Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 159 A Thousand Years of Weariness
No one can monopolize the world, nor can anyone possess the entire world; overall, everyone is incomplete in this respect.

Therefore, some people say that "governing a large country is like cooking a small fish."

For anyone with ambition, exchanging resources is a skill that needs to be learned. Yun Ce's exchange of military merits with Cao Kun was a classic example of such an exchange.

The insulting killing of three Japanese cavalrymen would have repercussions for Yun Ce, and all he could gain was a minor official title from Tiewei Pass.

This title is very valuable to outsiders, but it seems very useless to Yun Ce, who never intended to become a nobleman.

Now, it's Cao Kun, the eldest son of the Cao family of Qiuhe Prefecture, who stuffed the cavalry into the cow's rear end. It has nothing to do with me, Yun. He only gained a little bit of profit from it, such as a long-lasting trade route and a long-term and stable buyer.

In truth, the spirited young men of the Han Dynasty despised Yun Ce's method of exchange; they preferred to use their horses and spears to secure a bright future for themselves and their families.

There are many such people in Tiewei Pass. They are like the blazing sun under the clear sky, who like to use their enthusiasm to shine on the earth. They prefer to be the only sun in the bright clear sky. Even though the big man told him that there are three moons in the sky, they still stubbornly believe that only the full moon counts as a moon, and the other two things are meaningless and have no impact on their lives.

When Yun Ce was reading Xunzi, he came across a sentence that said there are three misfortunes in a person: first, being young and unwilling to serve elders; second, being lowly and unwilling to serve the noble; and third, being unworthy and unwilling to serve the virtuous.

When you first read this sentence, it can make an ambitious young person feel extremely frustrated, as if their newly grown waist cannot bend for these things.

However, if we rephrase this statement, it will be much more readily accepted: "A small country that does not humble itself, a weak country that does not fear the strong, a country that is rude and insults its great neighbor, a country that is greedy, slow and clumsy in making friends, is doomed!"
There isn't much difference between personnel matters and national affairs; it's just that one is small, yet people mistakenly believe it can be changed, while the other, because it's large, is regarded as the ultimate standard.

Although the Yun family originated from local powerful families, they were definitely cultured powerful families. Even someone as uncouth as Yun Linchuan was a cultured military officer who graduated from the military academy.

Therefore, when Yun's son did things, he did not follow the local strongmen's habit of using force to oppress others, but rather adopted a set of Confucian behavioral principles. It was these behavioral principles that allowed Yun's family to survive in Langpaoshui even after sudden changes.

Yun Ce knew that Cao Kun was the biggest beneficiary of this incident, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Only in the hands of the Cao family could a small achievement be made to have the greatest effect.

Back when they were on Earth, the Yun family often received such exchange opportunities.

Now that the Yun family has fallen into poverty in the Han Dynasty, it is normal for them to make such an exchange.

Yun Ce slept for less than five hours before dawn.

The old steward and the samurai leader Cao Ling seemed to have no intention of continuing to entangle with the Japanese here. When the sun came up, they broke camp and headed north.

Tiewei Pass is located 160 li to the due north. At the campsite on Black Stone Beach last night, there used to be a small fort under the jurisdiction of Tiewei Pass. When Yun Ce left, he saw that the fort had been demolished by the Japanese and only a few stone pillars remained.

Just by looking at the weathered and worn appearance of the stone pillars, Yun Ce knew that Tiewei Pass had already lost ground in its long standoff with the Japanese.

Standing on the back of the chestnut horse and looking around, there are many ruined fortresses like the Black Stone Beach. From these densely packed fortress ruins, one can imagine the magnificent scene of the Han Dynasty's fortresses standing tall on the wasteland, which compressed the Japanese invaders on the Qinghe Plateau, preventing them from making an inch of their way down the mountain.

Now, the Japanese are rampaging across the wilderness, while the Han are trapped in the isolated city of Tiewei Pass. The balance of power has shifted.

This is a very obvious change, so much so that anyone with eyes can see it clearly. At this moment, Chang'an City is experiencing an unprecedented internal strife in the Han Dynasty. They hate each other more than they hate their mortal enemies.

The cold winds all blow down from the Qinghe Plateau, just as all the threats to the Great Han currently come from the Japanese devils on the Qinghe Plateau.

The former made Yun Ce's armor so cold and untouchable in a short time, while the latter required even a fierce warrior like Yun Ce to always ensure that his weapons could be drawn from their scabbards, bow sheaths, and quivers at any time to fight the enemy.

On Black Stone Beach, this army from Qiuhe Prefecture lost a large number of scouts. Therefore, Yun Ce was appointed as the new scout leader of this army, specifically responsible for gathering security information from all directions around the army.

Fortunately, the chestnut horse is not afraid of the cold and runs fast. Even when it is running laps around the convoy, the chestnut horse can handle it with ease.

After the caravan had traveled another eighty miles across the wasteland, Yun Ce finally encountered the scout team from Tiewei Pass for the first time.

They spotted the scout team led by Yun Ce in the distance, but instead of immediately coming over to inquire, they first activated a strange device. This device would fly into the sky after the scouts pulled it hard, then spread its wings high in the air and emit a series of mournful "whooshing" sounds, like the wailing of ghosts.

Seeing their caution, Yun Ce waved for the scouts to stop and sent someone to report the encounter with the Iron Enclosure scouts to the warrior leader, Cao Ling. After waiting for half an hour, the warrior leader, Cao Ling, rode his Thunder Smoke Beast to the scouts' location and sent a scout bearing the banner of Qiuhe Prefecture to make contact with them alone.

Strangely, however much the scouts from Qiuhe Prefecture advanced, the scouts from Tiewei Pass retreated just as much, as if they dared not and did not want to make contact with the scouts from Qiuhe Prefecture.

Yun Ce frowned and asked, "What are they afraid of?"

Cao Ling sneered and said, "For more than a thousand years, Tiewei Pass and Guifang have been testing and infiltrating each other. No matter how normal something seems, they will assume it is a Guifang scheme."

"Aren't the warriors in Iron Fortress supposed to be fearless?"

Cao Ling said expressionlessly, "More than a thousand years have passed. The fearless ones are all dead. What remains are all cautious people."

"Judging from the Battle of Heishitan, the Japanese were not so powerful as to be invincible."

"That was you. Do you know that in the battle of Black Stone Beach, 381 of the most elite Qiuhe warriors of Qiuhe Prefecture died, and with the crippled and lightly wounded, there were no fewer than a thousand.

We killed only about four hundred Guifang soldiers. Among them, you, Yun Ce, alone killed one hundred and thirteen Guifang soldiers. If we exclude your achievements, even with our superior terrain in open battle, the most elite warriors in Qiuhe Prefecture could only fight the Guifang soldiers one-on-one.

"This is even after you killed those three bull-cavalrymen who could have seriously damaged the chariot formation. And thankfully, we didn't encounter any of the Guifang people's barbarian bull-cavalry this time. Even if we had encountered just one, we would have suffered heavy losses at Black Stone Beach."

While the two were chatting, the scout from Tiewei Pass finally began to cautiously make contact with the scout from Qiuhe Prefecture. Seeing how careful the scout from Tiewei Pass was, Yun Ce was very worried that if someone coughed at this moment, the scout from Tiewei Pass would run away.

Fortunately, there were no unexpected incidents when the scouts made contact. When the scouts at Tiewei Pass saw the endless convoy in front of them, they couldn't help but cheer. One of the guys riding a Thunder Smoke Beast immediately galloped towards Tiewei Pass, seemingly to report the good news.

The large group followed the scouts of Tiewei Pass and slowly advanced for another fifty miles before Yun Ce saw one simple camp after another.

When the caravan arrived, Yun Ce saw many ragged warriors emerging from the dilapidated tents. Their hair was disheveled, and their clothes were tattered. Only from the intricate old patterns on their clothes and the weapons they carried could one tell that these people were not impoverished civilians, but rather Iron Enclosure warriors whom the Han people called true heroes.

Why didn't they go inside the Iron Wall Pass, but instead endured the bitter cold outside the city?

Yun Ce found it strange and couldn't help but ask the scout from Tiewei Pass whom he had just met.

The scout said with a look of disdain, "They claim to be here to protect Iron Enclosure Pass, but we have no way of verifying their identities. The general is worried that they are spies of the Guifang people, which is why he does not allow them to enter Iron Enclosure Pass. If these people are spies, Iron Enclosure Pass will be in trouble."

Yun Ce glanced at the dilapidated tents where the people lived and continued to ask, "It seems they have been living here for a long time. Why can't we confirm their identities?"

The scout stared coldly at the group, gritting his teeth as he said, "The longer they stay, the more it shows they have ulterior motives."

Yun Ce stared at the noble scout in surprise, finding his words quite reasonable, and for a moment he couldn't find a way to refute them.

A towering, burly man stood by the roadside with his arms crossed, watching the convoy enter the city. This man did not show the frustration of being ignored by the Iron Enclosure Guards.

Instead, they watched with delight as the grain carts entered the Iron Enclosure Pass, their faces beaming with joy, as if this batch of grain and supplies were something that concerned them.

Yun Ce untied the wine flask from his waist and tossed it to the burly man, saying, "Hero, it's cold. Take a sip to warm yourself up."

The burly man grabbed the wine jug, lifted the lid and sniffed it greedily, but in the end he resisted his craving and put the lid back on, then tossed the wine jug back to Yun Ce and said, "Supplies are scarce inside the pass, it's better to leave it there."

Yun Ce tossed the wine jug back to the burly man and laughed, "The Cao family of Qiuhe Prefecture has sent enough supplies; we don't need this wine."

After saying that, he took out a large piece of beef that the chef had cooked the night before and threw it to the burly man, laughing loudly: "Try the taste of the Japanese cavalry's steed."

Don't be surprised if it tastes like dead meat. After all, I, the eldest son of the Cao family of Qiuhe Prefecture, like to smother Japanese soldiers by stuffing them up cows' asses, hahahahaha…”

(End of this chapter)