's command. With so much to ask for, it's worth it to take the blame for Consort Yu's murder."

Yun Ce waited for another half hour, but still no officials came. He waved his hand, and Lao Chou and his men immediately took action, killing all the surviving assassins.

Upon entering Ren Hu's house again, Lao Chou and his men thoroughly searched the luxurious mansion like a comb, finding a great deal of money, valuable items, and even several women and children hiding in secluded places.

Yun Ce did not harm them, but simply had his men avoid their hiding place and remove the rest of the things that could be sold. When Yun Ce left at daybreak, Ren Hu’s house was now an empty house, except for the corpses scattered all over the ground.

During the day, Yun Ce was not idle either. He took Feng An and Liang Kun to take over Ren Hu's slave industry. He obtained more than 5,200 male, female and young slaves.

Unfortunately, among the more than 5,000 slaves, the ones with the best physical condition were actually the Guifang people, and there were as many as 1,500 of them.

Yun Ce would naturally not lead the Gui Fang people to the area between Tiewei Pass and the Great Wall.

Apart from having slightly darker skin, deeper eye sockets, and yellowish eyes, these Guifang people are not much different from the Han people.

After having the dog collect one hundred genetic samples, they exchanged them for three thousand ordinary Han Chinese slaves from the slave market next door.

For some unknown reason, Guifang slaves were actually more valuable than Han Chinese slaves.

“They are not only hardworking but also rarely get sick. They adapt even better to the wilderness. The best part is that the laws of the Han Dynasty stipulate that if a master kills a Han slave, he shall be punished with thirty strokes of the cane and a fine of three thousand coins. Guifang slaves are not protected by the laws of the Han Dynasty. Even if they are killed and eaten, it is reasonable and legal.” After listening to Zhang Min’s explanation, Yun Ce said with a half-smile, “According to the laws of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Yaliang’s actions in Pingyuan City would have resulted in him being beaten into mincemeat and made into meatballs long ago.”

"There is no such thing as slavery in Izumo Prefecture."

"Does that mean I've gone blind?"

“They were prisoners or their descendants, and did not fall into the category of people as defined in the Han law.”

Zhang Min also seemed unwilling to discuss this topic with Yun Ce, pointing to the 6,500 slaves crammed into the courtyard and saying, "You should propose a plan for how to arrange things."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "Select the strongest and most powerful among the slaves. The one who can defeat ten men will be the leader of ten men, the one who can defeat a hundred men will be the leader of a hundred men, and the one who can defeat ten leaders of a hundred men will be the leader of a thousand men."

A centurion was freed from slavery, and a chiliarch was allowed to bring three people with him to be freed from slavery. His salary was equivalent to that of a centurion or chiliarch in the army, receiving 30% of his previous pay.

Zhang Min frowned and said, "Why not let people from the Royal Hunting Grounds serve as centurions and commanders of thousands?"

Looking at the surging crowd of slaves, Yun Ce sighed and said, "This first batch of centurions and thousand-man commanders is very dangerous. Old Chou's men have passed the test, so there's no need for further testing. You can't test people's hearts like that."

Seeing that Yun Ce had made his decision, Zhang Min stopped asking questions. This was a habit she had developed at Tiewei Pass: trusting her superiors and her companions. At this moment, Yun Ce was, in her eyes, both her superior and her partner.

Zhang Heng, the transport commissioner of Tiewei Pass who lived in Chang'an City, put down the paper in his hand and sighed slightly. As one of the few government offices in the Han Dynasty that had begun to use paper for office work, Zhang Heng was still amazed by Yun Ce's ability to create such a miraculous object whenever he saw the news written on paper.

"So, Ren Hu has already been completely taken advantage of by Yun Ce?"

Wu Tong, who had just quelled the rebellion in Congzhou, knelt to the left of Zhang Heng. The message on the paper was brought by him.

"Hmm, he ate very cleanly. I thought this person was very skilled at doing these things and could take into account not involving Yuheng. It doesn't seem like this is the first time he has done something like this."

"So, which aristocratic family do you think he belongs to?"

Wu Tong took a sip of water from his small bowl, looked at Zhang Heng, and said, "Since you ask this, does that mean Yun Ce is not a young master from a noble family?"

Zhang Heng recalled the words the High Priest had spoken to him, trying hard to banish the discomfort from his mind. Even now, he still didn't believe what the High Priest had said—that Yun Ce came from the ancestral land.

What is the ancestral land?
Some say it's beyond the thirty-third heaven, others say the ancestral land is on the full moon. Zhang Heng knows that the ancestral land is related to dragons, and those who want to come here can only use dragons as boats.

He was eager to know more about the ancestral land, but was stopped by the high priest and the grand marshal. They also wanted to deduce the ancestral land's attitude and stance towards the Han Dynasty from Yun Ce's behavior.

"Wu Tong, you are the number one among the younger generation. Get to know Yun Ce more."

"Isn't Zhang Min there?"

"That idiot is already in love, she'll definitely become Yun Ce's wife in the future."

Wu Tong laughed loudly: "It can be considered a good match. After all, in Sheyang City, he was able to avoid the pursuit of me, Zhang Min, and Zhou Chengming. It is no exaggeration to call him a young hero."

"If Zhang Min could become his wife, I believe Yun Ce would be close to our Han Dynasty. If we share the same bloodline, he would be our cousin."

Wu Tong's words surprised Zhang Heng, who quickly asked, "You guessed it?"

Wu Tong laughed and said, "The High Priest asked me for a lot of information about the disappearance of the Dragon Balls in Izumo Prefecture. At the same time, he also asked Bian Zhao for information about the disappearance of the Izumo Prefecture Shehuo."

Furthermore, considering that the dragon suddenly appeared in Chuyun Prefecture instead of Chang'an, the identity of Yun Ce, a person who came from the wilderness, is already obvious.

The transport commissioner just denied the possibility that Yun Ce was a scion of a powerful family. So where does Yun Ce's strong air of aristocratic scions come from? If he really is a savage, when did savages learn to make paper and farm?

Zhang Heng smiled and stroked his beard, saying to Wu Tong, "Do you want to be his deputy? That stupid woman Zhang Min probably can't handle the things I asked her to do."

Wu Tong shook his head and said, "My cousin is very capable, but that doesn't mean I, as his older cousin, have to side with him. Although our two families are related, it's better to be clear about things when necessary."

Zhang Heng sighed and said, "Judging from the bits and pieces of talent that Yun Ce has shown, our ancestral land must be more powerful than the Han Dynasty. At least, they can cross the Milky Way with dragons as boats to come here, while we cannot."

Wu Tong pondered for a moment and said, "That's precisely why we must be cautious in dealing with Yun Ce. We should neither be overly flattering nor overly indifferent."

Zhang Heng laughed and said, "The High Priest has decreed: Use him heavily, use him extensively, use him to the point of exhaustion, and squeeze out everything that the big man has that he doesn't."

Upon hearing this, Wu Tong smiled, cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to Zhang Heng, and said, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)