Chapter 153: The Excellent Youth Template
Yun Ce’s archery is not yet good enough to hunt Gale Beasts.
Doggy can, so it basically means Yun Ce can too.
Things Doggy can do, the old butler of Cao Kun’s family can also do, even better, because the Gale Beast he hunted had a wound on its eyes, with intact fur.
Gale Beast meat actually has no flavor, but it has one advantage: it easily takes on flavors. Stewed with chicken, it tastes like chicken. Stewed with pig bones, it tastes like pig bones. For barbecue, as long as your cooking skills are good enough, you can barbecue it to the composite seasoning flavor you desire.
Baby Beans are the best-tasting beans Yun Ce has seen. When this thing is stewed with Gale Beast meat, the fat inside the Baby Beans gradually seeps out under high heat. Gale Beast meat basically has no fat, so when the fragrant plant fat fuses with the Gale Beast meat, the flavor of the Gale Beast meat immediately elevates by two or three levels.
Cao Kun started eating roasted Gale Beast, but later, after the Gale Beast stewed with Baby Beans was fully cooked, he didn’t touch the roasted Gale Beast meat at all.
The old butler watched clearly from the side. This young man Yun Ce, facing Cao Kun with his powerful family background, showed no fawning expression, nor excessive flattery toward Cao Kun. Even when Cao Kun put down the roasted meat and started eating the stewed meat, a hint of smugness appeared on his face.
Only when Cao Kun was receiving extremely attentive service from the Cao Clan members did he show a slight daze, but he quickly recovered, set up his own tent, fed his Thunder Smoke Beast himself, and at night when resting, the Thunder Smoke Beast would stick its big head into the tent to accompany him.
“I heard he brought his whole family north of the Great Wall to reclaim wasteland.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what kind of upheaval it was that made a pampered young master from a wealthy family bring his whole family away from the affluent life in Chang’an to this wasteland that even Shehuo doesn’t reach.”
1 “Lately, things in Chang’an have been unstable. The struggle between the Grand Marshal and the Emperor is intensifying. Now that Great Wall Grand Governor Zhao Shu has gotten involved, the future situation is hard to see clearly.”
1 “For a fallen poor scholar family like his Yun Clan, it’s indeed not suitable to stay in Chang’an any longer. When the giant python flips over, even if they don’t provoke others, they’ll still be affected by the waves.”
1 “Looking at it this way, this young master’s choice seems absurd but is actually wise.”
1 “You only see that he brought his family to escape Chang’an and preserve themselves, but you don’t see the second point: the timing he chose to come north of the Great Wall to reclaim wasteland is too perfect.”
1 “Now, Iron Enclosure Pass is short on grain and food. Great Wall Grand Governor Zhao Shu has also abandoned his post. In this chaotic moment, if this young man can really achieve results reclaiming wasteland on the plain, even if only supplying a small amount to Iron Enclosure Pass, when the chaos in Chang’an settles and merits are rewarded, he won’t be short of his share of credit no matter what.”
1 “Tsk tsk tsk, who would’ve thought, so young yet with such insight…”
1 Yun Ce pitched his tent among the grain transport convoy, blending in with the Cao Clan people yet somewhat distinct. Not getting close to Cao Kun showed Yun Ce had no intention of clinging, while staying near the grain carts showed he cared about the results of this grain transport. Such an attitude was most easily accepted by the Cao Clan.
1 After daybreak, Yun Ce rode the Red Date Horse to scout ahead for the convoy. Actually, there wasn’t much to scout; the convoy traveling on the frozen Qingshui River formed a long dragon.
1 Yun Ce stood on horseback by the riverbank, overlooking the convoy stretching ten li, and couldn’t help saying to Cao Kun beside him: “This is a real grand move.”
1 Cao Kun said proudly: “No big deal, Iron Enclosure Pass is the most important.”
2 For Cao Kun to say this meant that this time delivering grain and other materials to Iron Enclosure Pass was not as easy as Cao Kun claimed for the Cao Clan; it was absolutely a move of cutting flesh.
2 Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent Cao Kun, the eldest young master of the Cao Clan, personally.
2 Iron Enclosure Pass is only about a thousand li from Jingkou Pass. Tracing upstream along the Qingshui River, it’s a gentle slope all the way with not much incline. The ice is fairly flat, but looking up, you can see the untraveled river channel connecting with the sky. The entire Qingshui River is like a ribbon laid down from the heavens, as if following this ribbon would take you straight to the sky.
2 For the return trip, Yun Ce planned not to ride the Red Date Horse but to make a large sled and slide with the Red Date Horse all the way from the plateau to Jingkou Pass. It would surely be thrilling.
2 Both sides of the river channel were warriors guarding the grain carts, and in the channel, the grain carts were dragged into a long dragon. To prevent any Great Horned Horses from suddenly falling, the old butler of the Cao Clan ordered all the horse carriages connected together.
2 Yun Ce paid no attention to these matters. To be honest, the horse carriage transportation skills in this world far surpassed those of Earth’s horse carriage era.
2 Plus, the livestock pulling the carts were much fiercer than Earth’s. Whether in cargo capacity or delivery distance, they couldn’t be compared to Earth’s horse carriage era.
2 This itself was related to them not being good at farming but only at gathering. Transportation is a process of allocating supply and demand; it’s only natural for the transportation industry to be more developed.
2 “Gui Fang people are ambushing in the forest on the left.”
2 Doggy, who had been poised for two days, suddenly said to Yun Ce.
3 Yun Ce said: “Wait a bit longer. I can’t appear too alert. Being the second or third to spot the enemy is the most acceptable to everyone.”
3 “Why?” Doggy couldn’t understand such matters of human relationships and social graces.
3 “I’ll tell you: everyone wants to be first, but as a manager, no one likes the top performer. If the second or third is not much behind the first, managers’ first choice is second or third.”
3 “First is a bit too sharp and exposed.”
3 “It’s a disgusting principle.”
3 “Very disgusting, so it’s generally not said out loud.”
3 Yun Ce chatted with Doggy in his mind while directing the Red Date Horse to a favorable position. This way, when he charged out bravely and peerlessly, he could still leave a handsome back view for Cao Kun.
3 “There’s also quite a few Gui Fang people hiding in the forest on the right. Looks like they knew about your grain transport this time long ago and were just waiting for you to deliver the grain.”
3 “Help me find the most valuable target.”
3 “Then you stay on this side. There’s a leader in the forest here, probably their leader, but the hammer in his hand is bigger than your head.”
4 “Are Gui Fang people at this level like Zhang Min, having cultivated that so-called qi?”
4 “You mean…”
4 “You guessed right.”
4 “Your sense of morality is really low.”
4 The old butler riding the Thunder Smoke Beast at the front of the convoy suddenly stared fixedly at the forest by the road for some reason. The warrior leader following behind the old butler immediately raised his hand, and the convoy stopped the moment the warrior leader raised his hand.
4 A team of cavalrymen left the convoy and quickly approached the forest. Yun Ce blended in among them, neither too far ahead nor too far behind, in the bulky middle section.
4 “Roar—”
4 Someone in the forest suddenly let out a neat roar, and immediately after, Yun Ce saw a dozen Flying Wheels the size of cart wheels thrown out from the forest.
4 The Flying Wheels flew fast, rotating violently and emitting a gale howling sound.
4 Yun Ce watched as one Flying Wheel severed a Thunder Smoke Beast’s neck, then conveniently cut the knight on horseback in two before landing powerless.
5 The Flying Wheels came flat, with a large attack area. The foremost knights were caught off guard and were all cut down from their horses.
5 When Yun Ce faced the Flying Wheel, it had no strength left. He smashed it to the ground with his horse spear, and the Red Date Horse lunged forward fiercely. At that moment, Yun Ce became the lead soldier of all the cavalry.
5 Yun Ce’s performance fell into the old butler’s eyes. Seeing that after suffering heavy losses, Yun Ce didn’t retreat but charged ahead to act as the lead soldier in this difficult moment, he said approvingly to Cao Kun beside him: “This is someone who can be entrusted with important matters.”
5 While the old butler was commenting on Yun Ce, he had already spotted the Gui Fang infantry that Zhang Min had mentioned.
5 According to Zhang Min, Gui Fang infantry are strong and robust, clad in heavy armor. Arrows can’t harm them, swords can’t injure them. Only armor piercing weapons like horse spears, or heavy weapons like hammers and clubs, can harm them.
5 Zhang Min’s experience didn’t apply to Yun Ce, because his strength was great, greater than ten Zhang Mins combined. So he swung his horse spear like a cleaver. Sure enough, greater strength has its advantages. The nearly two-foot spear blade of Yun City’s spear sliced through a Gui Fang person blocking him like cutting tofu, splitting him in two.
5 Passing the corpse, Yun Ce deliberately checked it and found that the Gui Fang infantry he had just killed, though with blackish-green skin, had internal organs no different from Han People’s—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, all complete, showing no difference.
5 “Hey fa—”
5 Yun Ce looked at that Gui Fang leader who shouted loudly with every exertion, signaling the other cavalry to continue searching. He would handle this guy.
5 A meteor hammer far bigger than Yun Ce’s head came whistling with wind toward his face. If hit, Yun Ce felt his head might explode like a hammer smashing a watermelon.
6 So Yun Ce freed his left hand and grabbed the meteor hammer head. At the same time, Doggy’s silvery tentacles pierced along the meteor hammer’s chain into that Gui Fang person’s body.
6 To outsiders, it looked like one of their young generals was wrestling with a burly Gui Fang person—one on horseback, one on the ground, circling, kicking up dust, like evenly matched opponents who couldn’t decide a winner quickly.
6 Yun Ce picked the strongest Gui Fang infantryman to fight, while the other cavalry charged at the Gui Fang infantry just running out of the forest.
6 Cao Kun saw the chaotic battlefield, especially Yun Ce fighting amid flying dust obscuring the view. Veins bulged on his neck as he roared at the old butler: “I don’t care, I want to fight!”
