Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 200: Isn't my plan brilliant?

Yun Ce knew people whose names weren't very pleasant to hear, such as Cao Kun, Peng Zeng, Liu Changsheng, and Wu Tong. The same was true for women's names, such as E Ji, Zhang Min, and Hong Niangzi.

However, the names of the Guifang people are quite nice, such as Yuheng, Yuzhu, Yusang, and this damned Lianchengbi in front of me.

Liancheng, your mother; Chengbi, your father—that's one thing, but you actually dared to touch my mutton soup! You're courting death!

Yun Ce's kick was quite skillful. It was a move that Gouzi had designed for him, based on the principle that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Gouzi knew that Yun Ce didn't have much talent for martial arts and used to rely on the strength given to him by the dragon and his thick skin to get by. Now that he had internal energy, doing this would be a laughing stock.

Yun Ce is currently very strong and fast. Gouzi believes that as long as Yun Ce is strong enough and fast enough, he can kill all the enemies in front of him.

Therefore, when simplifying the Yun Ce movement, you can eliminate the unnecessary movements that you might unconsciously create and use the most direct way to exert force, which is to directly exert force by activating your internal energy and then select the nearest target to attack.

As Lian Chengbi lifted the pot lid, his head turned towards Yun Ce to avoid the steam, making him the closest to Yun Ce. Naturally, Yun Ce's foot kicked out at him.

Everyone saw Yun Ce raise his foot to kick Lian Chengbi, but no one saw clearly the movement of Yun Ce's leg in the air. They only saw Yun Ce's foot hit Lian Chengbi's head hard with a loud 'boom'.

The kick was extremely powerful, causing Lian Chengbi's facial features to shift violently in an instant. His head slammed into his left shoulder first, then bounced up quickly. Before his head could straighten, Yun Ce's next kick landed on Lian Chengbi's head once again.

With the force of both feet almost combined, Lian Chengbi's head and body flew into the air and crashed into the solid stone wall of the Great Wall watchtower with a 'bang'. His armor shattered the moment it touched the stone wall.

Yun Ce strode forward and kicked Lian Chengbi in the abdomen again with great force, forcefully changing the direction of Lian Chengbi's fall. He flew straight towards the second floor of the watchtower. With a 'crack', Lian Chengbi's leg, which had been thrown up, actually smashed through the wooden plank of the second floor, firmly wedging Lian Chengbi's body on it.

Everyone looked up and saw Lian Chengbi's body limply stuck on the floor, his hands hanging down, his head shaking violently like a pendulum. Only then did they take a deep breath and look at Yun Ce, who had just caught the spoon and the wooden bowl.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Lian Chengbi, who was just a moment ago full of energy, became a dead man in an instant.

Yun Ce put the lid back on the pot that Lian Chengbi had lifted, and said to Zhao Shu, "It's still a little undercooked."

Zhao Shu laughed and said, "Young friend, I cannot eat for free."

Then Yun Ce saw Zhao Shu, who had been sitting on the wooden stump, open his arms and his hands into claws, grabbing the throats of the armored soldiers sitting on either side of him. He pulled his arms back, and the bodies of the two armored soldiers quickly closed together. A series of teeth-grinding sounds of bones breaking rang out. Before the two armored soldiers' corpses hit the ground, Zhao Shu waved his large sleeves, like an old gray butterfly fluttering in the narrow watchtower.

As the last armored soldier drew his sword, Zhao Shu's fist landed on his forehead, and the soldier's eyeballs immediately flew out of their sockets, landing wet on the ground. The fledgling eagle, seeing this, quickly darted out from under the chestnut horse's blanket and swallowed the two eyeballs in two gulps.

Yun Ce pulled a corpse over and placed it under his buttocks, then turned to Zhao Shu, who had sat down again, and said, "How did a renowned general end up in a situation where even the Gui Fang people can bully you at will?"

Zhao Shu laughed and said, "If I don't do this, how can a hero like you replace the incompetent Liu Che as the garrison commander of Jingkou Pass?"

Just as Yun Ce was about to lift the pot lid, he noticed blood on it. When he looked up, he saw blood dripping down Lian Chengbi's drooping hand. He jumped up, pulled Lian Chengbi's body out of the floorboards, and casually threw it out through the lookout hole.

Zhao Shu also felt that the bloodstains on the corpses affected his appetite, so he only kept two corpses that had died from internal injuries to use as stools, and threw the remaining nine corpses out of the lookout post.

Yun Ce took out another wooden bowl, filled it to the brim with mutton, and handed it to Zhao Shu, saying, "Eat the meat first, then soak the flatbread and drink the soup. From what you just said, there seems to be a hidden story behind it?"

Zhao Shu grabbed a piece of mutton and put it in his mouth. He twirled it with his tongue, then turned his head and spat out a mutton bone towards the lookout. With a sigh, he said to Yun Ce, "The Great Wall garrison has long since rotted away, and the Iron Enclosure Pass has long lost its former power. The Guifang people are also eyeing us covetously. If I don't come up with a solution, when the Guifang people march south, who can the Great Wall defense line stop?"

While gnawing on mutton, Yun Ce said, "You've served as the Grand Commander of the Great Wall for thirty-six years."

Zhao Shu chuckled and said, "Do you know how long the person who has been stationed on the Great Wall the longest in the world has been stationed there?"

Seeing that Yun Ce seemed to be thinking, Zhao Shu said directly, "Don't guess anymore. Let me tell you, the family that has been stationed on the Great Wall the longest has been stationed there for a full thousand years."

Seeing that Yun Ce put down the piece of meat and seemed about to speak again, Zhao Shu continued, "Do you think that the longer you stay in this world, the more you will feel for the Great Wall and the more likely you are to share life and death with the Great Wall defense line?"

"Don't speak, listen to what I have to say. The longer they guard the Great Wall, the more unbalanced they become. Why can other families and people live a life of debauchery in prosperous places like Chang'an and Luoyang, while they have to stay away from the protection of Shehuo and starve on the Great Wall?"
A thousand years, eight hundred years, five hundred years, three hundred years, a hundred years—even if they were full of ambition at the beginning, after such a long time, the guilt towards their wives, the debts they owed to their children, and the worries about their descendants were what those soldiers guarding the Great Wall were thinking about.

Yun Ce raised his head and said, "That's also..."

Zhao Shu roared, "Shut your stinking mouth! Are you trying to say that the imperial court treats the Great Wall garrison soldiers well, rewards them generously, and bestows upon them honors?"

Let me tell you, it never has.

In the third year of the Dazheng era, the grain reserves along the Great Wall were based on a six-month supply, and the soldiers' salaries were paid every three months. Although they were not generous, they were enough to support the family.

In the fifth year of the Dazheng era, the imperial court stipulated that the Great Wall garrison should have one supply of grain every three months. Listen carefully, it should be one supply every three months, not three months' worth of grain.

In the seventh year of the Dazheng era, when Zhang Qing, the Marquis of Yongjia in the Northern Province, rebelled and his army marched straight towards Chang'an, it was I who led 80,000 Great Wall Iron Cavalry to rush to the aid of the capital. We finally intercepted Zhang Qing's rebel army in Liangzhou and fought a great battle with him. More than 30,000 of my 80,000 iron cavalry were killed in the battle, which finally interrupted Zhang Qing's offensive and gave the troops from all over the country who came to the aid of the emperor enough time.

After Zhang Qing was executed, the soldiers were overjoyed and waited for the court to reward them for their merits. But those bastards not only did not reward the soldiers, but also used the charge of dereliction of duty to force my soldiers to stop demanding military merits and rewards.

From then on, the backbone of the Great Wall defenders was broken.

Then, in the ninth year of the Dazheng era, the court, citing the excessive number of troops guarding the Great Wall, issued that damned "Essentials of Streamlining the Army and Simplifying Administration," which reduced military rations and pay to only 60% of previous years. I had no choice but to dismiss 210,000 troops guarding the Great Wall.

Then, there were no more Great Wall defenders; only a bunch of walking corpses remained.

Seeing Zhao Shu's agitated expression, Yun Ce poured the already cold mutton back into the pot, filled a bowl with hot mutton for him, and placed it in his hand, saying, "Eat meat, eat meat."

Zhao Shu placed the wooden bowl in his hand on the wooden pot lid and said, "Over the years, in order to get more food and military pay for the Great Wall garrison, I have done everything I could to flatter them, just thinking of leaving them a chance to survive. And then, as you know, the Grand Marshal and the Emperor started fighting."

The fighting was devastating; Chang'an was truly awash in blood. While the number of corpses might not have reached a million, three hundred thousand was more than enough. At that point, Chang'an was already short of supplies and money. How much do you think would be left for the Great Wall garrison?

Yun Ce laughed and said, "Then you'll lead your army to seek food in Chang'an?"

Zhao Shu laughed loudly: "The soldiers all say that only during those days in Chang'an did they feel like human beings. They had enough to eat, warm clothes, and plenty of money. It was a rare good life for them."

The problem was that the time was too short. That damned Zhou Bo recruited the soldiers too quickly. After the emperor gave them money for a while, he realized something was wrong and stopped giving them money.

Then, I was driven out of Chang'an and turned into a pile of stinking dog excrement that everyone found disgusting.

Everyone says I am the greatest villain of our time. Young man, as the beneficiary of my reckless actions, tell me, am I a villain?

Yun Ce laughed and said, "You are a villain. At least when history books record you, you are described as an infamous spendthrift, the culprit who destroyed the Great Wall defense line, and you are destined to be infamous for all time."

Moreover, there's no way to overturn your conviction, because everything you've done recently has solidified those charges.

Zhao Shu laughed heartily and said, "After I fell on hard times, I personally walked through all seventy-eight passes of the Great Wall. Guess what I found?"

Yun Ce said, "At each checkpoint, banners are fluttering, drums are beating, and there is a murderous aura."

Zhao Shu took a bite of the cold mutton and said happily, "Indeed, all seventy-eight passes under my jurisdiction are lifeless and exude an aura of death."

Haha, the garrison has been replaced. Those who no longer wanted to guard the Great Wall have left, and a group of ambitious opportunists have come to treat the Great Wall as their own territory.

Since the Han Chinese and the Guifang are mortal enemies, no matter which Han Chinese comes to guard the Great Wall, the final result will still be a deadly battle with the Guifang. Does it really matter who owns the territory or who guards it?
"Yun Ce, look at my plan, isn't it brilliant?"

(End of this chapter)