Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 186 Shehuo, Auspicious Meaning
The people Cao Kun summoned mostly arrived on Xintianyou (a type of ancient Chinese wind instrument), and a few young people from nearby also came riding Thunder Smoke Beasts.

As the giant Xintianyou slowly landed, Yun Ce inexplicably thought of the scene of all kinds of gods riding cranes and dragons to gather in the Heavenly Palace to attend the Queen Mother of the West's birthday banquet.

Putting aside everything else, the nobles of the Han Dynasty knew better than any nobles of any era Yun Ce had ever known how to make themselves appear more noble than others.

Yun Ce originally thought that "feathered robe and crane cloak" was an exaggerated description, but he didn't expect that seeing it today, he really looked like a god after wearing such clothes.

The guys who rode over on Thunder Smoke Beasts were different. They dressed themselves up like heroes, and even though it was clear they didn't have a Xintianyou to ride, they gave the impression that they had a Xintianyou at home but disdained to ride it, as if they were born to love the feeling of riding horses.

I thought this group of people would definitely complain about the Yun family's poverty, but to my surprise, they all acted very peacefully and showed great goodwill towards Yun Ce.

Of course, this is mainly due to the fact that Yun Ce gave everyone a copy of "The Art of War" as soon as they met.

"The Art of War" is Liang Kun's favorite book. He believes that such a good military treatise should be owned by everyone. Only when everyone is proficient in military strategy will the world become peaceful. This idea has a bit of the meaning of stopping killing with killing, and it also coincides with the argument of Americans who have a gun every day.

Inspired by Yun Ce, Liang Kun personally carved a woodblock edition of "The Art of War" and made five hundred copies for the Yun family at once.

He also told Yun Ce that selling books was much better than selling blank paper.

Yun Ce felt that Liang Kun was right. Currently, under Liang Kun's leadership, the scholars sent by Cao Kun were working day and night to carve templates, and the Four Books and Five Classics were already showing initial promise.

Tomorrow is the Shehuo sacrificial ceremony, but today, the noble sons invited by Cao Kun naturally enjoyed the famous food and magical bath of the Yun family.

Although they enjoyed the food served by the Yun family and expressed some delight at the bathing facilities, Yun Ce could still tell from their words that they were quite shocked by the Yun family's poverty.

Especially when they heard Cao Kun say that in order to feed those refugees and slaves, Yun Ce and his wife only had a pound of wheat or beans for a day, their respect for him was endless. It would have been even better if their eyes hadn't shown such intense contempt for idiots.

"There are countless refugees and slaves, Brother Yun, how did you come to this place?"

In the end, it was a naive young nobleman who voiced the question that had been nagging at him.

"My wife is kind-hearted and can't bear to see poor people." Yun Ce still had a good impression of this naive nobleman. At least, among this pack of wolves, there was a husky. Thinking about it made him quite happy.

"Oh dear, how can a woman be allowed to interfere in a man's affairs like this?"

"You're still young, and you haven't truly fallen for someone yet. Once you meet that special someone, you'll know that you'd do anything for her."

"If you like her, you can give her more money..."

Well, this guy is also heavily poisoned by Han chauvinism. He's basically beyond redemption. Over thousands of years, these guys have lost the ability to truly love someone. It's probably because the idea that beauty can ruin a country, brought about by Huo Qubing, has emasculated their ability to love.

In fact, if those descriptions of beautiful women ruining the country were not included in Chinese history books, the entire history would look dark and devoid of any other color.

Cao Kun made no attempt to hide the fact that there were eleven elephant-boars in the first eddy of the Qingshui River. It was strange that these eleven elephant-boars were left in the small eddy. He wanted to investigate and hoped that all the brothers present would participate. In the end, everyone would share the benefits.

This sounds exactly like the tone of a leader.

After he finished speaking, he looked around, almost as if he was about to say, "Who agrees? Who disagrees?"

However, he didn't need to say those words; his eyes had already clearly conveyed them.

After waiting a moment, seeing that no one objected, Cao Kun began to give orders directly and boldly: who would contribute how many men, how many weapons, who would be responsible for digging traps, who would be responsible for the chains...

Yun Ce was assigned to dig traps, clean up the battlefield afterwards, and cut up meat like pork, among other miscellaneous tasks. It seemed like there were a lot of things to do, but none of them required him to fight on the front lines.

However, the Yun family's strength is undeniable. What use are the women and children all over the mountains? They're nothing compared to a pig that can be trampled underfoot.

Yun Ce initially thought Cao Kun was just all talk, but after he roughly assigned the tasks and started breaking them down, explaining the goals of each task, even Yun Ce had to admit that this guy did have some real knowledge.

At least, the arrangements for hunting elephants and boars were very detailed and thoughtful. It was only after hearing his explanation that Yun Ce learned that the traps for catching elephants and boars did not need to be dug seven or eight meters deep. Instead, small pits with a diameter of one meter and a depth of no more than one meter were dug. The small pits served two purposes: one was to slow down the running speed of the elephants and boars, and the other was to break the hooves of the elephants and boars.

There are quite a few pits needed, and the Yun family has a lot of people, which is perfect for this task. By the time the arrangements were completed, it was already late at night. Long before the discussion, Cao Kun had already sent people to investigate the backwater of the Qingshui River.

After the matter was discussed, the scouts returned, looking quite miserable. They said that there were indeed an unknown number of elephant-boars in the backwater bay, but these elephant-boars were extremely irritable and would come out in droves at the slightest disturbance, not stopping until they had killed any invading enemy.

So Cao Kun sent out ten men, but only four and a half returned. The "half" refers to the guy whose legs were trampled into mud by the elephants and pigs.

After the wounded warriors were carried away, Yun Ce said to Cao Kun, "After the ceremony, I'll accompany you on a trip to Huishui Bay."

Cao Kun laughed and said, "You think you can beat a grown-up elephant pig?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "No, but because I killed a cub and also killed an adult elephant boar, if I go with you, once the elephant boar breaks free and attacks, we can run in different directions. The elephant boar will definitely chase me and let you go."

Cao Kun was so moved that he hugged Yun Ce's shoulder and patted him hard. He then said to the other noble sons, "In the future, whenever my brother or I need your help, it will be as if I, Cao Kun, am asking you for your help in person."

The sons of noble families all stood up and agreed, and many were moved to tears by the pure friendship between Yun Ce and Cao Kun.

Yun Ce didn't know whether his feelings were pure or impure; he only knew that if he hadn't shown up when Cao Kun was hunting, the guy would definitely hold a grudge.

To accommodate these sons of noble families, Yun Ce specially cleared out the entire hot spring area to house them and dispatched a large number of servants to take care of them.

There was no other way. Yun Ce couldn't send An Ji and the others there, and he couldn't let these纨绔 (sons of wealthy families) feel that the Yun family had mistreated them, so he had no choice but to use sheer numbers.

The servants of the Yun family are not very good-looking. Their only redeeming qualities are cleanliness and the ability to serve others. While the纨绔 (wan ku, spoiled young men) enjoy their service, they don't give them a second glance. However, they should be rewarded handsomely, otherwise they would lose face as纨绔.

After midnight, Yun Ce locked himself in an empty room and had E Ji hold the puppy and guard the door, not allowing anyone to enter.

According to Gouzi, Shehuo had been wanting to go out for a walk for a while, and now that the Shehuo festival had begun, Yun Ce wanted as much freedom as possible.

When a candle was lit in the room, a pale yellow halo slowly spread outwards in a ring, but the color became lighter and lighter towards the outside, until it was almost colorless and blended with the moonlight, making them indistinguishable.

The first person to sense the presence of the Shehuo was actually Cao Kun. When the halo swept over him, Cao Kun, who was originally receiving a foot massage from two maids, sat up, stretched out his hand and pressed it in the air, then withdrew his fingers in confusion, gently rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, and then dismissed the maids.

The guard leader, Cao Ling, immediately walked in, and Cao Kun said, "Did you sense the presence of the Shehuo?"

Cao Ling shook his head in confusion and said, "Our folk performances don't reach this area."

Cao Kun asked with equal confusion, "I know that too, but just now, I really felt the presence of the Shehuo (a traditional folk performance), and the feeling was exactly the same as the feeling in Huaiyang Prefecture."

After speaking, he closed his eyes and continued to feel the warmth brought to him by the folk performance. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, "I can't feel it anymore. It's probably because the power of the ancestral fire just happened to pass by here."

Cao Kun was only familiar with the energy of the Shehuo (a traditional folk performance), which is why he had some feeling about it. Yun Ce was different. After the light of the Shehuo spread, he connected closely with the earth through the cluster of Shehuo on his fingertips.

This was a feeling I had never experienced before. Through the Shehuo performance, Yun Ce felt as if his spirit was on a journey, floating lightly over the courtyard wall, over the camp, over the treetops, and then hovering along the treetops before landing. He paused for a moment on a pair of squirrels that were sleeping soundly before burrowing into the ground.

The ground was cold and damp, with grass sprouting. After being gently touched by the folk performers, the sprouting grass suddenly pushed its way out of the ground to receive the cool glow of the full moon.

Yun Ce really wanted to see people through the Shehuo performance, but the Shehuo was very disobedient. It liked trees, grasslands, squirrels, and insects under the grass.

I just don't really like people.

Even though Yun Ce tried his best to encourage Shehuo to visit Cao Kun and the others more often, Shehuo instead burrowed into the body of a fish and swam happily in the water.

A fish leaped out of the water under the full moon's glow, swishing its tail happily a few times under the bright moon. In that instant, Yun Ce saw several towering figures, as tall as mountains, standing on the riverbank, looking down quietly at the water.

　A dog's belly can't hold oil; it wants to release even a little bit.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)