Chapter 140: What If The Fake Turns Real
The best road in the Great Han Dynasty was the road between Chang’an and Iron Enclosure Pass. This road was sixty-four hundred li long and fifty meters wide.
The Gui Fang people built this road at that time. Those Gui Fang people had great strength, many had three or four arms, or three or four legs, making them excellent for carrying earth or bearing loads.
It is said that seventy to eighty thousand Gui Fang people were conscripted when construction began. With multiple sections and simultaneous construction, it took a full twelve years to completely finish the road. By the time the road was completed, it was difficult to find Gui Fang people with four legs and four arms.
To this day, many slave owners still miss that era of the Gui Fang people; they would work day and night for just a little food, and wouldn’t utter a sound even if they collapsed from exhaustion.
Later, some slave owners deliberately bred Gui Fang people with three legs and three arms, hoping to produce the old-fashioned Gui Fang people with multiple hands and multiple legs. However, not a single case succeeded, and the era of Gui Fang people with multiple hands and legs was gone forever.
Today’s Gui Fang people slaves have no exceptional advantages besides their lives being cheap. However, in the areas of carving mountains, splitting rocks, building bridges, and repairing roads, the Gui Fang people still hold an irreplaceable position.
The Yun Clan’s convoy traveled on this road, known as ‘Gui Chi,’ as a very inconspicuous presence. Colossal convoys with far more people than the Yun convoy often passed them.
Yun Ce couldn’t understand what kind of goods a caravan of fifty thousand people needed to trade to ensure sufficient profit for such a journey.
Zhang Min stared intently at these large convoys, then whispered in Yun Ce’s ear, “These people are definitely the Great Wall Garrison, the second most elite force of the Great Han.”
Yun Ce curled his lips, “I thought they were the Iron Enclosure Pass Garrison. Right, I knew it. I took away over ten thousand surplus slaves from Chang’an City, so where did Wu Tong get his one hundred thousand slaves for reclamation? It turns out the source of these one hundred thousand people is from the army coming to aid the king.”
Zhang Min, you have a connection with him. If possible, ask him if we can have some of these high-quality slaves as well.
“My reputation is not worth much now. Didn’t you see how perfunctory their escort was when they came to see me off?”
When the road known as Gui Chi was built, some people put their hearts into it, and some put their lives into it. Therefore, the quality of this road is exceptionally good. Even though a thousand years have passed, its foundation remains stable, and there isn’t a single weed on the road.
The best way to travel on a road like this is by carriage. The Yun Clan’s convoy moved very quickly, covering about two hundred li a day. If there were no armies disguised as caravans encountered, the convoy could even cover three hundred li in a day.
Yun Ce’s planned travel time did not exceed thirty days.
Every evening during encampment, Yun Ce would release Shehuo from the Dragon Pearl and place it on Doggy’s tentacles, making it truly resemble a candle flame.
As soon as Yun Ce brought out the candle flame, Liu Changsheng’s Ancestral Fire would burn fiercely, sending a pillar of fire soaring into the sky, and it always seemed very agitated.
However, today, the Ancestral Fire seemed very calm, as if it had acknowledged the existence of this candle flame.
Liu Changsheng looked at the phantom image of the candle flame, occasionally touching it with his finger. His finger would pass through the phantom image of the candle flame. Even when Liu Changsheng moved the Ancestral Fire to envelop the phantom image of the candle flame, the candle flame showed no reaction and remained static.
“This is a Shehuo without sentience; it probably cannot benefit the human world.”
Liu Changsheng waved his wide sleeves, and the phantom image of the candle flame disappeared.
“In my hundred years as High Priest, I have witnessed the birth of sixteen Shehuo. From the moment of their birth, each Shehuo possessed sentience. They came from the Ancestral Fire, yet were different from it. Despite their differences, the Ancestral Fire could still connect with them.
Only the candle flame in Yun Ce’s hand burned silently, did not communicate with heaven and earth, nor did it approach people. As such, this candle flame had no function of conveying information up or down. It seems that its only end will be to be extinguished.”
Today, there was also a new person in the Divine Dragon Hall. He leaned by the Fire Pit, just like the High Priest. He seemed to hear the High Priest’s words, or perhaps he didn’t; in any case, his expression was indifferent, making it impossible to guess his thoughts.
“What is Lu Taifu of Luoyang’s reaction to our current actions?” High Priest Liu Changsheng asked again.
The person who had been drowsy by the Fire Pit opened his eyes, looked at Liu Changsheng, and said, “He disagrees with the strategy of the electors. He also said that unification is as difficult as reaching the sky, while division is as fast as lightning.
He also warned us not to try to manipulate people’s hearts, stating that only unification is our foundation for existence. Once divided, being defeated one by one is not difficult.”
Liu Changsheng chuckled, “By defeating the Gui Fang people, we can rest easy.”
The man chuckled, “You are absolutely right. The plan began twenty years ago, and twenty years later it will be time to harvest. Liu Changsheng, in your long life, this moment must be the most pleasing sight for you.”
Liu Changsheng smiled without answering. He felt that Yun Ce’s appearance was the truly pleasing sight for him; nothing else was worth mentioning.
“The Great Han has endured for nearly thirteen hundred years, which is quite long enough. Liu Changsheng, as a member of the Liu imperial family, you have now completely betrayed the Liu Clan. Do you intend to close the Divine Dragon Hall and disappear from public view from now on?”
Liu Changsheng smiled, “In my eyes, what distinction is there between people in the world? Everyone receives the protection of the Ancestral Fire, and should wholeheartedly worship the Ancestral Fire. What is there to talk about, the Liu Clan or the Zhao Clan?”
The aged Zhao Shu looked up at Liu Changsheng and said, “There are still some subtle differences.”
Liu Changsheng smiled, “Then, place your hand into the Ancestral Fire.”
Zhao Shu frowned, “What do you mean?”
Liu Changsheng smiled, “Place your hand into the Ancestral Fire. Whether you are a great villain or a compassionate sage, the Ancestral Fire will discern it.”
Zhao Shu stood up, waved his arms a few times to gather his wide sleeves around his arms, and said nonchalantly to Liu Changsheng, “I don’t need the Ancestral Fire to test who I am.”
Liu Changsheng smiled, “You have guarded the Great Wall for many years and are weary of it. Do you no longer wish to be called a pillar of the nation?”
Zhao Shu said, “Besides the flying snow and birds migrating south or north, there is only wild grass there. Liu Changsheng, thirty-six years. I am too lonely.”
“Why not wait a little longer? Perhaps some interesting things will happen right before your eyes.”
Zhao Shu gazed at Liu Changsheng’s overly aged face and said, “I am weary.”
Seeing Zhao Shu leave, Liu Changsheng sighed, “Chang’an is not a good place either.”
The Gui Chi Grand Road never connected with the Big Cities it passed. The main purpose of this great road was to quickly move armies. The reason Yun Ce’s family’s convoy traveled over two hundred li a day was because once they were on this road, the speed of the horse carriages should increase.
Moreover, the distance between one encampment and the next was exactly two hundred li.
Leaving Gui Chi and descending to the encampment, Yun Ce glanced at his relatively orderly team, then took the reclamation order given by Wu Tong and went to the Post Station Government Office.
“The Post Station is out of grain, so we cannot provide enough provisions for your eleven thousand people. Therefore, you will need to procure it yourselves. If you get it, you will eat well; if not, no one can do anything.”
As Yun Ce walked into the Post Station, he heard an unfamiliar voice arguing with Feng An.
