Chapter 81: Miss Hong, Constantly Evolving
Many people came to Mo Yan Ridge to seek wealth, but Yun Ce did not go to find Miss Hong, nor was there any need to; everyone was just coincidentally joining forces to make a fortune, and if they met, they might even fight over an uneven split of the loot.
Although the money hadn’t been obtained yet, there were cases of people fighting over an uneven split, and it made them seem very stupid.
Yun Ce knew he was relatively smart and wouldn’t do something like fighting over an uneven split in advance, but the people on Miss Hong’s side were all a bunch of poor people who were pissing blood from poverty, plus they must have been tricked here by Miss Hong and Pei Chuan, so their expectations for the imminent money were very high, making the probability of them doing something like that too great.
So, it was best if he just disappeared.
The rocks eroded by glaciers were strangely shaped everywhere, full of pits and holes; Yun Ce originally found a cave to hide in, planning to wait for the convoy escorting the imperial tribute to pass by, then try to kill that Dianjun Captain Zhao Ling; if he couldn’t kill him, he’d blend into the convoy, grab some treasure and stuff it into the Dragon Pearl, then run.
In the end, someone always eyed the pit he was hiding in, and under their mutual gaze, there was an indescribable awkwardness; Yun Ce still cared about his face in the end, so he gave the pit to them.
Because they made it very clear that it was the pit Miss Hong assigned to him, there was no choice; Yun Ce had to leave.
Yun Ce stood high up to survey the area, and he discovered that there were really a lot of people coming this time to rob the imperial tribute; looking at their appearances, many weren’t refugees or slaves at all; on the contrary, not only were their clothes bright and neat, but the weapons on their bodies alone weren’t something poor ghosts could afford.
Looking at the people filling the mountains and valleys, Yun Ce suddenly felt that something seemed off.
He thought about finding Miss Hong to discuss it, but ultimately dismissed the idea; everyone had finally gotten this opportunity to rob the imperial tribute, and if he said on the side that it might be a trap, he would likely be resented.
1 There wasn’t a single person visible on the opposite bank of the Gao Liang River; Yun Ce decided to ambush on the other side of the river—if he got counter-ambushed, he’d just watch a big show and go back to tell E Ji a bedtime story.
1 He found an unoccupied spot, crossed the river by stepping on the exposed stones in it; the land here was soft, with many towering big trees, so Yun Ce climbed one big tree, used a knife to chop some branches, and built a small platform at the tree fork.
1 Sitting on the platform, he finally saw the full view of Mo Yan Ridge, or rather, clearly saw the crowd coming to participate in the robbery; a rough count showed there were probably ten thousand people.
1 After counting the numbers, Yun Ce’s heart went cold; if he’d known so many people were participating in the robbery, Miss Hong’s mysterious act that night had been completely unnecessary.
1 Yun Ce understood that it was hard for poor people to get rich, but this wasn’t the way to do it either; with over ten thousand people knowing, could you still expect to keep it from the government officials?
1 He pulled out his telescope and desperately searched the crowd for Miss Hong and Pei Chuan, but found nothing.
1 Do what you can and leave the rest to fate; having done what he could, whether Miss Hong, Pei Chuan, and the others survived would depend on heaven’s will.
1 It was still early, and the government officials’ encirclement probably hadn’t formed yet; Yun Ce set up his small tent, pulled out a sleeping bag, crawled in, zipped it up, and prepared to get a good sleep—last night, he hadn’t slept well because E Ji had been bothering him.
1 He didn’t know when he woke up, crawled out of the tent, glanced at Mo Yan Ridge opposite, where there was no one, which made sense; by now, everyone should have hidden.
1 He glanced toward the entrance of Mo Yan Ridge and, seeing no sign of the imperial tribute, Yun Ce decided to make some food first.
2 The supplies in the Dragon Pearl were extremely abundant because whenever Yun Ce bought vegetables, meat, or anything good, he’d toss a portion into the Dragon Pearl; so today, he planned to eat hot pot to add some heat to his body.
2 The bright white sunlight shone on the ground, but it had no warmth; on a cloudless day like today, it wasn’t suitable to use firewood as fuel, so he pulled out smokeless fuel.
2 A small piece of this thing was enough for him to cook a hot pot meal.
2 The hot pot started boiling, red oil churning; a piece of mutton frozen just right fell into his hand, he held the meat in one hand and the knife in the other, slice slice slice, pink mutton slices fell into the pot one after another; no need for any dipping sauce, the red oil broth was great, the mutton rolled once in the boiling pot, curled up, clamped with chopsticks and straight into the mouth—though it burned the tongue, it was when the mutton was most delicious.
2 After downing a big piece of mutton, Yun Ce found some wild vegetables, alternating meat and veg, and finally simply soaked the flatbread E Ji had prepared for him into the pot too, waiting for the broth to boil.
2 A low horn sounded from the entrance of Mo Yan Ridge; he hurriedly picked up the telescope to look that way, thinking the government officials wouldn’t come, but unexpectedly, they really did, bringing five or six hundred carts loaded full of imperial tribute.
2 The escorting soldiers weren’t many, only about three thousand; the leading general was tall and sturdy, riding on the back of a white Thunder Smoke Beast like an iron tower; after zooming in the telescope, Yun Ce saw the burn scars on his face.
2 Looking at the flag behind him, Yun Ce confirmed that this man was Chuyun City’s Dianjun Captain—Zhao Ling.
2 Watching Zhao Ling lead the convoy into Mo Yan Ridge and stop in the middle section himself, Yun Ce knew this guy was absolutely a tough one; knowing there was an ambush yet still placing himself in the most dangerous spot showed he was very confident in what he had to do.
2 In contrast, on Miss Hong’s side, some guys eager for wealth had already started popping out.
3 “Liu Chang’an, Liu Chang’an.” Yun Ce heard someone calling him, looked down, and saw Miss Hong climbing the tree.
3 The way she climbed the tree was nice to watch, at least from Yun Ce’s angle looking down, her arching buttocks and using hands and feet to climb up was somewhat alluring.
3 Yun Ce packed up the tent and sleeping bag, and Miss Hong climbed onto the platform; seeing the hot pot just starting, she broke two tree branches as chopsticks and eagerly started eating.
3 Yun Ce turned to look at the tense Mo Yan Ridge, then at Miss Hong who was eating as if she wanted to hug the pot, and couldn’t help saying: “What exactly are you doing?”
3 Miss Hong stuffed a piece of cooked flatbread into her mouth and mumbled unclearly: “Not a bit of meat.”
3 Yun Ce coughed and said: “I’ve been having too much inner heat lately, eating vegetarian.”
3 Miss Hong was startled by the hot wild vegetables, swallowed them down, then glared at Yun Ce: “Our strength isn’t enough, so we can only spread the news as much as possible, hoping to attract Chuyun City’s heroes to join in the grand event.”
3 “Aren’t you worried that the people you’ve finally gathered will suffer another Sheyang City fate? I heard you lost over seven thousand people in Sheyang City.”
3 Miss Hong laughed: “To weed out the inferior and keep the elite, it must go through blood and fire.”
3 Yun Ce pointed to the crowd on the opposite shore: “Still in the process of weeding out the inferior and keeping the elite?”
4 Miss Hong shook her head: “This time, it’s to select brothers who can share weal and woe.”
4 “Didn’t you used to say that as long as they’re poor people, they’re your natural brothers?”
4 Miss Hong lifted her sleeve to wipe the grease from her mouth, sighed, and said: “I didn’t understand back then, but now I do; even among poor people, you need to discern carefully to find our true brothers; if you carefully select among the rich, you can find true brothers too.”
4 Yun Ce looked at Miss Hong in surprise, thought for a moment, and asked: “Pei Chuan shouldn’t have this level of insight.”
4 Miss Hong had a big appetite; she found two flatbreads in Yun Ce’s backpack, tore them up while the broth was still hot, soaked them in, and continued eating.
4 It seemed he’d touched on their secret.
4 Mo Yan Ridge suddenly erupted in noise; Yun Ce glanced over and withdrew his gaze—this bunch couldn’t even throw stones properly, dealing almost no damage to the army in the gorge; this imperial tribute robbery was probably doomed.
4 While waiting for the flatbread to soften, Miss Hong said again: “I used to look down on fat-brained rich people, thinking they were the root of us poor people’s suffering.
4 Now, I don’t see it that way; whether poor or rich, there are our partners in between; it’s just that among poor people, because they’re poor, there are naturally more such partners.
4 But their will isn’t firm; once our rebellion achieves some success, like occupying some cities, they’ll forget why they rebelled and just think about getting rich quick.
5 In Pingyuan City, the way they treated poor people and slaves who didn’t join the rebellion was even more vicious than how the rich exploited them before.
5 Liu Chang’an, I also understand now why you didn’t want to join us; it was I who ruined Pingyuan City—do you know, Pingyuan City has now become a dead city.
5 Rich people are hateful, but among them, there are also those who sympathize with us; if we can win over that group, their will to rebel will be even firmer than the poor people’s.
5 Liu Chang’an, I know you look down on us, think we’re a bunch of brainless idiots, think we’ll eventually be suppressed and exterminated by the government officials.
5 Perhaps that’s our destined fate, but you forgot one thing: we’re human, we’ll learn from failures, sum up experiences and lessons, and we’ll persistently learn; no one is born knowing everything.
5 Look at the scene before you: we didn’t deploy a single person, but we’ve already stirred up civil strife in Chuyun City; look at these people—they’re the main contributors to this batch of tribute, and they want to take back the wealth that belongs to them; for that, they’re willing to risk their lives.”
5 Yun Ce said in surprise: “You mean, the people here are all Chuyun City’s wealthy?”
5 Miss Hong opened her mouth, revealing a mouth of white teeth: “Chuyun City’s City Lord Pang Bei and Inspector Han Du appear to be irreconcilable on the surface, but in reality, they’ve long been colluding and working together wickedly.
5 They told the people of Chuyun Prefecture that the Emperor demands one hundred million in tribute this year, fifty percent more than before; to lighten the burden on local wealthy households, they decided that Chuyun Prefecture’s city lords and top wealthy households would cover fifty percent of the total, with the rest borne by the wealthy and free citizens.
5 For this, those wealthy and free citizens were grateful; after all, though they were affluent, there were few of them, and by past contribution amounts, the city lords and top wealthy should only have covered twenty percent.”
6 Seeing Miss Hong not continuing, Yun Ce sighed: “Those city lords and top wealthy households weren’t even willing to cover twenty percent this year.”
