Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 142 is still a bit too much of a dimensional reduction attack.

“What if the people at Tongming Post Station don’t intend to abduct us? Wouldn’t what you’re doing be considered a massacre?” Zhang Min asked again.

Yun Ce took out the token from the Grand Marshal's residence given to him by Wu Tong and said, "Disobeying military orders is a capital offense, not to mention that they have given me far too many reasons to kill them."

"What reason?"

"They forcibly relocated all the people. I was originally going to recruit many, many people along the way to establish Yuncheng north of the Great Wall. Now that they've taken the people away, where am I supposed to find people?"

Zhang Min looked at Yun Ce and asked, "Will Yun City be extremely large?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "It will be very big."

More than 10,000 people surrounded Tongming Post Station in a noisy commotion. The people inside had naturally noticed them long ago. Yun Ce saw the postmaster again through his binoculars. He was now standing on the low stockade wall, anxiously talking to the people around him.

Chu stood in front of everyone at the main gate, pointing at the postmaster on the stockade wall and saying something loudly. Yun Ce and the others were too far away from the stockade to hear him clearly.

Yun Ce guessed that Chu's purpose in doing this was to trick them into opening the gate so that they could swarm in with bombs.

Just when Yun Ce thought Chu's plan was doomed to fail, the gates of the stronghold suddenly opened, and more than two hundred armored soldiers rushed out.

Judging from their relentless march towards Chu, it was clear that the people in the city looked down on these poor slaves who, despite their neat clothes, still couldn't escape the shabby appearance of slaves.

Watching a hundred or so bombs being thrown haphazardly into the charging armored soldiers, Yun Ce sighed and said to E Ji beside him, "You need to keep a closer eye on them in the future. That's not how you throw bombs. It's such a waste."

Just as Eji was about to agree, deafening explosions rang out one after another. The 260-plus armored soldiers were hit by 120 or 130 high-powered bombs. Yun Ce had already anticipated the outcome. He turned around, took his water bottle from Anji, took a sip, and rinsed his mouth. He had just eaten a cooked baby bean, and his mouth was sticky and uncomfortable.

After he finished rinsing his mouth and turned around again, he found that Chu had led a group of people into Tongming Post Station. At the same time, many slaves climbed over the not-so-high fortress and poured into the post station like a tide.

As bombs exploded one after another, more people entered the post station, and soon the station was filled with slaves.

Dog is right. The slaves are the real proletarians. Before they met Yun Ce, they had nothing. After they met Yun Ce, he not only gave them clean new clothes to wear, but also treated them to delicious oil-splashed noodles. Most importantly, he also gave them a lot of bombs.

Everything they have was given to them by Yun Ce, so they are very grateful.

Therefore, Yun Ce wanted to take advantage of the slaves' gratitude to implement a policy called—all spoils of war must be turned over to the public.

In other words, you have to hand over everything you capture on the battlefield, and then Yun Ce will distribute it to each person according to their level of participation.

The process of distributing things is actually a true manifestation of power. In the future, this manifestation of power will gradually appear in all aspects, such as the power to reward, the power to punish, the power to promote, the power to depose, until—the power to kill, this ultimate power.

"Go and tell Chu that all spoils must be handed over."

Yun Ce told Feng An, and Feng An rode his horse to the chaotic post station.

Eji watched the slaves carrying things in the post station with some excitement, wishing she could do it herself. Zhang Min, on the other hand, looked at the lawless slaves with a worried expression, seemingly lost in thought.

Yun Ce had no time to slowly untangle Zhang Min's knot in her heart. She would untangle it herself sooner or later. There weren't many places in the Han Dynasty that people could cherish these days, but here she would have new discoveries and new experiences every day. In time, she would definitely become like the Yun family.

Back at the camp, Yun Ce got a chair and sat at the highest point. First, Chu led a group of centurions and ten-man commanders to respectfully place rows of dusty armor at Yun Ce's feet. Then, he neatly arranged the longswords, lances, hammers, and other weapons he had just acquired in front of Yun Ce.

Then, each of them gripped their own weapon and stood guard at the camp gate, their eyes fixed intently on every returning slave.

With them setting an example, the slaves who came in displayed the good things they had collected in the post station on the open space in front of Yun Ce.

After the last little girl, only three years old, placed a wooden spoon she had captured on the ground, Yun Ce wandered among the dazzling array of spoils. He took a decent-looking lance and then didn't take a liking to anything else.

Eji took a fancy to a green coin-gilt phoenix-tail ewer with a handle. This thing came with six cups, and they were brand new and had never been used.

Feng An took a knife and a scroll of calligraphy brushes, Liang Kun took a novel-looking stone ornament, and Zhang Min just looked at it once and took nothing.

Angie, along with a group of girls and adults, happily picked out quite a few items that were closely related to money.

Overall, Yun Ce's masters weren't greedy. The slaves stared intently at their desired items, afraid someone else would snatch them away first. Chu took a complete set of armor, a lance, and a knife; it was clear he wanted to arm himself even more powerfully.

Next came the centurions and then the ten-man commanders. After they had all taken their positions, Chu designated the bravest centurion. At the centurion's command, the group of grenadiers responsible for bombing the armored soldiers came out.

When the last little girl took her desired wooden spoon, the distribution, which was solely about power, came to an end.

"Twelve people died again this time," Feng An said, clearly dissatisfied.

"The search wasn't thorough enough. A soldier was hiding in a house when he suddenly burst out and killed six people before being knocked down by a bomb. The other six people who died were killed for the same reason."

Their families were quite satisfied; after all, the meritorious officials had finished their selections, and it was their turn to choose.

Today, Eji received over 1,300 taels of gold, enough to fill a whole cart. She was in a great mood and would occasionally take out a gold ingot from the wooden box and proudly wipe it with a cloth, wanting all the gold to shine brightly.

“Next time, your slaves will know how to plunder.” Zhang Min’s cold voice rang out in the room.

"That's right. In the future, they will definitely become more skilled and braver with each battle. With experience and bravery, and bombs that can significantly level the playing field, it's impossible for our cause not to flourish."

Seeing Yun Ce's smugness, Zhang Min added, "An army needs training, guidance, troop deployment, and command to unleash its true power."

Yun Ce looked into Zhang Min's eyes and asked, "Do you know how to use a bomb?"

Zhang Min shook her head.

Yun Ce pointed outside the tent and said, "They know that they have already started using it. As long as they use it more and more often, they will naturally be able to discover the true way to use the bomb."

By then, without us teaching them, they would know how to defeat the enemy while making good use of bombs.

Honestly, what I need is a strong group of people, not just one or two strong teams.

"You think the elite troops at Iron Enclosure Pass are of little use?"

"They are certainly useful, but the strength of a few is not true strength; true strength lies in the strength of an entire population."

When a farmer dares to charge at the Guifang tribe with a pitchfork, when a shepherd dares to lash out with a whip, the strength of the Iron Wall warriors becomes less important.

Seeing that Zhang Min was about to speak, Yun Ce smiled and said, "Go back to sleep and get some rest. You'll see how my dream is gradually coming true."

After entering Sangluoyue, it gets dark early and light late. Even though a large-scale robbery took place after sunset yesterday, the rest of the night is enough for these increasingly fierce slaves to get a good night's sleep.

As soon as it was light, the convoy continued north.

When they passed by Tongming Post Station, it was quiet and deserted. The corpses that had been lying haphazardly the night before had been cleaned up by Chu and his men. Even the blood-stained ground had been shoveled up and covered with soil.

Therefore, Tongming Post Station is like those fortified villages that suddenly disappeared. You can only see the fortified village, but not the people. However, the people here had plenty of time to evacuate, and they took everything they could.

The further north you go, the fewer caravans, armies, envoys, and messengers you encounter on the road; only birds with large wings glide through the air.

Yun Ce stared at it for a long time, about to speak, when Zhang Min peeled a red fruit and placed it in his hand, saying, "This bird is called 'Slippery.' Don't be fooled by its large size and long wings; it's actually very light. An old man from Luoyang said that this bird can land on a woman's palm without feeling heavy. Therefore, it also has another name: 'Palm-Slippery.'"

It is said that this bird rises up with the rising earth energy in early spring and soars in the sky for a long time. When the frost falls, it will land on the ground and find a cave to spend the winter.

It's easy to catch, but once you do, it's not very useful. It's meaty, but it's all very light down and bones. You can't use it to transport anything; it can't carry much, not even a message. Once it lands, it won't be able to fly again until next spring.

Yun Ce stared into Zhang Min's eyes and asked, "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Zhang Min raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corner of her eyes and said, "Just like me, you are a beautiful but useless thing."

(End of this chapter)