Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 254 The Mindset of the Weak
When a nation is about to perish, it will inevitably produce monsters.

Yun Ce felt that he was one of the most extraordinary among them.

I originally wanted to kill Han Qi, but then I realized it was pointless.

Emperor Liu Mu went mad because he lacked the power of an emperor, and the Grand Marshal went mad because he did not want to give the emperor power. After a bloody battle in Chang'an, the two clearly defeated the emperor, but refused to kill him. They insisted on letting the emperor run rampant and exhaust the last bit of prestige of the royal family before he was willing to ascend the throne.

That's right, the Grand Marshal wants to be emperor!

If he were to kill Emperor Liu Mu with a single stroke, then sit on the throne himself and command the world so decisively, Yun Ce would still admire the Grand Marshal to some extent.

Such a person, even if not a hero, should at least be a ruthless and powerful figure. Now, he has turned himself into a hypocrite.

It's estimated that it won't be long before the most disgusting power transfer ceremony in the world, the abdication ceremony, appears in the Han Dynasty. Moreover, the emperor must offer the abdication three times, the Grand Marshal must refuse three times, and only on the fourth time, when the emperor puts on an even more disgusting scene, will the Grand Marshal accept it.

You can't put people's hearts out in the sunlight; if you did, good people would lose the motivation to continue living.

This incident made Yun Ce have some opinions about the Han people nowadays, and he really felt that he was not one of them.

Even Taizhou, which is relatively better, is in this state. Dongzhou, which is even worse than Taizhou, and Haizhou are not worth mentioning.

However, we still have to go to those two places, and we still have to kill the people who deserve to be killed. We can't stop trying to mend things just because the world is too broken.

It took Yun Ce three days to reach Haizhou City. Before he even entered the city, he saw Lan Jin, the governor of Haizhou, on a flagpole outside the city. Lan Jin looked very good. He was sun-dried evenly and the salt coating was applied very well. It looked like he had been sun-dried for at least five days and was still very fresh, without any smell of decay.

This is clearly the Cao family's method of sun-drying salted meat.

As the dry winter winds continue to sweep over Shi Lanjin's body, the moisture inside will gradually evaporate, while the oil under the skin will slowly blend with the muscles...

Death is already the greatest punishment for a person, but some people do things that make you want to punish them even after they die.

Shi Lanjin is such a person.

He must have done something heinous in Haizhou, otherwise he wouldn't have suffered such a fate. After the Cao family occupied Pingzhou, they also hung Tan Shou's body on a flagpole. However, there were guards under the flagpole where Tan Shou was hung.

There were no guards under the flagpole that held the name of Shi Lanjin, the governor of Haizhou.

The presence of guards indicates a concern that someone might steal the body, suggesting that someone still cares about the deceased Tan Shou.

The absence of guards meant that there was no concern about anyone stealing the body, implying that no one cared about Shi Lanjin's death.

The lives of ordinary people in Haizhou City have almost returned to normal. At least, when Yun Ce entered the city, most of the shops that needed to be open were open, and there were pedestrians on the streets, though not many.

Many houses still bear the marks of war on their walls, and some burned-down houses stand there in a pitiful state, not yet repaired.

Many families are holding funerals, but they dare not make a big fuss. They hang a white cloth strip at the door and the family hides at home, crying in a low voice.

At the Haizhou City Lord's Mansion, Yun Ce found the busy Cao Kun.

"The advance of the three armies on Qiuhe Prefecture had me on edge for quite some time. In the end, I decided to first repel one force and force the other two to back down."

Unexpectedly, the chosen Haizhou army was completely powerless against Cao Ling's attack. After defeating the Haizhou army, we discovered that there wasn't a single expert among them.

I thought Shi Lanjin was plotting to lure the enemy deep into my territory, which forced me to lead my army step by step, breaking through countless passes before finally arriving at the city of Haizhou.

It was here that we encountered some resistance, but I quickly wiped it out. Only after capturing Shi Lanjin in the city did I learn that most of Haizhou's elite troops had perished in Chang'an.

Yun Ce picked up his teacup, took a sip of water, and said, "Didn't you encounter anything else?"

Cao Kun raised an eyebrow and said, "Does Shi Lanjin's inner quarters consist mostly of women from the Gui Fang clan?"

Yun Ce laughed and said, "Don't you feel disheartened?"

"So, I salted him, hung him on a flagpole to air dry, and told the people in Haizhou City that Shi Lanjin, a perfectly good Han Chinese, wanted to become a Japanese devil. Now, the people in the city are waiting for Shi Lanjin's body to be salted so they can eat it."

Having captured Haizhou almost without bloodshed, Cao Kun was somewhat complacent, even showing a degree of arrogance towards Yun Ce, the heir apparent of the King of Changsha.

"Cao's army has split into two routes, one to Dongzhou and the other to Taizhou. If things are really as Uncle said, and the strength of these three provinces was all exhausted in the turmoil in Chang'an, then the two armies will take Taizhou, and Dongzhou will be no problem."

From then on, the Cao family monopolized the five eastern provinces.

Yun Ce laughed and said, "It should be the land of six states. He Tian should no longer dare to confront the Cao family."

Cao Kun grabbed Yun Ce's hand and said, "Join the Cao family. After you come, the Cao family will fully support you in expanding your influence north of the Great Wall and guarantee not to encroach on your territory." Yun Ce continued with a smile, "Resisting the Japanese is the responsibility of every Han Chinese. I can't be the only one at the forefront."

Cao Kun shook his head and said, "Do you think the Cao family would easily trust someone and give that person their full support without asking for anything in return?"

It must be admitted that Cao Kun is truly magnanimous. Regardless of the future outcome, his willingness to provide unconditional support at this moment is already remarkable.

At least, this person valued resisting foreign aggression more than fighting for power and profit.

"I killed a thousand-man general and a hundred hundred-man generals of the Guifang tribe in Taizhou."

Cao Kun was no ordinary man. As soon as Yun Ce finished speaking, he stood up and said to Cao Ling, "Send a message to Cao Ting by flying bird, be careful of the Gui Fang people mixed in with the Eastern Navy."

Seeing Cao Ling leave in a hurry, Yun Ce sighed and said, "The Cao family is truly powerful. One Cao Ting can withstand a thousand generals and a hundred generals of the Gui Fang."

Cao Kun laughed and said, "The Cao family has no fewer than 30,000 relatives and descendants. I heard that both of your wives are pregnant?"

Yun Ce smiled and said, "In two more months, the Yun family will have three close relatives."

Cao Kun laughed loudly: "Even someone as high-ranking as the High Priest can only sigh helplessly in the face of the current chaos. Even someone as brilliant as you, Yun Ce, who had already taken Taizhou by yourself and your horse, ultimately left with nothing but yourself and your horse."

Yun Ce said with a wry smile, "We also lost a hundred taels of gold."

"Huh? You didn't touch Han Qi's gold?"

"No, after I learned the whole story, I was heartbroken and abandoned the inn I bought for fifty taels of gold. Instead, I spent another fifty taels of gold at a brothel in Taizhou."

Cao Kun laughed loudly and said, "So, this trip was a huge loss?"

Yun Ce laughed loudly, "Yeah, what a huge loss, and all we gained was a bellyful of pent-up frustration."

Cao Kun slapped Yun Ce on the shoulder and said without any hesitation, "You and I can never be enemies in this life."

Yun Ce looked at Cao Kun's big hand patting his shoulder and laughed, "I'm going home now and staying indoors. I'm going to have five hundred sons next year so you can see that I have plenty of women at home anyway."

Cao Kun looked at Yun Ce and chuckled, "I'll wait and see. Until you have 30,000 sons, you can only watch me conquer cities and territories and show off my power."

"Don't forget, your Cao family has been conquering cities and seizing territories, aren't you afraid of being besieged?"

"Conquering one city at a time will indeed attract a mob, but conquering three states at once will make the eastern states only fawn over the Cao family."

The saying "quantitative change leads to qualitative change" holds true at all times, and it applies equally to the Cao family. Indeed, as Cao Kun said, conquering a few cities in Lingzhou attracted countless powerful enemies. Now that the Cao family has taken Taizhou, Haizhou, and even Dongzhou in one fell swoop, those powerful enemies should be the ones who are afraid.

Don't assume that the Han people knew the stories of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the great story of Qin Shi Huang's unification of the world, or famous works such as "On the Faults of Qin" that summarized the strengths and weaknesses of the Qin state. They also know that the reason why the six states perished was not because of their military strength or the natural defenses of the mountains and rivers, but because they bribed Qin.

If we were to place them in the same position as the six states, facing the powerful Cao family, their choice would be the same as the six states: bribe Cao, and there would be no other option.

They might even do worse than the six kingdoms.

Li Shimin said that by learning from history, one can know how to prosper.

They simply know that things are prosperous. Knowing that things are prosperous, they will never change anything. They will only choose the most comfortable path to take. And history has long told people that bribing Cao Cao is the best option for getting by.

Yun Ce thought it was a good thing. Having a powerful Cao family that refused to surrender to the Japanese and unify the East would be a good thing for the Han Dynasty. At least, if the Japanese invaded the south, the Cao family would be the first to suffer.

Yun Ce wasn't the only one with this idea; Wu Tong and others in Chang'an shared the same view.

However, this view has appeared twice. The first time was when Zhao Shu, the Grand General of the Great Wall, abandoned the Great Wall defense line and allowed it to be devoured by powerful figures. Last time, everyone felt that rather than letting the corrupt Great Wall garrison serve as the second line of defense for the empire, it would be better to let powerful figures guard it, and they could hold out for longer than Zhao Shu's Great Wall garrison.

Now, it's the same again. Rather than letting Taizhou, Haizhou, and Dongzhou be controlled by three incompetent governors and then infiltrated by the Japanese, it's better to hand them over to the powerful Cao family.

It sounds reasonable, and it sounds nice too.

In fact, every dynasty makes this kind of clever choice before it collapses, and the more of these clever, self-serving choices it makes, the faster it will fall.

Every single incident tells everyone that the Great Han Empire currently has no better option than to make continuous concessions and retreats in these matters.

If these things had happened during the six hundred years of Huo Wang's reign, whether it was Zhao Shu or the Cao family, they would have been captured by the army and taken to Chang'an, paraded through the streets, and then torn apart by five horses in the street.

(End of this chapter)