Chapter 109: The Human Heart Connects To Hell
Yun Ce, Old Cao, Old Zhao, Old Ding, the few of them stood at the Dragon Gate Bridge Pass, staring as their own convoy slowly crossed the bridge, then took an identity token from the hand of a middle-aged man at a bridge post. Old Cao grinned at Yun Ce, then led his own people away in a hurry without even saying goodbye.
Yun Ce himself had nothing much to feel sentimental about. Everyone had gathered together to seek being alive, and now, the goal had been achieved, all favors had been used up, so naturally it was time to part ways.
He had thought these people would rest at the Dragon Gate Bridge Post Station, but unexpectedly, Old Cao and the others only changed horses here before hurrying away.
Thinking about it, it made sense. They had done something extremely taboo here, and now that they had succeeded, they naturally had to flee far away.
Yun Ce’s own buttocks weren’t clean either, especially since he had killed an inspector not long ago. No one knew about this yet, but once Daizhou Prefecture discovered the inspector was missing, it would surely cause another storm.
So, Yun Ce hurriedly arranged for E Ji and the others to change horses and had to leave as soon as possible too, after all, Miss Hong and their large army were about to kill their way over.
The moment the horse carriage started moving, E Ji grabbed Yun Ce’s arm and said, “Come with us.”
Yun Ce said in a low voice, “You’ve almost run out of gold, right?”
E Ji said in a low voice, “I still have some hidden away.”
Yun Ce stroked E Ji’s hair and said, “We now have a full three hundred plus people. That bit of gold isn’t enough. Now that we’ve entered the Great Han Homeland, many ways to make money can’t be used anymore.”
1 E Ji said softly, “You want to take back the gold you just gave away?”
1 Yun Ce said, “Naturally. That’s our gold.”
1 E Ji nodded vigorously.
1 With Zhang Min there, Yun Ce was still relatively reassured about E Ji and the others’ safety. Wanting to talk to Zhang Min and instruct her to be careful, but Zhang Min turned her head away and wouldn’t look at him.
1 “What’s wrong with her?”
1 E Ji sneered and said, “Who knows.”
1 After entering Daizhou Prefecture from Dragon Gate Post Station, there was basically no choice on the roads, because there was only one path. The majestic Great Black Mountain stood on the left bank of the Dragon River, with the continuous Cangshan Mountain on the right. For people to continue advancing toward the heart of the Great Han, they had to follow the Dragon River through the sixteen hundred li Dragon River Gorge area.
1 Zhang Min wasn’t listening, so Yun Ce had no choice but to entrust safety to Feng An, Liang Kun, and the hunters led by Steward Qiu.
1 The convoy continued onward, Yun Ce just stood by the roadside watching them leave. When the grain cart passed by, three heads poked out from under the rainproof cloth of the grain cart. They didn’t speak, didn’t alarm anyone else, just stared at Yun Ce for a long time until they could no longer see him, then drilled back under the rainproof cloth.
1 Yun Ce held his prone red date horse, munching on flatbread while waiting for the sun to fully set.
2 Miss Hong had said that after dark, it would be time for their large-scale attack on Dragon Gate Post Station. After seizing Dragon Gate Post Station, they would build a series of fortifications at the narrowest point of the Dragon River Gorge to guard against a counterattack from Daizhou Prefecture’s soldiers.
2 It seemed that seizing Dragon Gate Post Station was a strategy they had planned long ago. If they could hold off the counterattack from Daizhou Prefecture’s forces, they would use Dragon Gate Post Station as their lair and slowly expand the protective range of Daizhou Prefecture’s shehuo toward Chuyun Prefecture in a myriad homes’ lights manner.
2 Perhaps because they had received three thousand taels of gold all at once, Dragon Gate Post Station had closed its gates early. Watching the two middle sections of Dragon Gate Bridge being slowly pulled up, Chuyun Prefecture and Daizhou Prefecture once again became two unrelated prefectures.
2 Yun Ce felt that he had now grown accustomed to this world and no longer thought of himself as an outsider.
2 He had grown accustomed to some of the strange things in this world, like spirits, dragon spirit, shehuo, albatross, dragon clan.
2 Shehuo is very important. On Earth, shehuo is still a folk custom activity that people enjoy, but what this shehuo originally represented, few people can now explain clearly.
2 He only remembered nuowu dance, iron head lion, dragon boat on dry land, stilts, big head doll, grabbing charcoal powder and sprinkling it on torches to create one bright flame after another.
2 Very lively, but why do it, people had already forgotten.
2 Zhang Yi should have bought a lot of wine and meat today. Yun Ce saw the big courtyard of Dragon Gate Post Station lit up brightly, with many, many people eating meat and drinking wine, and some women in bright clothes dancing.
2 Great Han’s music wasn’t good to listen to, mainly because the tunes were quite upbeat, very suitable for dancing. In comparison, people here generally drummed well, with clear rhythms that seemed synchronized with breathing.
3 The dark clouds on the Chuyun Prefecture side had already broken apart, strands of moonlight drilling out from the gaps in the shattered dark clouds, finally falling on the ground, cutting the ground into pieces.
3 Some moonlight also fell on the Dragon River, making the already turbulent and muddy river surface take on a eerie rust color.
3 Yun Ce saw a steel hook launched by a crossbow. The steel hook had messy ropes trailing behind its buttocks. Once the steel hook hooked onto the raised bridge surface, a skinny figure climbed toward the bridge surface along the rope like a monkey.
3 This person’s climbing speed on the rope was extremely fast. In just a dozen breaths, he was already standing at the highest point of the bridge surface.
3 Yun Ce thought this person couldn’t deal with the four iron chains holding up the bridge surface. He had specifically checked them during the day; they couldn’t be smashed open in a short time.
3 In fact, it wasn’t as Yun Ce had guessed. That skinny figure didn’t go to destroy the iron chain, but pulled the rope at his feet. Yun Ce’s eyes were good; he could see that behind the originally thin rope was connected a thick rope.
3 Once the thick rope connected to the steel hook, Yun Ce saw a strange sight: a string of people being dragged by the thick rope, slowly rising onto the bridge surface.
3 This was a very ingenious pulley mechanism. By the rope sliding back and forth continuously, it sent strings of people up to the bridge surface that had already been raised high.
3 Such a raid battle was actually quite spectacular. Once the high bridge surface was full of people, they quickly slid along the bridge surface toward the workshop controlling the four iron chains.
3 No screams were heard. The raised bridge surface was slowly lowered, finally clanging down onto the bridge pier, repairing a broken bridge back into a large bridge.
4 Then, many people stepped silently onto Dragon Gate Bridge from the darkness on the Chuyun Prefecture side.
4 Yun Ce didn’t continue watching Miss Hong and their battle. At this time, Doggy wasn’t there, the dragon pearl wasn’t there, and if there was no more gold, he didn’t know how to get through the future days. Waking up every day to more than three hundred mouths asking him for food was something he couldn’t think about.
4 The bell at Dragon Gate Post Station finally rang. Yun Ce saw Zhang Yi, Old Huang and the others hurriedly putting on armor, though Zhang Yi was really donning his armor, while Old Huang seemed to be just going through the motions.
4 A big fire had already started on the Dragon Gate Bridge side, set by people from Dragon Gate Post Station, and they had poured oil on it. Miss Hong’s people were putting out the fire, choosing to use sand and stones instead of water.
4 Looking back at Old Huang and Zhang Yi, he discovered Old Huang had stabbed a knife into Zhang Yi’s back. The knife was plunged deep, with the tip emerging two inches from the chest area. Zhang Yi’s chest armor had fallen to the ground. It seemed Old Huang had assassinated him during the chance of helping Zhang Yi put on his chest armor.
4 Yun Ce thought this wasn’t Old Huang’s fault. When Zhang Yi decided to fight the rebel army, he had made the wrong choice. Old Huang saw it clearly: the rebel army had too many people; it was no longer something their small Dragon Gate Post Station could handle.
4 At this time, as a qualified official, he should pack up his valuables and run away immediately, detach from the cruel battlefield right away, rather than overestimating his strength and trying to fight.
4 If Zhang Yi didn’t have so much gold, Old Huang would definitely choose to abandon Zhang Yi and run away himself. But this guy had three thousand taels of gold in hand, so Zhang Yi could only die. This was very reasonable.
4 Because he knew Old Huang and had used many of his favors—though in the end he had repaid those favors all in gold—Yun Ce still didn’t want Old Huang to know he had died at the hands of someone he had just helped. Even Yun Ce felt that would be very immoral.
4 So, he hid behind a pillar. When Old Huang came out of the room carrying two heavy boxes, Yun Ce’s horse spear thrust into his slightly open mouth, piercing through his brain.
5 Yun Ce didn’t come out from behind the pillar. The dying Old Huang could only see a horse spear and a pair of strong arms. As for who killed him, he didn’t see at all.
5 Yun Ce twisted the horse spear, scrambling Old Huang’s brains. Only at this point did the two boxes Old Huang was carrying crash to the ground.
5 Old Huang’s body was still hanging on Yun Ce’s horse spear, trembling violently. At this time, he was actually already dead; it was just that the remaining nerve endings still thought he was alive.
5 Yun Ce waited a moment, until Old Huang stopped even twitching, signaling that his last nerve ending had died too. Only then did he come out from behind the pillar, use the horse spear to throw Old Huang’s corpse onto the bed, then pick up the two boxes of gold and weigh them—they should exceed five hundred jin.
5 Placing the gold on the back of the red date horse, the guy was a bit unwilling. After Yun Ce hugged its long face and promised many humiliating conditions, it finally consented to carry Yun Ce, carry the gold, and trot off into the pitch-black night.
5 Behind him, Dragon Gate Post Station was filled with continuous screams. This should be the rebels cleaning the battlefield. No one set fires; it seemed to be the result of Miss Hong’s stern warning.
5 When Yun Ce looked back, he didn’t see Miss Hong or Pei Chuan, only a man in golden armor standing in the light, making exaggerated commanding gestures, waiting to hunt an unknown assassin.
5 Not seeing them was good too. Yun Ce thought that from now on, he and those two rebels should be two different kinds of people, and they probably wouldn’t meet again.
