Chapter 146: Yellow River Before, Great Wall Behind
Ripples of desire filled Yun Ce’s mind, and when E Ji slipped into the bedding, he felt like he was about to explode.
His trembling hand had just landed on E Ji’s chest, which was already somewhat developed, when Doggy’s voice demanding he calm down echoed in his mind.
“I don’t want to endure it anymore.”
“You must endure.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a tidal wave of sleepiness washed over him. Though he didn’t want to sleep at all, his eyelids drooped uncontrollably, and moments later, he fell into a deep slumber.
When he woke in the morning, Yun Ce’s whole body ached. He was certain he had done nothing last night but sleep, yet his body felt like it had been trampled by a herd of horses, which was hard to understand.
After asking for a long time, Doggy finally drawled, “Were you so cold and ruthless yesterday? Do you think that was normal?”
Yun Ce recalled his actions from the previous day, sighed, and said, “We want our career to endure with lasting inheritance, so from the start, we must strive for excellence.”
Doggy continued, “You’re not wrong, but previously, you weren’t such a cold person. When doing things, you were accustomed to weighing them from the perspectives of emotion, reason, and law.
Last night, I used time as an axis, hung all the things you’ve done on the timeline, and did a big data analysis. The results weren’t good—you’re losing yourself, and many of your judgments come from instinct, animal nature.
1 They’re irrational and not true to your self.”
1 “So, you stopped my impulse last night. Why does my body hurt so much?”
1 “A high-speed train slammed on the emergency brakes—no flipping over is already the best outcome.”
1 “Do I have to keep living this tormented life from now on?”
1 “Until you learn to control your animal nature, that is, your dragon nature, you do need endurance. Being a pure person is very important for you.”
1 “Can you tell me what sources you quoted in that speech?”
1 “David Hume’s《 A Treatise of Human Nature》, Friedrich Nietzsche’s《 Beyond Good and Evil》, Confucius’s《 Analects》, Mencius’s《 Mencius》, Xunzi’s《 Xunzi》, Dale Carnegie’s《 How to Win Friends and Influence People》, Alfred Adler’s《 The Feeling of Inferiority and Transcendence》, Philip Zimbardo’s《 The Lucifer Effect》, Daniel Kahneman’s《 Thinking, Fast and Slow》…”
1 Yun Ce was stunned for a long time before saying, “You’re truly erudite—”
1 Doggy chuckled, “See, if you follow my line of thinking, you’ll one day achieve our original intention.”
1 Yun Ce felt that Doggy’s words shouldn’t always be taken seriously. In scholarship, one school’s words make a work; blending a hundred schools’ words makes—nonsense.
2 Yesterday’s great battle resulted in 133 slaves fallen in battle. Yun Ce allowed their families to pick spoils first, whether Great Horned Horses, armor, or weapons, all within selectable range. Thus, private armed forces appeared for the first time in Yun Ce’s slave team.
2 After a great battle, they rested for one or two days, using abundant medicine and pleasure to make people forget the 133 who had just fallen in battle.
2 Since many Great Horned Horses were blown up, the slaves naturally ate mutton soup personally supervised by Yun Ce today. This soup was clear and slightly yellowish, determined by the fat inside.
2 Yun Ce gave each person a bowl of mutton soup loaded with mutton, plus four grass cakes to each, hoping that after enjoying the food, they could quickly rally. There were still two thousand li of road ahead.
2 The convoy set off again on the “ghost path” in a just-beginning autumn rain. The rain wasn’t heavy, but thick fog rose ahead, pale greenish. Once people entered the thick fog, they became ghostly silhouettes. If not for the occasional laughter and cheerful voices, it would truly be a night of a hundred ghosts.
2 This great road grew increasingly desolate. After two days of travel, Yun Ce hadn’t encountered a single person, let alone a caravan.
2 With no one around, Yun Ce didn’t stop the convoy for camping, just paused briefly to let people handle water and fire issues on the roadside, and changed the carriage-pulling horses. Once everyone was back on their horse carriages, the convoy, like a long dragon, continued swiftly along the official road.
2 Yun Ce thought this thick fog was quite good—it blocked the view of many ill-intentioned people and left much danger and trouble behind.
2 When the wind dispersed the thick fog, tall green mountains occasionally appeared. Though these mountains weren’t as majestic as those in Chuyun Prefecture, nor as graceful as those near Chang’an, their knife-sharp peaks gave them a unique northern momentum.
2 The children couldn’t sit still in the carriages, often slipping down to run alongside for a bit. If they met familiar partners, they’d climb onto others’ horse carriages to play.
3 Yun Ce pulled his hand from E Ji’s embrace, only for E Ji to grab it and press it back in, then take a small yellow fruit from the fruit plate and stuff it into his mouth.
3 The little fruit was crisp, sweet, and juicy, without pits. Yun Ce felt it was a type of pear. Wanting to taste more, he let E Ji feed him another.
3 Across from Yun Ce, Zhang Min was curled up. Sometimes Yun Ce’s foot easily touched her buttocks. Each time, before contact, E Ji would move Yun Ce’s foot back or kick Zhang Min’s buttocks outward.
3 Zhang Min set down the book in her hand—one of the many books copied by Feng An and Liang Kun in Chang’an. The title suggested it was a travelogue.
3 Yun Ce had read this travelogue, and it had made him feel stifled. There was no helping it—before Yun Ce produced paper, everyone wrote text on bamboo slips or wooden slips. Some fastidious people even carved words into bamboo slips or wooden slips, thinking it would ensure transmission through generations.
3 However, these people were also lazy or poor. To save bamboo slips and wooden slips, using the fewest words to convey the most content became a trend.
3 The four-word critique “concise and to the point” was the last thing that should appear in a travelogue.
3 This unscrupulous travelogue author wrote about north of the Great Wall and south of Iron Enclosure Pass. His travelogue recorded his then-indignant mood and the bitterness of being ostracized and turning to mountains and rivers. As for the terrain Yun Ce most wanted to know, he simplified it as much as possible, eventually omitting it altogether, instead lavishly describing in thick ink how he encountered a beast in the wild and returned unscathed.
3 Zhang Min seemingly casually shifted her buttocks, so one of Yun Ce’s feet disappeared. E Ji was focused on feeding Yun Ce fruit and didn’t notice.
3 “Tell me, where do you plan to settle Yun City?”
4 “At the foot of the mountain, on the sunny side of the river.”
4 “Why?”
4 “The great mountain can provide shelter, and the great river not only brings water source but also carries away pollution.”
4 “Are you going to build city walls?”
4 “We don’t want city walls.”
4 “What if enemies attack? How will you defend?”
4 “If we can’t defeat the enemies before they reach Yun City, then Yun City deserves to be occupied by the enemies and become their reward.”
4 “I hope to participate in building your first army.” To emphasize, Zhang Min deliberately twisted her body.
4 “You can participate, but as a warrior, not as a leader or military officer. You should understand—on this matter, I won’t be ambiguous, and currently, you seem qualified as a warrior.”
4 E Ji finally noticed Yun Ce was missing a foot. After painstakingly pulling it out from under Zhang Min’s buttocks, she fanned it and sniffed, then indignantly complained to Yun Ce that Zhang Min had sat on his foot and made it stink.
5 The autumn rain continued steadily, and Yun Ce led the people swiftly along the official road. With sufficient supplies, he was hurrying almost without sleep or rest.
5 On the third day, the autumn rain finally stopped. The sun reclaimed rule over the sky. As Yun Ce stretched lazily under the sun, he suddenly spotted an Azure Dragon winding and surging along the ridgeline on the cliff to the left of the great road.
5 “This is the Great Wall.”
5 The Great Wall under sunlight was truly breathtaking. Whether Earth’s Great Wall or this one, both gave Yun Ce a profound shock.
5 Yun Ce had no megalomania worship, yet seeing this Great Wall with his own eyes, he couldn’t suppress tears flowing.
5 The feeling was strange—his heart was peaceful, but the tears kept streaming uncontrollably.
5 The Great Han’s Great Wall started from Dangyang Pass before their eyes and stretched to the East Sea Guard at the East Sea Coast, a full 4,100 li. This Great Wall blocked the Gui Fang people, who lived by gathering, in the north.
5 Compared to the Great Wall, Iron Enclosure Pass was a nail the Great Han embedded on the Gui Fang plateau. With this nail, the Gui Fang people didn’t dare easily cross the Great Wall to invade the inland.
5 The two mutually achieved and supported each other. Now, without the Great Wall as a massive fulcrum, it was unknown if Iron Enclosure Pass could still hold.
5 Many believed Iron Enclosure Pass was an impregnable fortress—not just Zhang Min, but even Wu Tong far away in Chang’an thought so.
6 At the foot of Dangyang Pass, Yun Ce received another military order from the Grand Marshal’s Mansion in Chang’an, ordering him to continue along the official road for 1,400 li, cross the Great Wall at Jingkou Pass, and formally enter the vast region north of the Great Wall.
6 Plotting Wu Tong’s order on the map revealed a vast plain north of Jingkou Pass. On this plain were six rivers, the largest with abundant water, its rolling waves connecting to the vast East Sea.
6 The river was named “Qing River.”
6 “Qing River” was an intention—this river was neither clear nor quiet, but had roiled with turbid waves for years, harming this land.
6 The reason this plain had six rivers was that these six were once its headwaters. Each flood changed its course, leaving a new river on the plain.
6 Yun Ce eyed the winding, soaring Great Wall on the map, then that “Qing River,” and thought renaming it Yellow River might be more fitting.
