Chapter 147: Save The Child
The source of large rivers is generally on plateaus or high mountains, and the Qing River is no exception.
Its source is on the Qinghe Plateau.
The Qinghe Plateau is also the final gathering place of the Gui Fang people.
Iron Enclosure Pass is at the foot of the Qinghe Plateau, and it is also the deepest point that Han People can reach in the Northern Plateau.
It is even the endpoint of Huo Qubing’s northern expedition against the Gui Fang people.
It is said that when King Huo first set out on his northern expedition, his goal was to completely eliminate the Gui Fang people’s final gathering place, and he planned to proclaim it to heaven and earth on the Golden Snow Mountain at the highest point of the Qinghe Plateau, achieving his goal once again of sealing the wolf at Xu.
In the end, it didn’t work out; the vanguard troops went up the plateau twice and were defeated by the Gui Fang people both times. Even someone as fierce as King Huo, after personally ascending the Qinghe Plateau and defeating the Gui Fang people again at a place called Wangwang River, did not choose to continue the attack. Instead, after killing two current leaders of the Gui Fang people, he hurriedly led his troops down the Qinghe Plateau.
History books record that the Qinghe Plateau is the ancestral land of the Gui Fang people, where their ancestors provide protection. Non-Gui Fang people who ascend the plateau will suffer chest tightness and shortness of breath, with combat power less than half of what it is at the foot of the plateau.
After Yun Ce read this history, he knew that this was probably altitude sickness.
However, Huo Qubing didn’t know what altitude sickness was and could only guess based on existing conditions. Since his own people had such magical things as ancestral fire and shehuo, it was perfectly normal for the Gui Fang people to have something similar.
1 Things that people cannot achieve must be because the gods are blocking them.
1 Therefore, in the 64th year of the Han Emperor’s Yuan Zheng reign, Huo Qubing built Iron Enclosure Pass on the Pingshui Plain at the foot of the Qinghe Plateau to block the Gui Fang people from coming south.
1 The name Iron Enclosure Pass comes from the myths and legends of the ancestral land. In the myths of the ancestral land, Iron Enclosure Mountain is the barrier mountain between the underworld hell and the human world. King Huo hoped that this fortress could firmly lock the Gui Fang people in this nether land of the Qinghe Plateau, never to emerge.
1 The Qinghe Plateau is surrounded by many high mountains. For the Gui Fang people to come down from the plateau, they must pass through Pingshui Plain, because only Pingshui Plain, formed by the Qing River breaking through the mountain barriers, is the best path for the Gui Fang people to enter Great Han Territory.
1 Although other places occasionally have small paths that can be traversed, they are not suitable for large-scale army movements. Even if small groups of Gui Fang people come out from there, the impact on Great Han would be negligible.
1 A Great Han poet wrote: Iron Enclosure limits north and south, turmoil confuses the ferry crossing.
1 In Huo Qubing’s vision, Iron Enclosure Pass was like a edge-breaking stone. No matter how many Gui Fang people came, they would ultimately be shattered into pieces under this edge-breaking stone at Iron Enclosure Pass. Once the main force of Gui Fang people was turned into fragments, the Great Wall Garrison behind Iron Enclosure Pass would swoop in like a fishing net, capturing all the remaining Gui Fang people in one haul.
1 Huo Qubing’s vision was very good and was implemented by later generations for more than six hundred years, but this year, Great Wall Grand Governor Zhao Shu was unwilling to continue being a useless fishing net.
1 North of the Great Wall is no longer within the range covered by shehuo, and it cannot be covered. If shehuo were to envelop the vast 800-li gap between Iron Enclosure Pass and the Great Wall Defense Line, this area would become fertile land where food is readily available. The Gui Fang people on the Qinghe Plateau, who would fight fierce beasts for a mouthful of food, would surely charge down recklessly.
1 Once they obtain sufficient supplies in the vast 800-li isolation zone, those starving-mad Gui Fang people might even dare to charge straight into the Great Han Homeland.
2 Therefore, in places north of the Great Wall Defense Line, grain cannot grow freely, but it can grow under Han People’s control in areas far from the Gui Fang people. This way, the produced grain and various materials can be supplied nearby to Iron Enclosure Pass without worrying about being robbed by the Gui Fang people for military rations.
2 When Yun Ce’s convoy passed Jingkou Pass, they left quite a lot of grain and materials for the officers and soldiers still guarding Jingkou Pass.
2 This was not Yun Ce randomly being kind-hearted; rather, these officers and soldiers were truly living miserable lives—short of clothing and food, and Yun Ce even saw lice crawling on the neck of the Jingkou Pass Commander.
2 This was truly experiencing what is meant by “armor breeds lice.”
2 After Yun Ce left Jingkou Pass by three li, he regretted giving so much grain and materials to those garrison troops, because not only were there hot springs everywhere here, but even though it was already Shuanghua Moon, due to geothermal heat, the scene was still one of lush vegetation.
2 While E Ji took Zhang Min, An Ji, and the others to bathe and play, she also brought Yun Ce several large baskets full of fresh wild vegetables and beans.
2 Yun Ce’s gaze fell on the Great Wall, and he shook his head. He couldn’t understand why, in such a good place with so much food, the people at Jingkou Pass didn’t know to gather it. They would rather let lice crawl all over their bodies than take a bath in these comfortably warm hot springs.
2 Yun Ce didn’t speak, which made Zhang Min, who had been boasting all day about how loyal and brave the Northern Territory officers and soldiers were, flush with embarrassment.
2 However, she soon stopped feeling ashamed.
2 Mainly because the red date horse got into a fight with wild beasts.
3 In a season full of frost everywhere, the red date horse suddenly discovered a lush green treasure land and felt a strong urge to claim it. Just as he was urinating everywhere to mark his territory, two fierce beasts attacked him.
3 How could the always proud red date horse tolerate this? He bit, kicked with hooves the size of copper hammers, and even farted several wet ones, but still, he couldn’t win.
3 So, he came to Yun Ce for help.
3 When the red date horse carried Yun Ce to find those two fierce beasts, the two creatures had already eaten three slaves who had been washed clean. If the red date horse hadn’t arrived quickly, they would have targeted another pot of human cubs that had just been washed clean.
3 As soon as the red date horse arrived, he neighed and pounced on one of the slightly smaller fierce beasts, while undoubtedly leaving the one that was obviously a size larger for Yun Ce.
3 Man-eating fierce beasts cannot be spared, because humans are clearly already on their menu. This simple truth holds on Earth, and Yun Ce felt it should hold here too.
3 Amid the children’s terrified gazes, Yun Ce was bitten by the long-fanged, big-mouthed fierce beast. Then, the children saw their small master not only snap off the fierce beast’s two long fangs but also grab its lower jaw and smash it to the ground.
3 “Doggy, make them suffer the most unbearable pain. Use their agonized howls to spread fear across the entire wasteland.”
3 “┗|｀O′|┛ Howl~~”
3 As eight silver threads drilled into the beast’s mouth, this fierce beast, larger than a cow, suddenly let out a miserable roar.
4 The sound was so loud and miserable that it stunned the other beast battling the red date horse. After taking two copper hammer-like fierce rear kicks from the red date horse, it tried to flee but found itself unable to move, as if something had entered its stomach through its mouth.
4 “Whine——”
4 “┗|｀O′|┛ Howl~~”
4 Soon, the wasteland echoed with the two fierce beasts’ miserable cries, truly shaking the four wilds.
4 The women who had abandoned their children and fled, seeing that the master had captured the two man-eating fierce beasts, suddenly remembered their own children were still bathing and hurriedly ran back.
4 Yun Ce had no interest in even glancing at these women accustomed to abandoning their children. Instead, he led the group of bare-bottomed boys and girls to torment the two fierce beasts.
4 A little boy tremblingly poked the beast with his finger, and the beast felt as if its heart had been pricked by a red-hot needle, unable to stop crying out loudly.
4 A bold four- or five-year-old little girl also poked the fallen fierce beast with her finger, so the beast felt as if a red-hot iron rod had been shoved into its anus.
4 “┗|｀O′|┛ Howl~~”
4 The wasteland resounded with howls, clear even to the garrison soldiers three li away at Jingkou Pass. They knew well that these were the cries from the two fierce beasts that had blocked them at the pass.
5 The area ten li north of Jingkou Pass was the territory of those two cunning fierce beasts. Since they occupied the hot springs, the people of Jingkou Pass hadn’t had a hot spring bath for over three years.
5 The beasts’ miserable cries didn’t affect humans much; they even thought it was the beasts roaring in anger to drive away intruders. But to the other wild beasts on the wasteland, it was a different story.
5 From the two fierce beasts’ roars, they heard begging, pain, submission, and a fate worse than death…
5 Seeing that the two children who poked the fierce beasts weren’t eaten and even made the beasts produce nice loud noises, the children surrounded the two fierce beasts and poked them like raindrops with their fingers.
5 The two fierce beasts finally died from screaming themselves hoarse.
5 In front of the children, Yun Ce bled out, skinned, and deboned the freshly dead beasts. The two fierce beasts that had kept Jingkou Pass’s army from daring to leave the pass easily soon became two piles of minced meat, piled on their own skins.
5 Some shameless women were still bathing, fondling the flesh they had grown after joining the Yun Clan. Yun Ce had no desire to look at them more and simply set up a fire on the wasteland to roast beast meat for the children.
5 Seeing the sizzling roasted meat, the women and men didn’t dare approach. Seeing that the children seemed favored, they pushed their own children forward to get meat for them.
5 As a result, Yun Ce drove them far away. The meat he roasted was only for the children, and his smiles and gentleness were only for the children before him.
5 A slave’s child is still a slave, the master’s property, and has little to do with their parents, so slave children rarely get more care from their mothers.
6 In the most basic slave relationships, the most common practice is using the cuteness of newly born cubs to gain benefits.
6 Yun Ce felt he should sever the connection between these long-enslaved people, who lacked positive emotions, and the children.
6 They were beyond saving. Even if they could be saved, it would cost too much in materials and effort, and Yun Ce had no intention of doing so. They had grown accustomed to their slave status, and working to death could be considered an accounting for their lives.
6 So, save the children.
