Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 182 With enough sand, there will always be some gold hidden.

Yun Ce looked at the refugees, women and children huddled in the camp. There were many of them, at least tens of thousands, and they were all dressed in various strange and impoverished manners.

Indeed, the women and children who managed to wander to Yun Family Manor were basically selected through a rigorous process.

The pretty women and children were already picked and sold by Lange & Söhne.

The strong men had long been selected by Cao and taken to work on the Great Wall.

What's left for Yun Ce are these worthless people?
Yun Ce wasn't surprised by this. It was similar to what he had seen when he went to the countryside in the northwest of Earth. All the good-looking, strong, and educated people had left their hometowns to make money elsewhere, leaving behind those who looked much like these migrants.

On Earth, Yun Ce didn't expect to revitalize the countryside with these people. Similarly, here, Yun Ce doesn't expect to build the Yun City he longs for with these people.

Eji could not bear to watch more than 10,000 people be devoured by wild beasts, nor could she bear to watch them freeze to death or starve to death.

Similarly, Yun Ce couldn't do it either...

If they can't do it, it means their scheme has succeeded.

However, regardless of who the scheme comes from, Yun Ce intends to accept it.

However, those people had better not let him get through this most difficult time. Once he does, those bloodthirsty bastards will never have a good life again.

Because, once they get through this period, these people will become the core of the Yun family, and an unshakable core. Moreover, this core will generate tremendous attraction.

An unattractive woman in the crowd might very well be the sweetheart of an equally unattractive man, and the thin, monkey-like child in her arms might very well have been cherished and kissed countless times by an equally thin man.

Whose son are those elderly couple? And whose children are those homeless little kids?

Yun Ce believed that as long as they were treated well, this place would surely become the place north of the Great Wall that could best unite people's hearts.

The winter month is drawing to a close, and the twilight years are approaching.

The remaining snow on the sunny slope has begun to melt, and even the thick ice on the Qingshui River has broken off from the river surface. If you look closely, you will find that countless water droplets are falling into the river from the bottom of the ice.

This is a sign that spring is coming soon.

Eji sat in front of the low table, diligently gnawing on a bird's leg. Her teeth were sharp, and she gnawed the bird's leg bone, making a crunching sound.

While gnawing on a bird's leg, she swore to Yun Ce that she could eat less of it in the future.

Zhang Min, who was also gnawing on a bird's leg, glanced disdainfully at Eji. Noticing that Eji was eating very quickly while she was eating more slowly, she quickly lowered her head and ate voraciously. She knew very well that if she ate too slowly, Eji would definitely come over and snatch her food.

The two finished eating the roasted bird almost at the same time. Just as Eji was considering whether to suck the fat off the bones again, Zhang Min said, "So, the Fire Clan has fallen into the hands of the Cao family?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "Cao Kun did a very clever thing. He stirred up internal strife within the Fire Clan, so all the killings could be attributed to people within the Fire Clan. The Fire Clan may seem independent now, but in reality, they follow Cao Kun's lead."

To be fair, Cao Kun did a brilliant job at Danwang Mountain this time, and there's nothing to criticize.

Zhang Min wiped her greasy mouth and smiled, "I will pass this message on to Wu Tong."

"What use would it be to pass it on to him? Does he still have the ability to extend his reach north of the Great Wall?"

Zhang Min sighed and said, "I've heard even worse news. Of the 300 military prefectures in the Han Dynasty, less than half are now willing to listen to the central government. If the remaining 300 tributary prefectures weren't worried about their ancestral fire being consumed by the ancestral fire, they might have fled even faster."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "Perhaps we've been living in peace for too long, and everyone wants to experience a period of turmoil."

Zhang Min said, "It must be because people have been living the same way for too long that they want some change, which is why they are acting recklessly and without regard for others."

Yun Ce said, "Knowing full well that their behavior is inappropriate, yet acting recklessly from top to bottom, is a path to death."

Zhang Min leaned against Yun Ce's chest and whispered, "The more chaotic things get, the more opportunities a man of talent and virtue like you will have."

Yun Ce raised his hand and slapped her butt, saying, "You don't need to keep trying to incite my ambition. I don't have any ambition myself, only some things that I have to do."

Since Yun Ce took in the refugees, there have been refugees coming from the east to seek refuge in Yun Clan Manor. Yun Ce's policy toward refugees is to accept them all.

Each person only received three ounces of food per day, and the remaining amount had to be found by the refugees themselves in the wilderness. In order to expand the refugees' food-finding range, Yun Ce had to start his work of driving away wild beasts once again.

Each person receives three liang of grain per day, which is half a bowl of wheat or half a bowl of beans. In better times, they may also receive half a bowl of grass.

Cooking wheat grains with cogongrass roots provides a lubricant to the otherwise coarse and difficult-to-swallow wheat grains, making them easy to swallow and giving them a pleasant cogongrass aroma.

Of course, if you want to eat well, it depends on your luck. If you happen to catch a fish from a melting ice cave, your dinner will be very plentiful, with beans and fish. If you cook them together, you can eat for two days if you are frugal.

Seeing people constantly developing new recipes, Yun Ce was very pleased. Although this was part of self-rescue, in the future, when things got better, if someone improved these cobbled-together recipes, they might be able to create unique culinary recipes belonging to the Han Dynasty.

The haphazardly hummed songs, the hastily cobbled-together meals, the haphazardly made handy tools, and the random musings—after the passage of time and the persistent improvements made by people, these things will eventually be integrated into the civilization and culture of the Han Dynasty, and their crudeness and chaos will no longer be visible.

Yun Ce himself is a culinary expert, but he never spends his free time teaching these refugees how to make delicious food.

When food is prepared deliciously, people will eat more. In times of food scarcity, eating should be for survival, not the fallacy that living is for eating.

As long as you don't care about color, aroma, or taste, there are actually quite a lot of things to eat in the wilderness. Many grass seeds actually contain a lot of starch. Just pick them off the grass spikes, crush them, carefully blow off the outer shells, and put them in an earthenware pot to simmer overnight. That way, you'll have a pot of fragrant grass seed porridge with a slightly astringent taste.

After drinking it, Yun Ce felt that this stuff was actually quite filling, but the yield was too low. It might take two or three days to gather enough grass seeds for a pot of porridge.

Compared to other places in the Han Dynasty, Yun Family Manor was undoubtedly a very poor place. However, something strange happened: in this poor place, Yun Family Manor, the brilliance of humanity shone like an aurora, illuminating this wild land.

The people were extremely friendly to each other. Whether they were the slaves who came here with Yun Ce the first time, the prisoners who came later, or the refugees who came last, their relationship was extremely harmonious.

Yun Ce attributed this phenomenon to poverty.

Honestly, in a place where everyone is generally poor and there's no way to get rich quickly, the relationships between people are naturally excellent.

Because everyone eats the same food, lives the same place, and dresses the same, there's nothing to compare. People naturally become more tolerant and generous towards others and themselves.

However, Yun Ce did leave a special passage. This passage was prepared for talented people in the camp. As long as you can show your true abilities, even if it is just a special skill, you can go to Yun Ce to try. If you pass Yun Ce's test, you can immediately become a manager in the camp.

Not only will a day's rations increase from three ounces to half a pound, but it will also allow one to manage a group of people.

Ever since a man who claimed to know how to make bricks was tested by Yun Ce and became the factory manager of the camp's brick and tile factory, many people have come to Yun Ce for help.

Most people can't do it, for example, being good at catching fish, running very fast, being very strong, or being able to understand bird calls...

These people are naturally not suitable to be managers, but Yun Ce still keeps a record of their abilities so that they can be used when needed.

There was a young man with a broad upper body and short legs who had been secretly observing Yun Ce for several days. Finally, just when Yun Ce was about to lose patience, he took the initiative to approach Yun Ce and claimed that he wanted to treat him to a bowl of grass and shellfish porridge.

In the refugee camp, grass and grain, the most filling food, were hard to come by. In a camp of more than 10,000 people, only 30 catties of grass and grain were distributed every day.

When the oddly shaped young man offered to treat Yun Ce to grass and seashell porridge, Yun Ce was initially reluctant to eat it. After all, the young man only had three ounces of grain, and even with the seashells he found by breaking open the ice, it wasn't enough for two people.

It wasn't until the boy told Yun Ce that he came from the Fire Clan that Yun Ce reluctantly ate a bite of the so-called grass and shell porridge.

This is hard to swallow. The shellfish meat may not have been cleaned properly and contains a lot of mud and sand, which can easily hurt your teeth if you bite into it.

If Yun Ce hadn't had high hopes for this fire tribesman, he definitely wouldn't have had the willpower to eat that half bowl of fishy, ​​sticky stuff.

After the young man finished half a bowl of grass and shellfish porridge with great willpower, he saw Yun Ce smiling at him, and his face, which was not dark, turned bright red.

“My lord should have known my identity from the first day I entered the refugee camp.”

Yun Ce nodded and said, "The Fire Clan has a unique physical appearance, which is something that most Han Chinese people know."

"Why didn't you come looking for me? You must have heard the rumors. I am Huo Youming, the young master of the Fire Clan who escaped from Danwang Mountain."

Yun Ce looked at the young man in front of him and said, "The young master of the Fire Clan is called Huo Liao, not Huo Youming."

(End of this chapter)