Chapter 46: The Great Han, Still The Same Unchanged Great Han
Seeing the Thunder Smoke Beast being led away by Yun Ce, Peng Zeng flew into a rage. Anger made him forget the fact that he hadn’t killed Yun Ce with three punches. Under the influence of his subconscious, he drew the long saber hanging from his waist and slashed toward Yun Ce like lightning.
Yun Ce jumped onto the Thunder Smoke Beast. This horse seemed unaccustomed to being ridden by outsiders. It neighed loudly and reared up, its two massive front hooves kicking forward, faintly emitting thunderous rumbles. As soon as its front hooves landed, its hind legs rose again, using the weight of its plump buttocks to make its heavy body spin in the air.
Peng Zeng’s long saber missed. Just as he was about to charge forward, the Thunder Smoke Beast’s mid-air hind leg kicked toward him. Peng Zeng had no choice but to retreat repeatedly. Yun Ce was also unsteady at this moment; his only connection to the Thunder Smoke Beast was his left hand tightly gripping the saddle. As for his body, it was spinning in the air just like the Thunder Smoke Beast.
Finally managing to land his body, he ended up riding on the Thunder Smoke Beast’s buttocks. Before he could adjust his position, the Thunder Smoke Beast’s front hooves suddenly buckled and knelt to the ground. Yun Ce, who had just settled on the Thunder Smoke Beast’s buttocks, was flung onto its neck again.
Yun Ce was riding backward on the Thunder Smoke Beast’s neck when it stood up again and flung him onto the horse’s buttocks. Yun Ce grew furious. His right hand’s tendons and bones tensed, his five fingers like steel as he thrust them forcefully into the area above the Thunder Smoke Beast’s hind leg. His left hand also released the saddle and similarly inserted into the area behind the Thunder Smoke Beast’s front leg. His ten fingers, like steel hooks, firmly attached to the Thunder Smoke Beast’s body. No matter how it jumped and bucked, Yun Ce clung like a maggot to rotting bone, impossible to shake off.
As the Thunder Smoke Beast gradually calmed down amid the intense pain and a faint smile appeared on Yun Ce’s face, Peng Zeng, who had been circling the Thunder Smoke Beast’s body waiting for a chance to kill Yun Ce, suddenly let out a miserable scream.
“No—”
Yun Ce, his head spinning from being flung by the Thunder Smoke Beast, was just about to release his hands and accept its submission when the Thunder Smoke Beast suddenly lunged forward. Then, Yun Ce heard a long ‘creak.’ His body swayed once on the side of the Thunder Smoke Beast and then stopped.
Pulling his ten fingers out from the Thunder Smoke Beast’s body and landing on the ground, he saw the frenzied Peng Zeng. Dodging the incoming long saber and kicking the disorganized Peng Zeng flying with one foot, Yun Ce finally had time to turn back and look at the motionless Thunder Smoke Beast.
Just as he turned his head, Yun Ce felt his heart ache. This horse had actually committed suicide, impaling itself on the half-broken tree trunk that Peng Zeng had punched earlier. The trunk, nearly a foot in diameter, had deeply pierced into the Thunder Smoke Beast’s chest. From the way blood sprayed from its nostrils, it was clear this guy was beyond saving.
1 “Beast—”
1 Tears streaming down Peng Zeng’s face, his eyes bloodshot, he spread his arms wide, hands like claws, and fiercely pounced toward Yun Ce.
1 Yun Ce’s legs were ultimately a bit longer than Peng Zeng’s arms. He kicked him in the chest a little earlier, sending him flying once again.
1 Peng Zeng fell to the ground, rolled over, and got up again, continuing to pounce toward Yun Ce, only to be kicked flying once more.
1 Eventually, Peng Zeng’s rising to pounce at Yun Ce became an obsession. With no other choice, Yun Ce kicked him in the temple with one leg, plunging the frenzied man into unconsciousness.
1 Looking down at the unconscious Peng Zeng and then at the Thunder Smoke Beast impaled on the tree trunk, Yun Ce said to Feng An and Liang Kun, who had gathered around, “What now?”
1 Feng An painfully stroked the Thunder Smoke Beast’s drooping head and sighed, “The 《Hundred Beasts Classic》 records that the Thunder Smoke Beast has a fierce temperament and recognizes only one master in its lifetime. Now it seems, it does not deceive me.”
1 Yun Ce frowned and said, “Wild beasts are wild beasts. This 《Hundred Beasts Classic》 exaggerates too much.”
1 Liang Kun pointed at the dead Thunder Smoke Beast and said, “This is proof.”
1 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “This incident happened suddenly. If given more time, I might not have failed to tame this horse.”
2 “This is a Thunder Smoke Beast. How can you humiliate it with the name of livestock?”
2 “I tell you, this is a horse. The thing that pulls carts is called a Big Horn Sheep!”
2 “Nonsense…”
2 Perhaps out of guilt, the three talked as they moved away from the scene.
2 E Ji and her group got off the sheep cart and circled the Thunder Smoke Beast’s corpse once. They discovered that the horse’s gold and silver decorations were extremely luxurious. Just the gemstones inlaid on the saddle were appraised by An Ji as worth 100,000 coins.
2 E Ji picked up the horse spear that had fallen from the horse amid the dust, swung it with effort, and felt it very suitable for her man to wield.
2 The four young girls exchanged glances and saw that everything Peng Zeng had brought was good. They tacitly began to scavenge.
2 When E Ji drove the sheep cart back onto the main road, on the wasteland not far away, a robust man sleeping soundly in only his underpants lay beside a bare Thunder Smoke Beast that had committed suicide without any decorations.
2 “Since ancient times, government officials have disliked knight-errants like this.
2 Because they always like to judge all the affairs of the world based on their own judgment, just like Peng Zeng’s fatal judgment on me earlier.
3 A person who combines constable, judge, and executioner into one is a knight-errant. The greater their ability, the greater the harm.”
3 “Brother Liu, you are mistaken. Knight-errants aid the weak and help the poor, fight for righteousness. When the law cannot protect the people, the existence of knight-errants becomes the last resort for the people to seek justice.
3 In this vast world, injustices are as numerous as ox hairs. This is precisely when knight-errants need to draw their blades in anger.”
3 Feng An shook his head, disagreeing with Liang Kun’s view. He also felt that Liu Chang’an’s blanket condemnation of knight-errants was wrong. However, if asked to provide a good insight now, he felt nothing he said would be sufficient no matter how he put it.
3 Ahead, the three young men walked leisurely, discussing current affairs as they went. Behind, a sheep cart closely followed.
3 On the sheep cart, the little girl was cute and naive, the young girl beautiful, but the clinking sound of counting money ruined this beautiful scene.
3 “We now have three hundred seventy-six thousand four hundred fifty-eight coins. An Ji, is it enough to buy a hundred-acre courtyard in Chuyun Prefecture?”
3 An Ji shook her head and said, “Not enough. I heard the City Lord’s Mansion’s courtyard in Chuyun Prefecture is less than ten acres and still cost a full million coins to acquire.
3 E Ji, think about it. Once the courtyard is bought, won’t we need to build pavilions and towers? Then fill the pavilions and towers with furniture, paintings, porcelain, and decorations? I heard that a pavilion in the prefect’s house in Chuyun Prefecture is entirely built of red jade. Every time the blood moon hangs in the sky, that building glows red, like a torch at night.”
3 Hearing this, E Ji irritably scratched her chin, looked up at Yun Ce not far away, and angrily said, “He’s always indifferent. If he put his mind to it, we would have saved enough money to build the courtyard long ago.”
4 An Ji bit her finger and said, “How about we build a smaller courtyard?”
4 E Ji immediately widened her eyes and said, “I plan to have ten sons in the future. A small courtyard won’t be enough to live in!”
4 An Ji took E Ji’s hand, rolled up her sleeve, pressed on her fair arm for a moment, then giggled, “You haven’t experienced intimacy yet. How could you have a son?”
4 E Ji picked up a chubby little girl and kissed her hard on the face, saying, “I don’t have one now, but I’ll have many later.”
4 The wind on the wasteland and the numerous mosquitoes finally awakened Peng Zeng, who had been asleep for a long time. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the dead Thunder Smoke Beast.
4 His originally fierce and ruthless eyes were now covered in a layer of sand and dirt, with several large flies laying eggs there.
4 Peng Zeng slowly crawled up, staggered to the Thunder Smoke Beast’s corpse, and let out a heart-wrenching roar toward the wasteland—beast.
4 Sheyang City was right in front of them, but neither Yun Ce, Feng An, nor Liang Kun showed any joy. The reason was simple: Pingyuan City had fallen due to inefficiency. Now, before even entering Sheyang City, they three had already seen that same lax demeanor of Pingyuan City.
4 “Since the Ling Kingdom’s fall, this place has been too peaceful for too long, making people forget what it means to be vigilant in times of peace.” Feng An looked at the moat that had become a small ditch and sighed heavily.
4 Seeing Yun Ce unmoved, Liang Kun explained, “Back then, Great General Liu Xiang shot dead the Ling Kingdom’s Sun King right here, hence the name of this place.”
5 Yun Ce slowly led the sheep cart forward and, hearing Liang Kun’s words, asked, “Now, where are the Ling Kingdom’s old ministers and people? They couldn’t have been killed off completely, right?”
5 Feng An sneered and said, “Back then, Great General Liu Xiang destroyed the Ling Kingdom. It took a long time, not to mention consuming vast amounts of the court’s national treasury. To fill the depleted treasury, Chang’an City issued a 《Ban on Hu Decree》, forbidding Ling Kingdom remnants from being incorporated into the Great Han, from building cities or fortresses on the wasteland—not even wooden stockades were allowed. They were even forbidden from possessing ironware. Violators were to be executed.”
5 Yun Ce took a handful of green money from E Ji and casually tossed it into the basket in front of the city gate official. After thinking, he said, “In that case, without strong walls for protection or weapons to resist, the Ling people must have had a tragic fate.”
5 Liang Kun took the sheep cart’s reins and led it into the city gate. In the deep city gate tunnel, he said, “The Ling Kingdom was called ‘Ling’ because their women had beautiful faces and blue eyes, their men were rugged and powerful, with faces chiseled like knife and axe work. They were deeply favored by the prominent families in Chang’an and Luoyang. At the peak, a top-grade Ling maid was worth almost as much as gold.
5 When Great General Liu Xiang returned triumphant that year, he brought back 100,000 Ling men and women in one go. Just this loot alone not only filled the court’s deficit but left surplus money to build the ‘Panxing Tower’ in Chang’an.
5 Under such a craze, people flooding the wasteland to plunder Ling maids and Ling slaves were as numerous as carp crossing the river. In less than five years, not a single Ling person could be found in the former Ling lands.”
5 Feng An gritted his teeth in frustration and said, “Originally, the Ling people on the wasteland could have been a permanent source of wealth for our Great Han. But those shortsighted fools ravaged it recklessly, turning the wasteland truly into a wasteland. The wasteland’s people are now destitute, and Liu Xiang bears the primary responsibility.”
5 After hearing the two’s complaints, Yun Ce immediately felt that killing one Thunder Smoke Beast paled in comparison to what this group of Great Han people had done—it was nothing.
