Chapter 285: The Last Pride
Anyone who has attempted suicide knows that the first time is easy, done on impulse. The second time, however, is truly difficult.
Cao Zhen was such a person.
The first time, seeing the tragic state of the city’s fall, he jumped from the city wall in his armor onto the blue stone slabs, intending to give the Cao Clan an accounting with his own precious life.
As a result, Yun Ce caught him, and he didn’t die.
Then, he felt he had already done enough for the Cao Clan.
A person with this mindset has essentially no bottom line, because they feel they have made amends, they can continue to cause harm without limits.
Dragon Head Pass was broken, or perhaps it wasn’t, mainly because he, the garrison commander, continued to fight. Although the city was breached, didn’t he retake it with a fearless spirit?
How can this be considered a city that has been breached?
As for suffering heavy losses, Cao Zhen believed that every general who had experienced brutal siege warfare knew that facing fifty to sixty thousand attackers, heavy losses were unavoidable.
Not only he was clear about this, but even his subordinates who fled in the face of the enemy were well aware of it.
Thus, a military report about holding off fifty to sixty thousand refugees attacking the city and suffering heavy losses was sent by carrier pigeon to Qiu He Prefecture.
The military report of course did not mention Yun Ce, the god of death, nor the black feathered eagle that wreaked havoc, nor trivial matters like the generally tall and strong physique of Yun Ce’s subordinates.
After Yun Ce left, Cao Zhen continued his daily routine of patrolling the city and guarding it. At the same time, he was also doing things like secretly reinforcing the south city wall.
Even though the funds and grain for reinforcing the south city wall had not yet been approved, Cao Zhen believed that he had to raise the city wall by at least two zhang, even if he had to pay for it himself, otherwise it would be too easy for people to climb over.
Back north of the Great Wall, Yun Ce felt as if he had returned home.
In fact, six days after he led his troops further east, Feng An came to meet them with grain.
Facing nearly two thousand six hundred tall Tiger Guards, Feng An smiled so wide his tongue was hanging out.
“Lord, this time, our Yun Clan finally has an army that truly belongs to us. I just don’t know if the Lord has obtained the secret method for continuously manufacturing Tiger Guards?”
Seeing Feng An unable to contain his laughter, Yun Ce shook his head and said, “Secret method? I know it, but we won’t use it.”
Upon hearing this, Feng An’s smile froze. After a while, he cautiously said, “Loyalty, fearlessness of death, strict obedience to orders, composure in the face of change, and striving for survival in desperate situations – isn’t this the army you’ve always wanted, Lord?”
Yun Ce looked at the eight-foot-tall Feng An before him and said, “I think you are quite suitable for being made into a Tiger Guard. Would you like to be the first to be experimented on?”
Feng An immediately shook his head, “That joke isn’t funny at all.”
Yun Ce angrily replied, “You were the one who joked with me first.”
Feng An understood Yun Ce well. Hearing this, he knew that continuing the matter of manufacturing Tiger Guards was basically impossible, so he changed the subject: “When Lord returns to the Mountain Villa, Liang Kun should be back too.”
Yun Ce frowned, “Wasn’t it said that he would return with his wife?”
Feng An said with a wry smile, “My wife is going to hold a palace banquet at the Changsha King’s Mansion in Chang’an.”
Yun Ce said, “Judging by the time, it should have been over long ago.”
Feng An shook his head, “Not yet. The scale is too large, and there are too many local influential figures who want to attend the banquet. My wife wants to obtain more gold, so she has been continuously postponing the banquet. The latest scheduled date is six days from now.”
Yun Ce was silent for a moment and said, “That’s very dangerous.”
Feng An replied, “He Junnian is also involved in this. Does the Lord know?”
Yun Ce nodded, “E Ji mentioned in her letter that Wu Tong and the others want to eliminate this High Priest of the Gui Fang people.”
Feng An sighed, “Often, we truly cannot understand people like He Junnian. He is already a top existence among Han people, yet he doesn’t align with them. Instead, he is very interested in the Gui Fang people.”
Originally mortal enemies, after the Gui Fang people grew stronger in recent years, many strange theories have emerged. Among them, the notion that the Great Han and the Gui Fang are originally one family has become rampant. Some even say that the Gui Fang people are actually the cousins of the Great Han. Especially after it was confirmed that He Junnian is the First Priest of the Gui Fang people, these theories have become even more prevalent.
“Is Cao Kun in Pingcheng, or has he already gone to Qiuhe City?”
Feng An shook his head, “He is in Taizhou City.”
“To Qiuhe City?”
“I heard that the Cao Clan Head issued six consecutive orders for him to go to Qiuhe City as soon as possible, but Cao Kun didn’t listen and went to Taizhou City instead. I suspect that if Cao Kun delays going to Qiuhe City, a battle between the Cao father and son is inevitable.”
Yun Ce thought for a moment and said, “I don’t think Cao Kun will fight with the Cao Clan Head.”
“Why?”
“Cao Kun is a man of great ambition. With the precedent of the Battle of Chang’an, Cao Kun will definitely not waste the elite forces of the Cao Clan like the Grand Marshal, nor will he bear to see the Cao Clan’s children fighting each other. If his father and son were to go to war, no matter what, the Cao Clan would be the one to suffer.”
“But the rift between them is already so obvious. It’s impossible for them to return to filial piety anymore.”
Yun Ce smiled, “There’s still a chance.”
“What kind of chance? I don’t see it.”
“When Cao Kun mourns his father.”
“Are you saying Cao Kun will murder his father?”
“Why not? Cao Kun is ambitious. He wouldn’t do something like making the Cao Clan’s descendants fight each other, but he could certainly do something like making his own father die, which would solve the problem once and for all.”
Feng An stared at Yun Ce in a daze for a long time without speaking. Often, he found his thoughts differed from his Lord’s. After hearing his Lord’s explanation about Cao Kun, he realized that the reason for the difference was that what he considered a taboo was not considered a taboo at all by his Lord and people like Cao Kun.
Their thinking was broader and more uninhibited.
Yun Ce decided to secretly go to Chang’an.
Entrusting his wife and children to others always made him uneasy. Entrusting one’s wife and children to another is not a good phrase in the ancestral land, and even if the person was Liu Changsheng, Yun Ce felt it was improper.
Especially when his wife was planning to make a fortune in Chang’an, danger could descend at any moment. E Ji was a woman of great courage and poor self-control, especially when it came to gold and other treasures. If there was enough gold, E Ji would risk her life.
The problem was that she had very little martial power. The only thing she could rely on was the several dozen new-style bombs personally made by Gouzi. Those things were too powerful, and with her meager strength, she couldn’t even throw the bombs far enough to be outside the blast radius. Throwing the bombs was essentially suicide.
This time, Yun Ce would be separated from Gouzi for a period. The authority over the Tiger Guards, Yun Ce did not want to hand over to Feng An or Qin Shu. Perhaps he could give it to E Ji, and in the future, perhaps to his two sons. No one else was an option.
This was not a matter of trust; it was primarily because ambition was something that was cultivated slowly. A general commanding five hundred soldiers would definitely obey the emperor. The same applied to a general commanding five thousand soldiers. A general commanding fifty thousand soldiers was essentially arrogant and unruly. As for a Great General commanding five hundred thousand troops, if anyone said he had no ambitions regarding imperial power, even ghosts wouldn’t believe it.
Feng An was full of doubt about the Tiger Guards being allowed to move freely. Since Yun Ce told him that the Tiger Guards had their own arrangements and he didn’t need to worry about them, he looked at them a few more times. The Tiger Guards marched in formation without a sound. No matter how confused he was, he only arranged the six thousand refugee troops. As for the Tiger Guards, he would just watch.
With the speed of the red date horse, Yun Ce could reach Chang’an in two days.
This time, with the black feathered eagle leading the way in the sky, the red date horse seemed to gallop even faster over mountains and through valleys. In just a day and a half, Yun Ce saw Chang’an City.
The current Chang’an City was outwardly splendid but inwardly decayed. Just looking at the city walls, the wide suspension bridges, and the majestic city gates, Chang’an was still the greatest city of the era.
After entering Chang’an City, Yun Ce finally understood why Chang’an, which previously required special access passes to enter, was now so easily accessible to anyone.
It was because Chang’an City had been ravaged by war too severely. Many of the former tall buildings had been reduced to rubble by fires, and some prosperous areas had long since become ruins.
The struggle between the Grand Marshal and the Emperor was a true mutual destruction, to the point that the Grand Marshal now lacked the power to control Chang’an and could only watch as various vassal lords brazenly entered Chang’an without showing any respect to him, the local master.
In today’s Chang’an City, one could no longer see crowds of pedestrians shoulder to shoulder, and the scene of sweating profusely had become a legend of legends.
Yun Ce rode his horse along Vermilion Bird Street. The wide street was almost empty. Occasionally, a few horse carriages would pass by in a hurry. It was extremely rare to see someone as leisurely as Yun Ce. On the sidewalks on both sides of the street, there were some people, but they were all in a hurry as if fleeing for their lives. One could even see doggies carrying skulls and drilling holes in the city.
Standing on Vermilion Bird Street, one could look up and see the Imperial City gates wide open. If the weather was clear, Yun Ce could see the Divine Dragon Hall, which was usually hidden in the clouds and mist.
Even without Gouzi present, Yun Ce could clearly feel the presence of Yun Shuo and Yun Tui. This connection from their bloodline, although very ethereal, made Yun Ce certain that his two sons were there.
Panxing Tower hadn’t changed much. However, after the surrounding few equally tall buildings collapsed, this tall building, built during the prosperous period of the Great Han, stood alone. It resembled a giant phallus, and more like the last pride of people like Wu Tong.
