Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 138 The closer I get to people, the more I want to go far away.

A messenger bird landed on Yun Ce's window.

This messenger bird, about the size of an Earth rooster, looks quite disheveled. Of the three bright dark blue feathers on its head, only one remains, and half of the feathers on its rump are missing, as if it had been scratched by something. The tip of its rump is covered in blood. Even so, it still brought back the letter from the Red Maiden.

In her letter, Hong Guniang said that she had already established a foothold at Longmen Post Station. Along the more than 1,400 li (approximately 650 kilometers) of the corridor outside Longmen Post Station, she had built a total of four fortified towns. As soon as the Han Dynasty sent troops to attack, she would run away immediately.

She added that Izumo Prefecture is in a terrible state, especially Izumo City, which hasn't seen a drop of rain for over three months. That once glorious northwestern city is now almost abandoned.

She also said that the remaining people of Izumo Prefecture were living a miserable life. The wasteland was no longer the wasteland where only dogs ran around. Now, wild boars and bears chased the dogs around. The worst thing was that they saw ferocious wild beasts such as the abandoned animals on the wasteland. At the same time, the number of poisonous insects in the weeds was also increasing rapidly.

With more wild animals and poisonous insects, the amount of food that grows naturally in the wild has decreased, and many small villages have quietly disappeared.

Among them was Hekou Village. She wasn't sure if the people of Hekou Village had been kidnapped or had simply fled naturally. In any case, there was no one left in Hekou Village. There, she saw a ferocious beast—Qi.

In the last part of the letter, Hong Guniang told him that she had received the secret recipe he gave her. Pei Chuan tried it himself, but the effect was not good. She also asked Yun Ce if he had the actual product. If he did, she would send someone to pick it up.

At the end, she finally told Yun Ce some good news: she was pregnant again and hoped that the child would survive.

After putting away the silk brought by the messenger bird, Yun Ce tenderly stroked its bald head. In this great Han Dynasty, where there was little good news, perhaps only this thing could bring a last bit of comfort.

Knowing that Hong Guniang was worse off than him, Yun Ce felt somewhat relieved. Gouzi always wanted him to raise a flag and rebel as soon as he arrived north of the Great Wall, but now it seemed that his idea was immature.

Yun Ce finally understood that the reason why the Han Dynasty could maintain its superficial strength and harmony even when it was riddled with problems was mainly due to the Han Dynasty's ancestral fire and Shehuo system.

Leaving the Han Dynasty means losing the protection of the ancestral fire and facing the primal threat of this planet, which is unacceptable to every Han Chinese.

Yun Ce couldn't accept it either. Even someone as immune to all poisons as him, with skin of copper and bones of iron, had to rely on a herd of pigs to live comfortably in the primitive wilderness. An ordinary person would probably not survive a day in such a wild environment.

The so-called civilization of the Han Dynasty is the ancestral fire and the Shehuo system. For many years, these have constituted the heavens of the Han people.

Thinking of this, Yun Ce rubbed his fingers on his wristband, and immediately a ball of candlelight ignited at his fingertips. The outer layer of the flame was a warm orange color, with distinct layers of outer flame, inner flame, and flame core. Looking at it for a long time, even the bottom of one's heart felt warm.

How can I make you bigger?

Yun Ce looked at the folk performance and muttered to himself.

The dog bluntly said in his mind: "If you want Shehuo to grow bigger, first of all, you need to have territory. Only with territory can Shehuo take root. Only when it takes root can Shehuo accept the spiritual power of the lights of thousands of homes, and then feed this will back to this world, and then use the power of the collective to influence and transform this world."

Yun Ce asked, puzzled, "How did you know that? I don't think you know more about the Ancestral Fire and the Shehuo than I do."

The dog sighed and said, "There are also records about the ancestral fire and the Shehuo on Earth, but they have changed over thousands of years."

People hope that the ancestral fire and the community fire can drive away the darkness and the dangers hidden in the darkness. On Earth, this expectation is called hope. Since it is hope, it may come true or it may not.

The moment human wisdom was born was the moment when light and darkness were in opposition, and it was also the time when the ancestral fire was born. In short, the ancestral fire was born because of humans, and it will also be extinguished because of humans.

"Carefully protecting the ancestral flame from extinguishing, making it even stronger, is the ultimate meaning of your lives."

"So, we should establish a Zoroastrian cult? And then rebel?"

"Yes, yes, communism is a bit incomprehensible to the people here. You should first create an organization that they can understand, and then strengthen internal education. As long as you are willing to work hard, Zoroastrianism will eventually become an organization."

Tell me, what materials have you been looking at lately?

"The beginning and end of the Taiping Rebellion, and a study of its success and failure. Let me tell you, the strategy of keeping the people ignorant seems incredibly foolish, but it works."

Our principle is to be pragmatic and realistic. Therefore, when doing things, we must also be down-to-earth. Think about it: Hong Xiuquan claimed to be the second son of God. Could our flame be considered the younger brother of the ancestral flame?

Yun Ce didn't want to continue talking to an artificially disabled person with disordered thinking.

Eji sat on Yun Ce's lap, her bottom noticeably cold. Yun Ce wondered what she'd been doing so early in the morning. It wasn't until she pulled a baby bean from her sleeve that he realized she'd gone to the fields. Baby beans don't ripen one by one; they ripen one after another. That is, on a seedling, only after the most mature baby bean is picked will the rest ripen in sequence.

I don't know what mechanism causes this phenomenon, but it makes a lot of sense.

Yun Ce originally planned to head north once the wheat and millet ripened, but after Grand Marshal Zhou Bo was assassinated, the final order to leave was delayed, and Yun Ce waited until the beans ripened.

After the beans ripened, Zhou Bo was locked in a life-or-death struggle with the emperor or someone else, seemingly forgetting that Yun Ce was going north. Only Wu Tong sent a pass that allowed passage, but the final order to set off was never issued.

It is said that in the area north of the Great Wall, after the mulberry leaves fall, silkworms go up the mountains to spin cocoons and lay eggs, and the northern land gradually enters winter.

Zhang Min said that the winter landscape there is extremely beautiful.

The rain in Chang'an always has that mournful, unyielding quality, and I wonder which high priest had this peculiar hobby, which prevents this melancholy Chang'an from ever becoming the carefree Chang'an that Yun Ce remembers.

As the temperature on Eji's buttocks gradually rose, Yun Ce could no longer sit properly. It was not yet the season for mulberry leaves to fall, and Eji was only wearing three thin layers of silk clothing, one of which was a gauze that was almost invisible. After sitting for a long time, the bodies of men and women would automatically adjust their positions. Helpless, Yun Ce had no choice but to get up and leave with a hunched back.

Yun Ce was hesitant about whether to immediately start a new population. His concerns didn't stem from the deceptive eighteen-year-old rule, but rather from the worry that his current physical condition might cause E Ji to become pregnant, and what if she gave birth to a soft-shelled egg?

Neither dragon nor human, to put it bluntly, his body was just a bunch of oddballs. For Yun Ce, oddballs were intolerable no matter what, even if they were dragons.

With that thought, he exerted force with his right arm again, and in almost an instant, pale blue dragon scales covered his entire arm, and his five fingers transformed into indestructible dragon claws.

Previously, the dragon scales only covered his upper arms, but now, they have unknowingly covered his shoulders.

When the rains of Yunjiazhuang once again enveloped Chicken Shit Mountain, very little mirabilite could be extracted there. And because of the large number of people in the village, Chicken Shit Mountain was eventually flattened.

The sulfur in the crater was almost gone, but the bomb that the dog had made himself was now filled with Dragon Balls.

Yun Ce's letter to the High Priest, sent through the new magistrate of Lantian County, was returned. It wasn't that the High Priest returned it, but rather that the messenger simply couldn't enter the palace, and the Dragon God Temple, where the High Priest resided, happened to be located at the highest point of the palace.

This shows that the battle between the High Priest and the Emperor is still ongoing, and the Emperor is still the weaker party. It remains to be seen whether the High Priest can finally kill the Emperor in one fell swoop and replace the Han Dynasty with a less troublesome young emperor.

Yun Ce firmly believed that the age of an emperor should never exceed twelve years old, because an emperor older than twelve years old is always thinking of causing trouble.

It's best if the emperor starts working at the age of two, and retires at the age of twelve to become a carefree duke or marquis. This way, there's no need to endlessly kill the emperor's children. As long as they are not killed for three to five generations and are allowed to live, the emperor will naturally understand what he really is after three to five generations.

During the day, Chang'an City was bustling and lively, but at night it became eerie and shrouded in fear. In this atmosphere of fear and insecurity, the warriors who were once looked down upon for not even being able to afford shoes now not only all had shoes to wear, but many of them were also dressed in gold and silver and looked very wealthy. At the same time, this seriously affected the progress of Feng An's recruitment of warriors for the Yun family.

Zhang Min returned from Panxing Tower. She rushed back without even having time to drink water, grabbing Yun Ce and saying, "We need to leave quickly, or the army will be here soon."

Yun Ce frowned and asked, "Is it the Emperor who can't hold on, or the Grand Marshal who can't hold on?"

Zhang Min said worriedly, "It seems that the Grand Marshal is about to collapse."

"Hey, weren't the emperors of the Han Dynasty supposed to be weaklings?"

Zhang Min looked into Yun Ce's eyes and said, "The emperor said that as long as the governors of the thirty-six prefectures near Chang'an are willing to support him, they will be qualified to become emperor after he dies."

Yun Ce's eyes lit up, and the words in his heart came out.

"Thirty-six electors?"

Zhang Min shook his head in confusion and said, "That's impossible. The Han Dynasty has three hundred military prefectures. Even if the thirty-six prefectures near Chang'an are relatively wealthy, they still can't defeat three hundred military prefectures, not to mention the two hundred tributary prefectures behind them."

Yun Ce nodded and said, "It seems that the emperor has really gone mad. He only cares about the present and doesn't care about the future. He doesn't even care if the foundation of the Liu royal family is cut off after him."

(End of this chapter)