Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 329 Let's be more lenient

The enemy will inevitably come, those who should resist will appear, and of course, those who should surrender will also appear.

This is what a war-torn world looks like now.

Those who die first must be loyal ministers and filial sons of the Han Dynasty. This is an unpleasant saying, but it is the reality.

Someone once asked Buddha, "Can those who believe in Buddhism in the Dharma-ending Age be saved?"

The Buddha said: Before the Dharma-ending Age arrives, the first to disappear will be virtuous men and faithful women, and then the Dharma-ending Age will come.

Someone continued to ask: And then what?

The Buddha said: Just keep living.

Even if life is tough, people still have to live. It's just that they lose some spiritual things. Things you were once proud of will be knocked down, fall into the dust, and eventually be thrown into a mass grave or garbage dump along with animal excrement.

The Han people on our ancestral land are relatively fortunate. Whenever disaster strikes, there are always some tough people who stand up to save the day, and some people with strong will who step forward to take the leg of the giant turtle from the East China Sea to save the land from sinking.

Yun Ce didn't know if there were such people in the Han Dynasty, but he really hoped there were.

However, as far as the eye can see, there are fish and turtles everywhere.

It's estimated that the wounds on the Han side weren't deep enough to produce a peerless hero like the instructor, and even a peerless tyrant like Baldy wouldn't have emerged.

Faced with the current situation of the Guifang people's large-scale southward invasion, Gouzi has provided Yun Ce with no less than a hundred solutions. However, those familiar with AI know that, at present, the solutions provided by AI can only be used as a reference and do not have the possibility of being truly implemented.

Yun Ce carefully studied the plans provided by Gouzi, quickly eliminating those with a hundred chances of death, ten chances of death, and those with nine chances of death and one chance of survival. Yun Ce also did not intend to use those with eight chances of death and two chances of survival, as they did not seem likely to succeed. As for plans with seven chances of death and three chances of survival or less, Yun Ce disdained to use them even more, because those plans either followed the path of Wu Sangui or Wang Jingwei, which looked disgusting.

After reading a plan with a 60% chance of survival and a 40% chance of death, Yun Ce couldn't help but sigh. These days, even if you're someone's dog, the chance of surviving is less than 40%. It's too difficult.

Looking back to our ancestral homeland after 1840, countless people of noble character and lofty ideals tried countless methods and stirred up countless waves of thought in order to save China, including imperial system, reform, constitutional government, democracy, republic, Chinese essence with Western application, Western essence with Chinese application, learning from the barbarians to control the barbarians, and so on.

Ultimately, democracy and communism emerged victorious, becoming guiding lights leading the people of their ancestral land out of the mire... Many times, Yun Ce wondered if the failure of democracy was the failure of the bald man, and the victory of communism was the victory of the teachers.

Yun Ce was cautious. Yun Fang, the ancestor of the Yun clan, was eager to save the country and chose to reform with Tan Sitong and others. As a result, he almost lost his life. Therefore, Yun Ce did not want to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor Yun Fang. He planned to observe first, see clearly, and then follow the path of his ancestor Yun Linchuan. Then he would go all in.

As things stand, Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy of "building high walls, storing up grain, and delaying the proclamation of kingship" is still appropriate.

Anyway, after going through history books, those who achieved final victory basically emerged in the middle of the revolutionary tide, and Yun Ce wanted to learn from them.

Wu Tong, Feng An, and Liang Kun all tacitly agreed that Yun Ce was adopting Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy, and they also thought it was a good approach.

Yun Ce used to manage his team using family rules. Back then, people valued human relationships, and Yun Ce's management was casual and warm. But after introducing a high-ranking politician like Wu Tong, things inexplicably became bloody.

For example, the issue of the guard at the wellhead.

Qin Shu, He Qingfang, and the others were about to leave when their employment period expired, and they planned to take five hundred cavalrymen with them.

For an employee, leaving such a person is acceptable. However, for a politician like Wu Tong, leaving such a person is difficult to accept, and they see it as a blatant betrayal that needs to be eliminated as soon as possible.

Killing Qin Shu and those five hundred cavalrymen would be a simple matter. Whether it's sending Lei Ming with two hundred promising young talents who have already mastered Qi cultivation, or dispatching Huo Wudi with the Tiger Warriors, making Qin Shu and his men disappear completely would be a trivial matter.

Even if Yun Ce went there by himself, it wouldn't take half an hour for those five hundred people to die, not to mention that Wu Tong had already recruited nearly a hundred remnants of the Climbing Star Tower.

"Let them go, and allow them to take with them their armor, their warhorses, and the gold they earned from me."

Yun Ce looked into Wu Tong's eyes and gave the final order.

Wu Tong said, "This is wrong; it is not the way of a general."

Yun Ce continued to stare at Wu Tong and said, "Do you know that I'm leaving you a way out? What if you want to leave in the future and I send people to hunt you down?"

Wu Tong frowned and said, "Since I joined the Yun family as a subject, I have never thought of leaving."

Yun Ce chuckled and said, "Don't put on your loyal and filial act in front of me. It's disgusting to see it too often. We came together because we have a common goal. We came together because we have a common goal. It's not like one of us is acting as the other's dutiful son or grandson."

In the future, if you feel that we are not on the same page, let's sit down, have a cup of tea, and talk things out. You go your way, and I'll go mine. Isn't that better?
Does it have to be so bloody? Let me make this clear first, I have a psychological aversion to killing my friends.

Wu Tong angrily said, "Without rules, there can be no order. Your laissez-faire management style cannot last long."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "If they are my friends, we will naturally come together. If they are not my friends, there is no point in binding us together. Here, I am the boss, and I make the decisions. Let's do it this way."

When Qin Shu and the others left, Yun Ce did not go to Jingkou Pass to see them off. Although it was agreed that they were hired, Yun Ce still owed them a life-saving favor. So, when Yun Clan Manor needed them, he just left without doing anything, which was somewhat disloyal.

Zhang Min took over the defense of Jingkou Pass, and she led five hundred Yun family servants who had been selected long ago.

He Qingfang told Zhang Min that they were tired of the battlefield and wanted to live a peaceful life.

"Are you sure you didn't hear that the Guifang people went south and started thinking about fleeing for your lives?"

Qin Shu's face turned bright red, but he was speechless.

It was clear that this was a man who cared a lot about his reputation. Just as he was about to say something like "stay" after being provoked by Zhang Min's words, He Qingfang pinched him under the ribs, forcing him to swallow the words he was about to utter.

He Qingfang said, "We'll leave behind the armor, warhorses, and weapons..."

Zhang Min immediately cut her off, saying, "Stop talking nonsense and stop testing me. My husband has no intention of killing you all or exploiting you."

"Put on your armor, take your weapons, mount your warhorses, and shoulder your gold. Hurry up and go! I'm about to redo the city's defenses; this is not for outsiders like you to hear."

Qin Shu and He Qingfang had no choice but to accept this outcome. One by one, they lowered their heads, packed up their hidden weapons, and left Jingkou Pass in a somewhat disheveled state under Zhang Min's repeated urging.

After walking a long way, Qin Shu turned back to look at the cloud-character banner still fluttering on the city wall, and said to He Qingfang, who was carrying their son on her back, with a choked voice, "What if we regret it later?"

He Qingfang widened her almond-shaped eyes and said, "There's no way around it. If you regret it, you can just come back."

Qin Shu retorted angrily, "I still have a sense of shame."

Seeing that her husband was being stubborn again, He Qingfang turned to the side and grabbed his arm across her, saying, "You've already done something shameless. Coming back later will just mean doing something shameless again. What's so embarrassing about it? If you can't bring yourself to do it then, I'll bring our son to your door and beg you on my knees..."

However, it's almost impossible for him to be reused.

"I defeated a hundred generals," Qin Shu said sullenly.

“I know,” He Qingfang said, sniffing.

"How did you know? I haven't told anyone."

“Last night, you lasted an extra quarter of an hour during our lovemaking... To be honest, you’re the first person to use their inner energy on their wife, even if it’s just a hundred-man general. But that’s good. Let’s try again next time. Once you break through to the thousand-man general level, we’ll give it another shot.”

"Qingfang, I'm not reconciled."

"Don't be resentful. It's just a hundred-man general. Look at the little brats in Yun Clan Manor. There are over a hundred children with the skill of a hundred-man general, right? And over five hundred children who can draw qi into their bodies, right?"
Lei Ming is only thirteen years old this year, but I always feel that his skills are about to break through the thousand-man general level. You just wait and see, in less than five years, Yun Family Manor will definitely be a place where thousand-man generals are everywhere and hundred-man generals are no better than dogs.

Rather than waiting for those kids to grow up and kick you out, it's better to leave in style now. When you return to Luoyang, with your skills as a centurion, it will be easy for you to find a well-paying and easy job in the city.

"We've been eating sand in the Gobi Desert for ten years; it's time we went back to Luoyang and got some good food."

Qin Shu remained silent, but He Qingfang quickly disbanded the group a hundred miles after leaving Jingkou Pass. Outside Tiewei Pass, they were brothers and sisters who shared life and death; at Jingkou Pass, they were comrades-in-arms who worked together in the same pot. Now, they had left Jingkou Pass in a dishonorable manner, and the brotherhood and camaraderie they once shared had been blown away by the wind.

Relationships change, and people's hearts change too. Besides, everyone is carrying a lot of gold, so it's better to part ways sooner rather than later to avoid any more bad things happening and ending up not even being friends anymore.

That evening, while Eji was having dinner with Yun Ce, she suddenly said, "He Qingfang is actually a pretty good woman. I even considered grooming her to be a lady-in-waiting in the household."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "You should train An Ji more among the ladies-in-waiting in the household."

Eji looked at Yun Ce and said, "Anji prepared this for you."

Yun Ce looked at E Ji with a puzzled expression and asked, "What are you going to do with this that was prepared for me?"

(End of this chapter)