Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 331 The ignorant are fearless

Yun Ce always felt that what Gouzi said was unreliable.

What does it mean that people close to us have all evolved?

When he cuddled Eji to sleep that night, he checked her size, and he admitted that she had indeed evolved compared to when he first met her.
The evolution of body shape, I guess you could call that evolution too.

After Zhang Min finished washing up and climbed into bed, Yun Ce also checked her over. Hmm, something's not right. Zhang Min used to be a fiery and charming woman.

Is this a case of atavism?
The couple knew each other too well. Sensing that her husband seemed a little dissatisfied, Zhang Min immediately said, "I'm practicing martial arts. I want to break through to the Thousand-Man General level as soon as possible. I've been moving around more these days, and my body feels much lighter."

"Why is this part of the meat specifically cut out of the lower-quality meat?"

"Because the meat there is useless."

"Nonsense, the most useful meat... are you going to trade it for a thousand-man general who wouldn't even eat dog skin?"

Eji slapped him, and Yun Ce automatically dodged, the slap landing on Zhang Min's buttocks.

The sound was loud and crisp. Yun Ce looked over and saw a red handprint on Zhang Min's fair skin. E Ji must have used all her strength.

Zhang Min sighed, straightened up, grabbed her pillow, and got out of bed. As she walked, she complained, "I know I'm bothering some people, so I'm leaving now. I won't interfere with your good time."

After Zhang Min left, Yun Ce looked at E Ji and said, "This is somewhat unreasonable."

Eji angrily said, "You've gotten used to climbing into my bed."

Yun Ce sat up and said, "Are you feeling unhappy?"

Eji sighed and said, "More than four hundred floating corpses have appeared in the backwater of the Qingshui River. They are all connected in a row. According to Feng An, most of the floating corpses are the elderly, weak, women and children. They have knife wounds on their bodies and are Guifang people."

Yun Ce pondered for a moment and said, "The Guifang people have a custom of water burial. Let them be fished out and burned."

Eji snuggled into Yun Ce's arms and whispered, "I used to hear that the Guifang people were going south, but that was just talk. Now that I've seen their corpses with my own eyes, I know they really did go south this time."

"My lord, do you think the Guifang people can find us?"

"You don't need to worry. The upper reaches of the Qingshui River are the entire Yanshan Mountains. The Qingshui River splits the Yanshan Mountains before flowing to our place. With the steep terrain of two mountains flanking the river, it's impossible for the Guifang people to go downstream."

Besides, there's the Iron Fortress Pass blocking our way..."

Eji said softly in Yun Ce's arms, "I always felt that the Iron Wall Pass couldn't stop the Guifang people."

"why would you say so?"

“When Zhou Chengming came to our village to collect grain last time, he ate six bowls of noodles with minced meat sauce in one go.”

"What does this mean?"

Eji sighed and said, "He was actually full after finishing the fourth bowl. The reason he forced himself to eat two more bowls was that he wanted to eat his fill of the noodles with meat sauce in one go and not want to think about it again. Only a living dead person would do that."

Yun Ce sighed softly and said, "We always feel that the past few years have been getting worse year by year, but have we ever thought that a bad year in the past might be the best year in the future?"

Eji scrambled to her feet and stared blankly at Yun Ce, saying, "You mean things will only get worse from here on out?"

Yun Ce lay down and stroked E Ji's smooth, satin-like skin, saying, "The more hardship a person can endure, the more hardship Heaven will make them suffer, and it will never end."

The heavy conversation completely dispelled the romantic atmosphere in the room. Neither Yun Ce nor E Ji had any desire for physical intimacy, and they couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

Every morning, the Yun family's black eagle would flap its wings and fly north, and the chestnut horse would also grope towards the north before sunrise. This bird and beast were the Yun family's most reliable scouts.

Eji could always learn about the movements of the Guifang people from the black-feathered eagle, and Yun Ce could also tell the direction of the Guifang army's advance from the gestures of the chestnut horse.

For more than ten days, the black-haired eagle did not bring any good news. Similarly, the chestnut horse kept gesturing to Yun Ce that a large group of people were heading east.

When the Guifang people came down from the Qingshui Plateau, they first had to travel 1,700 li through a desolate wilderness. This placed high demands on logistics, especially food supplies. If they wanted to avoid the Iron Enclosure Pass, they would have to cross the snow-capped Yanshan Mountains. A small elite force could manage this, but it was impossible for a large army to cross the Yanshan Mountains.

It should be understood that simply crossing the Yanshan Mountains would take at least forty days to complete this crucial task. The Guifang people were much poorer than the Han people, and they did not have enough capital to support them in doing so.

For the Guifang people, fighting to sustain their war effort is the most practical approach. Even if they mobilize their entire force this time, carrying all their possessions, they will not allow their precious provisions to be wasted on the road. Only by breaking through the Iron Enclosure Pass, obtaining the provisions within, and then advancing south along the coast to capture Haizhou and Dongzhou, will they have any chance of survival.

The possibility of coming to Yun Ce is very low, because it takes another thousand miles of wilderness to reach the rich Yun Clan Manor. If you go from Haizhou in the far east to the Yun Clan Manor, it takes nearly three thousand miles.

Of course, unless the Guifang people cross the Great Wall defense line and sweep through Haizhou, Dongzhou, Taizhou, Qiuhezhou, and Pingzhou, they will not be able to see the Yun clan's Jingkou Pass.

Moreover, the further west the Guifang people advanced, the stronger the resistance they encountered, since the earliest Nine Provinces of the Han Dynasty were located at the western end of the Great Wall defense line.

Yun Ce sent people to retrieve the Gui Fang people from the Qingshui River. In order not to cause panic, he sent Huo Wudi's Tiger Legion, a group of people without joy, anger, sorrow or happiness, who were most suitable for this kind of secret mission.

Even if Yun Ce wanted to suppress the news that the Gui Fang people had already moved south, once the monster of war appeared, it would manifest in many forms, thus alerting people.

The most obvious phenomenon is that the price of the grain piled up in the Yun family's warehouse has suddenly increased more than threefold. Even so, merchants still come to Xiangcheng to trade grain in an endless stream.

There are few reasons that could cause such a sudden and drastic change in food prices. Under the protection of the Shehuo festival, people rarely encounter natural disasters, perhaps only once every hundred years or so. The only remaining answer is war.

The wars between the feudal lords had little impact on grain prices because everyone stored their grain before launching the war. The only reason for the current surge in grain prices is that the Guifang people have moved south.

The price of food is very stable during peacetime, and production and consumption are basically in balance because the rich and the poor consume the same amount of food.

If food prices rise by 10%, it's not simply a matter of prices rising by 10%, but rather that the 10% who cannot afford the high-priced food will starve to death before a new balance can be achieved.

Now, the price of grain in Yunshi has suddenly tripled. For the Han people, who have always eaten fresh grain and have no habit of hoarding it, this winter will be a scene of widespread starvation.

Yun Ce felt it was essential to have a proper discussion with Cao Kun, the overlord of the East, to see how he planned to deal with the upcoming southward invasion of the Gui Fang.

Carried by a black-haired eagle, Yun Ce set off in the morning and arrived at Cao Kun's lair, Qiuhe City, by noon.

Upon hearing that Yun Ce had arrived, Cao Kun went out to greet him. Before Yun Ce could even ask about his plan to fight the ghosts, Cao Kun enthusiastically pulled him to the entrance of a spacious hall.

He slammed his fist on the doorframe, and the magnificent coffered ceiling of the hall crashed down with a thunderous boom, the sound echoing as it struck the ground.

Cao Kun pointed triumphantly at the hall and said, "Could such a mechanism kill a Grandmaster?"

Yun Ce shook his head.

Cao Kun asked in bewilderment, "How can they not be killed? That's impossible, isn't it?"

Yun Ce said, "The world in the eyes of a Grandmaster is not the same as the world in the eyes of ordinary people like you. The saying 'A wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall' means that people like Grandmasters follow the principle of acting without fear."

Even before stepping into your trap room, he already knew it was dangerous. No matter how many times more sophisticated your traps are, what can you do if he won't come in?

Cao Kun murmured, "They were already in last time."

"That's because the danger last time was manageable, and they approached you with a purpose before coming in." Yun Ce gave Cao Kun no hope.

Cao Kun's eyes were only confused for a moment before he suddenly raised his head and looked at Yun Ce in horror, saying, "What do you mean by 'ordinary people'? Liu Chang'an, you better explain to me what you mean by 'ordinary people'!"

"Give me a gold ingot," Yun Ce said indifferently.

Soon, a bright yellow gold ingot was placed in Yun Ce's hand. Yun Ce held the gold ingot with one hand, and after a moment, a stream of red gold liquid flowed out from between Yun Ce's fingers, dripping onto the ground and then shattering into golden flowers.

The extra expression on Cao Kun's face completely disappeared, replaced by a cold silence.

After a long pause, Cao Kun looked into Yun Ce's eyes and said seriously, "You've now stepped into the Grandmaster realm, having transformed iron into gold?"

Yun Ce sighed and said, "Last time, I chased after Master Gui Fang in the wilderness. In the midst of life and death, I glimpsed the threshold of the Grandmaster realm and finally entered it."

Cao Kun continued, “It is said that there is a legend about the Grandmaster realm, which is called ‘one chicken dies and another chicken crows.’ So, can I assume that the Mountain Moving Master is dead?”
"Are you stronger than the Mountain Moving Clan?"

Yun Ce frowned and said, "Logically speaking, Grandmasters are equally powerful. By the way, when I returned, I infiltrated the Ghost Fang army and assassinated the Ghost Fang's Grandmaster, Mingyue."

Cao Kun looked at Yun Ce for a long time before speaking: "I originally planned to implement a scorched-earth strategy to deal with the Guifang people. As for myself, I will run as far as I can, because if I stay on the battlefield, I will be doomed as soon as they send a Grandmaster over."

Now that you have become a Grandmaster, I believe that the six eastern states should have more ways to deal with the Guifang army. Even if we cannot defeat the Guifang people head-on, we can at least kill half of them first.”

(End of this chapter)