Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 131 Is it even necessary for a poor person to live?
Zhang Min lay in bed for ten days, and Eji and Zhang Min plotted in the room for ten days. Even Yun Ce couldn't find out what they were plotting.

The next day, Yun Ce went to check on Zhang Min's injuries, but even when he pressed and touched her, E Ji didn't react much.

On the sixth day, when Yun Ce tried to make a move again, E Ji was very unwilling.

On the ninth day, Zhang Min lay on the bed with a smug look on his face, while Eji messily covered Yun Ce's eyes with her hands, not allowing him to look around.

On the tenth day, Yun Ce simply stopped going.

More than 10,000 people suddenly arrived at Yun Family Manor, which was naturally too large to accommodate them all. Therefore, Feng An and his men led the slaves to build many semi-subterranean dwellings at the foot of Longshan Mountain.

The reason they built such a simple house was that they would be leaving Lantian County and heading north in another month.

The investigation and screening of personnel continued, and more detailed divisions were also underway. Meanwhile, Liang Kun used the farmland of the Yun family manor as a model to teach these slaves how to use farm tools, how to use livestock, and how to combine livestock with farm tools.

Feng An and the others did not teach them how to select and breed animals, wanting to wait until the slaves felt more loyal to the Yun family before doing so.

Because Gouzi formulated a very detailed "Primary Labor Management Method", the large number of slaves in Yun's Manor behaved in an orderly manner. Although there were many people, there were very few fights in the camp.

Even the cleanliness of the campsite is unmatched by ordinary farms.

The slaves remembered clearly that the lord had once said that in the past, when there were no clothes to wear and no food to eat, people lived like wild animals, so it was only natural that they didn't care about their appearance.

Now that you have new clothes to wear and enough food, you should act like human beings. Since you are all human, you should follow the rules, keep your living place clean, keep yourselves clean, and keep your children clean. After you go to the north to start farming, no one will call you slaves anymore.

Even if they weren't called slaves, they were still slaves in reality.

The slaves were already overjoyed without uttering a single word; as for whether they could be freed from slavery, they dared not even think about it.

On the day Zhang Min recovered, Wu Tong came to the Yun family manor as a guest. When he saw Zhang Min, he only glanced at her casually and said to Yun Ce, "I am willing to follow in Brother Yun's footsteps when we go north to cultivate the land."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "Of course, the more people the better."

Wu Tong looked at Yun Ce and said, "My family, under the name of Panxing Tower, has requested 100,000 slaves from the court and is also preparing to cultivate land north of the Great Wall and south of Tiewei Pass."

Yun Ce nodded and handed the agricultural records kept by Feng An to Wu Tong, saying, "I wonder if they will be of any help to the Junior Tutor's land reclamation efforts."

Wu Tong added, “Brother Yun commissioned the court craftsmen to make various agricultural tools, and I also had the imperial workshops make a set for me. I believe Brother Yun is righteous and will not blame me.”

Yun Ce cupped his hands and said, "That's natural. The Yun family must first be a family that benefits the Han Dynasty, and at the same time, it must be a family that benefits the people of the Han Dynasty. Farm tools are related to whether agriculture can prosper. With your great talent, Junior Tutor, you will surely be able to accomplish great things that the Yun family cannot."

Upon hearing this, Wu Tong sighed and said, "Brother Yun, you are selfless to the court and to the people of the Han Dynasty. Do you really have no desires whatsoever?"

Yun Ce frowned and said, "I come from the wilderness and I deeply abhor the endless slavery of the Han Dynasty. Does this mean that the population of the Han Dynasty has become so large that it can be killed and abandoned at will?"
Seeing the prosperity of Chang'an, where a single pearl on a rooftop can sustain ten thousand slaves, and a hairpin in a beautiful woman's hair can save thousands, even the Junior Tutor's carriage can provide for thousands of slaves for a year. I want to ask the Junior Tutor, is it that you are unwilling, or unable?"

Wu Tong was stunned by Yun Ce's question. To be honest, he had never thought about this question before.

Before he could answer, Yun Ce continued, “Ninety percent of the slaves are from the lower classes, nearly ten percent are from the middle classes, and only a negligible fraction are from the upper classes. Does this mean that the lower classes are crude and prone to crime, while the upper classes are refined and averse to crime? Junior Tutor, is this the truth?”

Yun Ce thought that Wu Tong, as the Crown Prince's tutor, would agree with Yun Ce's opinion. Unexpectedly, Wu Tong shook his head and said, "That's not the case. The crime rate among the upper class is even higher. It's just that most of them are wealthy and can get fined instead of punished."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "Your Excellency is indeed insightful. Then, I would like to ask another question: if this continues, the lower classes will disappear and the upper classes will increase day by day. Then, will it be the middle classes who will suffer?"

Wu Tong smiled and said, "The three classes of people, upper, middle and lower, are not permanent. When the lower class disappears, the middle class becomes the lower class, and naturally some families among the upper class will become the middle class."

Brother Yun, don't you think these changes are a sign that the lives of the people of our Great Han Dynasty are steadily improving?

After listening to Wu Tong's explanation, Yun Ce felt that what he said made a lot of sense. As long as all the poor were reduced to slaves, the Han Dynasty would gradually become rich.

As for those poor wretches, it's best if they're dead.

According to Zhang Min, Wu Tong was already a rare kind and benevolent official in the Han Dynasty. Now, even such officials who are supposed to be kind and benevolent are like this.

Yun Ce felt that it was pointless for the world to continue like this. Wu Tong originally wanted to continue discussing politics with Yun Ce and explore his views, but unexpectedly, Yun Ce stopped talking after his intense questioning.

Zhang Min was left to have lunch with Wu Tong, while he went to the inner quarters to discuss with Eji how much money the family had left and how much supplies they could buy from Chang'an to go north of the Great Wall.

Once he went there, Yun Ce didn't plan to return anytime soon. If he had to come back, he should bring about different changes to Chang'an before he could return; otherwise, there would be no point in returning.

After taking a bite of braised pork, Wu Tong said to Zhang Min in surprise, "I have been eating meat for many years, but only now do I realize the wonder of eating meat."

Zhang Min then served Wu Tong some food, saying, "Not only this pork, brother, you should also try a bowl of mutton."

Wu Tong readily agreed, ate another bowl of mutton, put down his chopsticks and said, "To indulge the body and delight the palate is futile."

Zhang Min then brought over a stack of grass cakes and placed them in front of Wu Tong, saying, "People in Chang'an consider eating grass a disgrace. I wonder what the Junior Tutor thinks of grass."

Wu Tong took a bite of the freshly baked grass cake and sighed, "People don't know how to eat grass, so they consider it a vulgar thing."

Zhang Min said, "Yun Ce often says that the land of the Han Dynasty is probably no different from that of a blessed land. It is only because people do not know how to manage it that it has come to this end."

Wu Tong continued chewing on the fragrant and crispy grass cake, listening to every word Zhang Min said. From this, he deduced that the ancestral land was probably not as prosperous as the Han Dynasty.

After reaching this conclusion, Wu Tong was very happy.

The emperor is stupid, and now the crown prince is also stupid. Or rather, the only smart person in the Liu royal family is the Grand Priest; the rest are all unworthy of our sincere treatment.

Royal authority is weakening day by day under the mismanagement of the father and son, but they are unaware of it. Perhaps they will only reflect on their actions when the executioner's blade falls on their heads again.

Killing an emperor was not an unacceptable thing in the Han Dynasty. King Huo killed three emperors in six hundred years. Now, for six hundred years, emperors have died of old age. This is very inappropriate and very inconsistent with the national conditions of the Han Dynasty.

Yun Ce only cared about slaves. He didn't know that the Han Dynasty had its own national conditions. It was not necessarily a bad thing that a commoner became a slave. If the commoner could become a slave, the middle class could naturally become the commoner, and the upper class would also become the middle class. In this way, the three classes would still be the three classes, only their strength would increase, and the Han Dynasty would become even stronger.

The survival of the fittest is the reason why the Han Dynasty prospered for 1,200 years. Yun Ce did not understand the national conditions of the Han Dynasty, so he sympathized with the weak who were eliminated.

In Wu Tong's view, slaves are just tools, and once their lifespan is over, they should die.

Yun Ce strolled to the slave camp, watching the children running and cheering, and the slaves whose faces were beginning to smile. He thought these people were really good. They were all trying hard to become stronger, and they were all trying hard to live. For a person, that was enough.

Unfortunately, here, diligence only proves you're a good tool, and kindness only proves you're easy to bully. If you want to get what you want and happiness, you must be rich, powerful, or influential.

Now, Yun Ce finally understood one thing: the reason he loved E Ji so much was for one reason.

She was the only truly kind person I had ever met on this land of the Han Dynasty.

The kindness of the others, including Zhang Min, Feng An, and Liang Kun, was purposeful and limited. Only the foolish Eji was squandering her golden kindness.

"Damn it, no wonder I feel out of place in this world!"

Yun Ce muttered something, grabbed a clean-looking, chubby-faced child, and roughly ruffled his round head. Only when the child was about to cry did he let him go.

Feng An returned with a large convoy of grain purchased by the Yun family manor. The majority of the grain was grass, and the rest were beans about the size of ping-pong balls. However, the beans from Yunzhou were yellowish, while the beans from Chang'an were as white as jade.

"Damn it, even beans have a hierarchy of contempt."

Feng An laughed and said, "Even the common people in Chang'an are unwilling to eat the grass and grain, so they are cheap to buy. As for the beans that you like, only these white jade beans still have a market in Chang'an."

Yun Ce grabbed two beans and kneaded them in his hands. He looked up at the sky, which was about to darken again, and asked Feng An in confusion, "Have you ever heard of drought and flood?"

Feng An shook his head and said, "The Han Dynasty's homeland is protected by the Shehuo (a type of folk performance), so it is free from these disasters. As for Chang'an, with the ancestral fire (a type of folk performance) guarding it, good weather and abundant harvests are the minimum requirement."

Yun Ce looked up at the sky with a sorrowful expression, feeling that this world was truly unfair.

(End of this chapter)