Chapter 101: Shehuo
Yun Ce went to Chuyun City again.
He was in a very bad mood after returning.
He thought that the two factions in Chuyun City had now fought to a desperate end, and one side would eventually compromise, because continuing to fight would lead to mutual destruction.
As the full moon returned and the weather gradually warmed, the stench of corpses filled the air below Chuyun City.
Originally, such a stench of corpses could not have appeared in Chuyun Prefecture. This was mainly because Chuyun Prefecture had a large population of doggies, which were very protective of food. Let alone flesh, they would even chew bones to extract the bone marrow.
A corpse would be completely cleaned up by the doggies within half an hour under their sharp teeth.
When Yun Ce reached the ground below Chuyun City, a large number of doggies were lazily lying on the ground, licking their paws and basking in the warm spring sun. Only the doggy cubs were frolicking in the wilderness outside the city. When they got tired, they would find their mothers and lie on their bellies to drink milk.
More things were thrown down from the towering city walls. Although he couldn’t see clearly, Yun Ce knew they must be human corpses.
Seeing corpses falling from the city walls, the doggies habitually stood up, ready to snatch food. However, their full stomachs quickly made them give up the idea of fighting for food.
Yun Ce sighed while sitting on his red date horse, “So, there really is a fate worse than death, where even dogs won’t eat them.”
Yun Ce thought that the large-scale slaughter where neither side gave way had already been a poignant elegy in warfare at Xiangji Temple. He did not expect that it would be re-enacted in Chuyun City, and even more cruelly than at Xiangji Temple.
The battle at Xiangji Temple, no matter how you put it, was an open-field battle. If one couldn’t endure it, one could flee into the wilderness.
Chuyun City was different. It was like two giant beasts were locked in a cage to fight to the death.
“Such great enmity, such deep hatred, to insist on mutual destruction?”
After personally witnessing the cruelty of the battlefield, Yun Ce began to look down on the tribute of ten thousand myriad. Even though this sum of money sounded considerable, it was not worth losing so many lives here.
Looking again at the corpses thrown from the city walls that even dogs wouldn’t eat, Yun Ce felt he should reconsider the situation in Chuyun City.
If ten thousand myriad in tribute was not worth investing so many lives, then what could make the people in the city fight so desperately?
Previously, Yun Ce had been surprised that someone like Old Cao, who clearly didn’t meet the standard of a death warrior, remained in Chuyun City instead of fleeing. Now, at this critical juncture, none of them had fled, which made Yun Ce believe that what they were pursuing was more important than their lives.
So, what was it?
Driven by intense curiosity, Yun Ce decided to go and see.
After letting his red date horse roam freely, he passed through the group of doggies that ignored him and touched the cold city wall with both hands. Yun Ce then used his fingers to pick at the cracks in the bricks and climbed up bit by bit.
When he reached the city wall, he was very careful at first. However, after stealthily walking for a long distance, he realized that even if he shouted here, no one would pay him any attention.
Chuyun City was filled with smoke everywhere, and the air was also thick with the smell of roasted meat. Yun Ce had to tie a handkerchief around his nose and mouth.
The iconic red building in Chuyun City had already collapsed. Yun Ce did not go there but headed directly to the Chuyun City warehouse. He wanted to find Old Cao and see if he could get some useful news from him.
Upon arriving at the warehouse, Yun Ce took one look and left. The mountains of supplies that were originally piled there had all turned to charcoal. As for the warehouse steward and guards inside, they had also disappeared.
Yun Ce dared not walk on the main road because it was too open and there were no corpses. Some doorways were littered with green money, and some places were scattered with women’s undergarments.
Yun Ce suspected that those places were traps.
As soon as his foot landed on the roof, a spear pierced through the roof, almost impaling Yun Ce. Without time to argue with the person below, he quickened his pace and moved rapidly from one end of the houses to the other.
An arrow was shot at him at close range. He deflected it with his hand, flipped over a low wall, and was then thrust at by a spear.
Yun Ce grabbed the spear with his hand and pulled it gently, and a woman was pulled out from behind the low wall. Her clothes were very dirty, but the cloth was surprisingly good, indicating she was a female family member from a wealthy family. She shouldn’t have been so formidable, as the spear thrust just now was quite skilled.
The woman fell onto the roof. Knowing she was outmatched, she got up and lunged at Yun Ce. He pressed his hand on the low wall and flipped over it. Seeing this, the woman howled and climbed the wall to pursue him.
Yun Ce looked at the two children in the corner. Although they were hiding behind a pile of broken wood, he still saw them. The children were emaciated, with only their eyes being large. Perhaps, only those eyes were still visible.
The woman finally climbed over the low wall and continued to lunge at Yun Ce.
Yun Ce had no choice; he couldn’t defeat this woman. After she snatched the meager Yi Tree Flatbread he had, he had to flee in disarray.
As Yun Ce ran, he thought about how difficult it must have been for the woman and her two children to survive until now.
It seemed that the people in Chuyun City were truly trying their best to survive.
After running for a while, Yun Ce saw the collapsed red building. He had heard long ago that this red building was built with flame stones, a specialty of Chuyun Prefecture.
Looking at it now, the red stones truly lived up to their name as flame stones. Even when shattered, they still looked like burning flames under the sun.
This must have been the home of City Lord Pang Bei. The grand architectural structure of the past had been largely destroyed by fire. Beneath those beautiful flame stones lay many people, dead in disarray.
There were men, women, and children, all huddled tightly together. Their expressions were unclear, as their bodies had been half-cooked by the fire.
Passing a rock garden, Yun Ce saw a woman in a crevice of the rock garden. He saw her sleeve twitching slightly and pulled her arm, only to have it detach. Seeing that the area around the rock garden was full of signs of fire, Yun Ce returned the roasted arm to the woman.
A plump middle-aged man sat on a stone. For some reason, Yun Ce felt that he might be Pang Bei, the City Lord of Chuyun City.
The reason he thought so was because the color of his official robe was purple.
As far as Yun Ce knew, only two people in Chuyun Prefecture could wear purple official robes: City Lord Pang Bei and Inspector Han De.
The deaths of others were caused by him, but Pang Bei’s death was a suicide, and the most agonizing kind. He had thrust the knife from his jaw into his head.
With such a method of death, unless dying was better than living, no one would be able to inflict such a fatal blow on themselves.
Yun Ce touched his sleeve and indeed, he only found a seal. This was likely City Lord Pang Bei’s personal seal. The official seal was not found, only an empty box, which seemed to have already been taken.
Yun Ce searched the entire City Lord’s Mansion, but apart from a lot of gold scattered on the ground, he found nothing useful.
Seeing that the sun was about to set, Yun Ce slowly withdrew from the City Lord’s Mansion. He planned to rest for a while near the warehouse before exploring in another direction.
He returned the way he came. This time, the mad woman was no longer mad. She stared at Yun Ce for a long time before speaking, “Take my children away.”
Yun Ce shook his head, “They are your children; you take them yourself.”
The woman said, “Although I don’t know what you’re looking for, if you’re looking for shehuo, I advise you to give up.”
Yun Ce looked at the two children and said softly, “Shehuo?”
Seeing that Yun Ce didn’t know what shehuo was, the woman closed her mouth tightly.
Yun Ce didn’t press her. This desperate woman, in such a state, still wanted to bargain with him.
Seeing Yun Ce turn to leave, the woman said, “If you obtain shehuo, you will possess a prefecture.”
Yun Ce scoffed, “Don’t dream.”
The woman seemed to have lost the will to live. Leaning against the low wall, she hugged her spear and said, “In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor divided the land into she, with one she per fire.”
Yun Ce listened intently. Seeing that the woman had stopped speaking again, he handed her his bamboo tube filled with water.
The woman drank some water herself, then passed the water to the girl beside her, who was four or five years old. The girl drank greedily for a moment, then seemed to remember her younger brother and pressed the bamboo tube to her brother’s mouth.
“With fire, beasts will flee and poisonous insects will retreat. People will gradually gather around the shehuo. In the beginning, there were nine prefectures, with nine shehuo. Later, there were thirty-six prefectures, with thirty-six shehuo. King Huo established the Han Dynasty, took away the thirty-six shehuo, and gathered them into one fire. Then it was divided into three hundred military prefectures, each with a fire. The secondary fires were then divided into two hundred protectorate prefectures and protectorate prefectures.”
Yun Ce saw that the woman had stopped talking again and stood up, saying, “Fire should not be rare.”
The woman showed a slight smile, waved her hand, and seemed unwilling to talk more with an idiot like Yun Ce.
Yun Ce asked no further questions. He flipped over the low wall and left.
After Yun Ce left, the light in the woman’s eyes gradually extinguished. She snatched the bamboo tube from the child’s mouth, put on the lid, and then hugged the two children in a corner of the wall, placing the spear at an angle so that it could be thrust out rapidly if there was any movement.
“Doggy, what is a fire seed?”
“In ancient times, it was not easy for people to obtain fire seeds. Every community would have a fire pit, and the fire in the fire pit would never go out. When the number of people in a tribe increased and the local resources were insufficient to support too many people, a portion of the people would split off. These people would take fire seeds from the fire pit and care for them meticulously. When they found a suitable place to live, they would rebuild a fire pit to preserve the fire seeds taken from the tribe.
At that time, sacrifices were still primitive. They couldn’t clearly explain where they came from, so they treated the act of gathering and dispersing fire seeds as a way of tracing their origins.”
