Chapter 286: Pearl Of The Vast Sea
Speaking of which, the Great Han is still a feudal dynasty, but in reality, it doesn’t even qualify as a true feudal dynasty; it can only be considered a semi-feudal, semi-slave society.
A feudal society must first have “enfeoffment” and “establishment.” The Great Han achieved “enfeoffment,” but not “establishment.”
“Enfeoffment” refers to dividing the land, delineating boundaries, with the emperor granting a piece of land and people to vassal lords.
“Establishment” refers to setting up vassal states, where vassal lords can build their own army and government on that land.
When implementing this system, Huo Qubing was too powerful; he helped the emperor enfeoff many kings, but later felt it wasn’t good and killed many kings. The King of Changsha’s faction is one of the few among the entire Liu imperial dynasty that managed to survive.
Clearly, Changsha Prefecture is Liu Changsheng’s fief, yet Liu Changsheng never set foot on that land, and even the first King of Changsha never went to southern Changsha Prefecture.
Skipping feudalism and directly implementing the commandery-county system, Yun Ce could imagine how powerful and tyrannical Huo Qubing was back then. Unfortunately, the consequence was that people only knew they were Great Han people, but not of the Great Han state.
The essence of the Battle of Chang’an was the result of nobles crushing each other, the result of not recognizing each other.
Yun Ce rode his red date horse through Chang’an City looking for a suitable guesthouse, but unfortunately, after walking several streets, he didn’t encounter a single open guesthouse.
Several brothels were still open, though. Listening to the teapot and the madam downstairs soliciting him, their only guest, it seemed brothel business was also very poor. Clearly, the singing girl who showed half her face was a beauty, yet the madam said only five hundred green money to kiss her fragrance…
1 At this price, back in Chuyun Prefecture, he could only find those women doing semi-secret business deals.
1 Yun Ce sighed, ultimately resisting the madam, the teapot, and the beauty’s expectant gaze, and didn’t go in.
1 Instead, he took out a gold bean, flicked it to the beauty who only showed half her face. Perhaps, after experiencing warfare, this woman only had half her face fit to be seen.
1 The beauty caught the gold bean with effort. Sure enough, as Yun Ce thought, the other side of this beauty’s face had a scar.
1 With fewer men, women become worthless; this is also an iron law brought by war.
1 Cities historically called Chang’an generally experience extreme prosperity, and at the same time, certainly extreme desolation. The longer the prosperity lasts, the longer the subsequent decay.
1 The red date horse carried him turning into a remote back street. Yun Ce looked up at the Divine Dragon Hall shrouded in clouds and mist, ultimately not stepping onto that wide flight of steps.
1 By the time Yun Ce came back to his senses, the red date horse was stomping a strong man with its hoof. Whenever it pressed its hoof on that strong man’s stomach, the strong man would open his mouth and spit out a big mouthful of blood. Two other strong men had their bodies deeply embedded in the brick wall, probably hard to pry out.
1 These were three robbers. During the robbery, Yun Ce was lost in thought and ignored them, letting the red date horse handle it itself. He didn’t expect the red date horse to deal with them like this.
1 Since Yun Ce arrived in Chang’an City, the black feathered eagle had flown off to find E Ji and hadn’t returned yet, probably unwilling to come back.
2 A bit of tacit understanding between husband and wife still existed. Yun Ce planned to find an unoccupied house to stay in temporarily.
2 Yun Ce looked around for a long time and ultimately chose near Panxing Tower.
2 Upon approaching, Yun Ce discovered that Panxing Tower was now dilapidated, especially the lower floors, where he could even see projectiles thrown by catapults. These projectiles were made of hard stone, carved very smoothly, and the several stone balls scattered on the road even had fierce beast patterns carved on them.
2 It seemed intense battle had once erupted near Panxing Tower. In some places, Yun Ce could even see traces of bomb explosions, with craters from the blasts now filled with rainwater.
2 After the war, the surviving people all gathered at the foot of the Imperial City to live, and this area around Panxing Tower was almost abandoned.
2 Finally, Yun Ce found a somewhat dilapidated two-story small building. The reason he chose this small building was, first, it was relatively close to Panxing Tower; if something happened again in the ruined Chang’an City, Panxing Tower would surely have some activity.
2 Second, if ignoring the damage from stone balls, judging by the color and paintings on the eaves and beams, this place was previously what Chang’an people called a refined studio.
2 Not to mention, it had a courtyard about one mu in size.
2 In Chang’an, where land was worth its weight in gold, the courtyard’s area far exceeding the house showed the original owner had very high artistic taste.
2 Of course, the main reason was that this courtyard had no corpses or bones.
3 The courtyard gate was long gone. Yun Ce saw the neighboring courtyard’s gate seemed intact, so he removed it and installed it on this gate. Fortunately, both used upper and lower grooves, so the gate was interchangeable.
3 There was originally a fruit tree in the courtyard, but now, with no one watering it, it had long died. On the left was a garden bed; judging by the decayed branches on the ridges, those should be dead baby bean stalks.
3 Yun Ce gathered some into a broom, let the red date horse nibble the fresh grass just sprouting from the brick seams in the courtyard, while he went up to the second floor to clean the rooms.
3 After throwing all the broken furniture in the room out the back window, Yun Ce discovered there was actually a small garden and a water well outside the back window.
3 He naturally didn’t dare use a water well in a war-torn city. He took clean water from the Dragon Pearl and wiped down the cleaned house again.
3 If he were living alone, he wouldn’t bother with all this, but mainly, E Ji, Zhang Min, and the others would definitely come over, and perhaps bring Yun Shuo and Yun Tui.
3 A place where small children live can’t be unclean.
3 Yun Ce cleaned very thoroughly, even covering the broken windows with a layer of translucent leather. Except for the big hole in the roof needed to observe Panxing Tower’s activity, this small building was actually livable.
3 He first laid a huge blanket on the floor, then set up the tent, laid thick mats inside the tent, and took out several pillows, two small ones in the middle with indentations, prepared for the children.
3 He took out a small table and placed the children’s milk bottles and milk pot on it. He didn’t take out the fierce beast milk; this stuff spoils easily outside the Dragon Pearl.
4 Finally, he took out two very light but very warm bird feather quilts. E Ji couldn’t sleep without this when she slept.
4 Previously, the Dragon Pearl naturally didn’t store these things, but since Yun Shuo and Yun Tui were born, the mother and infant supplies stored in the Dragon Pearl were enough for two children up to age ten.
4 As first-time parents, Yun Ce and E Ji had put a lot of effort into raising children.
4 The red date horse had long since eaten all the fresh grass just grown in the courtyard and now lay in the middle of the courtyard, legs up in the air, letting the sun expose its usually unseen parts.
4 From time to time on the nearby Vermilion Bird Street came the sound of hooves, sometimes very dense, which should be cavalry running at full speed. From the sound of hooves hitting the ground, this should be an army entirely composed of Thunder Smoke Beasts.
4 Having rushed to Chang’an in a day and a half, Yun Ce had gone without sleep or rest. Now with some time, he planned to make himself some tasty food to reward himself.
4 Hearing Yun Ce moving kitchenware, the red date horse lying in the courtyard sunning itself lowed softly.
4 Yun Ce understood; this guy wanted steamed baby beans.
4 Yun Ce steamed a pot of rice, sliced cured meat, sausage, and such into pieces and threw them in to cook with the rice. On top of the rice pot, he placed a steamer layer with baby beans. When the rice was done, the pot of cured meat rice and the baby beans the red date horse wanted would also be ready.
4 Using Shehuo as a fire source was very convenient, especially for steaming rice, where the heat could be controlled perfectly. Since discovering this property of Shehuo, Yun Ce often used it to cook rice.
5 In this rare peaceful time, Yun Ce didn’t want to waste a single second. He stretched out his limbs lying on the carpet, his gaze through the hole in the roof perfectly able to see Panxing Tower.
5 A black dot fell from the tall building. Yun Ce looked carefully and thought it should be a person; after all, only a person could let out such a long wail before dying.
5 Yun Ce slowly closed his eyes, originally wanting to gaze at the blue sky for a while, but ended up seeing some filthy things again.
5 There were many filthy things. Even with his eyes closed, more screams drilled into his ears until Yun Ce counted twenty-nine, after which the screams finally stopped.
5 He turned his head to check the fire under the Shehuo pot; there was still some time before the rice was fully steamed, so he slightly closed his eyes.
5 When he opened his eyes again, he saw a pair of big, clear black-and-white eyes. These eyes were interesting; they kept staring intently at the rice pot.
5 It was a raggedly dressed little girl, at most five years old. She huddled in the corner, trying to minimize her presence. Yun Ce knew when this child came in, but since there was no threat, he let it be. After all, this might be where that little girl lived; he remembered throwing quite a bit of broken stuff out from the corner.
5 He was just puzzled how the red date horse allowed her up.
5 The rice was clearly done. Shehuo was using a small fire to scorch the pot bottom; Yun Ce believed there was now a piece of crispy rice soaked in fat forming in the rice pot.
5 The sound of a large bird flapping wings came from overhead; it should be the black feathered eagle. Sure enough, the next moment, E Ji’s voice came from downstairs.
6 “Young Master, I got a lot, a lot of gold for our family.”
6 Just as the words fell, E Ji’s head poked out from the stairwell. She first smiled at Yun Ce, then saw the little girl and asked puzzledly, “Who is she?”
6 Yun Ce smiled and said, “The master of this place.”
6 Hearing Yun Ce say this, E Ji’s smile grew even brighter. She went up the stairs, first handed Yun Shuo in her arms to Yun Ce, then squatted in front of the little girl and said, “The Wife of the Crown Prince of Changsha pays respects to the master of this place.”
