Chapter 142: Still A Bit Too Much Of A Dimensionality Reduction Strike
“What if the people at Tongming Post Station had no intention of abducting us? Wouldn’t doing this be akin to slaughter?” Zhang Min asked again.
Yun Ce took out the pass token from Grand Marshal’s Mansion that Wu Tong had given him and said: “Disobeying military order is already a capital offense, not to mention they gave me far too many reasons why they must be killed.”
“What reasons?”
“They forcibly migrated everyone away. I was planning to recruit many, many people along the way to go north of the Great Wall to establish Yun City. They took the people away—where am I supposed to get population from?”
Zhang Min looked at Yun Ce and said: “Will Yun City be extremely, extremely large?”
Yun Ce nodded and said: “It will be extremely large.”
Over ten thousand people noisily surrounded Tongming Post Station. The people inside had naturally discovered them long ago. Yun Ce saw that postmaster again through the telescope. He was now standing on the not-so-high stockade wall, anxiously saying something to the people around him.
Chu, standing at the front of everyone at the main gate, pointed at the postmaster on the stockade wall and shouted something loudly. Yun Ce and the others were too far from the fortress, so they couldn’t hear clearly.
Yun Ce guessed that Chu’s purpose in doing this was to trick them into opening the fortress gate, so that they could swarm in carrying bombs.
Just as Yun Ce thought Chu’s stratagem couldn’t possibly succeed, the fortress gate actually opened, and over two hundred armored soldiers charged out from inside.
1 Seeing how they charged toward Chu without stopping, it was clear the people inside didn’t take these slaves seriously at all, even though they were dressed neatly—they still couldn’t escape that poor, destitute slave appearance.
1 Watching as over a hundred bombs were chaotically thrown into the charging armored soldiers, Yun Ce sighed and said to E Ji beside him: “You need to manage them more in the future. Bombs aren’t thrown like this—it’s too wasteful.”
1 E Ji was about to agree when deafening explosions rang out one after another. Over two hundred and sixty armored soldiers in the charge were hit with one hundred twenty or thirty high-powered bombs. Yun Ce had already anticipated their fate. He turned around, took his water flask from An Ji, took a sip to rinse his mouth—the cooked baby bean he had eaten earlier left his mouth sticky and uncomfortable.
1 After he finished rinsing, he turned back and saw that Chu had already led a group inside Tongming Post Station. At the same time, many, many slaves were climbing over the not-so-high fortress walls, surging into the post station like a tide.
1 With one explosion after another from the bombs, more and more people entered the post station. Soon, slaves were everywhere inside the post station.
1 Doggy was right—slaves are the true proletarians. Before meeting Yun Ce, they had nothing. After meeting Yun Ce, he not only gave them clean new clothes to wear but also treated them to delicious oil-splashed noodles. Most importantly, he gave them quite a few bombs.
1 Everything they possessed was given by Yun Ce, so they were very grateful.
1 Therefore, Yun Ce wanted to implement a policy while the slaves were grateful to him, called— all loot must be turned over to the public.
1 In other words, you must turn over everything looted from the battlefield, then Yun Ce would redistribute it to them according to each person’s level of participation.
1 And this process of distributing things was actually the true manifestation of power. In the future, this manifestation of power would gradually appear in all aspects, such as the power to reward, the power to punish, the power to promote, the power to demote, up to—the power to kill, this ultimate power.
2 “Go, tell Chu that all loot must be turned over.”
2 Yun Ce said this to Feng An, and Feng An rode his horse toward the chaotic post station.
2 E Ji excitedly watched the slaves moving things in the post station, itching to join in herself. Zhang Min, face full of worry, looked at the lawless slaves, lost in thought about something.
2 Yun Ce had no mood to slowly untangle Zhang Min’s knot—she would resolve it herself sooner or later. There weren’t many places in the current Great Han worth lingering over, but on his side, she had new discoveries and new experiences every day. Over time, she would surely take on the shape of the Yun Clan.
2 Back at the camp, Yun Ce got a chair and sat at the highest spot in the camp. First, Chu led a group of centurions and ten-man leaders who respectfully placed rack after rack of dust-covered armor at Yun Ce’s feet, then neatly arranged the long sabers, horse spears, hammers, and other weapons they had just obtained in front of Yun Ce.
2 Then, they each held their own weapons and guarded the camp gate, eyes sharp as they watched every returning slave.
2 With them setting the example, the incoming slaves all placed the good things they had scavenged from the post station on the open ground in front of Yun Ce.
2 Until the last three-year-old little girl placed her looted wooden scoop on the ground, Yun Ce walked among the dazzling array of spoils of war. He took a horse spear that looked decent, then took nothing else.
2 E Ji took a liking to a green money gilt phoenix-tailed pot equipped with six cups—brand new and unused.
2 Feng An took a knife and a brush. Liang Kun took a stone ornament that looked very novel. Zhang Min just looked over everything and took nothing.
3 An Ji led a group of girls of all ages and happily picked out many things closely related to money.
3 Overall, Yun Ce and his group of masters were not greedy. The slaves watched eagerly the items they coveted, afraid someone else would take them first.
3 Chu took a complete set of armor, a horse spear, and a knife. It was clear he wanted to arm himself even more powerfully.
3 Next came the centurions and ten-man leaders. After they had all taken their shares, Chu designated the bravest centurion. At the centurion’s shout, the group of bomb-throwing soldiers responsible for bombing the armored soldiers stepped forward.
3 When the last little girl took her beloved wooden scoop, this allocation concerning only power came to a curtain close.
3 “This time twelve people still died.” Feng An was very dissatisfied.
3 “The search wasn’t thorough enough. An armored soldier hid in a house and suddenly killed his way out, killing six in a row before being taken down by a bomb. The other six deaths were for the same reason.”
3 “Their families are quite satisfied. After all, once the meritorious officials have picked, it’s their turn to pick.”
3 E Ji had gained over thirteen hundred taels of gold in one go today—enough to fill a whole horse carriage with money. She was in a very good mood, occasionally taking out a gold ingot from the wooden box and proudly wiping it with a cloth. She wanted all the gold to shine brightly to look good.
3 “Next time, your slaves will know how to plunder.” Zhang Min’s cold voice sounded in the room.
4 “That’s right. From now on, they will become more proficient and braver with each raid. With experience plus bravery, and bombs greatly leveling combat power, our career can’t help but thrive.”
4 Seeing Yun Ce somewhat smug, Zhang Min added: “An army needs training, guidance, formations, and command to unleash its true strength.”
4 Yun Ce looked into Zhang Min’s eyes and said: “Do you know how to use bombs?”
4 Zhang Min shook her head.
4 Yun Ce pointed outside the tent: “They know—they’ve already started using them. As long as they use them more, use them often, they will naturally discover the true ways to use bombs.”
4 “When that time comes, no need for us to teach—they’ll know themselves how to defeat enemies while using bombs well.”
4 “Truth be told, what I need is a strong populace, not one or two strong troops.”
4 “You think the elites of Iron Enclosure Pass aren’t that useful?”
4 “They are useful, of course. But the strength of a part isn’t true strength—the strength of an entire population is true strength.”
4 “When a farmer dares to charge at the Gui Fang people with a wooden fork, when a shepherd dares to lash the Gui Fang people with a whip, then whether the warriors of Iron Enclosure Pass are strong or not won’t matter so much.”
5 Seeing Zhang Min about to speak, Yun Ce laughed: “Go back and sleep soon. Rest well, and you’ll see how my dream comes true bit by bit.”
5 After entering Sangluo Moon, night fell early and dawn came late. Even after yesterday’s large-scale robbery practice at dusk, the remaining night was enough for these increasingly fierce slaves to get a good sleep.
5 At dawn, the convoy continued north.
5 Passing Tongming Post Station, it was deathly quiet, not a soul in sight. The corpses scattered about last night had been properly disposed of by Chu and his men, and even the bloodstained ground had its topsoil shoveled away and buried.
5 So, Tongming Post Station was like those suddenly vanished fortresses—only the fortress remained, no people. It was just that the people here had ample time to withdraw and took everything they could carry.
5 The further north they went, the fewer caravans, armies, envoys, and messengers on the road. Only some birds with large wings glided at high altitude.
5 Yun Ce watched for a long time and was about to speak when Zhang Min peeled a red fruit and placed it in his hand: “This bird is called ‘glider.’ Don’t let its large body and long wings fool you—its body is actually very light. An ancient teacher in Luoyang said this bird can land on a woman’s palm without feeling heavy, so it has another name: ‘palm glider.'”
5 “It’s said that in spring, they rise with the earth’s qi, soaring long in the sky. When frost falls, they land on the ground to find a cave for winter.”
5 “Very easy to catch, but useless after catching. For meat, it’s all light fluff and bones. Can’t use it to transport things—it can’t carry much. Not even for messaging. Once it lands, to fly again, it has to wait until next spring.”
5 Yun Ce looked into Zhang Min’s eyes and said: “What are you really trying to say?”
6 Zhang Min wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and said: “Like me, a beautiful thing that’s not very useful.”
