Chapter 246: Traitor? This One Must Be Killed
Things are just this strange: the several vassal lords closest to the Han people’s great enemy, the Gui Fang people, are fighting among themselves with great enthusiasm, while the Gui Fang people, who should be paying attention to these vassal lords’ movements, seem to have vanished into thin air.
Every autumn, it’s the prime time for the Gui Fang people to requisition grain from conquered territories all the way south along the coastline. This year, there is none. Eastern Province, which suffers the most severely from requisitioning grain from conquered territories, no longer needs to deploy large armies to guard against the Gui Fang people; they have sent their armies to the border with Qiu He Prefecture.
Not only Eastern Province is doing this; Hai Prefecture and Tai Prefecture are doing the same.
Do they really think the Gui Fang people won’t come south this year?
In any case, Yun Ce doesn’t dare think so.
Therefore, they can so calmly transfer their armies from the northern line defending against the Gui Fang to the western line defending against the Cao Clan; they must have some assurance, such as obtaining guarantees from the Gui Fang people.
Cao Kun thinks this is impossible and insists on betting with Yun Ce. Yun Ce won’t take this bet, because even if he wins, it would be meaningless.
In the end, it’s just that Cao Kun and the others have too little experience. If this situation were told to high school students in the ancestral land, they could immediately give the answer that the Gui Fang people harbor ill intentions.
Even smarter children might tell you that those several inspectors may have already defected to the Gui Fang people—an answer that Cao Kun wouldn’t dare imagine even on pain of death.
Yun Ce also informed Wu Tong, who is far away in Chang’an, of the news…
1 Ever since discovering this possibility, Yun Ce has wanted very much to kill someone, but the defense system on the Yun Clan Villa side has only just begun to take shape, and he can’t leave for the time being.
1 Then, he couldn’t care less about the people in the Yun Clan Villa having just endured the hard labor of the autumn harvest; he quickly made them enter even more exhausting ditch-digging work again.
1 In the autumn, the Qingshui River’s water surged violently. The river water backflowed into the dug ditches, and moreover, Yun Ce ordered nonstop throwing of large stones into the Qingshui River, causing the river water to rise again and flood the first eddy bay of the Qingshui River—that is, the bay where Yun Ce discovered the radioactive material.
1 The first bay being flooded formed large areas of marshland outside the Yun Clan Villa. This temporarily isolated the Yun Clan Villa from worries of directly facing the Gui Fang iron hooves.
1 By the time these things were done, the weather had also cooled down. The howling north winds came earlier than the Gui Fang cavalrymen; they tore off the leaves remaining on the tree branches and added a layer of gray-white frost to the ground.
1 With the weather turning cold, the Cao Clan, under pressure from the three prefectures massing troops on the border, abruptly halted their attacks on Lingzhou. Cao Bing returned to Qiu He Prefecture, Cao Kun guarded Pingzhou, and Cao Ying and Cao Ben, with 150,000 troops, remained in Lingzhou confronting He Tian.
1 But both sides no longer engaged in battle, each guarding their own territory, becoming eerily quiet.
1 After harvesting the latest crop of baby beans at the Yun Clan Villa, they gradually entered the winter rest period. This year, everyone in the Yun Clan was extremely busy; as soon as the winter rest period arrived, almost everyone fell into deep sleep.
1 “The Emperor has taken a new consort named Shen Lexi. I hear she is a peerless beauty.”
1 Zhang Min, who had just ridden back on the red date horse originally belonging to Shen Tingyu, no sooner entered the room than took off her leather boots and placed her feet on the charcoal fire basin in front of Yun Ce to warm them.
2 Streams of white steam rose from her thick wool socks, and a not-too-strong sour smell also wafted into Yun Ce’s nose.
2 He removed Zhang Min’s thick socks and placed her pair of ice-cold feet under his arm to warm them.
2 “You don’t mind the smell.”
2 E Ji annoyedly kicked Zhang Min’s smelly socks out the door.
2 Yun Ce poured Zhang Min a cup of hot tea and said: “A big-bellied woman who rode over three hundred li in a day—let her rest a bit more tenderly, lest she complain later.”
2 E Ji said: “Why has the Emperor suddenly thought of getting married?”
2 Yun Ce sniffed and said: “That Shen Lexi is a Gui Fang woman, the sister of Shen Tingyu whom I told you about.”
2 E Ji puzzled said: “One Yu Heng isn’t enough, and now he marries a Gui Fang woman. Is this Emperor the Emperor of the Han people or of the Gui Fang people?”
2 Zhang Min stretched her feet toward Yun Ce’s lower abdomen, then hugged the tea cup and said: “To deal with the Grand Marshal, the Emperor is resorting to every possible means.”
2 E Ji clapped her hands and said: “Then we’re done for. If the Emperor is cooperating with the Gui Fang people, who do we listen to from now on?”
3 Zhang Min chuckled lightly and said: “Of course we listen to husband. Nowadays, we’ve cut off the road for the Gui Fang cavalrymen to come to Jingkou Pass. Unless they send infantry over the Black Mountains, they can’t reach us here.”
3 E Ji leaned into Yun Ce’s arms and said: “Husband said that flooding the road is only a temporary measure and can’t be maintained for long. In the future, we’ll still have to face the Gui Fang people.”
3 Yun Ce sighed and said: “What we need to do now is protect ourselves. While protecting ourselves, we watch the situation clearly. At the beginning, the situation will certainly be chaos; you won’t be able to tell who is man and who is ghost.
3 Once the situation has stabilized, we’ll see what to do next.”
3 Zhang Min stroked her already bulging belly and nodded: “Yes, now we do nothing; I’m just waiting for my child to be born.”
3 E Ji pulled Yun Ce’s hand over to cover her own bulging little abdomen and said: “Yes, yes, we should settle down quietly.”
3 At night when sleeping, Zhang Min lay close to Yun Ce’s ear and said: “Should we ask Wu Tong to help investigate the relationship between the three inspectors of Eastern Province, Tai Prefecture, and Hai Prefecture and the Emperor?”
3 Yun Ce shook his head and said: “No need to investigate. But I plan to make a trip to the three prefectures.”
3 Zhang Min said softly: “Go personally to investigate?”
3 Yun Ce gritted his teeth and said: “Go personally to kill.”
4 “There’s no evidence. What if you’re discovered…”
4 “Killing traitors to the country never requires evidence.”
4 “Even if they’re imperial relatives, you’re going to kill them?”
4 “Even if it’s a pig in a pigsty, if it betrays the country, it must be killed.”
4 “Even if killing is necessary, it’s the court’s business, not for husband to take risks.”
4 Yun Ce sat up from under the quilt, leaning against the bedhead, and said: “Killing traitors to the country must be done as soon as possible, the earlier the better, otherwise more people will actively betray.
4 Only by making those who want to betray feel dread can we effectively stop the trend of surrender from continuing to spread.”
4 “How can you kill them all by yourself?”
4 “Great Han people are rather slow-witted. As long as I set an example for them, making killing traitors to the country a way to gain fame, countless people will follow suit.”
4 “You won’t use the name Yun Ce, will you?”
5 “This name isn’t prominent enough. The identity of Heir of the King of Changsha Liu Chang’an is very useful: high enough rank, loud enough reputation, and mysterious enough. At least, currently fewer than fifteen people know that I, Yun Ce, am Liu Chang’an.”
5 “Cao Kun knows too.”
5 “He won’t blab; he’ll even actively help me conceal it. After all, the people I’m going to kill are exactly the ones he wants to kill too.”
5 Zhang Min was about to say more when a smooth and slippery body rolled from Yun Ce’s body between her and Yun Ce.
5 E Ji stared with wide eyes and said: “Keep talking; I’m listening.”
5 Yun Ce patted her back and said: “Weren’t you asleep?”
5 E Ji huffed and said: “If I were asleep, how would I know you two were whispering behind my back.”
5 Yun Ce laughed and said: “You and Zhang Min move to Jin Suo Pass tomorrow for the winter. If I don’t return, don’t come back to the villa either.”
5 E Ji sighed, hugged Yun Ce, and said: “Remember to come back.”
5 Yun Ce said nothing, just placed his arm under E Ji’s head for her to pillow on.
6 When the sky was just slightly bright, Yun Ce watched E Ji’s horse carriage enter Jin Suo Pass under the protection of An Ji and a group of maids, then said to Zhang Min, who was riding alongside him: “Take good care of yourself and our child.”
6 Zhang Min held Yun Ce’s hand and said: “In another two months, I’m due to give birth. E Ji too. I hope you can return by then.”
6 Yun Ce narrowed his eyes slightly and said softly: “Killing a few scumbags won’t take two months.”
6 Watching Zhang Min enter Jin Suo Pass, Yun Ce turned his horse around and said to the red date horse: “We’ll go to Tai Prefecture first. I hear Tai Prefecture Inspector Han Qi is famously upright, incorruptible, charitable, and fond of good deeds.
6 I really want to see just how upright, incorruptible, charitable, and fond of good deeds he is. You should know these eight characters have nothing to do with nobles.
6 So, he’s the most suspicious.”
6 The red date horse roared, seeming very angry too, and galloped off swift as the wind.
6 “Yun Ce suspects the Tai Prefecture Inspector is colluding with the Gui Fang. I don’t believe it, so he calls me an idiot.”
6 Cao Kun, whose injuries had long fully recovered, still had Yi Tree Gauze wrapped around his waist and ribs, with spots of darkened blood on the bandages, indicating his wound wasn’t completely healed.
6 Zheng Tianshou slowly opened his eyes and said: “The Emperor has taken a new consort named Shen Lexi. Vaguely, I hear this woman is a Gui Fang woman.”
7 Cao Kun said: “Does the Emperor taking a consort have anything to do with what we’re talking about?”
7 Zheng Tianshou looked up at the ceiling and said: “Eastern Province, Hai Prefecture, Tai Prefecture were originally Cong Prefectures of the Great Han. Ever since Emperor Liu Mu ascended the throne, these three unremarkable Cong Prefectures, in just twenty short years, turned from Cong Prefectures into Great Han Homeland prefectures. Carefully counting, this is one of the few proper things the Emperor has done since ascending the throne.
7 In this struggle between the Grand Marshal and the Emperor, aside from some imperial family prefectures steadily standing behind the Emperor, only these three prefectures disregarded their own profit and firmly supported the Emperor.
7 Since they are the Emperor’s die-hard loyalists, the Emperor taking a Gui Fang woman as consort gives them sufficient reason to contact the Gui Fang people.
7 It’s just that we can’t yet determine whether they are loyal to the Emperor, loyal to the Gui Fang, or perhaps they themselves are Gui Fang people.”
7 Cao Kun said softly: “I spent some money and found some people to do some things that can’t be spoken of to outsiders.”
7 Zheng Tianshou was startled and sat up straight, looking at Cao Kun: “Was it done secretly? Did it cost a lot of money?”
7 Cao Kun said: “Ten thousand taels of gold, sixty-seven death warriors from Chang’an, and Uncle Ya is in charge of leading them.”
7 Zheng Tianshou said somewhat dissatisfied: “You know full well Uncle Ya has little life left.”
7 Cao Kun said: “Uncle Ya requested it himself. He told me he’s long tired of living.”
