Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 128 Both individuals and groups have potential for breakthroughs.

Taking advantage of Zhang Min's inattention, Yun Ce raised his hand and lifted her skirt. Just as E Ji had said, this woman had a foot-long scar on her lower abdomen, and her thighs were covered with scars, which was shocking to behold.

Zhang Min showed no displeasure. Instead, she calmly said, "Last time you looked at my chest, and this time you looked at my genitals. Isn't that disgusting?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "This is an ugliness that even the darkness of night cannot conceal."

Upon hearing Yun Ce's words, Zhang Min's eyes immediately turned red. Just before the veins on the back of her hand bulged, Yun Ce spoke again.

"Luckily, I can cure you. Otherwise, with your rag doll-like body, who would want you?"

Zhang Min had been gathering all her strength, ready to unleash it, when she suddenly heard a voice like a celestial melody. Her body went limp, and she leaned against Yun Ce, saying, "Didn't you want to... kill me? Now that you're healed, you can do it."

Yun Ce pulled a bottle of crystal-clear liquid from his sleeve, waved it in front of Zhang Min, and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

Zhang Min eyed the small bottle greedily and reached out, saying, "Give it to me."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "Of course it's for you to use, but first of all, I have to tell you that your injuries are very serious, you could say extremely serious."

You always say these are just superficial injuries, but you know better than anyone whether your internal organs have been damaged. Your five internal organs are not in their proper positions right now, and they need to be restored. As for the external injuries that you care about the most, to heal them, you need at least five treatments. The most dangerous one is that your wounds will have to be reopened.

Therefore, I hope you understand that I need to knock you unconscious to continue the treatment.

Zhang Min gripped the bedsheet nervously, and after a long pause, she finally said, "So mysterious that even I can't see it?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "You could say that."

"I'm only facing you, and you're the one who will heal me?"

"No, you still have to deal with Eji, I can't handle it all by myself."

"No, just you alone. Even if it's slower, even if it hurts more, even if the effect isn't as good as having two people, I only want you."

Seeing Zhang Min's firm stance, Yun Ce couldn't help but reach out and pat her head, saying, "You damned sense of samurai honor! But let's get this straight, you'll have to take a bath, then lie naked on the bed. It's inevitable that I'll see and touch you naked. You should be prepared."

Zhang Min scoffed and said, "With this broken body, if you can bring yourself to do it, then go ahead."

Seeing that Yun Ce had put the small bottle away again, Zhang Min couldn't help but ask, "Can I have it?"

Yun Ce laughed and said, "You know what this is, so you want it."

Zhang Min bit her lip and said, "Given your greedy nature, this must have come from Peng Zeng."

Upon hearing this, Yun Ce turned and left, saying fiercely at the door, "Wash yourself clean and strip naked tonight and wait for me."

Zhang Min smiled happily.

"My lord, my lord, how did that woman throw herself into your arms? Did she beg you not to reject her just because her body is covered in scars?"

As soon as she returned, Eji couldn't wait to ask.

"No, she was eating cakes when I went in."

"No, I heard her crying."

"That's just empty howling."

Eji angrily clenched her fist and said, "That cunning woman."

Chang'an City was just a stone's throw away, but Yun Ce and E Ji weren't really in the mood to go in and explore. This was mainly because Zhang Min had told them that there wasn't much to do or see inside. Not only were there countless government departments, but the place was also full of Han nobles and high-ranking officials, with hardly any wealthy gentry.

Those people entertained themselves at home and never went out. All their household expenses were supplied by their own caravans. Therefore, Chang'an was a place with many rules, troubles, and cold interpersonal relationships. Even lecherous men who wanted to see beautiful women went to Anqing Town, not Chang'an.

At Eji's insistence, Yun Ce took them to the slave camp to see his family's property.

Yun Ce knew that treating people as property was the most inhumane thing in the world, and it even went against his moral values.

However, this was a perfectly normal behavior in the Han Dynasty. If Yun Ce had used the same methods as those used to liberate slaves, he would have been looked down upon by even more Han people.

There are many ways for a person to become a slave, the most important of which is to become a slave after committing a crime. The laws of the Han Dynasty here inherited the Qin laws and did not use the "Three Laws" that Liu Bang had before entering Chang'an. It is possible that Huo Qubing also felt that "those who kill shall be executed, and those who injure or steal shall be punished" was not enough to govern the Han Dynasty, so he used the Qin laws he remembered.

Under the Qin laws, which severely punished even the slightest mistake of dumping furnace ash, the large number of criminals in the Han Dynasty became a distinctive feature.

Yun Ce already knew that in the Han Dynasty, diligence could not lead to wealth, nor could intelligence. The only way for a commoner to become wealthy was to earn military merit.

If a person loses even the status of a commoner or a respectable family member, it's estimated that he and his descendants will forever be plunged into darkness—assuming he has descendants, of course. As prisoners, they won't even have the chance to risk their lives for military merit, because military merit earned by slaves belongs to their slave owners.

Under this less-than-merciful legal system, the best outcome for a convict was to become a vassal of a nobleman, just like the so-called "retainers" that appeared after the Han and Jin dynasties.

The rebellion model during the period of the vassal states differed from previous peasant uprisings. Their strength was too weak, and once they turned into bandits, their ultimate fate was inevitably failure.

Only uprisings led by powerful nobles and clans can overthrow the old dynasty and establish a new one.

When Yun Ce and E Ji arrived at the slave camp, Feng An, Liang Kun, and Lao Chou had already thoroughly cleaned up the people there and given them new clothes.

Feng An even generously allowed these people to keep their old clothes after washing them, treating them as their only possessions.

After being cleaned and fed, people take on a human form. Now, they are on a flat field, watching the struggle between the ten-man leader and the hundred-man leader.

Tradeable slaves have no experts!
The person who caused this scene was Huo Qubing. Because Wei Qing was born a stable boy, he was very concerned about discovering talents from among the slaves during his lifetime. He also established a system that allowed talented slaves to demonstrate their talents to the government at the end of each year and have the opportunity to be freed from slavery.

This method of discovering talent, after being used for a thousand years, gradually became the only way for slave owners to discover their own talent. After Huo Qubing was carried into the mausoleum, this decree gradually disappeared and was eventually no longer mentioned.

Thus began the darkest era for the slaves.

This time, Yun Ce selected ten, a hundred, or even a thousand leaders from among the slaves, which was already an immense blessing for the slaves.

Therefore, the selection arena was exceptionally bloody. Those who initially fought each other with wooden sticks and bamboo poles as weapons, after their sticks and bamboo poles were damaged, used any part of their bodies that could fight—teeth, fists, claws, nails, elbows, knees, legs, and feet—nothing was spared.

Eji glanced at the fighting arena and then lowered the veil that could cover her face.

After looking at it, Zhang Min said to Yun Ce, "Without armor and weapons, these people can't even beat wild beasts."

This reminded Yun Ce of how Hong Guniang had used wooden sticks and bamboo poles to rout the well-equipped army in the Battle of Shuizhu.

According to Zhang Min's view, Hong Guniang would have died long ago, so how could she be the rebel leader who now spans Chuyun and Daizhou?

Yun Ce hopes that these people can compete well and work hard in the future, so that he can break down the mental barriers that he has long formed and give them a good result.

"Dog, can these people really be reformed?" Looking at the madmen onlookers outside the arena, drooling and acting like they were possessed, Yun Ce couldn't help but ask Dog for advice.

Dog said indifferently, "Your starting point is much higher than that of your ancestor, the teacher. The people you are facing are slaves, a group of true proletarians. Although their quality is not high, their thoughts are very unified, unlike the group of people from all walks of life that the teacher faces."

The slaves' demands were relatively simple, nothing more than being fed and clothed. Back then, the people the teachers faced were far more complex. The demands of poor peasants, middle peasants, and rich peasants were different, as were the demands of craftsmen, small merchants, itinerant merchants, ordinary merchants, and large merchants.

The real challenge lies in unifying the demands of so many different groups, finding common ground, launching a revolution, and seizing opportunities for success amidst setbacks.

Believe it or not, if it were the instructor himself instead of a half-good-for-nothing like you, he would have already established a base and started dealing with the government.

"Humans cannot be compared to gods." After thinking for a long time, Yun Ce finally came to an answer.

"You're more like a god than the instructor now. At least the instructor is still a mortal. You're so awesome. You can conjure up a dragon claw at any time and kill gods and Buddhas if they get in your way."

Yun Ce took a deep breath and said, "Take it slow. Times are different, and methods are different, but this is what our instructors taught us."

"You don't need to make excuses for your incompetence."

"This is not an excuse, it's a fact."

"Can't the facts be changed? Just like the scar on Zhang Min's stomach, the scar on her thigh, the scar on her chest, the scar on her arm, which scar isn't real?"

Believe it or not, with the help of Pengzeng's Rapid Growth Liquid, I have a 90% or higher chance of healing her physical scars.

Yun Ce remained silent.

"Do you believe me or not?" the dog continued to press.

As the crowd in front of him began to cheer, a tall, thin man was carried on someone's shoulders in a procession. Yun Ce knew that the first commander of a thousand men had been chosen; he had single-handedly defeated ten commanders of a hundred men.

"I believe it, I definitely believe it."

"Hey, why aren't you arguing back?"

Yun Ce pointed at the cheering crowd and laughed, "I've noticed that they have a very strong sense of honor. Perhaps it's because they've been stripped of all honors, and for them, any honor they can hold onto is a new way to survive."

(End of this chapter)