Chapter 100: Great Bureaucratism Always Finds A Way Out Of Desperation
Yun Ce generally doesn’t tell others about the strategy of the countryside encircling the cities.
Today was really too perfect to say this sentence, so he accidentally let it slip from his mouth, letting Miss Hong pick up a huge bargain.
The conditions of the various cities in Chuyun Prefecture were too suitable for the strategy of the countryside encircling the cities. First of all, the cities here had almost no output of their own and completely relied on the advantage of occupying the trading center, sucking blood from the various villages in the wilderness to maintain the operation of the cities.
To be precise, the only important thing in the cities was the merchant groups. If Miss Hong could unify all the poor ghosts in Chuyun Prefecture and the villages on the wasteland, they could bypass the cities, these commodity distribution centers, and connect directly with the merchants.
Bypassing all the city lords and cities as middlemen, at that time, even if they didn’t occupy any city, without intervention from the Great Han Dynasty, Chuyun Prefecture would still be under their control.
Vampires will soon die under the sunlight if there’s no blood to suck.
For Miss Hong, Yun Ce really saw her in a new light. Clearly, she and Pei Chuan had already formed a marital bond, even if it wasn’t formally announced. Seeing their sneaky appearance, it was known that they had long made substantial progress in their relationship, and in this relationship, Miss Hong had Pei Chuan firmly under her thumb.
On this point, Yun Ce admitted that he had misjudged the man. He thought Pei Chuan was a schemer, but now he saw that he was just a dead simp dog, and one for an ugly woman at that.
He really couldn’t figure out where the fun was in his simping.
E Ji was different. She personally helped Yun Ce put on the armor that Pei Chuan had taken off. Yun Ce looked at his reflection in the water—it was very Lu Bu-like, both in appearance and martial power.
1 “Such fine armor is only fitting for a peerless hero like Young Master to wear to look good. Pei Chuan wearing this suit of armor was really a waste of a thing.”
1 As for the way Feng An, Liang Kun, and Steward Qiu looked at Yun Ce, it was already like looking at a god.
1 He had brought 100,000 troops and horses to the door, yet the main family could use his three-inch tongue to rob the two main generals of the enemy clean and send them back. Such skill was not something ordinary people had.
1 After seeing off Miss Hong and Pei Chuan, Feng An came to Yun Ce’s side and said, “The Great Han Dynasty doesn’t want Chuyun Prefecture anymore. Can your Shang Zao title still come down?”
1 Yun Ce thought for a moment and said, “From the moment Zhang Min ran away, I knew we were waiting in vain.”
1 Liang Kun sucked in air through his teeth in pain and said, “In that case, our chances of entering the Great Han are even lower.”
1 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “On the contrary, our chances of entering the Great Han are greater.”
1 “How so?”
1 Yun Ce nodded toward the Hunting Palace that had just stopped crying.
1 Feng An said puzzledly, “That group of women and children?”
2 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “It’s that group of officials in Chuyun City.”
2 Liang Kun said, “They will die in the city.”
2 Yun Ce raised his hand and said, “Wanna bet?”
2 Feng An and Liang Kun shook their heads repeatedly. They wouldn’t bet with Yun Ce because they always lost. The money in their hands was hard-earned from E Ji, and there was no need to give it back.
2 In the world, the most well-informed group of people were officials, especially in this era where official positions could be inherited. The top officials formed their own system, but the middle- and lower-level officials also had their own comfortable ecological circle.
2 All the harsh laws in the world were formulated by the officials themselves. The legal statutes they created were extremely difficult to understand. The reason they didn’t use the clearest and most straightforward language to explain the statutes was to make it convenient for them to exploit loopholes.
2 If the law couldn’t prioritize their profits, such a law had no reason to exist.
2 On this point, whether it was Earth or the Great Han, it was inevitably the same, because this was something ingrained in their bones. It had started as early as the time of the Yellow Emperor, and no one could eradicate it.
2 Yun Ce knew at first glance that Old Cao was definitely not some loyal and righteous warrior, let alone one loyal to his duty and willing to stand or fall with the city.
2 The only reason they hadn’t run out of Chuyun City yet was that there were still profits inside the city that they hadn’t obtained.
3 This profit must be enormous, big enough that they were willing to entrust their female family members to Yun Ce, this stranger, and stake their lives on it.
3 No one understood the mindset of officials better than Yun Ce, this little Earth official. One must understand that when a great building is about to collapse, the termites and rats are the first to know.
3 Chuyun Prefecture, this great building, was about to collapse. As long as Yun Ce followed these termites and rats, he could naturally find a way to enter the Great Han—and a reasonable, legal, and respected way at that.
3 Yun Ce was very optimistic about Old Cao. He felt that as long as their female family members were protected well, he would surely lead their group into the legendary Great Han.
3 Old Cheng and Hua Ji had both been embedded into the earthen wall by Yun Ce. To communicate with the people in the Hunting Palace and explain the situation, it could only be E Ji now.
3 E Ji, holding Milk Dog, led all the female family members of the household into the Hunting Palace. A group of girls big and small, looking harmless to humans and animals, quickly hit it off with that group of women and children who were cut off from news.
3 After having a good start, E Ji took people in every day. Five days later, with An Ji’s help, E Ji had already completed the census of the women and children inside.
3 In the spare time, following E Ji’s instructions, Feng An and Liang Kun also conducted a census of the Hunting Ground Camp’s population. In this way, the Yun Clan’s population plus retainer soldiers surged to 316 people.
3 “This was strongly requested by Steward Qiu and the others. Young Lord took them in as retainer soldiers out of pity for them.”
3 “Nonsense. Who would be brainless enough to become retainer soldiers for others instead of being good free folk?”
4 “There are. Steward Qiu and the others are very willing.”
4 “Why?”
4 “Three days ago, they thoroughly killed all the men in Wei Family Village and brought back quite a few young women and children under three years old.”
4 After hearing Feng An finish speaking, Yun Ce looked at him and sighed, “Do you think there are too few women and children at home?”
4 Liang Kun shook his head: “Wei Dun’er had harmed the Hunting Ground Camp for many years, leading to a serious shortage of women and children here. Young Lord wants to expand the family population; it won’t work without doing this.”
4 “I’m even thinking that in Chuyun Prefecture, we can still do this in secret. After entering Great Han territory, I’m afraid there won’t be such good opportunities to gain population for free.”
4 Seeing Feng An and Liang Kun both looking as if this was only natural, Yun Ce suddenly became alert. This wasn’t the Earth agricultural society he was familiar with. The Great Han had never experienced an agricultural society; what they followed had always been nomadic and gathering lifestyles.
4 What happened at Wei Family Village would be murder and a capital crime in an agricultural society, deserving punishment. But in a society based on nomadic and gathering, this way of integrating resources to grow bigger and stronger had nothing that could be criticized.
4 Miss Hong and Pei Chuan took their troops and left. They bypassed Chuyun City and focused on attacking and plundering some small towns.
4 From the news brought back by the carrier pigeon that Miss Hong sent, her rectification movement had already begun, only her rectification movement was exceptionally brutal.
5 Pei Chuan’s methods were still good. He deliberately supported a group of people not belonging to them, then used this group to deal with another group not belonging to them. When these two groups fought for merit and actively participated in attacking cities, and most of them were dead and those who were waking up were few, then the fair and honest Miss Hong would step in to thoroughly absorb the remaining elite manpower.
5 Along the way, they had taken down six cities. Poor ghosts continuously joined them voluntarily, but even so, their 100,000 people decreased instead of increasing, becoming 70,000.
5 Among the dead, there must be some who were wronged. But in the face of the general trend, bad luck was also a crime.
5 After the end of the year came early spring.
5 The full moon, which had originally been far from the Great Han and becoming smaller and smaller, finally began to slowly grow larger. Although it didn’t look very obvious, it was indeed gradually getting bigger, especially on full moon nights when the ground gradually took on a silvery white hue.
5 With the ground reviving in spring, E Ji was always the first to know. She changed into spring clothes early and ended up freezing herself sick, with a fever all over and constant discomfort. Even after Yun Ce fed her the special medicine brought from Earth, it had no effect. Seeing her little face flushed red from the fever, if Doggy hadn’t strongly advised him not to use Peng Zeng’s extract, Yun Ce would have fed it to her.
5 “Haven’t you noticed that whenever she gets sick, you stay by her side the whole time?”
5 “She’s sick; shouldn’t I stay by her side?”
5 “Fine, then stay with her properly. As long as you stay with her, her illness won’t get better.”
5 “Eh? You mean…”
6 “Yeah, only a fool like you doesn’t know she deliberately kicks off the blanket at night…”
6 “Didn’t I say not to spy on my bedroom affairs?”
6 “Is mating such a pleasing sight?”
6 “Don’t know, but I used to love watching it quite a bit.”
6 “Sigh, as long as you are still indulged in the pleasure of this simple fluid exchange, your evolution process cannot accelerate.”
6 Yun Ce thought for a long time before saying, “If fluid exchange doesn’t produce pleasure, who the hell would want any evolution? Better to go extinct.”
6 Yun Ce felt he couldn’t take good care of E Ji, so he switched An Ji to sleep with her for easier care. Thus, two days later, not only did E Ji’s high fever subside, but other minor issues like chest pain needing rubbing and buttocks pain from sleeping too long also healed without medicine.
6 Steward Qiu had built fifty horse carriages, plus those previously brought back from Chuyun City and from Wei Family Village, making up a hundred horse carriages. These were enough to move the entire Hunting Ground Camp.
6 Now, everyone was waiting for the confrontation inside Chuyun City to decide a winner. Yun Ce rode his red date horse to Chuyun City several times to check; the city stood quietly there. Except for occasional thick smoke rising from inside, there was rarely any sound of fighting.
6 It seemed the fighting had reached its end.
7 The Thunder Smoke Beast left by Old Cheng eventually died. Although after killing Old Cheng, Yun Ce deliberately didn’t let the Thunder Smoke Beast see Old Cheng’s corpse, unfortunately, the keen-nosed Thunder Smoke Beast still sniffed out the scent of Old Cheng’s death in the depression on the earthen wall.
7 Thus, one clear morning, the Thunder Smoke Beast rammed itself to death against the earthen wall, breaking its neck and at the same time collapsing the earthen wall.
