Chapter 37: Heaven Takes Care Of Newbies
Pei Chuan had the refugees from the migratory camp line up in a long queue, with women and children at the front, preparing to line up to enter Pingyuan City.
Yun Ce and E Ji were naturally among them, though Yun Ce and E Ji both thought they were rebels at this moment, but the soldiers guarding the city didn’t think so; they happily searched the women, fearing they might bring dangerous items into the city.
They searched the women very thoroughly; for men carrying sharp blades, if they had no green money or other benefits, they would beat and kick them to drive them into the city.
In extreme shock, Yun Ce and E Ji, wearing masks and driving the sheep cart, entered Pingyuan City; Yun Ce even thought this might be a dream, so he drove the sheep cart out the other side and then back in, only to realize it was a reality as real as it could be.
Once inside the city, Yun Ce saw Miss Hong squatting in a corner of the city wall, wearing a yi tree cloak; Miss Hong also saw Yun Ce and bared a mouthful of big white teeth, smiling at her.
Yun Ce drove the sheep cart to Miss Hong’s side and handed her a thin pancake, saying: “How did you do it?”
Miss Hong tore at the flatbread while eating and said: “A large group of free people entered the city to sell themselves as slaves; the noble lords are delighted about it.”
Yun Ce looked back at the crowded city gate and shook his head, saying: “There are too many people entering the city; there will surely be some discerning people among them.”
Miss Hong finished the flatbread, pulled up her cloak to cover her head, and said indifferently: “The moment they discover it is the timing for us to seize the city.”
“You are the leader; what are you doing at the city gate? You should be commanding from the center, like sending who to seize the city lord’s mansion, who to the barracks, who to seize the granary, who to protect the bamboo slips, wooden slips, and silk manuscripts I need.”
1 “No need. Pingyuan City has three tunes stationed, totaling 1,800 men, led by a Captain Who Breaks the Barbarians. This afternoon, the Captain Who Breaks the Barbarians took his subordinates to the slave market to select slaves for them; I sent quite a few sturdy slaves for them to choose…”
1 Hearing Miss Hong say this, Yun Ce sighed and said: “It’s not just the Captain Who Breaks the Barbarians who went, right?”
1 Miss Hong nodded, suppressing her laughter, and said: “All the wealthy households in the city went, including Pingyuan City’s city lord Zhang Yaliang.”
1 Yun Ce looked at the refugees crowding the streets and said: “I feel my presence is somewhat superfluous.”
1 Miss Hong reached out, snatched the dry rations basket E Ji had prepared, held it in her hand, and said to Yun Ce: “Assassinating experts amid the chaos should excite you.”
1 E Ji, robbed of her food, leaped like a tiger onto Miss Hong’s back, tugging at the cloak and shouting: “Give me back my dry rations.”
1 Miss Hong just shook her body, flinging E Ji off, and even pushed E Ji’s buttocks in mid-air, sending this girl who didn’t want to take a loss flying toward Yun Ce.
1 “Watch your beauty. In this chaos of over ten thousand people, the city won’t quiet down for two or three days.”
1 Yun Ce held E Ji and watched Miss Hong weave through the crowd and disappear after a few turns.
1 He placed E Ji on the cart bed; she stomped her feet and said: “She took the dry rations; what do we eat?”
2 “Don’t worry; we have plenty of food.”
2 “Where does the food come from? We’re running low on grain for fodder.”
2 Amid E Ji’s nagging complaints, Yun Ce drove the sheep cart along the curved avenue; after a few turns, a straight main road appeared on the side, and at the end of the road was another city gate.
2 Seeing this, Yun Ce couldn’t help but smile: a three-li inner city, seven-li outer city—this Han people’s architectural style was just like ancient China’s.
2 The city lord was no wine sack or rice bag; he allowed refugees into the outer city but kept the inner city’s gate tightly shut. If chaos broke out in the outer city, the guards could close the city gate, leaving the rebels in the outer city with no way out under attack from both sides.
2 Yun Ce shook his head and drove the sheep cart toward the inner city; if they could enter the inner city, that was where the essence of the entire city lay.
2 He also felt that Miss Hong and the true main force of the rebels might have already entered the inner city.
2 The outer city was like a huge haystack; a single spark would ignite a massive fire. Group riots were hard to control in terms of targets; only thorough, absolute chaos.
2 At the inner city gate, Yun Ce discovered that traffic to the inner city wasn’t cut off; it just required payment—one green money per person, plus the horse carriage, totaling five green money.
2 This was almost all of E Ji’s possessions; though extremely reluctant, she still pulled a small pocket from her bosom, poured out all five green money inside, and handed them to the gate soldier.
3 Yun Ce drove the sheep cart into the inner city; even after going a long way, E Ji was still watching the soldier toss and play with her original five green money.
3 The inner city and outer city were almost two worlds: one chaotic like a cattle pen, the other quiet with clean yellow sand roads; even the shop assistants inside were more handsome than those in the outer city.
3 Though Yun Ce wore unbleached coarse cloth clothes, his demeanor was even more proud than the scions of noble families in big cities.
3 This pride wasn’t overbearing but came from his clean white collar, the fair and strong arms under rolled-up sleeves, the rough but top-quality clothes, the refined brows and eyes slightly weathered, and above all, his smile that seemed warm yet kept people at a distance…
3 Seeing Yun Ce dismount the horse carriage and prepare to enter the shop, the shop assistant immediately bowed and approached with a smiling salute: “Young master, would you like to enter the guesthouse to rest?”
3 Yun Ce looked up at the “guesthouse” sign above the door lintel, smiled and nodded at the shop assistant, and strode straight into the guesthouse. An old man emerged from behind the counter, saluted, and said: “Young master, what are your orders?”
3 Yun Ce smilingly took out the nugget of gold from his bosom and placed it in the old man’s hand without speaking.
3 Seeing the old man show no doubt but hold the nugget of gold with both hands, biting, examining, and even smelling it, Yun Ce knew this thing must be very valuable in the Great Han.
3 “This is superior currency; there’s an exchange office on the street.”
3 “There are too many refugees outside; had to stay in the guesthouse, and paper money isn’t convenient on hand; only this item left.”
4 The old man naturally understood the unspoken meaning in Yun Ce’s words; he called the shop assistant to take the horse carriage reins to the backyard and summoned a maidservant to lead Yun Ce to the guesthouse room.
4 E Ji, worried the shop assistant would steal her meat and grain, decisively followed to the backyard. Yun Ce entered the backyard and took a liking to a room with a flowering yi tree at the door; without waiting for the maidservant, he pushed open the door and went in.
4 The room’s furnishings were very simple: a bed, a low table, a screen, two cushions; on the low table was an oil lamp, nothing else.
4 After seeing the room’s setup, the temperature in Yun Ce’s heart dropped further; wildmen in remote areas had simple living—that was one thing—but he hadn’t expected a guesthouse in a city’s inner city to be so rudimentary; it was truly disheartening.
4 Yun Ce knelt cross-legged on the cushion, resting his arms on the low table in worry, while E Ji bossed the shop assistant around, moving everything from the sheep cart to the guesthouse, including the meat jar E Ji treasured as her life, which weighed over a hundred jin.
4 The old man returned, bringing Yun Ce a large money bag; the green money inside jingled with the old man’s steps.
4 “Young master’s superior currency is of excellent quality; it exchanged for 26,400 money.”
4 Yun Ce poured the money onto the low table—a big pile; he picked up a coin from the pile that differed in thickness, weight, and color from ordinary green money, and looked at the old man in confusion.
4 “One worth a thousand money, also known as heavy treasure.”
4 Yun Ce flicked the coin with his finger; the pale blue-green coin emitted a buzzing long tone. Then Yun Ce tossed the money onto the low table, signaling the old man to take the shop’s payment.
5 The old man carefully counted out twenty-four green money from the pile, bowed, and withdrew; then E Ji pounced like a fierce tiger, hugging the pile of money with both arms, her soul drifting to the ninth heaven.
5 At this time, dusk was gradually falling; the maidservant brought food, along with a wine pot and two wine cups; she curtsied to Yun Ce and left.
5 Yun Ce glanced at the food, felt no appetite, took off his shoes, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes to rest.
5 He saw clearly: the two pottery bowls held cooked wheat grains, the legendary wheat rice—the kind Yuan Shu at the end of Eastern Han would rather starve than eat in his desperate straits.
5 A large bowl of dark, slightly smelly sauce; a piece of half-cooked meat that couldn’t be identified from appearance; a plate of cooked vegetables—even with Yun Ce’s meager Han Dynasty vegetable knowledge, he didn’t know what they were.
5 Finally, a basin of soup with a fish floating in it…
5 The cooked wheat rice was naturally not as refined as yi tree starch; as for the half-cooked meat, assuming it was beast meat, Yun Ce still wouldn’t eat it—after all, this was Great Han era; eating human flesh while traveling would be bad.
5 As for that bowl of fish soup, Yun Ce felt full just looking at it; the Great Han era was still a consistent food desert, far worse than Hangzhou.
5 E Ji took one bite of wheat rice, puffed her cheeks, and mumbled to Yun Ce: “Why don’t they eat grain for fodder? Grain for fodder is so tasty.”
5 Yun Ce listened sideways to the noises outside while saying: “Wildmen’s food might not appeal to them.”
6 E Ji took another bite of boiled greens, barely swallowed, and said to Yun Ce: “Not as good as creeping grass, nor as good as freshly grown hook thorns.”
6 This time, Yun Ce didn’t answer her.
6 “The meat is pretty good, just has a pissy smell.”
6 “Oh, there’s fish too; I like fish—ugh, it’s bitter.”
6 Yun Ce listened intently for half an hour; E Ji complained for half an hour; he didn’t catch the final summary, but it was probably that people who could make tasty meat so bad didn’t need mouths.
6 E Ji, exhausted from hurrying all day, washed up and collapsed on the bed to sleep; she didn’t use the guesthouse’s animal hide blanket but took her beloved sleeping bag from a big bag, fluffed it, invited Yun Ce to sleep together unsuccessfully, then took off her outer clothes, grumbled as she crawled in, zipped it up, blinked at Yun Ce under the lamp, and seeing him ignore her, huffed and slept.
6 On the low table were a long-handled bow, a crossbow, a exquisite saber unfit for this era; Yun Ce, originally in Great Han attire, had changed into his stab-proof suit—this was much better than armor and lighter.
6 Looking down at Doggy wriggling on his wristband, he lowered his voice: “The first real-participation experience activity of the bottom peasants’ uprising has begun.”
6 As Yun Ce’s words fell, he saw a huge fire suddenly rise outside the window, followed by someone shouting that fire had broken out.
6 Yun Ce slung the long-handled bow on his back, inserted the sheathed saber into his belt, took a bag of arrows, and left the strung crossbow and crossbow bolts on the low table.
7 After E Ji’s breathing steadied, he opened the window, jumped out, and climbed onto the roof.
7 Facing the night wind, Yun Ce ran swiftly across the rooftops; this time he decided on a quick battle, to return before the riot spread to the guesthouse.
