Chapter 259: So Many Useless People
After returning from the Five Peaks, one no longer looks at mountains.
For someone accustomed to delicacies of land and sea, eating coarse grain feels like a fishbone stuck in the throat.
For someone accustomed to seeing the Ancestral Land army’s appearance, looking at these clueless armies in Han Land, it’s really hard to like them.
Although of the same origin, Yun Ce still insists that these are two different species, with a gap even larger than between humans and pigs.
Reforming the old army, Yun Ce has no time, no energy, and doesn’t believe he has that ability.
These thirty-six children are different; the things they learn are provided by Yun Ce, their behavior is instilled by Yun Ce, and even their living habits have been physically isolated from Great Han people to a certain extent by Yun Ce.
These thirty-six children are the thirty-six seeds he has planted in Great Han territory; now, he is about to take these thirty-six seeds to experience the cruel battlefield.
The River Bend’s water network is crisscrossed, originally set up to restrict enemy large forces from passing; in this terrain, the enemy’s numerical advantage is hard to deploy.
After all, the roads are set based on the length of Yun Ce’s meteor hammer; on such roads, unless the enemy can defeat Yun Ce, it’s hard to pass through here.
On the children’s great horned horses are two sacks of bombs, all meticulously made by Doggy.
1 After a night of torment, those people impaled on wooden clubs had a sharp wooden spike protruding from their mouths, basically all in the pose of looking up at the sky.
1 Last night, that group clearly had the opportunity to stealthily take these people off the wooden clubs, but they didn’t; instead, worried about a Yun Clan cavalry raid, they huddled in the river network area unwilling to come out.
1 The river network area is fundamentally unsuitable for large-scale cavalry combat, which Yun Ce knows, but the arriving group’s cavalry numbers more, unclear what these hesitant enemies really want to do.
1 Coming to extort provisions, automatically dropping the price upon refusal, from one thousand carts down to three hundred carts, and finally raided by Qin Shu leading soldiers, killed until they were shitting and pissing themselves, many surrendered ones smeared on wooden clubs by the ferocious Qin Shu for show.
1 Not even fierce enough as enemies; last night asked Zhang Min, the Yun Clan Villa’s biggest loss was three locked-up fierce beasts killed.
1 Yun Ce led the thirty-six children into the first Eddy Bay and saw a group of people huddling with great horned horses for warmth, not even sending out scouts, let alone sentries.
1 Until a sleepy-eyed guy saw Yun Ce, then hastily got up, shouting and yelling like the camp was exploding.
1 What Yun Ce found hardest to understand was that this group all wanted to hide in the back, pushing others to the front.
1 When Yun Ce advanced to one hundred fifty paces from the enemy, Lei Ming had already ordered to raise shields to prepare to block enemy arrows, but not a single arrow came from the other side.
1 At one hundred paces from the enemy, when Lei Ming ordered to single-arm clamp the horse spear for the final charge, the enemy’s barricades, shield formation, and protruding spears did not appear, still chaotically tangled together.
2 This made Lei Ming’s next order to “lower shields, prepare to throw bombs to blast the enemy’s shield formation, barricades, and spearmen to pieces” unnecessary, because the enemy was already chaotically fleeing in a panic.
2 The Eddy Bay terrain meant their retreat space was limited; not far off was the churning Qingshui River.
2 By the time Yun Ce led the charge, squeezing this group of cavalrymen into a desperate situation, the people at the very back were already standing in the icy Qingshui River, yet the anticipated resistance from Lei Ming and the children still didn’t come.
2 “How can people be so cowardly?”
2 Lei Ming’s voice-change-period quack-like roar echoed through the entire Eddy Bay.
2 The expected bloody battle gone, not just Lei Ming was annoyed, but also Yun Ce, who had prepared this soft army for the children to practice their courage.
2 You kill him, he doesn’t resist, just knows to run; can’t run, then kneels waiting for the final moment.
2 After Yun Ce returned, he had people take down all the corpses impaled on sticks, pile them together, and burn them all; a group that doesn’t even dare resist doesn’t deserve such cruel punishment—they have no guts to begin with.
2 Zhang Min was the one interrogating these people.
2 After returning, her face looked very bad.
3 Yun Ce raised his hand, and Lei Ming placed the teapot in it; Yun Ce took a sip and said, “What kind of people are these?”
3 Zhang Min sat beside Yun Ce, sighed, and said, “Former Great Wall Garrison.”
3 Yun Ce said, “Every single one?”
3 Zhang Min nodded and said, “Every single one.”
3 Lei Ming couldn’t help saying, “Wife, how can a soldier have no bloodlust at all?”
3 Zhang Min said, “The Great Wall Garrison originally had five hundred thousand, later cut by Zhao Shu to two hundred thousand; then Zhao Shu took a group of confidants to Chang’an, leaving the remaining Great Wall Garrison as lost souls wandering wildly. Later, vassal lords seized the Great Wall passes, driving out the original Great Wall Garrison from the passes under various pretexts.
3 South of the Great Wall is vassal lord territory, they couldn’t enter, so they wandered north of the Great Wall.
3 Spring, summer, autumn are manageable, they can find food in the wild; when deep winter comes, food runs out, so they approach the garrison commanders at various passes, hoping to surrender and be incorporated.
3 In the end, no one wanted them, so they continued wandering the wastelands north of the Great Wall; later they met a very capable person who gathered them into an army, starting their life as wandering bandits on the wasteland.
3 Laughably, they say they’ve been bandits six times total, defeated six times, and coming to our manor is already the seventh.”
4 Lei Ming puzzled said, “They have bows and arrows, weapons, quite a few great horned horses, large numbers, and even fierce generals commanding—how are they defeated everywhere?”
4 Zhang Min sighed and said, “That fierce general who killed our villa’s guard fierce beasts didn’t want them either; as for the great horned horses, they’re their only food source in winter—relying on the mares’ milk, they haven’t starved to death.
4 As for not resisting as Lei Ming said, it’s not that they don’t resist, they have no strength to resist, not even to flee; forcibly mustering one last breath to band together and extort us was their final hope for survival.”
4 Hearing Zhang Min’s explanation, Yun Ce leaned his head back, looked at Lei Ming, and said, “What do you think of this army?”
4 Lei Ming angrily said, “This doesn’t even qualify as an army, not even deserving the name bandits—they’re just a group of walking corpses.”
4 Yun Ce laughed, “What to do, kill them?”
4 Lei Ming firmly shook his head, “No, give them a meal; once they’ve regained strength, let them earn food with their own labor. They’re no longer soldiers, but pitiful people—our blades won’t fall on the heads of the pitiful.”
4 Hearing Lei Ming’s words, Yun Ce said to Zhang Min, “Have Feng An return, prepare to receive these people.”
4 Zhang Min said, “Alright, one should always give people a way to live.”
4 Hearing Yun Ce had returned, E Ji rushed back to the villa from Jin Suo Pass on the third day; interested in the utterly useless people Zhang Min mentioned, after an intimate moment with Yun Ce, she took a group of attendants to the camp Lei Ming had just set up for these two thousand six hundred plus people.
5 Just entering the camp, E Ji flew into a rage; the clean camp set up only two days ago was turned by these people into filth everywhere, not just great horned horse dung all over, but even human feces in many places.
5 Each one dirty to the point of barely looking human, not to mention,
5 This group wouldn’t obey commands and insisted on staying with their great horned horses, unwilling to have people housed together and horses together; once separated from the horses, they went mad and wailed loudly.
5 Men’s crying looks awful, more heartbreaking than women’s; Zhang Min couldn’t stand seeing them cry, which is why the good camp became a filthy mess.
5 E Ji didn’t care about that; she insisted that since they’ve entered Yun Clan, they should follow Yun Clan rules—crying won’t get them leniency.
5 Since the men loved to cry, she brought a large group of women to watch the men cry; gradually, the crying men became much fewer.
5 “The more unwanted a person is, the less they see themselves as human, the tighter they cling to what little they have left.
5 Their great horned horses are all mares that produce milk for them; when no milk, they drink horse blood, barely surviving.
5 Unwanted, low morale, so of course they treat great horned horses like their lives.
5 This group no longer hopes for a better life, so go slow; let them eat a few full meals, sleep in warm houses for a few days, feel human again, and they’ll be useful.”
6 E Ji’s thinking is pure binary; her evaluation of people has only two kinds: usable, or washable with water and usable.
6 There will absolutely never be unusable or useless people.
6 Sometimes, Yun Ce feels E Ji is a beam of light, fairly illuminating everyone; even if you don’t want to be illuminated, she’ll shine it on your face regardless.
6 With whip, food, and women’s humiliating words and gazes, E Ji finally resolved this group’s problem of wanting to eat and sleep with great horned horses.
6 “The remaining flaws will be straightened bit by bit; as long as they’re human, there’s nothing that can’t be straightened.”
6 At night rest, E Ji coiled her hair into a bun, placed her head on Yun Ce’s arm, brought her mouth to his ear, and said, “Am I considerate?”
