Chapter 159: A Millennium Of Weariness
No one can monopolize the world, nor can anyone possess the entire world; overall, everyone is deficient in terms of possession.
Therefore, some say “governing a great state is like cooking a small fish.”
For any person with great ambitions, exchanging resources is a skill that needs to be specially learned, just like Yun Ce’s exchange of military merit with Cao Kun this time, which was a very classic exchange.
He insultingly killed three Ghost Cow Cavalrymen, which posed future troubles for Yun Ce; what he could obtain was merely a Zanniao Title from Iron Enclosure Pass.
This rank seemed very precious to others, but to Yun Ce, who never intended to become a noble, it appeared extremely superfluous.
Now it was good; the one who stuffed the Ox Cavalryman into the cow’s buttocks was the Eldest Son of the Cao Clan of Qiuhe Prefecture, Cao Kun, who had nothing to do with him, Yun Ce; he only took a tiny bit of profit from it, such as a lasting trade route, or a lasting and fixed buyer.
In fact, the vigorous young men of the Great Han despised Yun Ce’s kind of exchange method; they liked to use the horse under their crotch and the spear in their palm to win a bright future for themselves and their family.
There were many such people in Iron Enclosure Pass; they were like the blazing sun under a clear sky, liking to use their own enthusiasm to illuminate the ground, and even more liking that in the bright clear sky there was only their one sun. Although the Great Han’s nights told them there were fully three moons in the sky, they still stubbornly believed that only the full moon counted as a moon, and the other two inexplicable things had no impact on their lives.
When Yun Ce previously read《Xunzi》, he had read a sentence—Xunzi said people have three inauspicious things: the first, being young and unwilling to serve elders; the second, being lowly and unwilling to serve nobles; the third, being unworthy and unwilling to serve the worthy.
When first reading this sentence, it would extremely frustrate ambitious young men, making them feel that their newly grown waists could not bend for such things.
1 However, if this sentence was rephrased and told in another way, everyone’s acceptance would be much higher—a small state that does not act humbly, weak strength that does not fear the strong, lacking courtesy yet insulting a great neighbor, being greedy and arrogant yet clumsy in alliances, such a state can perish!
1 There is not much difference between personal affairs and state affairs; it’s just that one is small, so people mistakenly think it can be changed, while the other is large, so it is revered as the standard.
1 Although the Yun Family originated from local magnates, it was absolutely a cultured magnate; even someone as crude as Yun Linchuan was a cultured military officer from the Martial Hall.
1 Therefore, when the Yun Clan children did things, they did not follow the local magnates’ habit of overpowering with force, but instead more often adopted the Confucian set of behavioral principles; it was these behavioral principles that allowed the Yun Clan to continue eking out a living like wolves lapping water even after sudden change.
1 Yun Ce knew that in this matter, the one who profited the most was Cao Kun, but there was no way around it; a small merit could only exert its maximum effect in the hands of the Cao Clan.
1 In the past, on Earth, the Yun Clan also often got such exchange opportunities.
1 Now, with the Yun Clan fallen to a poor scholar family in the Great Han, making such exchanges was very normal.
1 Yun Ce slept less than five hours before day broke.
1 The old butler and Warrior Leader Cao Ling seemed to have no intention of continuing to tangle with the devils here; when the sun came out, they broke camp and headed north.
1 Iron Enclosure Pass was directly north, one hundred and sixty li away; on last night’s campsite at Black Stone Beach, there had originally been a small fortress under Iron Enclosure Pass’s jurisdiction. When leaving, Yun Ce saw that fortress dismantled by the devils, leaving only a few stone bases.
2 Just by looking at the weathered and mottled appearance of the stone bases, Yun Ce knew that Iron Enclosure Pass had fallen into a disadvantage in the long-term standoff with the devils.
2 Standing on the back of the Red Date Horse and gazing into the distance, there were many ruined fortress relics like Black Stone Beach; from these densely scattered fortress remnants, one could imagine the past scene on the wasteland where Great Han fortresses stood densely, compressing the Gui Fang people onto the Qinghe Plateau, unable to descend even an inch.
2 Now, the devils ravaged the wasteland, while the Great Han could only hold out in the isolated city of Iron Enclosure Pass; the offensive and defensive positions had already changed.
2 This was a very obvious change; even anyone with eyes could see it clearly, yet at this moment in Chang’an City, the Great Han was engaging in unprecedented internal strife—they hated each other more than they hated the Great Han’s mortal enemies.
2 The cold wind all blew down from the Qinghe Plateau, just like all of the Great Han’s current threats came from the devils on the Qinghe Plateau.
2 The former, in a moment’s time, made Yun Ce’s armor so ice-cold it was hard to touch, while the latter made even someone as fierce as Yun Ce ensure at all times that his weapon could be instantly drawn from the scabbard, bow case, or quiver to meet the enemy.
2 On Black Stone Beach, this army from Qiuhe Prefecture had lost a large number of scouts, so Yun Ce was ordered to become the new scout leader of this army, specifically responsible for probing safety information in all directions ahead, behind, left, and right of the army.
2 Fortunately, the Red Date Horse was not afraid of the cold and ran fast; even circling the convoy, the Red Date Horse could handle it very easily.
2 After the convoy traveled another eighty li on the wasteland, Yun Ce finally encountered a scout squad from Iron Enclosure Pass for the first time.
2 They spotted the scout team led by Yun Ce from afar and did not come to inquire immediately; instead, they first activated a strange thing that, when pulled hard by the scout, flew into the sky, then spread wings in high altitude, emitting one shrill “woo woo” sound after another, like ghost cries.
3 Seeing their extreme caution, Yun Ce waved for the scouts to halt and sent someone to report the encounter with Iron Enclosure Pass scouts to Warrior Leader Cao Ling.
3 After waiting half an hour, Warrior Leader Cao Ling rode the Thunder Smoke Beast to Yun Ce’s scout position and dispatched a scout flying the Qiuhe Prefecture banner to make contact alone.
3 Strangely, no matter how far the Qiuhe Prefecture scout advanced, that group of Iron Enclosure Pass scouts retreated by the same distance, as if they dared not and did not want to contact the Qiuhe Prefecture scouts.
3 Yun Ce frowned and said, “What are they afraid of?”
3 Cao Ling sneered, “Over a thousand years, Iron Enclosure Pass and the Gui Fang have probed and infiltrated each other for over a thousand years; no matter how normal something looks, they will still deem it a stratagem of the Gui Fang people.”
3 “Aren’t the warriors in Iron Enclosure Pass supposed to be fearless?”
3 Cao Ling said expressionlessly, “Over a thousand years, the fearless ones have all died out; the remaining are all cautious people.”
3 “From the battle at Black Stone Beach, the devils are not powerful enough to be invincible.”
3 “That’s because of you. Do you know that in the Black Stone Beach battle, three hundred and eighty-one of Qiuhe Prefecture’s most elite Qiuhe Warriors fell in battle, and with the crippled and lightly wounded, it’s no less than a thousand.”
3 “And us? We killed only over four hundred Gui Fang people, among whom you, Yun Ce, alone killed one hundred and thirteen Gui Fang people. If your battle achievements are excluded, in a field battle where we had terrain advantage, Qiuhe Prefecture’s most elite warriors against the Gui Fang people could only achieve one-to-one.”
4 “This is still after you took out those three Ox Cavalrymen who could cause serious harm to the wagon formation. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any Gui Fang people’s Barbarian Bull Knights this time; even one would have caused us heavy losses at Black Stone Beach.”
4 While the two were chatting idly, the Iron Enclosure Pass scouts finally began cautiously contacting the Qiuhe Prefecture scouts. Seeing the Iron Enclosure Pass scouts’ careful and prudent manner, Yun Ce worried that if someone coughed at this moment, those Iron Enclosure Pass scouts would flee.
4 Fortunately, there were no accidents during the scout contact. Once the Iron Enclosure Pass scouts saw the endless convoy in front of them, they couldn’t help cheering; one riding a Thunder Smoke Beast immediately galloped toward Iron Enclosure Pass, apparently to report the good news.
4 The main force followed behind the Iron Enclosure Pass scouts and slowly advanced another fifty li before Yun Ce saw piece after piece of crude camps.
4 When the convoy arrived, Yun Ce saw many raggedly dressed warriors crawling out of those dilapidated tents; their hair was all disheveled, their clothes tattered and worn, but from the intricate old patterns on those old clothes and the weapons casually carried, it was clear these were not impoverished commoners, but Iron Enclosure Pass warriors whom Great Han people called true good men.
4 “Why don’t they live inside Iron Enclosure Pass, but endure the bitter cold wind outside the city?”
4 Yun Ce found it strange and couldn’t help asking the Iron Enclosure Pass scout he had just met.
4 The scout said disdainfully, “They claim to have come to defend Iron Enclosure Pass, but we have no way to verify their identities. The general worries they are Gui Fang people’s secret agents, so he does not allow them into Iron Enclosure Pass. If these people are secret agents, Iron Enclosure Pass would be in trouble.”
4 Yun Ce glanced at their dilapidated tents and continued asking, “It looks like they’ve lived here for a long time; why can’t their identities be confirmed yet?”
4 The scout looked at that group with icy cold gaze, gritted his teeth and said, “The longer they stay, the more it proves they harbor ill intentions.”
5 Yun Ce looked astonished at this noble scout before him, thinking his words made so much sense that he couldn’t find a retort for the moment.
5 A strong man as tall as a black tower stood by the roadside with arms folded, watching the convoy enter the city; this fellow’s face showed no frustration from being shunned by Iron Enclosure Pass people.
5 Instead, he happily watched the grain wagons enter Iron Enclosure Pass, his face beaming with joyful smiles, as if this batch of grain and materials had something to do with them.
5 Yun Ce unhooked the wine pot from his waist and tossed it to the strong man, saying, “Good man, the weather is cold; have a drink to ward off the chill.”
5 The strong man caught the wine pot, lifted the lid, greedily sniffed, but ultimately resisted the temptation, closed the lid, and tossed the wine pot back to Yun Ce, saying, “Supplies are tight inside the pass; better to keep it inside the pass.”
5 Yun Ce tossed the wine pot back to the strong man with a laugh, “The Cao Clan of Qiuhe Prefecture has sent plenty of materials; we won’t miss this drink.”
5 With that, he took out a large piece of beef cooked by the cook last night and tossed it to the strong man, laughing loudly, “Taste the flavor of the Ghost Cow Cavalry’s mount.
5 If it tastes like dead man, don’t be surprised; after all, our Qiuhe Prefecture Cao Clan’s Eldest Son likes to stuff devils into cow buttocks to suffocate them to death, hahahaha…”
