Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 213 Path to Life and Path to Death

Cao Kun frowned and said, "This is a method only impoverished people would use."

As Yun Ce strapped on his weapons, he said, "Am I not obviously broken enough?"

Cao Kun also found a relatively clean corpse to sit down on and said to Yun Ce, "Pingzhou is about to be dismembered. Now that you have obtained Xiangcheng, do you intend to go any further?"

Yun Ce moved Yan Fei's head aside, sat back down on the body of the man who was said to have broad shoulders and could carry a king, picked up the wine pot there, took a sip of wine, and said to Cao Kun: "Yun Clan Manor is the production site, Jingkou Pass is to ensure that Yun Clan Manor has a reliable retreat in times of crisis, and Xiangcheng is a window for the Yun Clan to do business outside."

Currently, the development of Yunshi Manor is far from complete. Although the construction of Jingkou Pass is of paramount importance, not a single brick or stone has been replaced yet. Now that Xiangcheng has been captured, the market also needs to be rebuilt.

These three places, though connected, could form a self-sufficient little kingdom. How many years do you think it would take me to truly connect them and achieve the state I envision?

Cao Kun pondered for a moment and said, "Thirty years, I suppose."

Yun Ce sighed and said, "You and I both know that the Gui Fang army's southward advance is imminent. Do you think they will give me thirty years?"

Furthermore, Pingzhou is about to fall apart, and the relationships here will become very complicated. Do you think I can still have the peaceful development environment I had last year?

Brother Cao, I am not you. You have a powerful family backing you. Whatever you want to do, just give the order, and your family will provide the manpower, money, and connections. You don't need to worry about it. You just need to do your job well and you will succeed.

Even someone like you thinks it will take at least thirty years to manage this place well. Do you think that besides being a good fighter, I also have the ability to turn stones into gold and make people bow down to me?

When I came to Jingkou Pass, your Cao family had not yet extended its reach to the Great Wall defense line, so it cannot be said that the Yun family was encroaching on your Cao family's territory.

"I just happened to choose this place, which became the new place for my family's rise."

Yun Ce spoke very sincerely. When talking to someone like Cao Kun, only the truth can be taken seriously and weighed against the pros and cons.

If it's a lie or a cliché, people will see through it at a glance and respond with even more false and formulaic words. In this respect, no one can compare with the aristocratic families.

If you don't believe me, go and look through the history books. From Li Si's "Letter to the Queen Dowager of Zhao" to "Chulong Persuades the Queen Dowager of Zhao", "On Accumulating Grain", "Longzhong Dialogue", "Memorial to the Throne", "Ten Thoughts for Emperor Taizong", "On Teachers", "Letter to Emperor Renzong on Current Affairs", "Memorial on Governance" and so on, which of these successful masterpieces did not begin with the truth, be based on genuine feelings, and end with the intention of speaking for your benefit?

Words must be logical and truthful to carry weight; otherwise, no matter how much you say, it's nothing but empty talk.

What Yun Ce said to Cao Kun were all obvious facts. Yun Ce didn't even hide his ambition to build a large family, because only by saying so could he conform to the worldview of Cao Kun and other scions of aristocratic families.

As for deeper matters, it's not that Yun Ce doesn't want to talk about them, but rather that people like Cao Kun simply cannot understand them, or at least they will never understand what 'serving the people' means.

Cao Kun smiled and asked, "Was this battle arduous?"

Yun Ce took the tattered armor he had removed and threw it in front of Cao Kun, saying, "Look for yourself, every hole on this represents that I almost died once."

Others might think it's unnecessary, but Lao Cao, you wouldn't say that to me too, would you?

Cao Kun looked at Yun Ce's armor, which was almost riddled with holes, and then at the blood-stained cloth undershirt he was wearing. He shook his head and said, "I won't say that. I will only say that you did a good job. If I were in your position, I would have done the same thing."

Yun Ce looked up at the setting sun and said indifferently, "Whether a family can rise or not depends less on individual efforts and more on luck."

When Xiang Yu died at Gaixia, the merit of slaying a general was divided among many people. Among them was Yang Xi, an unknown soldier who had cut off Xiang Yu's thigh. Based solely on the thigh that Xiang Yu had retrieved after his suicide, Yang Xi was granted the title of Marquis of Chiquan. This family, built by such an unknown soldier, saw its great-grandson, Yang Chang, become Prime Minister by the time King Huo came to the Han Dynasty.

Cao Kun took the wine flask from Yun Ce's hand, took a sip, and said, "Your family seems to be very familiar with the affairs of our ancestral land."

Yun Ce said, "What can we do if we're not familiar with it? Many things passed down from the Yellow Emperor are problematic. Even something as good as the 'well-field system' has been lost. My ancestor once said, 'Our ancestors cannot be followed blindly,' so our whole family had no choice but to go to the wilderness and become wild men."

Cao Kun frowned and said, "At least finish what you said."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "I'm telling you this as a story. I won't accept what you want to say to others. Listen carefully, the whole sentence is like this: Changes in the heavens are not to be feared, ancestral laws are not to be followed blindly, and public opinion is not to be heeded."

Cao Kun looked at Yun Ce and said, "After hearing you say that, I truly believe that your ancestors were once very wealthy."

Yun Ce asked, puzzled, "What is there for me to be proud of, coming from a humble background?"

Cao Kun shook his head and said, "No, it's your behavior and the words of your ancestors that are passed down from generation to generation. The spirits and monsters in the mountains and fields don't have such abilities." Yun Ce frowned and said, "How did I become a spirit or monster in the mountains and fields again?"

Cao Kun pointed to the corpses scattered all over the ground and said, "They believe that this was beyond human capability."

Yun Ce said, "King Huo once killed 20,000 in battle, why does no one question that?"

Cao Kun said, "You killed three thousand people right before my eyes, while King Huo's 20,000 were far away."

Yun Ce looked at Cao Kun without saying a word, and Cao Kun continued, "Using the name of the God of Slaughter to buy ourselves some time to develop is probably the best way we can find right now."

I understand that if the family wants to develop, expand, and rise, you, as a scion of a once-prosperous family, must be eager to restore the glory of your ancestors.

However, I advise you not to rush. It's okay to pretend to be a lone wolf, but don't actually become one. Otherwise, your dream of restoring your ancestors' glory will be completely shattered.

You killed Yan Fei, and no one dares to disrespect your merit in killing a general. Therefore, Xiangcheng is yours. However, you, Yun Ce, are not the only contributor to taking Xiangcheng.

so……"

"So, what am I left with?"

"A city, some people, some money and grain."

Yun Ce rubbed the dried scabs between his fingers with his hands, and looking at the blood powder falling down, Yun Ce said, "For the sake of our brotherhood, leave me some more."

Cao Kun stood up and said, "Ten days from now, you will be able to take over Xiangcheng. Before that, Xiangcheng belongs to everyone."

After watching Cao Kun leave, Yun Ce continued to clean up the battlefield by himself, and he was busy with this for the entire night.

When the sun rose, the chestnut horse escorted the herd of warhorses, carrying even more armor and weapons, back to Jingkou Pass. Yun Ce slept soundly for half a day on the sunny slope.

I got up around noon, looked at Xiangcheng not far away, and walked over there.

"Breaking through a city" is actually a very cruel phrase, not much better than a massacre, and often even more tragic.

Under normal circumstances, emperors or prestigious commanders would not allow the massacre of a city, as it would damage their reputation.

However, the soldiers below had won a bloody battle, and the city was actually their wealth. Under the condition that massacre of the city was not allowed, the generals would usually use the pretext of maintaining order to declare how many days the rebellion would last. Within the specified time, burning, killing and looting were allowed. Once the time was up, the rebellion would end immediately.

Of course, some generals would order the sword to be shelved after three days, some after six days, and some after nine or twelve days. During the Five Barbarian Invasions, Shi Hu took Handan and only shelved the sword three months later. At that time, apart from their own people, there were basically no survivors in Handan. In the end, the only remaining women were eaten as sheep.

Xiangcheng, the sword will be sheathed in ten days...

The city was in chaos, with soldiers everywhere and ordinary people wandering around like headless flies.

Seeing the people suffering, Yun Ce did not take any action and quietly walked through the city.

Finally, he seemed exhausted, so he found a crossroads and sat down cross-legged. Because he hadn't bathed, he still looked terrifying, and his murderous aura was so strong it almost permeated the air. Even though he was sitting there, because of the two blood-stained meteor hammers in front of him, the people in the city who didn't know him didn't dare to approach him.

A young woman carrying an infant stumbled out of the house, followed by two grinning Cao soldiers. With nowhere to go, the woman, seemingly possessed by some unknown intelligence, suddenly knelt down in front of Yun Ce with her child in her arms. The two soldiers, with some unknown courage, actually bypassed Yun Ce and tried to drag the mother and daughter away.

The meteor hammer on the ground flew up like a snake, carrying the bodies of two soldiers, and crashed heavily into a thick brick wall. The meteor hammer pierced through their bodies and smashed through the brick wall. After the meteor hammer suddenly retracted, people could see the clean courtyard of the family through the corpses of the two soldiers.

Upon seeing this, the woman merely covered the girl's eyes, but her body involuntarily moved behind Yun Ce.

The killing in the city continued, but the number of people behind Yun Ce grew larger and larger, eventually stretching for more than 500 meters.

Outside the city, there is a blood-soaked road, also over 500 meters long. The people on that road were all dead. Today, this 500-meter-long street is full of living people.

For the past ten days, Yun Ce has not left this crossroads. Many generals who were leading troops came to see what was going on after hearing about it. When they found that the person sitting at the front was Yun Ce, they turned around and left without staying for a moment.

(End of this chapter)