Chapter 178: You Fight Yours, I’ll Steal Mine
The battle is over.
The battlefield had entered the later stage of cleanup. Yun Ce discovered that Cao Kun and his men had neatly arranged the corpses of the fallen Fire Tribe people in front of the suspension bridge, then retreated several hundred meters away to busy themselves with gathering their own fallen warriors.
Returning corpses on the battlefield was a very dignified practice. Yun Ce, considering Cao Kun’s temperament, felt this was not something he would do.
These corpses should be very dangerous.
Having run all day, Yun Ce was hungry too. He rummaged through the Dragon Pearl and found not a single bit of food inside. Glancing at Cao Kun, who was surrounded by people in the distance, he walked into a small path indicated by Doggy.
The vegetation was lush on both sides of this small path. Along the way, there were even flowing springs and waterfalls. Although it was winter, most of the vegetation was withered and yellow, but some coniferous forests remained verdant.
Watching squirrels as big as rabbits darting through these coniferous forests, Yun Ce was not tempted. He had always had a psychological shadow about eating animals in a rodent state.
Yun Ce did not know why Doggy, who had been in a dormant state these days, suddenly pointed out the way for him. Since Doggy did not say it clearly, Yun Ce did not ask. He just followed the path. When he arrived, he would know.
A wooden house suddenly appeared in the forest. Moss had grown quite a bit outside the wooden house. Because it was the deep winter month, the moss had dried up, clinging dryly to the wooden house and decorating it.
“Is anyone there?” Yun Ce called out, but no one in the house answered.
1 Seeing that the wooden door was bolted from the outside, Yun Ce untied the rope buckle, pushed open the wooden door, and walked in.
1 The wooden house was chillingly cold, the ashes in the fire pit were cold, indicating that no one had been here for a long time.
1 This wooden house was undoubtedly a place where hunters rested during the day. A squirrel skin hung on the wall. Judging by the condition of the leather, it had long been air-dried, and such leather basically had no use value. Instead, a bag of grain hanging on the wall caught Yun Ce’s attention.
1 He opened the bag and found that the food inside was actually quite abundant: grain for fodder, beans, wheat grain, salt, and a small piece of dark red cured meat.
1 Seeing a clay pot still hanging over the fire pit, Yun Ce picked up the clay pot, went to the waterside to clean it, put a lot of beans inside, sliced the cured meat and threw it in, added a bit of salt, lit a fire, and simmered meat congee to drink.
1 Watching the flames lick the bottom of the pot, Yun Ce could not help but fall into deep thought.
1 In the capital city, the struggle between the Grand Marshal and the Emperor had ultimately broken the balance of power in the world, with the Grand Marshal’s actions being the most egregious.
1 Since he had already prepared to kill the Emperor, he should have carried it through to the end. Since he had made up his mind, chopping the Emperor to death should have been the greatest goal of this struggle he launched.
1 But now, he killed the Emperor halfway and suddenly stopped. What was the reason for that?
1 Waiting for the next time to kill?
2 Don’t talk nonsense about how continuing to kill would shake the foundation of the Great Han. From the moment you opposed the Emperor, the harm to the Great Han had already begun.
2 No matter how severe the harm, it was not as great as killing the Emperor halfway. Because when people’s hearts are in chaos, things like what Cao Kun was doing right now were signs of great chaos approaching.
2 These days, Yun Ce had read a lot of materials about the Fire Tribe collected by Feng An. From the content, the Fire Tribe’s submission to the Great Han had lasted over a thousand years.
2 At the same time, the Fire Tribe was one of the few groups that could go directly from the East Sea protectorate prefecture to Chang’an without needing permission from the local inspector.
2 Even at the Great Han Emperor’s New Year banquet, the Fire Tribe were prominent guests seated ahead of the inspectors of various prefectures.
2 Now, after the Great Han Court lost its prestige, this group capable of forging armor and weapons became the first to be devoured by hyenas.
2 Cao Kun seemed approachable, even a bit of a scoundrel, but deep down he was extremely proud. Those who could get close to him were undoubtedly at least equal to him in status; otherwise, no one would dare.
2 So, when he said he had a friend who needed Yun Ce to help solve a little trouble, it made perfect sense. After all, he really had many wealthy friends.
2 Yun Ce was very poor now; he had even sold his wife’s jewelry for grain. Meanwhile, Cao Kun and his men were very wealthy. In the case of friendship involving shared wealth, getting some money from them first to replenish his empty storeroom would surely not bother the generous Cao Kun.
2 The only question was where they hid the money; that would require asking Doggy.
3 Yun Ce was certain that Cao Kun had brought a lot of money this time. This guy always liked to overwhelm people with money when handling affairs. If it could be solved with money, he actually disdained using martial power. Often, Yun Ce could smell the strong scent of gold just by getting close to him.
3 Armies are best not to touch money. And certainly not to go making money themselves.
3 Such things were no problem on him. Yun Ce never considered himself a qualified soldier. Speaking of it, politician was his proper positioning.
3 Since he was already a politician, whatever he did was reasonable.
3 A pot of meat congee simmered for an hour. The already sugary congee went down his stomach and cured Yun Ce’s hunger.
3 The red date horse had run off somewhere to play. Yun Ce planned to rest a bit, then go to Cao Kun’s camp to take a look and get some money on the way back.
3 After sleeping for three hours, Yun Ce woke up on time. He rubbed his face with both hands, then tied a cloth around his face. His left arm transformed into a dragon claw, his stature suddenly shortened by three inches, but his upper body became much thicker. If he could shorten another three inches, his build would be similar to that Fire Tribe person he saw during the day.
3 With Doggy leading the way, after leaving the wooden house, Yun Ce did not walk on paths but bounded and jumped forward through the forest.
3 Cao Kun’s barracks were set up in an open area, away from the forest and close to the stream. Even as a temporary camp, Cao Kun had built it like a fortified village.
3 Under Doggy’s guidance, Yun Ce flipped over the stockade wall through a gap in the soldiers’ patrol and jumped into the camp.
4 Just after entering the camp and walking less than ten meters, he heard Doggy say: “Cao Kun is not in the camp.”
4 Yun Ce was startled and said: “Is this a trap?”
4 Doggy said: “Doesn’t seem like it, because there are only fewer than a hundred living people in the camp. But the gold you want is in many tents, and there’s quite a lot.”
4 Yun Ce said: “What’s the plan?”
4 Doggy said: “Grab a few soldiers, throw them into the Dragon Pearl, take all the gold, make it look like embezzlement by guards, then escape far away. Don’t let Cao Kun see you here.”
4 “Don’t you have any ideas about the Fire Tribe people?”
4 “No, if you want mining, iron smelting, forging technology, I have low, medium, and high levels here. Later, select some from that group of children who are interested in this stuff, train them for a few years, and they won’t be worse than the so-called Fire Tribe?”
4 “Don’t bother. This trip is just to steal Cao Kun’s gold. Go back, buy more grain with the money. When your wife sleeps pressed against you, her stomach rumbling like a drum, it keeps me from sleeping.”
4 Yun Ce angrily said: “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t spy on my private life?”
4 Doggy said: “When you sleep before, where is your mobile phone usually?”
5 “By the pillow, within easy reach.”
5 “There you go. Do you think covering the mobile phone means it doesn’t know what you’re doing?”
5 “Fuck, is there surveillance?”
5 “Surveillance my ass. It’s just occasional big data scans of you, recording your habits, then precisely pushing products you need.”
5 While chatting with Doggy, Yun Ce looked for scapegoats. But there were few people in the camp; aside from patrols, he didn’t encounter anyone for a good while.
5 What Yun Ce couldn’t understand most was that many tents had women inside.
5 Just as Yun Ce was about to give up plan one and pretend to be a Fire Tribe person to rob outright, he saw a man and woman sneaking toward an unoccupied area.
5 Yun Ce was delighted. An affair, if not involving money, would be an extremely boring story. Stealing your woman and then your money—that’s the story that makes lechers repent.
5 From afar, Yun Ce saw they were a very matching pair: the man handsome, the woman beautiful too. When they met, they weren’t in a rush, embracing and pouring out their hearts, not undressing for half a day. This made Yun Ce anxious; if he didn’t undress, Yun Ce couldn’t wear his clothes to get the money.
5 Fortunately, the true-love pair seemed to consider the urgency of time, stripped off their clothes, and hugged tightly. Yun Ce went over, put on the man’s clothes properly, then stood to the side and watched for a bit. Seeing they were really engrossed and hadn’t noticed him yet, he struck to knock them out.
6 Back at the tent the woman came from, it was indeed luxurious. By the low table was a sturdy black wooden box. Opening it, he found gold, which Yun Ce casually tossed into the Dragon Pearl.
6 Entering the second tent, the woman didn’t see Yun Ce’s face clearly and exclaimed in surprise: “Zhang Lang, what are you doing? Leave quickly.”
6 Yun Ce lunged forward and knocked the woman out too. After collecting the valuables inside, he hurriedly went to the next tent. Along the way, he was called “Zhang Lang” four times.
6 Zhang Lang had taken a lot of their gold—Yun Ce calculated it should be no less than ten thousand taels. Ten thousand taels of gold was unrealistic for one person to carry, plus there was a beauty, so a cart was necessary.
6 Thus, Yun Ce stole a cart too, stored it in the Dragon Pearl, and after flipping over the wall, took it out and placed it not far from the stockade wall.
6 After finishing these tasks, he returned to the knocked-out pair. As he approached, a shiny white knife stabbed toward Yun Ce’s stomach.
6 Yun Ce caught the knife with one hand and stared for a long time, unable to figure out where this naked man had hidden the knife earlier.
6 When he looked at the woman again, he found she was dead, with a huge handprint on her neck—she had been strangled.
6 The man was ruthless too. Seeing the blade gripped by something like a claw, he decisively let go, clenched his fist, and smashed toward Yun Ce’s throat.
6 Then, he was slapped to death by Yun Ce.
7 “Doggy, this is your doing, right?”
7 Doggy said: “I was afraid you’d let them go in a moment of confusion.”
7 One more chapter.
