Chapter 78: Formidable Vitality
Yun Ce was still very interested in making money. Recently staying in Chuyun City, all in all he had only earned thirty-five taels of gold. This involved staying in a guesthouse and feeding more than a dozen people. Feng An and Liang Kun even had to use his money to help him build connections. Seeing money flowing out like water, E Ji had long issued an order for frugality.
All day long drinking bean porridge, gnawing flatbread, eating wild vegetables, Yun Ce had already had enough.
Now hearing Miss Hong ask if he wanted to get rich, he naturally did.
“How? Do you have the ability to stir up chaos in Chuyun City?”
“Don’t always think about looting while taking advantage of the fire. We don’t have the ability to take down Chuyun City.”
Upon hearing he couldn’t take advantage of the chaos to rob the rich, Yun Ce lost interest in the wealth Miss Hong mentioned.
“You know that Chuyun Prefecture is a protectorate prefecture, right?”
“I know, so what?”
“A protectorate prefecture has to pay tribute to the Great Han Emperor every ten years. This tribute is enormously large. We want to intercept it halfway. That way, we’ll have money to raise horses, forge weapons…”
“Wait, you’ve only said how you all get rich. How do I get rich?” For robbing the imperial tribute, Yun Ce had no psychological barriers at all, and even felt a bit excited. After all, it was something the Water Margin heroes had done, and he wanted to do it too.
1 “You are responsible for ambushing and killing Dianjun Captain Zhao Ling. Once Zhao Ling is dead, you can pick one cart to take away.”
1 “Time, location!”
1 “Six days later, Mo Yan Ridge.”
1 When Yun Ce returned to his room, he found his bed full of little maids, leaving him barely two feet of space to sleep?
1 Although they all wanted to sleep with a man as warm as the stove E Ji sister had mentioned, with heavy snow today and such cold weather, unfortunately, that person had left.
1 Yun Ce entered Feng An and Liang Kun’s room, pushed the two of them inward, then lay straight down on the edge of the big bed. As he prepared to sleep, he heard Feng An say: “I saw Miss Hong.”
1 Yun Ce smiled and said: “They plan to rob the tribute from Chuyun Prefecture to the emperor at Mo Yan Ridge and want me to kill someone.”
1 “Who?”
1 “Chuyun Prefecture Dianjun Captain Zhao Ling!”
1 Upon hearing this, Feng An immediately said to Liang Kun: “Haven’t you memorized the officials’ roster?”
2 Liang Kun closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and said: “Dianjun Captain Zhao Ling, eight feet tall, thick eyebrows and big eyes, burn scar on his left cheek. It’s said he got it during battle in the Northern Territory, though some think it’s from a branding punishment. To cover the inked character, he ruthlessly burned his face with charcoal fire, leaving the scar.
2 Rumor has it this man was promoted from obscurity by Inspector Han Du, rising from a lowly border soldier step by step to his current position as Dianjun Captain, leaving a trail of blood with every step. He is one of the fiercest generals in Chuyun Prefecture. Although he has never formally fought Tiger Guards Captain Zhou Chengming, people in Chuyun City generally agree they are the fiercest generals in Chuyun Prefecture.”
2 Yun Ce listened, gripped his blanket tightly, and said: “Sleep.”
2 Feng An sighed and said: “You shouldn’t take risks right now.”
2 Yun Ce said softly: “When you have nothing, your life is meant to be risked.”
2 Feng An shut his mouth, but he seemed unable to sleep. All night, Yun Ce could hear him tossing and turning.
2 When Yun Ce was away, E Ji always got up very early. When Yun Ce woke up, she had already made breakfast and packed the things onto four sheep carts, waiting for the three of them to finish eating before setting off immediately for their posts at the Royal Hunting Ground.
2 The three hurriedly drank their porridge. When going out, they found they couldn’t leave. Chuyun City streets were full of crowds seeing off loved ones. After Feng An went out to inquire and returned to tell Yun Ce, it turned out today was exactly when the Tiger Guards were rotating to the north, with streets full of people seeing off their family members.
2 Yun Ce immediately retreated back to the guesthouse, planning to set off after they left.
2 Zhang Min pushed open the gate and walked in, eyeing the four sheep carts in the courtyard ready for departure, then looking at Yun Ce: “No matter how well I treat you, you still don’t want to be with me, right?”
3 Yun Ce smiled and said: “As you can see, the people around me are either women and children or scholars who can’t lift a hand or shoulder a burden. If I fail, you can imagine their fate.”
3 “You’d rather go to a desolate place like the Royal Hunting Ground than fight for your future?”
3 Yun Ce shook his head: “Everything I have now was exchanged with my heart. I can’t afford to gamble it away casually.”
3 Zhang Min sighed: “You’d rather lie low than join us. It seems you never truly respected us from beginning to end.”
3 Yun Ce sneered: “Why should I risk everyone’s lives for a group that can’t even protect soap profits? Your chances of losing are too high.”
3 Zhang Min was ultimately a straightforward person. Even after Yun Ce dragged her bottom line into the sunlight, she said no more, just smiling: “I wish you a bright future.”
3 Yun Ce said: “If you have leisure, please come to the Royal Hunting Ground for a meal. I can make lots and lots of food. I think you’ll like it.”
3 Hearing Yun Ce say this, E Ji quickly asked Feng An: “Young Master is reluctant to part with that woman?”
3 Feng An decisively shook his head: “Your Young Master is just reluctant to part with the various high-level news that woman can give him.”
3 Hearing Feng An’s words, E Ji looked up and saw Zhang Min seeming reluctant to part with her Young Master, so she said to Liang Kun: “Is it really like that?”
4 Liang Kun replied: “As long as this woman has value, he will treat her very well.”
4 “What about me?”
4 Feng An gave E Ji a look: “You are his family’s Young Lord.”
4 Even if reluctant, once the military order was issued, the army set off along the main road out of Chuyun City. The procession was very long, with cavalry and convoys stretching three li.
4 Once the army left the city, Yun Ce took his whole family and left the guesthouse where they had lived for over a month. E Ji really wanted the furnishings in the rooms, but the guesthouse owner wouldn’t give them, only wanting to sell them at a high price.
4 E Ji and the group of women were truly reluctant to leave Chuyun City. This had to do with women’s innate desire for stability, not to mention their recent experiences hadn’t been good, so it was normal to linger a bit.
4 Ten li out of Chuyun City, the city walls faded over the horizon, people grew scarce, and with the vast wasteland of vast wilderness close at hand, E Ji cheered up. At least, that woman Zhang Min had no fortune to follow Young Master to take up his post at the Royal Hunting Ground.
4 Yun Ce rode his red date horse ahead scouting. Suddenly, its huge hoof stepped on a dark, muddy human-shaped object. Yun Ce dismounted, washed the mud person’s face with water from his water flask, and discovered it was Peng Zeng, whom Zhou Chengming had thrown into the mud pit.
4 Yun Ce looked back along the path and saw some crawling tracks. Peng Zeng’s vitality was undeniably strong. To escape the desperation of being buried in heavy snow in Chuyun City, he had crawled over ten li with six broken bones.
4 Yun Ce pondered for a moment, decided to first help Peng Zeng reduce his fever, dragged him along searching for a long time, and found a clear stream not yet frozen. Seeing his cracked lips, he threw him into the stream.
5 Watching Peng Zeng gulp down ice water, Yun Ce couldn’t help praising aloud. In his near-comatose state, he could even catch fish barehanded and knew to bring it to his mouth to tear and eat.
5 “Are everyone’s lives here this resilient?”
5 Yun Ce asked Liang Kun, who had caught up.
5 Liang Kun didn’t know how to answer; he was stunned by the scene.
5 Seeing the clear stream water wash the filth off Peng Zeng, Yun Ce felt someone with wild grass-like vitality shouldn’t die so obscurely. He fished him out of the stream, had Feng An and Liang Kun help change him into dry, warm clothes, fed him some cold leftover rice porridge, then threw him onto the last cargo cart to live or die on his own.
5 Along the way, Yun Ce could faintly hear cries of—beast.
5 Two hundred li on the main road, without stops along the way, could reach the Royal Hunting Ground an hour after dark. Yun Ce anticipated that taking over the Royal Hunting Ground wouldn’t be easy, so an hour before dark, he set up camp.
5 This way, tomorrow morning, he could easily reach the Royal Hunting Ground with enough time to handle the filthy matters there.
5 Sixty years was enough for a local tyrant to grow in the Royal Hunting Ground. The previous three chief managers died without injustice. Thinking that holding the Chief Manager’s appointment letter made you truly the all-encompassing Chief Manager?
5 A local tyrant had ten thousand ways to make you, the Chief Manager, die without a burial place.
6 In terms of power structures, a local tyrant was like an incurable, irremovable psoriasis. Keeping it was unsightly; removing it exposed a bloody wound, even more unsightly.
6 Yun Ce decided to implement the military governance method taught by Yun Linchuan.
6 Before, when listening to Yun Linchuan lecture, he thought the old guy was a pervert. How could someone full of hatred toward you be educated into your most loyal, command-executing subordinate?
6 The camp was easy to set up. Four sheep carts formed a square enclosure. Curtains covered the gaps under the carts to block wind. Finally, hanging the canopy Yun Ce had given E Ji on the roof turned the wilderness into a shelter from wind and rain.
6 Food always tastes good outdoors. E Ji simply cooked some bean porridge, added salted meat and dried vegetables, and hooked everyone’s appetite.
6 With a thud, something fell from a sheep cart. As Yun Ce set down his rice bowl to check, Peng Zeng crawled out from under the cart, tearing a big hole in the curtain.
6 His brain likely had little consciousness left, as his crawling target was the steaming porridge pot. Yun Ce marveled that even pressing his hand on burning charcoal, he didn’t cry out; his target remained the pot.
6 Yun Ce placed his porridge bowl in his path. Peng Zeng’s nose twitched, hands decisively grabbed the large bowl, and he buried his head in it, licking like a wild beast.
