Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 127 The meeting should not have been expanded.
While Zhang Heng and Wu Tong were plotting face-to-face, Yun Ce was also holding his first expanded family meeting.

Of course, the expanded pool of candidates only includes Zhang Min, Lao Chou, and An Ji.

The core members of the Yun clan still consist of only four people: Yun Ce, E Ji, Feng An, and Liang Kun.

Eji was very satisfied with the seating arrangement in the conference room. Yun Ce sat in the middle, with her on the left and Feng An and Liang Kun, Zhang Min, and An Ji on her right. Lao Chou could only sit on the futon opposite, and the difference in their positions was obvious at a glance.

Yun Ce felt that this expanded meeting of the Chang'an family was very necessary, mainly because the family population had suddenly increased from 312 to 11,138, including 27 women who were about to give birth. The family population would continue to increase.

At this crucial turning point for the family, it is necessary to clarify the family's assets, plan for the future, formulate long-term development goals for the family, and develop the family's first five-year plan.

Everyone who was able to attend the family meeting was very excited. Besides Eji, who was so excited she could hardly contain herself, there were also Feng An and Liang Kun, whose faces were flushed with excitement, Zhang Min, who had ulterior motives, and Anji and Lao Chou, who were so excited they shed tears on the spot.

Although Eji was the first to speak, demanding that Zhang Min be expelled from the meeting and even threatening Anji with her eyes, Lao Chou agreed to her motion, but it was ultimately blocked by Yun Ce.

Yun Ce first set the tone for the meeting, namely, to make the Yun family a family that benefits the Han Dynasty and its people.

Everyone needs to speak in turn, following Yun Ce's tone.

The first to speak was Eji. She believed that the number of Yun clan members was too small, which was not conducive to the long-term development of the Yun clan. She suggested that they should quickly offer sacrifices to their ancestors and ask them to temporarily abandon the ancestral rule that Yun clan men should not have children with women under the age of eighteen during this strict time, and make increasing the number of direct descendants of the family the primary goal at present.

With an heir, the Yun family can exert its initiative and actively contribute to the development of the Han Dynasty and the happiness of its people.

When Eji was speaking, Zhang Min laughed out loud several times. After being severely criticized by Yun Ce, she finally sat on the futon and participated in the meeting with a serious expression.

Then, Yun Ce praised E Ji for her active participation in the discussion, while pointing out that E Ji's ability to participate in political affairs needed to be strengthened, and that she needed to learn how to express her opinions and demands in the right language and in the right way.

Feng An then spoke, arguing that the most important long-term goal was to establish a foothold in the region. Since the Yun family had received the imperial court's request to establish settlements north of the Great Wall and south of Tiewei Pass, the Yun family should quickly and actively participate in the construction of these settlements and promote them immediately with a sense of urgency.

He himself was willing to act as the vanguard for the family, leading a group of people to be the first to enter the vast area north of the Great Wall, to find suitable areas for agricultural reclamation, and to lay a solid foundation for the family's roots.

Yun Ce basically agreed with Feng An's opinion. However, he believed that wild beasts roamed north of the Great Wall, and that small groups of Gui Fang people would occasionally cross the Iron Enclosure Pass defense line to harass the rear. Feng An was not strong enough to take on the task of being the vanguard officer, and this matter should be carried out by him personally.

Liang Kun believed that although the Yun family was now large and powerful, its internal management was chaotic, and the problem of servants not recognizing their masters was particularly serious. It was necessary to clarify the internal management system as soon as possible, to build the Yun family's management framework as soon as possible, and to combine and control the existing manpower as soon as possible so that it could be used as smoothly as an extension of one's own limb. For this reason, he was willing to take on this task and devote himself to the Yun family until his dying breath.

Yun Ce basically agreed with Liang Kun's suggestion. However, he hoped that Liang Kun and Feng An should jointly handle this matter so that they could refine the regulations and make the personnel arrangements more reasonable.

When it was Zhang Min's turn to speak, she moved her mouth several times before finally uttering a sentence: she asked the Yun family members to maintain a humble and cautious attitude, to show respect to the Han Dynasty, and not to take this land reclamation as an opportunity for the Yun family's own development.

The top priority should be supplying the Iron Enclosure Pass with provisions and military supplies; otherwise, the Yun family will have no way to establish a foothold north of the Great Wall.

Zhang Min's remarks were met with disdain by Eji and others. Some even questioned whose family she was serving and whether she should remain the head of the household's concubine. They argued that if she continued to be unclear about her position, the children born to her as a concubine would not be entrusted to her care in the future.

Zhang Min flew into a rage and stormed off the stage, threatening to beat up Eji. Eji, in turn, also became enraged and wriggled the puppy's tail, causing the puppy's mouth to gape open and chaos to erupt in the hall.

The meeting had to be adjourned and will be rescheduled for a more suitable time.

Yun Ce put his hands in his wide sleeves and watched E Ji and Zhang Min fight. Feng An whispered, "There are too many people. We need to get going as soon as possible. The Grand Marshal's Mansion has agreed to send troops to escort the slaves north of the Great Wall."

Liang Kun followed up, saying, "The Yun family should abandon their industries in Lantian County as soon as possible and quickly move north of the Great Wall. Lantian County is too close to Chang'an, and countless eyes are watching it. We have very little room to maneuver."

If the Yun clan wants to grow stronger, it needs to lay a solid foundation over many years. There is no region more suitable for our development than the vast area north of the Great Wall and south of the Iron Enclosure Pass.

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "At present, the most important thing is not to head north quickly, but how to unite these 11,000 people into one force."

I'd rather spend more time, money, and energy to solve the people-related problems before even considering going north. If the people-related problems can't be solved, going north will be pointless.

Feng An said coldly, "To quell the chaos, strict laws and severe punishments are indispensable."

Liang Kun shook his head and said, "Strict laws and punishments will only alienate people and are not conducive to long-term stability."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "In the Han Dynasty, no one has ever treated slaves as human beings. What we need to do now is to make these slaves feel that they are still human beings." Feng An asked, "How?"

Yun Ce laughed and said, "The old appearance has been replaced with a new one."

How to transform an old appearance into a new one?

“Bathe, change clothes, change food, and call them by their real names. Men should not be humiliated except by punishment, and women should not be abused unless they have made a mistake. As for children, they should be treated as precious treasures.”

"Is this too kind? Often, a master's kindness does not earn loyalty, but instead makes some people with ulterior motives think that the master is weak and easy to bully."

"That depends on how you enforce the rules I set. Strictly enforce the rules within the rules, and make up for any deficiencies outside of the rules. Make them understand that the rules are strict, but we are lenient."

After saying that, he took out a copy of the "Primary Labor Force Management Measures" drafted by Gouzi from his sleeve and handed it to Feng An.

Feng An and Liang Kun noted down some of Yun Ce's special requests, and then took Lao Chou to Yun's slave camp.

The puppy's mouth could no longer open wide. It lay weakly in Eji's arms, its tongue lolling out, its belly heaving rapidly like a sealed box, as if it would die at any moment if it couldn't catch its breath.

Seeing that Eji was also panting, while Zhang Min herself hadn't even gotten her hair messed up, she said smugly to Eji, "You're not so great as the head wife, are you?"

Yun Ce came over and hugged E Ji, who was swaying with anger. He threw away the useless dog in her hand and rubbed E Ji's back to comfort her.

"Why are you, a lady from a respectable family, getting angry with a mere warrior? The way you sit there quietly is something no one else can match."

Upon hearing Yun Ce's words, E Ji immediately perked up and whispered in Yun Ce's ear, "I went in to take a look when she came back to bathe last night. Tsk tsk, there are several knife scars on her breasts... and there is a knife scar on her stomach that is almost a foot long. At that time, her intestines must have spilled out."

Eji's voice wasn't loud, but it was just loud enough for Zhang Min to hear. Zhang Min, who had been beaming with joy, immediately lost all interest in arguing with Eji and went back to her room with her head down.

Eji chuckled in Yun Ce's ear, "You must not miss this easy woman, my lord. She was just humiliated by me and needs comforting right now. Hurry up and go, my lord, otherwise this woman will really hate me and will be difficult to get along with in the future."

Yun Ce looked at E Ji in surprise and asked, "Who did you learn all these skills from?"

“My mother, when I was five years old, she started teaching me how to be the head wife of a wealthy family.”

"Did your mother know back then that you would become the first wife of the Yun family?"

"No, Mother said this is called being prepared for any eventuality. What if I become the first wife of a wealthy family?"

Yun Ce clicked his tongue and said, "You and your mother were really daring back then."

Eji kissed Yun Ce on the lips and said, "Isn't this a reality? I have three hundred servants, two retainers, and eleven thousand slaves. Now, who dares to say that I am not the wife of a wealthy family?"

"Oh, you really want me to go find other women?"

"What do you, a savage, know about a large family? A family should have many members. Right now, you are the only son in our family. It is the most important thing to have many descendants. Only by making the family big and strong can our children live a prosperous and healthy life."

Hmph, if you had ten brothers, do you think any vixen would dare to enter the house?

"Hurry, that woman is already crying."

Eji shoved Yun Ce aside, picked up her dead dog from the ground, and, surrounded by Anji and her gang of henchmen, swaggered back to her room.

Yun Ce naturally entered Zhang Min's room, and found that Zhang Min was eating cakes while pretending to yell at the window.

Seeing Yun Ce enter, he put down the pastries and said happily, "Your silly woman is easy to fool, isn't she? Now tell me, what's the current state of your Yun family?"

Don't look at me like that. I used to be a spy, and I still am. I report everything you say and do. Look at the documents I submit—they're all to high-ranking officials. You'd better be careful.

(End of this chapter)