Chapter 306: Things Are Looking Up
When society collapses, the first thing to collapse is the economy.
In the past, during the era of great unification, caravans could travel freely throughout the Great Han as long as they held official credentials.
Now it’s not like that anymore. There are many vassal lords, and everyone needs money to support their massive armies, with taxation and war being the only two sources of income currently.
Starting a war requires preparation time, but taxation doesn’t. Just block the roads and city gates, and taxes will flow in continuously. It seems like the most convenient way to extort money.
At the beginning, only one or two vassal lords were taxing, which wasn’t a big problem and hadn’t yet shown up directly in prices. But after all five hundred military prefectures of the Great Han started taxing, prices could no longer hold steady.
Baby beans, Yun Ce’s favorite food, used to cost a pocketful for the price of one pocket now, which can only buy three. Fortunately, he is now selling baby beans instead of buying them.
Prices of other things are also rising wildly, but the most severe increases are still in grain, among which the craziest price surge is for the luxury grain item—baby beans.
No matter if steamed, boiled, or roasted, this thing always tastes top-tier. Most importantly, the oil extracted from it has a very terrifying name—baby oil. It’s the favorite of the Great Han’s top chefs, and basically all high-end dishes require baby oil for cooking.
Because of the bumper harvest of baby beans at Yun Clan Villa last year, Xiangcheng has become the Great Han’s largest baby bean distribution center. The efficiency of centralized planting far surpasses that of gathering this primitive crop.
The large number of Yi Trees planted two years ago have now reached the bark-peeling season. This tree is cheap leather; if not peeled, it won’t grow properly. But since the trees are too young, the peeled leather has fine fibers, making it good material for making clothes. As for extracting starch from inside, it’s not feasible yet.
1 The price of Yi Tree Powder has also risen more than fivefold compared to before the Grand Marshal went mad.
1 For something like baby beans, even if the price skyrockets, it doesn’t really matter. If you have no money, just don’t eat it.
1 The rise in Yi Tree Powder price is what truly takes the lives of ordinary people. This was originally the cheapest food easiest for the common folk to obtain. Back when a pocket cost two green money, many people still went hungry. Now at ten green money a pocket, even more people are starving.
1 Grain shortages have led people to leave cities and migrate to the wilderness, starting to compete with wild beasts in the wilderness for survival opportunities.
1 Knowing full well that this would kill many people, the vassal lords of the world don’t care. They even secretly rejoice that those staying in the cities are wealthy households, and only paupers who can’t survive would return to the wilderness.
1 The wilderness is generally a place Shehuo can’t reach, also known as the barbaric land people often mention. It’s suitable for wild beasts to live in, not for humans.
1 Without Shehuo protection, just the erratic weather outside is enough to kill off a huge number of people.
1 Yun Ce often stays in the wilderness and always comes back safe because he is even more feral than wild beasts, more poisonous than poisonous insects. Even encountering heavy rain, hail, thunderstorm, blizzard, or extreme cold—these extreme climates—can’t cause him any harm.
1 For ordinary people, it’s different. Without reaching warrior level, they can’t even beat the most common wild beast in the wilderness—doggy. If they encounter a pack of doggies, they often end up gnawed to white bones.
1 The Shehuo at Yun Clan Villa is still burning fiercely. Of course, this is the result of people continuously adding fuel. Yet, such a Shehuo that needs fuel to burn has already protected Yun Clan Villa for two years.
2 Now, everyone at Yun Clan Villa believes that as long as they properly worship this fire, it will eventually evolve into true Shehuo.
2 Yun Ce has tested it with the Shehuo in the Dragon Pearl. Though there is some connection between the two, it’s very weak. The Dragon Pearl’s Shehuo despises this Shehuo that still needs fuel and doesn’t want much contact.
2 Every year at the end of Early Spring Month, Yun Ce checks the bodies of the children in the school dormitories to see how many with Qi Sensation have emerged.
2 Since Yun Clan has two high-level martial artists this year, Yun Ce doesn’t have to do this work alone. Wu Tong can help, and he’s full of enthusiasm.
2 The speed of probing Qi Sensation isn’t fast. Yun Ce points his finger on the child’s forehead, and internal breath flows down from the forehead, circulates once through the body, then withdraws. If the child’s body can sense the internal breath and it flows smoothly without hindrance inside, it means this child has innate Qi Sensation.
2 For children with Qi Sensation, Yun Ce marks a red dot on their forehead with the vermilion brush. Then, the child leaves the primary school dormitory to go to the martial school, awaiting Yun Ce to perform a Qi Induction ceremony on them, ultimately stepping onto the warrior path.
2 Children without Qi Sensation don’t need to feel dejected. They can continue studying in the school dormitory, but what they learn isn’t martial skill, but skills related to livelihood.
2 In half a shichen, Wu Tong marked vermilion dots on the foreheads of six children. After the next child came forward for probing and he marked another with the vermilion brush on the forehead, he said to Yun Ce beside him: “The odds of children at Yun Clan Villa turning out talented are too high. I’ve just probed fifteen children, and seven have Qi Sensation.”
2 Yun Ce lifted his finger, picked up the vermilion brush, and marked the child’s forehead, saying: “At the beginning, I was thrilled if one out of twenty children had detectable Qi Sensation. I didn’t expect so many of the later children to have it.”
2 Wu Tong shook his head and said: “I think you really need to call back the children who previously tested negative for Qi Sensation and probe them again.”
3 Yun Ce also thought it necessary, so he had Lei Ming call over the older children studying in the school dormitories. He planned to check them again. Speaking of which, in the current situation, the more children who can become warriors, the better.
3 The children who didn’t show Qi Sensation last year were very excited. For ordinary children, probing Qi Sensation is something they might not get even once in a lifetime. They never imagined they could have it twice.
3 After Yun Ce and Wu Tong re-probed these children, both fell silent. Yun Ce had Lei Ming take everyone away, ending the probing for the day.
3 After washing hands, Yun Ce and Wu Tong each picked up a bowl of tea and sipped slowly.
3 After a long while, Wu Tong looked up at Yun Ce and said: “What’s the reason? Is this a warrior nest?”
3 Yun Ce frowned and said: “Could it be related to the High Priest’s blessing sacrifice?”
3 Wu Tong shook his head and said: “No evidence, can’t make that judgment. But looking at the mutations of spirits like the eagle, red date horse, doggy at your place, this really is a blessed land.”
3 By the way, do you have many children here?
3 Yun Ce said: “Just last year, six thousand four hundred children were born here. They’re too young and still in the nursery. In another two years, they can go to the school dormitory. After three more years there, they can be probed for Qi Sensation.”
3 Wu Tong sighed to the sky and said: “Excluding the current children, that means in three years, Yun Clan will have at least three thousand warriors?”
4 Yun Ce smiled and said: “Possibly more. Over half of those older children just now showed Qi Sensation. Can we assume that the timing for probing Qi Sensation in children can be delayed, or even done multiple times until age fifteen?”
4 Wu Tong took two sips of tea and said to Yun Ce: “I have no duties right now anyway. How about I re-screen all children under fifteen at Yun Clan Villa? Don’t limit to the school dormitory; newly arrived refugee children who haven’t entered can also participate in Qi Sensation probing.”
4 Yun Ce said: “Divide into good control groups to see if it’s the effect of the blessing sacrifice, or if Yun Clan itself has the ability to develop children’s Qi Sensation.”
4 Wu Tong smiled and said: “Just give me Lei Ming.”
4 Yun Ce nodded.
4 Wu Tong set down his tea bowl, looked at Yun Ce for a moment, and said: “I’m still curious to this day—why did you have to knock me out when I wasn’t expecting it to heal me?
4 You let me participate in Yun Clan’s confidential Qi Sensation probing, so why not tell me how you corrected my five viscera and six bowels overnight?”
4 Yun Ce shook his head and said: “Technology too advanced, not convenient to show in public.”
4 “Technology from ancestral land?”
4 “Correct, from ancestral land.”
5 “After reading so many books about ancestral land and experiencing so many wondrous things about it, in the future—if you get a chance to return to ancestral land, take me with you.”
5 Yun Ce thought for a moment and said: “Good!”
5 Back at the inner residence, E Ji, who was holding Yun Shuo and eating, saw Yun Ce return and said with a beaming smile: “How many with Qi Sensation did you find?”
5 Yun Ce smiled and said: “Over half, surprisingly.”
5 Zhang Min, who was tidying Yun Tui in the inner room, rushed out hurriedly and asked: “Husband means over five hundred of the one thousand one hundred children probed for Qi Sensation today have it?”
5 Yun Ce nodded and said: “Yes. Wu Tong also randomly probed ten from those previously without Qi Sensation and picked out four. At this rate, the number with Qi Sensation should exceed half.”
5 E Ji quickly calculated the numbers and blurted out: “Husband means Yun Clan now has over two thousand prospective warriors, and in five years, Yun Clan will have at least one thousand six hundred Hundred-man Generals?”
5 Yun Ce smiled, tapped E Ji’s forehead, and said: “The gap between warrior and Hundred-man General is too big. Don’t think that having two thousand warriors means you’ll have one thousand six hundred Hundred-man Generals.”
5 Yun Ce chuckled and said: “Go dream about it.”
5 Yun Ce has been very busy since returning. The Chang’an trip left a lot of official business, and he still hasn’t gone to Jin Suo Pass to check on Huo Liao and their construction progress. He only heard Feng An say it’s progressing splendidly.
6 As for just how splendid, Yun Ce hasn’t seen it yet. Since Feng An is keeping it a suspense, he won’t immediately fulfill Huo Liao’s wish for a quick inspection.
6 To be honest, if Feng An dares say that, there must be major progress. Compared to that, Yun Ce is even more eager to know if Huo Liao has mastered that book 《Advanced Mathematics》 on his own without anyone teaching him.
