Chapter 44: The Real Horse
People’s joys and sorrows are not interconnected.
E Ji made a good business deal early in the morning: thirty snake meats exchanged for sixty “worth a thousand” coins. She also wanted to sell those beautiful large bird legs, but people thought they were too expensive and didn’t buy.
One large bird leg for ten “worth a thousand” coins—even Yun Ce thought it was expensive, but E Ji said it wasn’t expensive at all. She had once seen two bowls of grain for fodder exchanged for two young girls.
“When people are hungry, they’ll pay any price. The reason they don’t is that they’re not hungry enough.” E Ji looked regretfully at the merchants lagging behind, wanting very much to turn back and negotiate with them again.
“We’ll reach Sheyang City tomorrow, and your business will end. Aren’t you considering that?” Yun Ce was very worried that after E Ji’s hopes fell through, she would cry loudly and make him compensate for her good business.
E Ji took a fierce bite of the grain for fodder cake and said, “The last day is the hardest to endure. That man who sold his two daughters did it right when he saw the Yi Tree’s fruit falling and the Yi Tree bark about to produce grain.”
Yun Ce nodded and said, “I’ve never gone hungry. Those words just now were said after eating our fill.”
“We have grain, so we’ll stop a hundred li from Sheyang City and wait for them. I think by then, they will definitely buy.”
E Ji’s arrangement was excellent, but Yun Ce felt her plan wouldn’t succeed. Pingyuan City had been captured by rebels, so neighboring Sheyang City must take action. A few days ago, perhaps the people of Sheyang City didn’t know what happened in Pingyuan City, but now they should know.
In the past two days, he had learned some of Great Han’s laws from Feng An and Liang Kun’s mouths, among which reclaiming lost territory was Sheyang City’s inescapable responsibility.
1 Therefore, Sheyang City must send troops at the first moment—it was inevitable and necessary. It shouldn’t take much time before they would encounter soldiers on this ancient road.
1 Since ancient times, aside from that people’s liberation army on Earth, the remaining armies were a disaster for the common people, known alongside drought, flood, and locust plagues as the military disaster.
1 Yun Ce was extremely vigilant toward the direction of Sheyang City. He planned to drive the sheep cart into the wasteland to hide at the first sign of trouble. After all, his cart had a beauty, grain, and money—absolutely the primary targets for ruffians to rob.
1 E Ji’s business opened again. This time, the people buying E Ji’s grain were from the City Lord’s Mansion. Zhang Gong Yaliang had fallen in Pingyuan City after a fierce battle with a pig demon to ensure his wife, children, and elderly escaped.
1 This conclusion was originally given by Feng An, and Yun Ce, one of the parties involved with the pig demon, also agreed. But coming from the mouth of Zhang Gong Yaliang’s family, it was completely different.
1 They said Zhang Gong encountered an attack by over a hundred thousand rebels in Pingyuan. He defended the city, suffered heavy wounds, yet fought fiercely without rest. Helplessly, the rebels outnumbered them. After Captain Han Yuan fell in battle, the outer city was seized by rebels. Zhang Gong Yaliang retreated to the inner city to continue fighting. The rebels set fierce fires to burn the city. Zhang Gong still battled the rebels amid the flames. Just as he was about to kill the rebel leader, a wild boar spirit suddenly appeared, and Zhang Gong fought valiantly to his death…
1 E Ji looked puzzled at a middle-aged man solemnly telling her about Zhang Gong Yaliang’s glorious exploits. Seeing he had taken the food but delayed paying for a long time, she interrupted him: “Pay up. We’re leaving.”
1 The middle-aged man gave E Ji a cold look, then saw An Ji who had been keeping her head down, and said to E Ji, “That’s my family’s maidservant.”
1 E Ji said, “I picked her up. She’s mine.”
1 The middle-aged man’s face darkened as he said, “Since you’re so ungrateful, try how sharp my blade is.”
2 E Ji turned back to look at Yun Ce and found him staring intently at the middle-aged man. She raised her hand and slapped the man hard across the face, angrily shouting, “Now I want three times the price.”
2 The middle-aged man was stunned. In his life, he had never been hit by a woman, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to do.
2 Seeing this, Feng An sighed and, looking at the four men behind the middle-aged man, said to Yun Ce, “Zhang Gong Yaliang’s eldest son Hengyu abandoned all the female family members to survive until now, and now plans to rob by force. He doesn’t seem like someone who can revive the family.”
2 Liang Kun also looked at Yun Ce and said, “Brother Liu, all three of us received favors from Zhang Gong. Can you leave him a bloodline?”
2 Yun Ce looked at the two and said, “My recommendation letter cost money, and yours probably did too. Since it was bought with money, where does the favor come from?”
2 “Moreover, failing to rescue one’s father in battle is unfilial; abandoning a crowd of female family members on the escape route to die miserably in the wilderness is inhumane; failing to aid the weak is unjust. Such a person shouldn’t be left alive to shame the human race.”
2 Before Yun Ce could act, E Ji’s side struck first. It was An Ji, who had been quiet and seemed gentle and beautiful, who acted. She took Yun Ce’s crossbow and, without thinking, shot an arrow straight at the chest of Zhang family’s eldest son Zhang Hengyu.
2 The arrow was fast and accurate. The crossbow bolt pierced straight into Zhang Hengyu’s chest, with the arrowhead protruding from his back. Zhang Hengyu looked incredulously at the crossbow bolt in his chest, laboriously pointing at An Ji: “Wretched slave!”
2 Seeing An Ji act, E Ji took the crossbow, lay on the ground, cocked it with her feet, loaded a crossbow bolt, and then fired a volley at the three trembling brothers.
2 Yun Ce frowned as he watched E Ji cock it three times and shoot the remaining three fools. He puzzledly asked Feng An, “They didn’t even know how to run away?”
3 Feng An went over to check and shook his head: “They hadn’t eaten for a long time yet were carrying heavy loads, already extremely weak.”
3 An Ji had killed someone and fallen into a semi-comatose state. Touching her slightly would make her emit shrill screams. E Ji had killed three; though her expression was off, she at least knew to scavenge the spoils.
3 Yun Ce thought for a moment, then went to the side of Zhang family’s eldest son. Seeing he wasn’t fully dead, he took out Zhang Gong Yaliang’s seal from the dragon pearl, put it in his bosom, then pulled it out and dangled it before Zhang eldest son’s eyes: “I didn’t expect Pingyuan City’s city lord seal to be with you.”
3 After speaking, he pulled the crossbow bolt from Zhang eldest son’s chest. Blood spurted for a while then stopped, turning to a slow trickle until Yun Ce wiped the crossbow bolt clean on his body. The penetrating wound from the crossbow bolt no longer bled much.
3 E Ji harvested a lot more “worth a thousand” coins. Though An Ji was still terribly frightened, she could already help E Ji count the money and continue planning her courtyard.
3 The sheep cart continued forward, leaving the corpses behind for the doggies to handle, ensuring it was managed cleanly without a trace.
3 Feng An took Zhang Gong Yaliang’s seal, examined it, compared it to the recommendation letter, then returned the seal to Yun Ce: “Ten thousand coins. Better to give it to E Ji to expand her courtyard than waste it on Zhang Gong.”
3 His body fully recovered, Liang Kun, unwilling to ride in the same cart as women and children, said, “The rebels entered the city so easily because of Zhang Yaliang’s fault. If not for his greed in cheaply buying slaves to sell, those rebels might not have scaled the high city walls. Pingyuan City’s people suffered catastrophe—all Zhang Yaliang’s sin.”
3 Just as the three were chattering about how Zhang Yaliang deserved to die, Yun Ce suddenly stopped, grabbed the sheep cart’s reins, and turned directly into the wasteland. Before they could hide the sheep cart well, a tall warhorse beyond Yun Ce’s expectations came thundering over.
3 “You there, man, don’t hide. I have words for you.”
4 On the horse was a burly strong man. What pointed at Yun Ce while asking wasn’t a finger, but a very fine-looking horse spear.
4 Though the difference between horse spear and spear isn’t great, the two-chi-long spear blade was the biggest distinction. This guy held a cavalry horse spear, about three meters long including the blade. Casually pointed, it chilled the heart.
4 This time, Yun Ce truly saw a horse. It was a real horse. Though this one was larger than Yun Ce imagined, he still felt it was a horse because it matched all his impressions of one—except taller, no difference.
4 “E Ji, come out and see the horse!”
4 Seeing only one armed knight on the ancient road, Yun Ce called E Ji out to see what a real warhorse was, so she would never again mistake a big horn sheep for a horse and shout nonsense.
4 “Thunder Smoke Beast!”
4 The one who cried out in shock was Feng An, not the usually loud E Ji.
4 “What’s a Thunder Smoke Beast? This is clearly a horse.”
4 Feng An’s eyes were fixed on the Thunder Smoke Beast under the strong man, casually pointing at the cart-pulling big horn sheep: “That’s a horse. That’s a Thunder Smoke Beast that can travel a thousand li a day.”
4 “It can really travel a thousand li a day?”
5 “Absolutely. But Thunder Smoke Beasts are extremely expensive; small places can’t afford to raise them. Zhang Yaliang had so much money, yet still couldn’t buy one.”
5 As the knight on horseback slowly approached, the pressure from the giant horse and strong man gradually sapped Feng An’s confidence to speak.
5 “The comer is probably a wandering knight. These people are generally reasonable. Handle it well, and there shouldn’t be trouble.”
5 Liang Kun also emerged from the wild grass, standing side by side with Feng An next to Yun Ce, preparing to deal with the impending crisis.
5 Yun Ce’s eyes shone amazingly. He didn’t look at the knight on horseback; his eyes and mind were full of this giant warhorse over two and a half meters tall.
5 E Ji poked her head out from the wild grass. Then, four young girls holding girl children also emerged from the wild grass. An Ji tightly clutched E Ji’s arm, still trembling but with no more tears in her eyes.
5 The giant horse and knight continued approaching. E Ji pretended nonchalance and whispered to Yun Ce, “If you can’t beat him, run. He won’t do anything to us.”
5 Yun Ce pulled his attention from the swirling hair vortex on the giant horse’s body. He felt this horse resembled Fist-Haired Mane from Emperor Taizong of Tang’s Six Steeds.
5 The strong man once again raised the horse spear pointing at Yun Ce: “Who are you? Why appear in the wilderness.”
5 The horse spear was already long, and with the strong man thrusting it over, the sharp spear tip nearly touched Yun Ce’s forehead.
6 Yun Ce raised his hand to stroke the somewhat chilly spear blade, looking at the strong man: “How much for this horse of yours?”
