Chapter 36: Only Good People Can Do Evil
After having a fairly in-depth conversation with Miss Hong by the charcoal fire, Yun Ce regretfully felt that this girl was born on the wrong planet and in the wrong era. She should have been born on Earth amid raging war, then become Yun Linchuan’s lover, spouse, comrade-in-arms, comrade… Their three views were simply too compatible.
Yun Linchuan was a man who had been to school. The place where he studied was called Yanjing University, and he always had the Yanjing school motto on his lips—”Freedom through truth in service.” In the end, it was he who drove his principal out of the country.
The place called Wolf Paw Water shaped Yun Linchuan’s wolf-like personality. The yellow sands there draped him in a heavy layer of earthy aura, and Yanjing University plated a layer of gold light over his earth layer.
He could sit on the field ridge with old farmers, drinking sour pulp water and discussing mulberry and hemp. He could also don battle garb to charge into formation, or wear a proper western suit to trade foreign tongues and coffee with foreigners. Every state was remarkably fitting, making it impossible to attribute these states to one person.
Yun Ce felt that as long as Miss Hong was given some famous teachers and some opportunities, she could absolutely transform into someone like Yun Linchuan. Because when Yun Ce offered a bit of beneficial advice, she didn’t doubt or hesitate; she directly issued the horn call, and groups of people left the migratory camp overnight.
“What makes you trust me so much?” Yun Ce saw many people riding sheep away and curiously asked Miss Hong.
“You’re here, but those people have already gone to Pingyuan City.”
“Mm, not bad. A good sense of time difference. That doesn’t prove anything. I could send someone ahead of you to relay the news back.”
“You can’t fool me. The moment you heard I was going to break Pingyuan City, you seemed even more excited than I was. Do you have a grudge against someone in Pingyuan City?”
“No, I just simply want to see whether the rebel army will massacre the city or open granaries and distribute food after breaking the city.”
1 Miss Hong thought for a moment and said, “The merits and drawbacks are equal. What do you think?”
1 Yun Ce looked at Miss Hong’s face for a moment, thinking this woman would directly say to open granaries and distribute food. He hadn’t expected her to have considered massacring the city as well.
1 Miss Hong cautiously said, “Massacring the city can establish military might; opening granaries and distributing food can win over hearts. Establishing military might is only temporary; winning over hearts is also only temporary. Do you have a good strategy to teach me?”
1 Yun Ce straightened his body, coughed, and said, “You’re from the poor people. The poor people are your foundation. Everything you do must stand on the side of the poor people, especially in the initial stage. If you win the hearts of the poor people, you’ll have an endless army and inexhaustible provisions. Even this world, you can contend for.”
1 Miss Hong thought for a moment and said, “When the army breaks a city, it’s impossible not to take some benefits. If you can’t touch the wealth of the poor people, do you mean to take the wealth of the rich people to compensate for the merit of the army breaking the city?”
1 Yun Ce smiled and said, “The people of the world have long hoped to equalize the rich and poor. Miss Hong might as well use this as the horn call to summon all the discontented in the world to join.”
1 Seeing Yun Ce put on the newly made mask, Miss Hong pondered for a moment and said, “Wearing a Nuowu Dance mask, you don’t plan to join us?”
1 Yun Ce laughed heartily: “I’m just a curious onlooker. Tomorrow when attacking the city, I will certainly give it my all. Once the city is broken, I’ll take what I want and be on my way, continuing to seek the spectacles I want to see.”
1 Miss Hong stood up, walked two steps toward the outside, stopped, turned back to look at Yun Ce, and said, “Liu Chang’an’s name is fake too, right?”
1 Holding up the mask, Yun Ce smiled: “When out and about, identities are what one gives oneself. Just treat me as Liu Chang’an. After the battle for Pingyuan City, you and I have no further ties. If we meet again in the rivers and lakes, we start anew.”
2 After finishing talking with Yun Ce, Miss Hong rode off on a sheep. The person whose word counted in the migratory camp once again became Pei Chuan. Before dawn, he was already drumming to summon everyone, using the reason of relocating the camp to a place rich in resources to forage. The entire camp pulled up stakes.
2 Yun Ce and E Ji also got up. After hurriedly eating breakfast, they drove the sheep cart following the main force in migration. Only this time, Yun Ce and E Ji wore masks on their faces—one a personified monkey, the other a smiling pig.
2 There were many scouts on the wasteland, and the scouts were often full of curiosity toward the large migrating group.
2 Pei Chuan was a very insidious man. He had his subordinates wear the clothes of dead bailiffs and walk at the very front, making those lone scouts think this was a normal migratory camp seeking foraging grounds. When they came forward to inquire, they were met with a barrage of arrows or a flurry of blades, taking out the scouts.
2 If they encountered a team of scouts, he would enthusiastically invite this group of people who had been exposed to wind and dew on the wasteland for a long time to come drink some hot water and eat a hot meal. Once these people relaxed their guard, they would swarm up and dismember them.
2 Inevitably, they encountered some accidents along the way. Once, they underestimated a big-bearded scout, thinking the man trapped in their encirclement was already meat on the chopping block. Unexpectedly, he had high martial art skills—not only did he not get hacked to death by Pei Chuan’s arranged men, but he hacked several of them to death. If not for Yun Ce’s divine arrow killing him at the critical moment, he would have escaped.
2 All the scouts were killed right in front of the people in the migratory camp. Many sturdy men in the migratory camp participated in the killing. At first, they thought they were robbers. By the time they realized they had killed scouts, it was too late.
2 A few people didn’t want to rebel and fled the migratory camp with their families, but in the end Pei Chuan led men to chase them down and kill them one by one on this wasteland.
2 After killing several dozen people, the originally cheerful procession fell silent. Some who wanted to escape no longer thought of running; they lowered their heads and hurried along with their families.
2 Along the way, Yun Ce only killed one person. For the rest of the time, he observed the people in the migratory camp. A motley crowd was indeed a motley crowd. Pei Chuan, the strongest in the migratory camp, teamed up with six or seven medium-strength people, making this group of two or three thousand turn chaotically with their baton.
3 In fact, they had the opportunity to break away from this group, but there was no one daring to raise their arm and call out. Without such a person appearing, their future was pitch black.
3 This was a rebel army doomed to extinction. After witnessing that battle on the water shoals, Yun Ce had clearly known that the army led by Miss Hong wouldn’t last long.
3 When the real army came, their demise would be only natural.
3 Of course, accidents might occur, like suddenly producing a divine commander in the rebel army ranks, or suddenly a meteor falling from the sky…
3 Yun Ce didn’t think this group would produce a powerful instructor or a great magician like Liu Xiu.
3 In five thousand years of Chinese history, the failure of rebel armies was normal; success was the anomaly.
3 Yun Ce had no interest in speculating on these people’s fate. After all, his own two hundred lads had left home, and fewer than twenty survived. Since these people wanted to uprising, they should bear the consequences of uprising. Of course, they could also enjoy the rich fruit brought by the uprising.
3 E Ji was baking flatbread on the sheep cart—those thin pancakes baked in the charcoal fire. Yun Ce told her to prepare more. After this battle was over, they would run, keep running, at least faster than the aid-seeking messenger from Pingyuan City.
3 If they couldn’t outrun the aid-seeking messenger, Yun Ce planned to disguise himself and E Ji as refugees who had fled from Pingyuan City.
3 Ever since learning that this world still had top-tier cities like Chang’an and Luoyang, Yun Ce wanted to go see them. He didn’t want to trap himself on the wasteland as a wildman.
4 E Ji was burned by the flatbread and giggled. When it landed in Yun Ce’s hand, this golden-brown flatbread was still scalding hot, but his hand seemed to feel no such temperature. He tore the flatbread in half and gave it to E Ji.
4 Before baking the flatbread, salt and some unknown aromatic herb had been added inside. No need for side dishes; the flavor of the flatbread alone was plenty good.
4 After leaving Hekou Village, E Ji’s personality had become increasingly lively, finally showing a bit of a fifteen-year-old young girl’s demeanor. The strength, independence, and resilience forged from living alone in Hekou Village had completely dissipated in Yun Ce’s indulgence of her.
4 Yun Ce knew he wasn’t a good person—not only was he not, the entire Yun Clan had no good people. Or rather, no one who played politics was a good person.
4 A politician’s goal was to keep climbing upward. Climbing upward was fate, duty, the goal of life unending and struggle unending, and more, the way to obtain maximum freedom.
4 Humanity had pursued this ultimate freedom since ancient times. Unfortunately, humanity’s ultimate freedom was the emperor. There were still many emperors who wanted to pursue freedom surpassing the emperor’s, seeking longevity or becoming an immortal. In the end, the result of this excessive pursuit of freedom was to become a laughingstock for a thousand autumns.
4 A venomous dragon was growing in Yun Ce’s heart. Freed from Earth’s laws and moral constraints, Yun Ce felt ultimate freedom here. But he was rational, clearly knowing that ultimate freedom was followed by destruction.
4 To keep himself from excessive freedom, he had to bring E Ji along. Even if he didn’t care about others’ eyes when doing bad things, he still had to somewhat consider E Ji’s feelings. In this way, it made him seem not so bad.
4 Only good people have the qualification to do evil. This was said by Yun Linchuan, a summary from his decades in high positions. Yun Ce decided to follow Yun Linchuan’s summarized political wisdom and press on, becoming a good person qualified to do evil.
4 If one got used to this world’s time, then the long daylight was no longer hard to endure. Pei Chuan killed two more scouts. This time, he didn’t use stratagems to lure and deceive, but led men smiling and chattering right up to them, then swung knives together, hacking the two scouts to death.
5 When Yun Ce’s sheep cart passed the two corpses, he noticed that one guy’s eyes weren’t even closed.
5 Turning past a forest, Pingyuan City was right before their eyes. Looking at the towering and majestic city walls ahead, Yun Ce was quite worried for Miss Hong. Breaking such a city from the outside was too difficult.
