Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 140 What if the fake becomes real?

The best route in the Han Dynasty was the road between Chang'an and Tiewei Pass, which was 6,400 li long and 50 meters wide.

The people who built this road were the Guifang people. Back then, the Guifang people were very strong, and many of them had three or four arms or three or four legs. They were very good at carrying soil or bearing heavy loads.

It is said that more than 700,000 Guifang people were conscripted when the project started. The construction was carried out on multiple sections and in multiple locations, and it took a full twelve years to completely repair the road. Even after the road was repaired, it became very difficult to find those Guifang people with four legs and four arms.

Even today, many slave owners still reminisce about the Guifang people of that era. As long as they were given some food, they would work day and night without uttering a sound, even when they collapsed from exhaustion.

Later, some slave owners deliberately mated three-legged Guifang people with three-armed ones, hoping to give birth to the old-style Guifang people with many hands and feet. However, none of them succeeded, and the era of the Guifang with many hands and feet was never to return.

Nowadays, the Guifang slaves have virtually no outstanding advantages other than their lives being worthless. However, the Guifang people still hold an irreplaceable position in terms of clearing mountains and splitting rocks, building bridges and constructing roads.

The Yun family's caravan traveled inconspicuously on this continent known as 'Ghost Journey,' often encountering enormous vehicles with far more people driving towards them.

Yun Ce couldn't understand what kind of goods a caravan of 50,000 people needed to handle to ensure a sufficient profit on this trip.

Zhang Min stared intently at the large convoy, and finally whispered in Yun Ce's ear, "These people are definitely the Great Wall garrison, the second most elite force in the Han Dynasty."

Yun Ce curled his lip and said, "I thought it was the Iron Enclosure Guard. Oh right, I knew it. I took away the extra 10,000 slaves from Chang'an. Where did Wu Tong get 100,000 slaves to cultivate the land? It turns out that the source of these 100,000 people is the army that came to support the king."

"Zhang Min, you two have a connection, so if all else fails, ask him if we could have some of these high-quality slaves too."

"My reputation is worthless now. I didn't see that when people came to see me off, they did so so perfunctorily."

When the Guichi Road was built, some people put their hearts into it, and some people risked their lives. As a result, the road is of very high quality. Even though more than a thousand years have passed, its foundation is still solid, and there is not a single weed on the road.

The best way to travel on such roads is by carriage. The Yun family's caravan travels very fast, covering about 200 li a day. If there are no troops disguised as merchant caravans on the other side, the caravan can even travel 300 li a day.

Yun Ce's planned march time was no more than thirty days.

Every evening when they camped out, Yun Ce would release Shehuo from the Dragon Ball and prop it up on the dog's tentacles, which really looked like a candle flame.

As soon as Yun Ce took out the candle flame, Liu Changsheng's ancestral fire would burn fiercely, with the fire pillar soaring into the sky and always appearing very volatile.

However, today, the ancestral fire appeared very calm, as if it had already acknowledged the existence of this candle flame.

Liu Changsheng stared at the illusory candle flame, occasionally touching it with his finger. His finger would pass right through the illusory candle flame. Even when Liu Changsheng moved the ancestral fire over to envelop the illusory candle flame, the candle flame remained unresponsive, standing there blankly.

"This is a folk performance without intelligence; it is probably not able to bring blessings to the world."

Liu Changsheng waved his wide robe sleeves, and the illusory candle flame disappeared.

"During my hundred years as High Priest, I witnessed the birth of sixteen Shehuo. Each Shehuo possessed sentience from the moment of its birth. They came from the Ancestral Fire, yet they were different from it. Despite their differences, the Ancestral Fire could still ultimately connect with them."

Only the candle flame in Yun Ce's hand burned silently, never communicating with heaven and earth, nor connecting with people. Thus, this candle flame had no function of conveying messages between superiors and inferiors; it seemed that extinguishing it would be its only fate.

Today, there was an extra person in the Dragon Temple. He leaned against the fire pit just like the High Priest. He seemed to have heard the High Priest's words, yet he also seemed not to have heard them. In any case, his expression was indifferent, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.

"What has Grand Tutor Lu of Luoyang's reaction to our actions this time?" High Priest Liu Changsheng asked again. The man who had been dozing by the fire pit opened his eyes, glanced at Liu Changsheng, and said, "He disagrees with the strategy of electing an emperor. He even said that unification is as difficult as ascending to heaven, while division is as swift as lightning."

He also warned us not to try to manipulate people's hearts, that only unification is our foundation, and that once we are divided, it would be easy for us to be defeated one by one.

Liu Changsheng laughed and said, "Once we defeat the Guifang forces, we can rest easy."

The man laughed and said, "You're right. You started planning twenty years ago, and now it's time to reap the rewards. Liu Changsheng, this must be the most gratifying thing in your long life."

Liu Changsheng smiled but did not answer. He felt that the appearance of Yun Ce was the thing he was happy to see, and the rest was not worth mentioning.

"The Han Dynasty lasted for nearly 1,300 years, which is quite a long time. Liu Changsheng, as a member of the Liu imperial family, you have completely betrayed the Liu family this time. Do you plan to close the Divine Dragon Palace and disappear from public view from now on?"

Liu Changsheng laughed and said, "In my eyes, what is there to distinguish between the world? Everyone has been blessed by the ancestral fire, so we should wholeheartedly worship the ancestral fire. What's the point of talking about the Liu family or the Zhao family?"

The elderly Zhao Shu looked up at Liu Changsheng and said, "There are still some subtle differences."

Liu Changsheng laughed and said, "Put your hand into the ancestral fire."

Zhao Shu frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Liu Changsheng laughed and said, "Let go into the Ancestral Fire. Whether you are a villain or a wise and compassionate person, the Ancestral Fire will tell you."

Zhao Shu stood up, waved his arms a few times, wrapped the wide sleeves of his robe around his arms, and said casually to Liu Changsheng, "I don't need the ancestral fire to test what kind of person I am."

Liu Changsheng laughed and said, "You've been guarding the Great Wall for many years. Are you tired of it? Don't you want to be seen as a pillar of the nation anymore?"

Zhao Shudao said, "Aside from flying snow and birds flying south or north, there is only wild grass there. Liu Changsheng, it has been thirty-six years. I am so lonely."

"Why not wait a little longer? Maybe something interesting will happen right under your nose."

Zhao Shu looked at Liu Changsheng's overly aged face and said, "I'm tired of it."

After Zhao Shu left, Liu Changsheng sighed and said, "Chang'an isn't a good place either."

The Ghostly Road never connects with any major cities it passes through. The main purpose of this road is to facilitate the rapid movement of troops. The reason why Yun Ce's family's caravans have to travel more than 200 li a day is that once they are on this road, the speed of the carriages must be increased.

Moreover, the distance between one campsite and the next campsite is exactly two hundred li.

After leaving Guichi and descending to the campsite, Yun Ce glanced at his relatively orderly team and then, carrying the reclamation order given to him by Wu Tong, went to the post station government office.

"The post station has run out of food and cannot provide enough rations for your 11,000 people. Therefore, you will need to raise the funds yourselves. If you manage to do so, you will have enough to eat. If you cannot, there is nothing anyone can do."

As soon as Yun Ce entered the post station, he heard an unfamiliar voice arguing with Feng An.

(End of this chapter)