Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 286 Pearl of the Sea
In truth, the Han Dynasty was still a feudal dynasty. In fact, it could not even be considered a true feudal dynasty; it was more of a semi-feudal, semi-slave society.

Feudal society must first have "feudalism" and "establishment". The Han Dynasty succeeded in "feudalism", but failed in "establishment".

“Feng” refers to enfeoffment, demarcation of territory, and the emperor granting a piece of land and people to the feudal lords.

'Jian' refers to the establishment of a vassal state, where the vassal lords could establish their own army and regime on this land.

When this system was being implemented, Huo Qubing was incredibly powerful. He helped the emperor enfeoff many kings, but later realized this was not a good thing and killed many more. The line of the King of Changsha was one of the few kings in the entire Liu dynasty who survived.

Changsha Prefecture was clearly Liu Changsheng's fiefdom, yet Liu Changsheng never set foot on that land, and even the first King of Changsha never went to Changsha Prefecture in the south.

By bypassing feudalism and directly implementing the prefecture-county system, Yun Ce could imagine how powerful and domineering Huo Qubing must have been at that time. Unfortunately, the consequence of doing so was that people only knew that they were Han Chinese, but did not know that there was a Han Kingdom.

The essence of the Battle of Chang'an was the result of infighting and mutual disapproval among the nobles.

Yun Ce rode his chestnut horse in search of a suitable inn in Chang'an, but unfortunately, he walked several streets without finding an inn that was open.

Many brothels were still open. Judging from the way Big Teapot and the madam were trying to woo him, their only customer, downstairs, business was tough. The courtesan, whose face was half-revealed, was clearly a beauty, but the madam said that only five hundred green coins were needed for a kiss...

At that price, back in Izumo Prefecture, you could only find women who ran businesses behind closed doors.

Yun Ce sighed, ultimately resisting the madam, the large teapot, and the beautiful woman's longing gaze, and did not go in.

He took out a gold bean and tossed it to the beauty whose face was only half visible. Perhaps, after the war, this woman only had half her face to show.

The beauty struggled to catch the golden bean, and just as Yun Ce had suspected, there was a scar on the other side of her face.

When there are fewer men, women become less valuable; this is an ironclad law brought about by war.

Historically, cities called Chang'an generally experienced periods of extreme prosperity, but also periods of extreme desolation. The longer the period of prosperity, the longer the period of decline would be.

The chestnut horse led him to a secluded back street. Yun Ce looked up at the Divine Dragon Palace hidden in the clouds and mist, but in the end, he did not step onto the wide steps.

When Yun Ce came to his senses, the chestnut horse was trampling on a burly man with its hooves. As soon as it stepped on the man's stomach, the man would open his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood. There were also two other burly men whose bodies were deeply embedded in the brick wall, probably impossible to pry out.

These were three robbers. Yun Ce was lost in thought when they robbed them and didn't pay any attention, letting the chestnut horse deal with them on its own. He never expected that the chestnut horse would deal with him like this.

Since Yun Ce arrived in Chang'an, the black-haired eagle has flown to find E Ji and hasn't returned yet, probably because it doesn't want to come back.

The couple had this tacit understanding, and Yun Ce planned to find an empty house to stay in temporarily.

After looking around for a long time, Yun Ce finally chose the area near Panxing Tower.

Upon closer inspection, Yun Ce discovered that the Panxing Tower was now dilapidated, especially the lower floors. He could even see catapult projectiles that had been fired. These projectiles were made of hard stone and were very smoothly carved. Several stone balls scattered on the road even had patterns of ferocious beasts carved on them.

Judging from the appearance, a fierce battle once broke out near Panxing Tower. In some places, Yun Ce could even see traces of bomb explosions, and the craters created by the explosions are now filled with rainwater.

After the war broke out, the remaining people gathered at the foot of the imperial city to live, and the Panxing Tower area was almost abandoned.

Finally, Yun Ce found a somewhat dilapidated two-story building. The reason he chose this building was that it was close to the Panxing Tower. If anything happened in the dilapidated Chang'an City, the Panxing Tower would definitely react.

Secondly, if we ignore the fact that this small building was hit by a stone ball, judging from the colors and paintings on the eaves and beams, this should have been what people in Chang'an used to call a refined residence.

Not to mention, there is also a courtyard about an acre in size.

In a place like Chang'an where land is incredibly valuable, the fact that the courtyard occupies a much larger area than the house indicates that the original owner had a very high artistic taste.

Of course, the main reason is that there are no corpses or bones in this courtyard.

The courtyard gate was long gone. Yun Ce saw that the gate of the neighboring courtyard seemed to be in good condition, so he took it off and installed it on this gate. Fortunately, both gates had grooves at the top and bottom, so they were interchangeable.

There used to be a fruit tree in the yard, but it died long ago because no one watered it. There is also a garden on the left, and the withered branches on the ridge should be the withered branches of baby beans.

Yun Ce gathered some brooms and tied them together, letting the chestnut horse graze on the newly sprouted grass in the cracks between the bricks in the yard, while he went upstairs to start cleaning the room.

After throwing all the broken furniture out of the back window, Yun Ce discovered a small garden and a well outside. Naturally, Yun Ce didn't dare use the well in this war-torn city, so he took clean water from the Dragon Ball and wiped the house clean again.

If he lived alone, he wouldn't bother with all this. The main thing is that Eji and Zhang Min would definitely come over, and they might even bring Yun Shuo and Yun Tui with them.

A place where children live cannot be unclean.

Yun Ce tidied up very carefully, and even covered the broken windows with a layer of translucent leather. Apart from the large hole in the roof that was used to observe the movements of the Climbing Star Tower, the small building was actually habitable.

He first laid a huge blanket on the floor, then set up the tent, laid thick mats inside, and took out several pillows, two of which were small and had a dent in the middle, for the children.

He took out a small table and placed the baby's bottle and milk pot on it. He didn't take out the monster's milk, as it would easily spoil outside the Dragon Balls.

Finally, she took out two very light but very warm bird feather quilts. Eji couldn't sleep without these whenever she needed to sleep.

Of course, Dragon Ball didn't contain these things before. But since Yun Shu and Yun Tui were born, the baby supplies stored in Dragon Ball are enough for the two children to use until they are ten years old.

Both being first-time parents, Yun Ce and E Ji have poured a lot of effort into raising their child.

The chestnut horse had already eaten all the newly sprouted grass in the yard, and now it lay in the middle of the yard, its four paws in the air, letting the sun bask in the parts of the ground that it usually doesn't see.

The sound of horses' hooves could be heard from the nearby Vermilion Bird Street from time to time. Sometimes the sound of hooves was very dense, which should be the sound of cavalry running at high speed. Judging from the sound of the horses' hooves hitting the ground, this should be an army composed entirely of Thunder Smoke Beasts.

Having traveled to Chang'an in a day and a half without sleep, Yun Ce now had some free time and decided to treat himself to some delicious food.

Hearing Yun Ce moving the kitchen utensils, the chestnut horse lying in the yard sunbathing let out a soft neigh.

Yun Ce understood that this guy wanted to eat steamed baby beans.

Yun Ce steamed a pot of rice, then sliced ​​up the cured meat and sausages and threw them in to cook with the rice. He placed a steamer basket on top of the rice cooker, added baby beans, and once the rice was cooked, a pot of cured meat rice and the baby beans that Zao Hongma wanted were ready.

Using Shehuo (a type of folk performance) as a fire source is very convenient, especially for steaming rice. The heat can be controlled very well. Ever since discovering this characteristic of Shehuo, Yun Ce has always used Shehuo to cook rice.

Yun Ce didn't want to waste a single second of this rare moment of peace. He stretched out his limbs and lay on the carpet, his gaze piercing through the hole in the roof, where he could see the Climbing Star Tower.

A black dot fell from the tall building. Yun Ce took a closer look and figured it must be a person. After all, only a human could let out such a long, drawn-out scream before dying.

Yun Ce slowly closed his eyes, originally intending to look at the blue sky for a while, but instead, he saw some dirty things.

There was a lot of filth, and even though Yun Ce had closed his eyes, more screams entered his ears until Yun Ce counted to twenty-nine before the screams finally stopped.

He glanced at the fire burning in the pot, knowing there was still some time before the rice was cooked, and then he closed his eyes slightly.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a pair of large, clear black and white eyes. These eyes were very interesting; they were staring intently at the rice cooker.

It was a little girl dressed in tattered clothes, no more than five years old. She huddled in the corner, trying to minimize her presence. Yun Ce knew when the child came in, but since she posed no threat, he let her be. After all, this might be where the little girl lived. He remembered that he had thrown a lot of junk out from the corner before.

He was puzzled as to why the chestnut horse would allow her to come up.

The rice was clearly cooked, and Shehuo was using a small fire to roast the bottom of the pot. Yun Ce believed that a piece of crispy rice soaked in oil was forming in the pot at this moment.

The sound of a large bird flapping its wings came from overhead; it must have been a black-feathered eagle. Sure enough, the next moment, Eji's voice came from downstairs.

“My lord, I’ve gotten so much gold for our family.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Eji poked her head out from the stairs. She smiled at Yun Ce first, then saw the little girl and asked in confusion, "Who is she?"

Yun Ce smiled and said, "The master of this place."

Hearing Yun Ce say this, E Ji's smile widened. She went up the stairs, handed the cloud spear in her hand to Yun Ce, and squatted down in front of the little girl, saying, "The Crown Princess of Changsha greets the owner of this place."

(End of this chapter)