Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 174 Dealing with Nobles Damages One's Moral Character

Cao Kun's seemingly casual words were actually premeditated; it was just that now was the most opportune time to say them.

This scheme should have started back at Ghost King Mountain. He claimed that he had cut off Yu Zhu's head, which was tantamount to telling Yun Ce that he owed Yun Ce a favor.

Then, out of a sense of compensation, he decided to give Yun Ce a gift that he simply couldn't refuse—a crowd of eight thousand people, consisting of scholars, young women, and boys and girls.

If Yun Ce accepts this gift, it will naturally lead to a very serious problem—a shortage of food and supplies.

Moreover, it is now the dead of winter, and the people sent here are not producing anything, only consuming resources, which will further strain Yun Ce's finances.

At this time, in order to feed the 20,000 mouths in his own manor, Yun Ce had to find another way, and this way was hard to find.

Well Pass is quite a distance from the territory of the Guifang people. Yun Ce has no way to get supplies from the Guifang people through his usual method of raiding for supplies. Besides, in the dead of winter, the Guifang people are even poorer than the Yun Clan Manor is now. Where would they find extra supplies for him to rob?

If they couldn't get supplies from the Guifang people openly, in Cao Kun's view, the only way for Yun Ce to get 20,000 coins was through underhanded means.

However, Jingkou Pass is quite far from the prosperous lands of the Han Dynasty, and because Yun Ce is also a Han Chinese, the consequences of his troops' looting are significant, and he might even become a public enemy of the Han people.

At this moment, Cao Kun suddenly offered Yun Ce a relatively perfect solution. He thought Yun Ce would agree immediately, after all, he had been planning for quite some time, and Yun Ce seemed to have no room to refuse.

Just as he submerged his head in the water again, giving Yun Ce a moment to think, Yun Ce suddenly smiled silently, picked up the wine pot placed on the stone slab, and took a sip from mouth to mouth.

When Cao Kun raised his head from the water with a smug look on his face, he blew out a breath and, ignoring the water blurring his vision, hurriedly asked, "How is it? Should I have him send over the grain and supplies to help you out of your predicament?"

Yun Ce shook his head calmly and said, "My five hundred cavalrymen are an army. The army's duty is to protect, to kill the enemy, and to nip any force that poses a threat to the Han Dynasty in the bud."

They were not assassins, not bandits, and certainly not killers.

I do need those provisions to get through the famine, but I absolutely cannot obtain them by altering the army's attributes. That would be a great disrespect to my men and would turn a real army into a bandit army.

Brother Cao, as the heir of the Cao family, I think you understand that actions always leave traces. Even if others don't know, Heaven and Earth, and yourself, always do.

Once an army does something that is inconsistent with its status and profits from it, it will do it a second time, a third time. Eventually, they will become bandits and will no longer be the proud and glorious army they once were.

Therefore, Brother Cao, I will not agree to your request this time.

Cao Kun nodded, his expression unchanged, and continued to smile, "Alright, it's not an easy thing to accomplish after all, so it's understandable that you have concerns."

Cao Kun stopped mentioning the matter of asking Yun Ce to send troops, and Yun Ce naturally stopped bringing it up as well. The two of them took a bath with smiles on their faces, complaining together about how undignified the Yun family's servants were to guests. It wasn't until Cao Kun was invited to eat a bowl of the Yun family's famous oil-splashed noodles that Cao Kun left on a Xintianyou (a type of Chinese folk song).

After Cao Kun left, Yun Ce convened a meeting to discuss how to deal with the current predicament.

"Look, this is how it is. I declined Cao Kun's invitation. Now, we should study how to get more food from this wasteland to feed our people."

After Yun Ce recounted the entire deal proposed by Cao Kun to everyone, Qin Shu stood up, bowed deeply to Yun Ce, and said, "We are not assassins, not thieves, and the general is not a bandit leader, much less a rebel leader. You are right, we are an army, a dignified army of the Han Dynasty."

If food is scarce, we can eat less; if there is no food, we can venture deep into the wilderness to search. Although it is not autumn when food is plentiful, as long as we search diligently, we will eventually find something.

We can still go hunting, we can go fishing, General, I believe we will definitely overcome this difficulty.”

Yun Ce looked at his deputy with satisfaction. He was right. This food shortage was not necessarily a bad thing for them. It was an opportunity to unite everyone as one.

Zhang Min then stood up and said, "We came to Jingkou Pass on the orders of the imperial court. Now that we are short of food, I think asking the court for food and supplies is a viable option, especially from Wu Tong. I think there is a high chance that we can get food and supplies from him."

He Qingfang continued, "Because of the great chaos that occurred in Chang'an, the governors and powerful families in various places have begun to become disloyal to the court and have been encroaching on the passes along the Great Wall. At this time, as long as we show our loyalty to the court, I believe the court will be happy to see our presence."

As long as those in power aren't too stupid, too greedy, or inherently aligned with the governors and powerful families, we should be able to obtain the full support of the imperial court.

“Every year in the depths of winter, large flocks of mountain goats would descend from the Qinghe Plateau to escape the cold. Before the Great Wall was built, the goats’ footprints could even extend deep into the Qiuhe Prefecture area.”

We tried hunting them before, but unfortunately, there were always many wild beasts following the herds of ibex. Once we encountered a beast called "Ning," and after three of the general's guards were bitten to death, we gave up hunting ibex.

"The generals of the past were afraid of the ferocious beast 'Ning,' but I believe that with your bravery, even if 'Ning' comes, its fur will become your bedding." "Also, there used to be a very good pasture for horses southwest of Jingkou Pass, but then, for some reason, a large group of rabbits came and dug holes in the ground, ruining that pasture."

General, if you can drive away the surrounding wild beasts, and give me three hundred men, I am determined to use this little bit of winter time to catch all the rabbits on that grassland.

Firstly, it would provide plenty of food; secondly, without the rabbits, the pasture would recover, becoming an excellent horse-breeding ground.

The others also offered their opinions. Even Tan Kai, the deputy general of Jingkou Pass, Sun Li, the chief clerk, and Li Cheng, the advisor, all gave their suggestions on how to obtain food from the wilderness in winter. After all, they had been in Jingkou Pass the longest and had the most experience in enduring hardship.

The meeting concluded, and many solutions to the current predicament were put forward. Yun Ce also felt that as long as the decisions made at the meeting were implemented well, Jingkou Pass would be able to overcome the current difficulties.

"Alright, this time we'll fight against fate for a chance to survive."

Yun Ce made the final decision.

Back at the hot spring courtyard, Yun Ce saw that E Ji was holding a meeting with many women. It was said that she was going to take the women to the wilderness to collect the remaining grain from the autumn harvest.

"Madam, there's dog skin."

Eji tugged the tail of the puppy in her arms, and saw the puppy open its mouth like a cave, and then bite a table to pieces in one bite.

Eji patted the puppy's bottom and said, "This used to be the King of Dogskin, we're not afraid of dogskin."

"Madam, I've heard there are also abandoned beasts."

"Don't worry, the general will capture all the abandoned beasts and skin them."

"Madam, I've also heard about ferocious beasts."

"Get lost. If we encounter a ferocious beast, I'll throw you over there first. Once the beast eats you, it'll be full, and we'll be safe..."

Now divide into teams of ten, or one hundred men per team. We will form one hundred teams of one hundred men each. Each team will be assigned two warriors for protection and one cavalryman to patrol the area. We will choose a different location each day. Don't forget to record the details and make sure there are no duplicates..."

Seeing that Eji had organized the people in a very orderly manner, Yun Ce did not go in and went straight back to the inner courtyard.

The dog has been quiet these past few days, and the Dragon Ball seems unchanged. Only the folk performance continues to burn quietly, as serene as a gentle flame maiden.

"Should we plant the Shehuo now?" Yun Ce asked Gouzi.

"I'm researching how to make you feel integrated with the folk performance."

"Me, fused with the folk performance? How can a carbon-based life form and a plasma form merge?"

"I've already told you, don't continue to use your Earth experience to look at things on this planet. That Yuzhu was able to transform from a useless person into a thousand-man general who could fight you to a standstill by fusing with some energy bodies we don't know about."

Yun Ce, you need to open your mind, learn, and keep up with the times…

After Political Commissar Gouzi appeared, Yun Ce basically lost interest in talking to him. This guy probably received too much political education in the past, and no matter what he was doing, he could smoothly shift the topic to the theme of ideological education.

When Yun Ce returned home and was about to take a bath, he discovered that the chestnut horse's massive body was already lying in the hot spring pool, with its rear end blocking the water outlet. A lot of water had been squeezed out by its body, spilling all over the floor.

Yun Ce came to the edge of the pool, stroked the chestnut horse's big head and said, "You're so smart now, when will you become a spirit and stand up to help me?"

The chestnut horse seemed to understand Yun Ce's words, nuzzling Yun Ce's hand with its big head, as if to say, "It's not far, it's not far."

When Eji returned, Yun Ce was wiping the chestnut horse's coat. In the past, it wouldn't need wiping as it would shake itself, but now it doesn't like to shake its coat anymore, probably because it thinks it's stupid to do so.

Eji picked up another towel to wipe the chestnut horse's mane, and said to Yun Ce as she did so, "My lord, you can actually sleep with Zhang Min first. Even if there are any issues with the offspring, it's just a child born to a concubine."

Yun Ce was startled and looked at E Ji, asking, "How did you know I wasn't feeling well?"

(End of this chapter)