Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 91 War Breaks Out, Families Flee First

"A great war?" Manager Qiu's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in shock. More than five hundred years had passed since Izumo City was completed, and this was the first time he had ever heard of a great war breaking out in this formidable pass.

"How is it impossible, Lord City? The governor must raise 100 million in tribute. How can those people in the city who have already paid once pay such a large sum again?"

They were originally at odds, and only maintained a fragile balance because they were worried about the Han army entering. Today, upon entering the city, they learned that the city lord and governor controlled the allocation of resources for the entire city. They were going to use food and supplies to force those people to empty their pockets and help them fill the huge hole of tribute.

Look, the dogs outside the city have chosen a king dog because of the abundance of food. Heaven knows how many people have died in this great city.

"Just look at the mountains of goods piled up in the warehouse; the city lord and governor haven't opened the market for a long time. What do you think those starving people will do?"

After hearing Yun Ce's words, Steward Qiu's face turned as white as paper. He jumped onto a sheep pulling a cart and ran wildly towards the city.

Yun Ce led the caravan to the city gate. Three hours ago, the place was deserted and sparsely populated, but now it was bustling with noise.

Yun Ce originally wanted to control the scale, but found that the largest group consisted of the elderly, women and children. When he passed a sheep cart, a young woman holding a baby on the cart not only smiled at him with her toothless mouth open, but also reached out and grabbed his hair.

The young woman had no time to pay attention to what her child was doing; she held the hand of a young scholar and cried incessantly, as if they were facing a life-or-death separation.

Yun Ce held the baby's chubby hand and babbled in baby talk to her for a while. The baby started tearing at the young woman's clothes. It seemed that the little guy thought the two were having a good time and wanted to invite him to dinner. So Yun Ce let go of her hand and walked through the crowd to find Lao Cao.

Old Cao was surrounded by a group of people, sweating profusely as he explained to them that he was advising his family to go to the royal hunting grounds to escape the war.

Time was too short; Lao Cao had only greeted these people briefly before they eagerly brought their families over, which shows that Lao Cao is a very good person.

Upon seeing Yun Ce arrive, Lao Cao grasped his hand, his eyes filled with tears, and said, "Brother Liu, I really have no other choice but to entrust my elderly mother, wife, and children to you. As long as I, Lao Cao, survive the war, you will be my own brother."

Yun Ce nodded earnestly and said, "I will certainly live up to Brother Cao's new post. However, once so many people enter the Royal Hunting Grounds, they will inevitably have to stay in the palace. This is against the law. If the higher-ups investigate, I ask you all to do your best to handle the situation."

A bearded officer stepped forward, slapped a gold ingot into Yun Ce's hand, and grasped his hand, saying, "No one has ever been to that hunting palace since it was built. You can use it with peace of mind. Even if it is burned down afterward, we will consider it a natural disaster and will never make things difficult for you, brother."

With a flick of his wrist, Yun Ce slipped the heavy gold ingot into his sleeve. Seeing how adept Yun Ce was at accepting bribes, the bearded officer looked at him with a newfound trust – the kind of trust only one of his own could have.

Yun Ce grabbed Lao Cao's hand again and said, "I plan to arrange for everyone to live in the hunting palace. That way, once the gates of the hunting palace are closed, it will be a world of its own."

However, I would like to ask Brother Cao to select a person from among these family members to manage things. Whenever there is any interaction, I will only deal with him. As for miscellaneous matters such as the allocation of housing and the arrangement of food and clothing within the hunting lodge, I will not get involved.”

Old Cao's tears fell again. He bowed deeply to Yun Ce, wiped away his tears, and went to arrange these matters.

Old Cao's brotherly affection was too intense, which was understandable. They had only met for less than four hours, yet he wanted to entrust Yun Ce, his brother of life and death, with such a crucial matter. It wasn't just Old Cao's strong friendship; the other officials who wanted to get their families out of the country also had very strong feelings for Yun Ce.

Of course, the most straightforward way to deepen a friendship is to give gold. If Yun Ce's Dragon Ball didn't have a space inside, he would never have been able to fit so much gold in there.

This scene warmed Yun Ce's heart. He had missed this kind of scene for a long time, just like the happy days when he was in the township, when everyone worked together, carried pots together, and made a little money together to drink and eat meat.

These officials were clearly not high-ranking officials; they were probably mid-level officials in Izumo City. Yet, it was precisely this group of people who were truly in charge of managing Izumo City.

If they wished, they could open the city gates for Yun Ce and leave the warehouses completely open for Yun Ce to choose from. And they were the ones who knew this city best.

In less than an hour, Lao Cao brought a man and a woman to Yun Ce's side. Pointing to the lame man, he said to Yun Ce, "Lao Cheng, you used to be a centurion in the Black Armor Army of the Tiger Legion. I know your reputation in the Tiger Legion. I won't say anything more. From now on, come to Lao Cheng for anything outside."

After saying that, he pointed to the woman and said to Yun Ce, "Hua Ji of Zui Xian Lou is a rare heroine. Since you want to close the hunting palace, just ask Hua Ji for anything related to the women."

Yun Ce carefully examined the two people in front of him, then turned around and saw Steward Qiu rushing over in a sheep cart. He cupped his hands to Old Cao and said, "Whenever you have the chance to escape, come to the Royal Hunting Ground. There's no time to lose, let's set off now."

It must be said that Lao Cheng was quite capable. He quickly organized the caravan. He rode a Thunder Smoke Beast to lead the way, while Yun Ce rode a chestnut horse to bring up the rear. Half of the twenty-three sheep carts from the Hunting Garden Camp were at the very front of the caravan, and the other half were at the very back, with one hundred and twenty sheep carts full of the elderly, women, and children mixed in between.

The advantage of doing this is that, in case of danger, the hunting camp's convoy can be used as a barrier to buy time for the elderly, women, and children in the middle to be saved.

The people responsible for rescuing the elderly, women, and children were undoubtedly Old Cheng at the front of the group and Yun Ce at the rear. As for the ordinary guards, they were capable of dealing with ordinary wild beasts and thieves, but against spirits and powerful figures, only the two of them could be relied upon. Yun Ce was the last to leave Chuyun City. After he and the caravan had completely entered the wasteland, Yun Ce looked back and found that the city gates had been closed at some point, and even the drawbridge in front of the gates was up.

It seems that neither the city lord Pompeii nor the governor Han Du have any good solutions to the problem of lost tribute. They can only resort to oppressive rule to force the people of Izumo City to surrender completely.

They wouldn't proactively explain the loss of tribute to the Han court; doing so would only prove that they were both incompetent fools, and wouldn't prove anything else.

For the tributary states, what the Han Dynasty wanted was tribute. Without tribute, there would be no tributary states, only enemies.

As long as Chuyun Prefecture pays its tribute on time, even if Chuyun Prefecture is in ruins or engulfed in war, it has nothing to do with the Han Dynasty.

Pompeii and Han Du will still be able to maintain their positions.

Therefore, Izumo Prefecture must collect 100 million in tribute, otherwise it will not work.

It makes no sense to ask the city lords and super-rich households of various cities to contribute this money. These people are not rooted in Chuyun Prefecture. They are just the money bags of the nobles in Chang'an or Luoyang of the Han Dynasty. They are only responsible for filling the bags and have no reason to take money out of them.

Yun Ce glanced back at Chuyun City and saw a large patch of dark clouds drifting towards the city. It seemed that there would be a blizzard in Chuyun City tonight.

The most annoying thing about having women and children in the marching column is that they always like to cry. The cries of women, children and babies are what dogs love the most.

So, after a long, drawn-out bark came from afar, all the dogs in the wasteland began to bark, and the cries of the women and children grew louder out of fear.

Yun Ce didn't care much for dog skins. Their meat wasn't tasty, their skins didn't fetch a good price, and they were timid. Aside from the fact that they posed a threat to people when they were in groups, a strong man with a stick could usually drive away a whole pack of dog skins.

Old Cheng was working hard to drive away and chase down the dogs, while guards from various families and hunters from the hunting camp were also dealing with the dogs. So, Yun Ce, who was following at the back, had nothing to do, mainly because the dogs didn't dare to get close to him.

This is probably what they call murderous intent; after all, Yun Ce has killed far too many scoundrels.

"Woo-"

Another bark rang out not far away, and Yun Ce frowned, because dogs that bark like that are usually called wolves on Earth.

Dogzi, tired from arguing with Yun Ce, suddenly said lazily, "Let me tell you, this thing has become a spirit, so you'd better be careful."

Yun Ce glanced at the long convoy ahead and said to Gouzi, "Find it."

"Why? It finally obtained a tremendous opportunity to become a spirit, and you want to kill it?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "This is something that can only be done from a human perspective. Animals on the land of the Great Han often evolve into spirits and monsters, and then gain intelligence. This is not allowed for the human race. As long as they are seen, they should be killed. The Great Han is too lenient towards these spirits and monsters that threaten the human race."

"You won't kill me one day, will you? After all, in a way, I am a kind of spirit."

"Don't flatter yourself. You're just a machine. You're a machine now, and you'll always be a machine."

The dog seemed hurt by Yun Ce's words and didn't continue arguing. It simply pointed a silver thread straight to the left.

"I'm going to catch Dogskin King."

Yun Ce gave a shout to Steward Qiu, and his chestnut horse galloped off in a hurry.

Blocked by a large group of dog skins, the chestnut horse did not fight them. Instead, it neighed and leaped more than three meters high, flying over the heads of many dog ​​skins before landing in the middle of the group and trampling several to death.

Its skin was tough, and the dog's teeth couldn't bite it. Even with a dog skin still hanging on its rear, the chestnut horse jumped up again and hopped into the center of the dog skin herd.

(End of this chapter)