Chapter 34: Rebellion Is A Decision, Not A Choice
Refugee Camp, this is Yun Ce’s name for it, but it has its own name—Migratory Camp, and the people who enter this camp have a special name—Refugee.
Yun Ce’s name in the Migratory Camp is Liu Chang’an, which is a name he made up temporarily.
Refugees are to be concentrated and specially managed, and the leader who manages these people is called the Refugee Leader, and the people above the Refugee Leader are the bailiffs sent by the government officials, who specially manage the Refugee Leader.
Generally, six bailiffs manage one Refugee Leader.
Officials do not directly manage refugees. Nor do they oppress refugees. The ones who specially manage refugees and oppress refugees are the Refugee Leaders. The ones who get the benefits are the bailiffs and the government officials. Once the Refugee Leader makes the Migratory Camp so resented by heaven and man that everyone wants to rebel, the bailiffs will push the Refugee Leader out to let the refugees kill him, and then replace him with another Refugee Leader.
They keep replacing and killing like this, the disaster passes, and the refugees each return to their hometowns.
This is the basic method the government officials use when they have no money, no grain, and need to manage a huge crowd in crisis. It’s not rare.
The people on this wasteland have no concept of farming. All their food, clothing, housing, and transportation needs come from gathering on the wasteland. Zhao Jin said that before, the main supply for the village came from requisitioning grain from conquered territories. The target of requisitioning grain from conquered territories was a barbaric country called ‘Spirit’. Later, because the requisitioning grain from conquered territories happened too frequently, that country called ‘Spirit’ was beaten away. Everyone had to rely on peeling bark from the Yi Tree to barely survive.
There are many plants on the wasteland that can be eaten. Apart from not tasting good, there’s nothing bad about them. Brave people can also go hunting on the wasteland and occasionally bring back some meat. In a situation where basic life can still be barely maintained, the people here live very spiritlessly.
Yun Ce and E Ji are very spirited. At dawn, E Ji fetched clean water from the specially dug sand pit. At Yun Ce’s insistence, she boiled it over fire before they happily started washing up.
1 Breakfast is bean porridge and minced meat wild vegetable box. Last night, E Ji soaked the beans in water. By dawn, they had expanded greatly. She chopped them with a knife and put them into boiling water. The cooked bean porridge had a thick layer of bean fat on top, which was the most fragrant when drunk.
1 Wild vegetable box alone is not tasty at all. Once combined with minced meat, that fragrance is very overpowering. With the fat frying the outer skin into scorched yellow, even the emperor would want a bite.
1 After Yun Ce finished the report on the Migratory Camp, he gave it to Doggy to organize. Seeing that E Ji had made breakfast, he came over to eat some.
1 He hadn’t even taken a bite yet, and already many people were watching him and E Ji eat.
1 E Ji drove them away several times, but each time after driving them away, they came back.
1 Yun Ce drank the porridge and ate the minced meat wild vegetable box with great enjoyment. Occasionally, he would also look up at those people who were dazed by the aroma of the food.
1 The ones who came to watch were all minors. Before, the story of Yun Ce beating adult robbers until they screamed chaotically, yet being successfully robbed by two children under eight years old, had spread widely in the Migratory Camp. Therefore, the adults feared Yun Ce, but the children did not.
1 The feeling of being watched eating like hungry wolves is the same as being watched urinating, but Yun Ce’s heart is strong. If necessary, he could even accept being watched naked, as long as he could harvest what he wanted.
1 The more thoroughly one lives, the lower their moral sense, because he has long seen through the essence of life. When doing things, he goes straight to the essence without entangling with trivial matters.
1 For a collective, if one wants to artificially create class distinctions, it’s not difficult. The primary stage is nothing more than eating good food, wearing good clothes, making others envious, thinking you are richer than them, and making them conceive the desire to get something from you. A simple class has already formed.
2 This is exactly what Yun Ce is doing.
2 Seeing several very small children in the crowd with saliva about to drip to the ground, E Ji took out several meat vegetable boxes, cut them open with a knife, and gave them to those gluttonous children.
2 She still had a piece left in her hand and casually gave it to a half-grown boy.
2 Yun Ce is very domineering. Around the sheep cart where he lives, he does not allow others to live. Next to the living area, there is a one-acre shrub forest, which he does not allow others to go to, because that is the dedicated toilet for him and E Ji.
2 In the Migratory Camp, eating better than others, wearing better than others, living better than others, even the toilet is much more advanced than others’, plus the previous record of twenty-seven wins and one loss in martial power, Yun Ce is the brightest star in the Migratory Camp.
2 After eating breakfast, Yun Ce strolled in the Migratory Camp, while listening to Doggy translate various sounds for him… The content is not good. There is not much food left in this wasteland area. The refugees want to leave here and go to places with more food to continue establishing camps, but the Refugee Leader disagrees.
2 The Refugee Leader disagreeing is a very unreasonable thing. If one must find a reason, it must be related to the government officials’ recent defeat in battle.
2 Twelve hundred refugees defeated the government officials’ regular soldiers and obtained the best armament. Their courage grew bigger. Not only have they started attacking the government officials’ caravans everywhere, but they also sent people to sneak into the Migratory Camp secretly, inciting the refugees here to rebel with them and live good days of being full, warmly clothed, and free from oppression.
2 These messages are the answers Doggy summed up after hearing too many people talk.
2 “Revolution? Uprising?” After hearing Doggy say it, Yun Ce was overjoyed. The first step in opening the people’s wisdom is to know that one’s surplus value is being exploited, to know what injustice is, and to know that fairness is never granted by others. All fairness and justice need to be created by one’s own iron fists.
3 In short, just one sentence—why do you treat me like this!
3 If one can witness a revolution, one can roughly judge whether this group of Han People has forgotten the phrase “Kings, marquises, generals, ministers—would they have anyone specially born to it!”
3 This phrase is why the Han People’s rivers and mountains seem unchanging but are actually constantly renewed. Every peasant uprising is a process of expelling the old and taking in the new, revitalizing the aging Great Han.
3 Therefore, rebellion and uprising are very important for Great Han people. Without these two words, Great Han would have decayed into who knows what long ago.
3 Doggy is a spirit good at summarizing and induction. Given him some more time and participation in more events, his thinking foundation should become more flexible and enriched. Yun Ce very much hopes that one day, this guy can appear before him in human form.
3 When returning to the sheep cart, Yun Ce saw a strong man wearing a leather hat talking to E Ji. After Yun Ce came over, that strong man cupped his hands and said: “Hero, Pei Chuan has come to pay respects.”
3 Yun Ce glanced at the leather boots under the strong man’s feet, then at the leather hat on his head. These are attire only a Gongshi can have. It’s said that in the entire Migratory Camp, only the Refugee Leader is a Gongshi.
3 Thinking of this, Yun Ce also cupped his hands and said: “I’ve met the Refugee Leader.”
3 Pei Chuan looked around and, seeing no one nearby, continued: “Liu Chang’an, great disaster is about to befall us.”
3 Yun Ce smiled and cupped his hands: “In that case, I will leave now.”
4 The smile on Pei Chuan’s face instantly disappeared, and he said coldly: “If you don’t join us, don’t think about leaving.”
4 Yun Ce continued smiling: “Six bailiffs are guarding against you alone. Where are they?”
4 Pei Chuan raised his hand: “Please, hero, come and see.”
4 Yun Ce followed Pei Chuan. E Ji tugged at his hem from behind. Pei Chuan smiled brightly: “Young couple can’t bear to separate for even a moment?”
4 Yun Ce smiled: “I always want her to feel that following me is not a loss.”
4 Pei Chuan laughed loudly: “In the end, we want everyone to have good days.”
4 Yun Ce smiled: “I hope so.”
4 While talking, they arrived at a courtyard fenced with shrub branches. There weren’t many people in the courtyard, but each was a robust man. Roughly counting, there were four people. This is very rare on this wasteland. Hekou Village, a village of nearly five hundred people, had not a single able-bodied adult male.
4 Pei Chuan opened the door of the thatched house. Yun Ce brought E Ji inside and saw six heads placed on the ground. The heads were all placed on the ground, their expressions still very vivid, with tears and snot mixing, chilling to the spine.
4 Only after looking closely did he realize that these six people were buried underground, with only their heads exposed above the soil.
5 Seeing that Yun Ce had seen the fate of the six bailiffs, Pei Chuan didn’t wait for Yun Ce to ask and said to the other four strong men: “Everyone here is a hero in the Migratory Camp. Now, with great events imminent and lives at stake, there’s no time for careful thought. Miss Hong is coming today. Let’s settle the matter first.”
5 After speaking, he picked up a cleaver from the nearby table and lightly slashed. One bailiff’s head was cut off. Perhaps because the body was buried in the soil and compressed, the blood spurted very high.
5 Guided by Pei Chuan, or rather as they had already discussed, a strong man nearby took the cleaver, let out a hey, and cut off the second bailiff’s head.
5 Then the third, fourth, fifth. When the bloodstained cleaver was handed to Yun Ce, the last bailiff had already been scared to death alive.
5 Yun Ce held the cleaver and said to Pei Chuan: “One link is missing in the middle.”
5 Pei Chuan said: “What link?”
5 “The link of promising me benefits. Without even this link, you expect me to risk my life?”
5 Pei Chuan said indifferently: “Your life and your woman’s life are the benefit. The Migratory Camp has already sided with Miss Hong and will all go with Miss Hong.”
5 Yun Ce shook his head: “I don’t want to.”
5 Pei Chuan said: “The government officials don’t know you don’t want to rebel.”
6 Yun Ce thought for a moment, dropped the cleaver, and said: “You’re right.”
6 Pei Chuan did not force Yun Ce to continue killing the already dead bailiff. Instead, he kicked the cleaver with his foot, and it spun and cut off that dead man’s head.
6 The armor and weapon left by the bailiffs were distributed by Pei Chuan to the other four. When it came to Yun Ce, he said: “Brother Liu, brother will keep your things for you first. I’ll give them to you when you need them.”
6 Without a blood pact, it’s normal that they don’t trust him. Yun Ce agreed and left the thatched house with E Ji.
6 They don’t trust him, and he doesn’t trust them. Yun Ce just wants to see what kind of heroic woman Miss Hong, who is about to arrive, really is.
