Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 31 This is life.
As long as it is a world inhabited by humans, there will be countless troubles. Some are formed naturally, some are caused by humans, but most of them are actually self-inflicted.

If you run fast enough, trouble usually can't catch up, just like the messenger swimming in the stream. He learned to swim the breaststroke because he wasn't fast enough.

Yun Ce didn't know how this society protected messengers, or whether there were any laws specifically for protecting messengers, especially military messengers. If there were, given the rules of Earthlings, even if he ran ten kilometers away, he still wouldn't be very safe.

As witnesses at the scene, neither the person who killed the messenger nor the person who wanted to find the killer would let this young couple go.

It's safer to go further away.

As dusk approached, the sky over the wasteland became colorful, with fiery red clouds on the horizon and purple overhead. Judging from the density of the clouds, it was impossible to see the moon tonight.

Earthly proverbs are utterly useless here; here, only fiery sunsets foretell heavy rain tonight.

If you encounter a heavy rain on a flat wasteland, the first thing to do is to find a high place to set up camp. If you can't find a high place, you should find a big enough tree, otherwise you will be at risk of drowning.

The sheep carts were ingeniously designed. When trapped, the carts could be connected to form a cart city. In the event of heavy rain, the floorboards could be removed and placed on top of the carts to create a small shelter from the rain. In the event of a flood, the shafts could be removed to create a decent flat-bottomed boat.

Yun Ce decided to move the carriage up a big tree and build a treehouse.

Fortunately, the carriage was detachable, and in a short time, Yun Ce used ropes and planks to create a platform on a large tree.

He then took out a small box about a foot square from the Dragon Ball. To Eji's amazement, he took out a piece of cloth that was half a foot thick and half a foot long from the box. He then stretched out a dozen or so thin metal rods from the box, fiddled with them for a while, and a beautiful house with green patterns appeared on the platform.

With the house in hand, Eji threw a tantrum, demanding that Yun Ce also bring the sheep that pulls the cart up into the tree.

A sheep weighing over a thousand catties... Perhaps at this moment, Eji believed that Yun Ce was omnipotent.

Then, Yun Ce lifted the sheep by its belly and threw it onto the platform. He then tied the sheep's four hooves to prevent it from moving around, as any movement could endanger the tent.

After Eji brought some dry firewood, Yun Ce had already set up the platform, tents, sheep, food, and everything else.

Yun Ce glanced at the firewood that E Ji had found, then jumped down from the tree again. He found a large, dead tree, sawed it into several sections with a rope saw, and split the two-foot-diameter dead tree into four pieces with an axe. He then chopped off the core from the four pieces of dead tree and made a hole in one of the pieces. He then used a rope to tie the four pieces of dead tree together and placed them on top of each other. He then placed three stones on top of the stones, and a convenient stove was ready.

Light the stove, and first boil those large beans in the earthenware pot; this takes time.

Darkness falls slowly here, the color of the sky overhead is gradually deepening, and the dark clouds in the west are slowly pressing down, swallowing up the scattered white clouds bit by bit. The dark clouds did not form a cluster, and some residual light still fell on the wasteland, in wisps, illuminating a group of people who were fighting on sheep, making them appear and disappear intermittently.

They're clearly sheep, but the people here insist on calling them horses. They've probably never even seen a horse before, yet they stubbornly insist on calling a sheep a horse. They're incredibly obstinate, and you can't correct them no matter what you do.

"Who are those people riding horses?"

"sheep--"

"A horse is just like that; you can't fool me. 97%"

Yun Ce can understand the short sentences spoken by E Ji and can also speak a few words to her in short sentences. However, if the sentences are long, he still needs to rely on the dog's wisdom.

To be honest, ever since we got a dog, Yun Ce's interest in learning the local dialect has been decreasing.

He didn't want Eji to know that the people on the wasteland were actually two groups of scouts fighting each other, and that the dead man who liked to immerse his face in water for a long time without breathing was probably killed by one of these scouts.

The messengers were killed to cut off communication with the outside world. The scouts were killing each other, probably to clear the battlefield before the big battle. Yun Ce wasn't interested in watching the battle between wild boars and giant bears last time, but this time, he was very interested in watching the war between humans.

Eji and Yun Ce's senses weren't as sharp as Gouzi's. They only just noticed the scouts fighting, while Gouzi had already heard it and informed Yun Ce in advance.

The fact that two scout teams were fighting each other here indicates that the two armies had set up their battlefields nearby. The surrounding area was all vast plains, with no obvious mountains or rivers for them to use. When the two armies faced each other, it could only be a battle of formations, or what Zhao Jin called a direct battle, sword against sword, spear against spear, a life-or-death struggle face to face, which was quite rare.

The owner here considers himself a great man of the Han Dynasty, and I've heard that Huo Qubing is here. He's known for his daring and unpredictable tactics in battle. I wonder how skilled the two generals who are about to fight here are.

Yun Ce wanted to watch a battle, but naturally had no intention of getting himself involved in the battlefield. Therefore, the big tree he chose was definitely outside the battlefield. Moreover, because a small river meandered through the area, the land was loose and muddy, unsuitable for large-scale battles, let alone cavalry battles. Basically, it was what military books often referred to as a dead end.

In addition, there will be heavy rain tonight, and this place will be flooded, so it should be quite safe.

The beans were quite large and would take a long time to cook until soft and sticky. Yun Ce added a lot of finely cooked meat to the earthenware pot, along with several kinds of dried wild vegetables with unique flavors that he had learned from his time hanging out with pigs. Once the beans were fully cooked, a pot of delicious bean porridge was ready.

The horse that Eji described had a large beard. If you fed it a bean, it would lie quietly on the wooden board for a long time, without struggling or neighing even when its limbs were bound.

Yun Ce has never had a good impression of sheep, animals that don't even bleat or struggle before they die. Even after they are killed, their eyes remain grayish-black. They have no luster when they are alive, and they still look stupid when they die. If it weren't for the fact that their meat is so delicious, Yun Ce thinks that such animals shouldn't exist in this world.

Pigs deserve praise for this. Their dying screams are so heroic! Some pigs with a strong will to survive can even break free from human restraints after being stabbed, and, with the knife still in their hand and blood spurting, sing their way to death.

The beans were finally cooked into red bean paste, which blended with the delicious fatty meat. The addition of flavorful wild vegetables gave this pot of porridge a complex flavor, and with each simmer, it was filled with aroma.

A wooden spoon was used to scoop out a full wooden bowl for Eji, and she ran to show it off to Ma. Then she squatted on the table with the bowl in her hand and ate it with relish.

Before it got completely dark, Yun Ce saw a human head fly into the air, blood gushing out of its neck. He wondered if the head noticed the firelight as it flew up. If it did, he wondered if it would tell the enemy. He had heard that some people, after their heads were cut off, would say, "What a fast blade!"

The four-character structure was enough to inform the enemy of his presence.

Yun Ce waited for a while with the porridge in his hand, but he didn't hear or see any cavalry coming. So he scooped up a spoonful of meat porridge and put it in his mouth. The temperature was just right.

The moonless night was terribly chilly. Eji was examining the sleeping bag that Yun Ce had taken out. She had never known that Yun Ce had such a fine thing on him. Out of a woman's curiosity, she searched Yun Ce from head to toe, but found nothing else strange. However, her eyes were fixed on Yun Ce's crotch, and she felt that the place Yun Ce wouldn't let her touch was suspicious. Perhaps Yun Ce was hiding his best things there, not letting her see them or use them.

After walking all day, even someone as strong as Yun Ce was sleepy. But E Ji was full of energy. She insisted that she was the bride tonight and something should happen. As for how it would happen, she didn't quite understand and hoped that Yun Ce could guide her. As a result, Yun Ce fell asleep not long before snoring loudly.

Feeling bored, Eji could only stick her bare arm out of her sleeping bag, grab the horse's beard, and whisper, "It shouldn't be like this."

Before the words were finished, a thunderclap rang out in the sky. The thunder startled the horse, causing its muscles to tremble. Unable to stand up, it resigned itself to its fate and stretched its body.

Yun Ce suddenly opened his eyes in his sleep. Hearing the thunder in the sky change from a loud clap to a rolling thunder, he breathed a slight sigh of relief. The rolling thunder was far away, and he was sleeping in a tree, so he should not be struck by lightning. Then he sighed and muttered to himself, "Heavy rain is coming. This is not a good day for battle."

The raindrops pounded against the tent like drums. The horse first moved its head into the tent, and when the rain poured down, its whole body crawled in, its body pressed tightly against Eji, so that Yun Ce, who was leaning against Eji, had his face pressed against the tent.

He had to get up and rearrange his sleeping arrangements to save every inch of space, so that the two of them, the horse, and all their belongings wouldn't get wet in the rain.

A rapid sound of sheep hooves approached, quickly reaching the large tree where Yun Ce lived. An armored knight swiftly climbed the tree.

Yun Ce shook his head. He wasn't sure if the dead man saw the fire and told someone else, or if this guy had spotted the fire himself and chased after it.

Never mind, when Yun Ce saw a fierce face emerge from under the platform, he released the taut bowstring, allowing the prepared arrow to pierce the man's forehead.

The samurai's body landed with a dull thud, and there was also a slight splashing sound as he fell into the water. It seemed this place would soon become a swamp.

He listened for a while longer, and when he heard no other sounds, he put away his longbow and lay back down in the sleeping space he had just prepared for himself.

Outside the tent, the rain was pouring down.

(End of this chapter)