Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 95 Eye-opening

Reading in chaotic times can easily turn a person into two extremes.

The former reads books about suffering, and as they read, they are easily moved to anger, grab a sword, and rush off to save the world and its people.

The latter type of person reads books about imperial ambitions, and while reading, they might burst into laughter, convincing a group of people to excitedly embark on their own imperial ambitions.

As for the many readers who failed to grasp these two qualities, very few were remembered by history.

History books like to record unparalleled heroes and extraordinary tyrants, but they don't like to record ordinary people.

Zhang Min, who liked to ride birds and fly around, was generally referred to by Eji as the "Birdman". When the Birdman came, Eji liked to hug her little dog and come closer, especially liking to point the dog's mouth towards Zhang Min.

The spirit-detecting insect hanging from Zhang Min's waist curled up its chubby body when it saw the puppy, looking just like a ball of poop. The puppy became even more interested in it, puckering its little black nose and sniffing it incessantly.

Zhang Min grabbed the puppy, first examining its dark circles under its eyes, then said suspiciously to Yun Ce, "Dog King Naosheng? It shouldn't be this small, but the Spirit-Detecting Insect can't be wrong."

Eji snatched the puppy back from Zhang Min's hands, and kissed it on the face, saying, "My husband caught this puppy from the wilderness to make me happy."

Zhang Min ignored Eji and said to Yun Ce, "This thing is not right."

Yun Ce said, "It's just a little thing. I'm glad E Ji likes it."

Zhang Min smiled, pointed at Yun Ce, and said, "You are probably the best man in the entire Han Dynasty to his woman."

Yun Ce laughed and said, "You savage, you've never seen the world. The first woman you ever met was her. She was playing the drums at the time, and she played them beautifully, so you can't get her out of your heart."

"Do you know that the women in the wilderness play drums to attract mates?"

"I found out later."

"You don't care even if you know?"

"What do you care about?"

She is courting.

"Oh, so you begged me. I was given to her by God. God is the greatest."

Zhang Min pondered for a moment and said, "Why not say the divine dragon?"

Yun Ce shook his head, indicating that he did not know.

"Izumo Prefecture is finished. The Great Han has refused to accept Izumo Prefecture as a subordinate prefecture. This place may be granted to a prince as a fiefdom."

"Izumo Prefecture covers three thousand miles, and its two hundred cities cannot be completely destroyed by a little trouble. After the chaos, there will surely be great order. You don't need to say these things to me."

"Your good friend, Miss Red, has now gained power. In the past, she could only fight against the government with sticks and bamboo poles. Now, she has built an army of no less than 30,000 men with cavalry, armored soldiers, and swords and shields. She has been conquering cities and territories all the way, and has been invincible. In this period of time, she has already captured sixteen cities."

“I heard from a centurion of the Black Armor Army that the neighboring state is also in chaos.”

Zhang Min was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this and frowned, saying, "The centurion of the Black Family Army?"

"Oh, I heard he's the one who got a limp and was kicked out by Zhou Chengming, his surname is Cheng."

"Cheng Xiang?"

“It seems he’s right. Zhang Min, when you ruled this state or that state, besides collecting taxes and robbing people, did you really not consider the well-being of the people?”

Zhang Min looked at Yun Ce and sneered, "Shouldn't a savage like you from the wilderness agree with the 'Huang-Lao' approach to governance, which emphasizes 'governing by doing nothing, maintaining order and law, and allowing the people to rest'?"

Yun Ce asked in surprise, "Are you using the 'Huang-Lao philosophy' to govern the country?"

Zhang Min said, "The Han Dynasty began with the Yellow Emperor and flourished under King Huo. If we don't use the Huang-Lao philosophy, what else can we use? Moreover, King Huo said that the wise kings of the Han Dynasty used the Huang-Lao philosophy to govern the country. They governed the ancestral land so well that 'the money in the capital was so abundant that the strings holding the coins together rotted and could not be counted, and the grain in the granary was piled up in layers, overflowing and exposed in the fields until it rotted and could not be eaten.'"

This system of governance enabled the Han Dynasty to prosper for 1,200 years. What right do you have to criticize the "Huang-Lao philosophy"?

Yun Ce frowned and said, "You've used the same thing for over a thousand years without making any changes?"

Zhang Min glared at Yun Ce and said, "Why should we change?"

Yun Ce was speechless. Indeed, Huo Qubing's highest understanding of social governance was the "Reign of Wen and Jing." As for the negative consequences of "governing by doing nothing"—the growth of the landlord and powerful class and the expansion of the power of the princes—they were all minor problems in Huo Qubing's eyes. Once the negative consequences appeared, he would simply send troops to quell the rebellion.

This is so typical of Huo Qubing! Such a flawed policy has been used for over a thousand years. It's only because he lived long enough and he single-handedly suppressed the rebels of the Han Dynasty that this corrupt policy has persisted on this land for twelve hundred years.

Therefore, Yun Ce could deduce from the chaos in Hekou Village, Pingyuan City, Sheyang City, and Chuyun City that Chang'an and Luoyang must now be the two most prosperous, flourishing, and civilized cities in the world. This is because all the blood of the Han Dynasty has been drained to nourish these two places.

Yun Ce couldn't imagine what a city that had been prosperous for over a thousand years looked like.

Have you ever been to Chang'an or Luoyang?

Hearing Yun Ce ask this question, Zhang Min also looked longingly at it, and gently shook her head and said, "Panxing Tower is in Chang'an, but the training ground is in Jingzhao, which is 600 miles away from Chang'an. I wanted to go to Chang'an, but in the end I didn't make it."

"Chang'an is so wonderful, why not go?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Min's face flushed red, and after stammering for a while, she finally said breathlessly, "It's not that I don't want to go, it's that I'm not qualified to go."

I challenged them three times, and failed all three times. Not wanting to waste the money they'd spent on me over the years, they sent me to serve on the Iron Fortress defense line. Luckily, I survived, but they still thought I was useless, freeloading at Iron Fortress. So they sent me to Chuyun Prefecture as an envoy, where I can lord it over everyone, to make up for the injuries and blood I shed at Iron Fortress.

Hearing Zhang Min say this, Yun Ce's opinion of Chang'an rose even higher.

"Zhou Chengming has been to Chang'an, hasn't he?"

"He went there and served in the Imperial Guard for three years. Six years ago, he went to the front line of Tiewei Pass as a centurion of the cavalry. In the Battle of Heishui Forest, his men were almost all killed or wounded. He escaped and was originally going to be beheaded, but the general took pity on him. In addition, Tiewei Pass suffered heavy losses, so he sent him to Chuyun Prefecture to rebuild a Black Armor Cavalry and bring him back to Tiewei Pass to atone for his sins."

"So, the 3,000-strong black-armored cavalry force from Izumo City is qualified to enter Iron Enclosure Pass?"

The mocking look on Zhang Min's face disappeared, replaced by a look of dejection.

“He’s not qualified. Give him another three years, and maybe he can train a real Black Armor Cavalry. Now that this Black Armor Cavalry has gone to Iron Enclosure Pass, if he can keep a hundred riders in less than three months, then Zhou Chengming will have made amends for his crimes.”

"So, Zhou Chengming took all that 100 million in tribute after all, right?"

“He took 30%, and he wants to equip the three thousand Black Armor Cavalry with the best armor, the sharpest weapons, and the strongest and most obedient Thunder Smoke Beasts. Only the rest will be given to us.”

"Huh, you're not even willing to pretend to keep it a secret anymore?"

"The court will not grant Yunzhou the status of a tributary state, and has even stripped it of its title. Unless Yunzhou prospers again and makes up for the outstanding tribute in one go, the court will not consider granting Yunzhou the status of a tributary state."

Izumo Province, lacking any status as a tributary state, deserved to be robbed.

"That's not right. When Zhou Chengming robbed the tribute, Chuyun Prefecture was still a tributary prefecture."

"The time is Chang'an time, not Chuyun Prefecture's own broken time. When the tribute was robbed, the imperial decree had already been issued. Besides, Zhou Chengming robbed the tribute from Hong Guniang, not from the Chuyun Prefecture soldiers. It was their spoils of war in fighting the bandits."

Yun Ce asked, puzzled, "In that case, what about leaving Yunzhou?"

Zhang Min laughed and said, "The Han Dynasty has three hundred military prefectures and two hundred tributary prefectures."

Upon hearing this, Yun Ce rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky. In his opinion, although Chuyun Prefecture, with its two hundred cities, was not a good place, it was all about comparison. He was born, raised, and worked in Gansu. Although most of the area was desert or wasteland, and there were some beautiful places, places like Longnan and Tianshui were full of high mountains that towered into the clouds. You couldn't live a good life there if you couldn't fly.

While Chuyun Prefecture is mostly wasteland, it is covered with grass, wild trees that can be used for weaving cloth, and various grains that can be harvested when ripe without planting. Most importantly, Yun Ce has never seen a place more suitable for grazing than Chuyun Prefecture. They just said they didn't want it.
Yun Ce suddenly understood all the unreasonable things that had happened before. No wonder Chuyun Prefecture was like this. There were hundreds of places like this, but Chuyun Prefecture was the most inconspicuous one.

In ancient times, Gansu was at least a place where the Zhou emperor grazed his horses, while this land, with conditions far better than Gansu, was not even qualified to graz horses for the Han dynasty.

"So, what kind of place is Iron Enclosure Pass? What kind of enemy are you resisting there? What kind of enemy is it that even such a powerful Han Dynasty can only rely on its strong city for defense and cannot take the initiative to destroy it?"

Upon hearing Yun Ce's question, Zhang Min shook his head and said, "A hero like you will be sent to the front line of Tiewei Pass sooner or later. You will know when that time comes. Telling you now is not a good thing for you."

"At least tell me the enemy's name."

“Guifang! The land we live on now belongs to them. It belongs to the Divine Dragon, the Yellow Emperor, the King Huo, and our ancestors, who fought and sacrificed every inch of it with their blood and lives.”

"The Ghost Fang is very powerful?"

“In the past, we were not powerful and it was easy to kill them. Later, several sons of the Xuanyuan Emperor wanted to become the Emperor, so they fought each other. One of them won, but for some reason, he did not kill the losers. Instead, he exiled them to the Guifang.”

I thought the Guifang people would kill them, but to my surprise, they didn't kill them. Instead, they used them for breeding. This was a huge joke. The Guifang people were not only extremely ugly, but they also had four arms. They were like dogs and horses with the Han people and could not possibly have offspring.

"I never imagined that while others couldn't do it, the descendants of the Xuanyuan clan could..."

When did this happen?

Zhang Min pursed her lips and said, "Three thousand years ago."

(End of this chapter)