Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 306 Things Are Getting Better
When society collapses, the economy is the first to collapse.

In the past, when the country was unified, caravans could travel freely in the Han Dynasty as long as they had official credentials.

That won't work now. There are many feudal lords, and everyone needs money to support their huge armies. Taxes and war are currently the only two sources of income.

War requires preparation time, but taxation does not. As long as roads and city gates are blocked, taxes can be collected continuously, which seems to be the most convenient way to make money.

At first, only one or two vassal states collected taxes, which wasn't a big problem and didn't directly affect prices. But once all 500 military prefectures of the Han Dynasty started collecting taxes, prices could no longer hold up.

Yun Ce's favorite food, baby beans, used to cost the price of a whole bag of beans, but now he can only buy three. Luckily, he's selling baby beans now, not buying them.

Prices of other items are also skyrocketing, but the most severe price increases are seen in grains, with the most dramatic rise in price being for luxury grains—baby beans.

Whether steamed, boiled, or roasted, this stuff tastes top-notch. Most importantly, the oil extracted from it has a terrifying name: baby oil. It's the favorite of the highest-class chefs in the Han Dynasty, and almost all dishes that are considered high-class require baby oil for cooking.

Because of the bumper harvest of baby beans at Yunshi Manor last year, Xiangcheng has become the largest distribution center for baby beans in the Han Dynasty. The efficiency of centralized planting is far superior to that of harvesting, a primitive agricultural method.

Two years ago, a large number of pine trees were planted, and this year it is time to peel their bark. This kind of tree is known for its bark; if you don't peel it, it won't grow properly. However, the trees are too young, and the peeled bark has fine fibers, making it a good material for making clothes. As for extracting starch from it, that's not yet possible.

The price of yew powder has also increased more than fivefold since before Da Sima went mad.

Even if the price of things like baby beans skyrockets, it doesn't really matter. If you don't have the money, you just won't eat them.

The price increase of yam powder is truly killing ordinary people. This food was originally the cheapest food that was most easily accessible to the people. Back when a bag of yam powder cost two green coins, many people still went hungry. Now that a bag of yam powder costs ten green coins, even more people are going hungry.

Food shortages led people to leave the cities and migrate into the wilderness, where they began to fight for survival against wild animals.

Knowing full well that this would kill many people, the feudal lords of the land did not care. They were even secretly pleased, because those who remained in the city were all wealthy, and only the poor who could not survive would return to the wilderness.

The wilderness is generally a place that the Shehuo (a type of folk performance) cannot reach; it is what people often call a wild land, a place suitable for wild animals but not for human life.

Without the protection of the Shehuo (a traditional folk performance), the unpredictable weather outside alone would be enough to kill a large number of people.

Yun Ce often stayed in the wilderness, and he always managed to get away with it because he was more ferocious than wild beasts and more venomous than poisonous insects. Even if he encountered extreme weather such as torrential rain, hail, thunderstorms, blizzards, or extreme cold, it would not cause him any harm.

It's different for ordinary people. If they don't reach the level of martial artists, they can't even beat the most common wild beasts in the wilderness—dogskins. If they encounter a pack of dogskins, they will often end up being eaten to pieces.

The Shehuo (a traditional folk performance) at Yunshi Manor is still burning brightly, thanks to people constantly adding firewood. Yet, this Shehuo, which requires firewood to burn, has been protecting Yunshi Manor for two years.

Now, everyone in the Yun Family Manor believes that as long as they properly worship this fire, it will eventually evolve into a real Shehuo (a traditional folk performance).

Yun Ce tested it with the Shehuo from Dragon Ball. Although there was some connection between the two, it was very weak. The Shehuo from Dragon Ball looked down on Shehuo, which still needed firewood, and was unwilling to have much contact with it.

Every year at the end of the first month of spring, Yun Ce would check on the health of the children in the schoolhouse to see how many children had emerged with signs of health.

Since the Yun family has two high-level martial artists this year, Yun Ce doesn't have to do this work alone. Wu Tong can also help, and she's full of enthusiasm.

The speed of probing the Qi sensation was not fast. Yun Ce touched the child's forehead with his finger, and the internal energy rolled down the forehead, circled in his body, and then withdrew the internal energy. If the child's body could feel the internal energy, and the internal energy flowed smoothly and without obstruction in the body, it meant that the child was born with a Qi sensation.

For children who have the ability to sense Qi, Yun Ce will place a red dot on their forehead with a vermilion brush. Then, the child will leave the primary school and go to the martial arts school to wait for Yun Ce to perform a Qi-induction ritual on them, so that they can eventually embark on the path of a martial artist.

Those children who don't have a sense of Qi shouldn't be discouraged. They can continue their studies in the school, but what they will learn is not martial arts, but skills that are important to people's livelihood.

Within half an hour, Wu Tong applied vermilion dots to the foreheads of six children. After examining each child, she picked up the vermilion brush again and applied vermilion dots to the foreheads of the children. Then she said to Yun Ce beside her, "The children of Yun Clan Manor have such a high chance of becoming successful. I just examined fifteen children, and seven of them have Qi."

Yun Ce put down his finger, picked up the vermilion pen and touched the child's forehead, saying, "At the beginning, I was very happy if one out of twenty children here could sense the Qi. I didn't expect that there would be so many children with Qi senses later on."

Wu Tong shook his head and said, "I think it's very necessary for you to call in the children whose qi senses weren't detected before and examine them again."

Yun Ce also felt it was necessary, so he asked Lei Ming to call over the older students studying in the academy. He planned to check again. In fact, given the current situation, the more children who could become martial artists, the better.

The children who hadn't been able to sense Qi last year were very excited. Sense Qi is something that most children might never experience in their lifetime, so they never expected to experience it twice.

After Yun Ce and Wu Tong re-examined the children, they both fell silent. Yun Ce instructed Lei Ming to take everyone away, ending the day's investigation. After washing their hands, Yun Ce and Wu Tong each picked up a bowl of tea and slowly sipped it.

After a long while, Wu Tong looked up at Yun Ce and asked, "What's the reason? Is this a martial arts den?"

Yun Ce frowned and asked, "Could it be related to the High Priest's blessing ritual?"

Wu Tong shook his head and said, "Without evidence, it's impossible to make that judgment. However, judging from the mutations of the eagle, chestnut horse, and dog skin spirits in your home, this place really is a blessed land."

By the way, do you have many children here?

Yun Ce said, "Last year alone, I gave birth to 6,400 children here. They are just too young and are still in the orphanage. In two more years, they will be able to go to the school. After three more years in the school, they will be able to explore their Qi."

Wu Tong looked up at the sky and sighed, "Not counting the current children, that means that in three years, your Yun family will have at least three thousand martial artists?"

Yun Ce laughed and said, "It might be more than that. More than half of those older students showed signs of Qi. Could we assume that the time for checking whether a child has Qi can be postponed, or even checked multiple times, until they are fifteen years old?"

Wu Tong took a couple of sips of tea and said to Yun Ce, “Since I don’t have any official duties right now, how about I re-screen the children under fifteen at Yun Family Manor? Don’t limit it to the school; the newly arrived refugee children who haven’t entered the school can also participate in the Qi Detection.”

Yun Ce said, "Let's divide into control groups and see whether it's the effect of the blessing ceremony or whether the Yun family itself has the ability to develop a childlike quality."

Wu Tong smiled and said, "Just give me Lei Ming."

Yun Ce nodded.

Wu Tong put down her teacup and looked at Yun Ce for a while before saying, "I'm still wondering why you had to knock me unconscious when you were taking me by surprise if you were going to heal me."

"You've allowed me to participate in such a confidential matter as the Yun Clan's exploration of Qi, so why won't you tell me how you managed to correct my internal organs overnight?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "The technology is too advanced to be shown to others."

"Did the technology come from our ancestral homeland?"

“That’s right, it comes from our ancestral land.”

"Having read so many books about our ancestral home and experienced so many of its wonders, if you ever have the chance to return to our ancestral home, please take me with you."

Yun Ce thought for a moment and said, "Okay!"

Back in the inner quarters, Eji, who was eating while holding Yun Shuo, smiled and asked Yun Ce with a smile, "How many children with Qi Sensation have you found out?"

Yun Ce laughed and said, "It's already more than halfway done."

Zhang Min, who was tidying up Yun Tui in the inner room, rushed out and asked, "Husband, do you mean that more than 500 of the 1,100 children who participated in the Qi Sensing Examination today had Qi Sensing?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "That's right. Wu Tong also randomly examined ten children who had no Qi sense before and selected four more. Based on this probability, the number of children with Qi sense should be more than half."

Eji quickly checked the number of people and blurted out, "My husband means that my Yun clan currently has more than two thousand prospective warriors, and in five years, my Yun clan will have at least sixteen hundred centurions?"

Yun Ce smiled and tapped E Ji's forehead, saying, "The difference between a martial artist and a centurion is too great. Don't think that just because you have two thousand martial artists, you will have sixteen hundred centurions."

Yun Ce chuckled and said, "Keep dreaming."

Since returning, Yun Ce has been extremely busy. His last trip to Chang'an left him with a lot of official business, and he hasn't yet gone to Jin Suo Guan to see the construction results of Huo Liao and his team. He only heard Feng An say that the progress was encouraging.

As for what exactly made it so delightful, Yun Ce hadn't seen it yet. Since Feng An was keeping him in suspense, he didn't immediately grant Huo Liao's wish for him to quickly go and check.

Honestly, for Feng An to dare say that, he must have made significant progress. Compared to that, Yun Ce was even more curious about whether Huo Liao had actually mastered that book, "Advanced Mathematics," without anyone teaching him.

(End of this chapter)