Chapter 91: War Comes, Family Flees First
“A great war?” Steward Qiu was so shocked that his eyeballs nearly popped out. Since Chuyun City was completed until now, over five hundred years had passed, and this was the first time hearing that a great battle would erupt inside this mighty fortress.
“How is it impossible? The City Lord and the Inspector must raise ten million in tribute. How could those in the city who have already paid once pay such a huge sum again?
They were already at daggers drawn, only maintaining a fragile balance out of fear of the Great Han army entering. Today upon entering the city, I learned that the City Lord and the Inspector control the distribution of all materials in the entire city. They intend to force those people to empty their coffers using grain and materials to fill this massive tribute pit.
Watch, the Doggy outside the city have even elected a Doggy King because food is so abundant. Heaven knows how many people have died in this great city now.
Just looking at the mountain of goods piled in the warehouses shows that the City Lord and the Inspector haven’t opened the markets for a long time. Do you think those starving mad people won’t do anything.”
After hearing Yun Ce’s words, Steward Qiu’s face turned whiter than paper. He jumped onto a sheep pulling a cart and madly dashed toward the city.
Yun Ce led the convoy to the City Gate. Three hours ago, it had been deserted with barely anyone around, but now it was bustling with noise and crowds.
Yun Ce originally wanted to control the scale a bit, but found that the largest number were the old, weak, women, and children. When passing a sheep cart, a baby held by a young woman on the cart grinned at him with its toothless mouth and even reached out to grab his hair.
The young woman had no time to care what her child was doing; she kept crying while clutching a young scholar’s hand, as if parting in life and death.
Yun Ce held the little baby’s chubby hand and babbled baby talk with it for a while. The little baby began tugging at the young woman’s collar with its hand. It seemed the little one thought their chat was pleasant and wanted to invite him to eat together. Yun Ce let go of the hand, pushed through the crowd to find Old Cao.
1 Old Cao was surrounded by a group of people, sweating profusely as he explained to them. It looked like he was talking about having their families go to the Royal Hunting Ground to avoid the war.
1 Time was too short. Old Cao had only greeted these people, and they impatiently sent their families over. It showed that Old Cao’s character was usually very good.
1 Seeing Yun Ce arrive, Old Cao grabbed his hand, eyes filled with tears, and said: “Brother Liu, brother here really has no choice but to entrust my old mother, wife, and children to you. As long as I, Old Cao, survive the war, you will be my own brother.”
1 Yun Ce nodded seriously and said: “I will certainly not fail Brother Cao’s trust. But with so many people entering the Royal Hunting Ground, they will inevitably have to stay in the palace grounds. This violates the rules. If those above investigate, please, brothers, help mediate a lot.”
1 A bearded military officer stepped forward, slapped a gold ingot into Yun Ce’s hand, gripped his hand, and said: “That Hunting Palace has had no one since it was built. Use it with peace of mind. Even if it’s burned down afterward, we will consider it a natural disaster. We absolutely won’t let brother be in trouble.”
1 Yun Ce twisted his wrist, and the heavy gold ingot went into Yun Ce’s sleeve. Seeing Yun Ce’s adept skill at accepting bribes, the bearded military officer’s gaze toward Yun Ce immediately gained several points of trust—the kind only one’s own people have.
1 Yun Ce grabbed Old Cao’s hand again and said: “I plan to arrange everyone to live in the Hunting Palace, then close the Hunting Palace gate, making it a world of its own inside.
1 However, please have Brother Cao select a steward from these family members. Whenever dealings are needed, brother will only deal with him. As for housing allocation, clothing and food arrangements, and other such matters inside the Hunting Palace, I won’t get involved.”
1 Tears came to Old Cao’s eyes again. He deeply bowed to Yun Ce, wiped his tears, and went to arrange these matters.
1 Old Cao’s brotherly affection was expressed too intensely, but there was no choice. From meeting until now, not even four hours had passed. Wanting to entrust such a life-and-death matter to Yun Ce, this brother met only four hours ago—not only was Old Cao’s friendship profound, but the other officials wanting to get their families out also had extremely high emotional bonds with Yun Ce.
2 Of course, the most straightforward way to deepen friendship was to give gold. If not for the space left in Yun Ce’s Dragon Pearl, he absolutely couldn’t have carried so much gold.
2 Such a scene made Yun Ce feel warmth. He had missed such scenes for a long time, just like back in his township days when everyone worked together, took the blame together, made a little money to drink and eat meat—those happy days.
2 These officials clearly weren’t big shots; they should be mid-level officials of Chuyun City. But it was precisely such a group that truly managed Chuyun City.
2 As long as they were willing, they could open the City Gate for Yun Ce, fully open the warehouses for Yun Ce to pick as he pleased. And the ones who knew this city best were precisely them.
2 In less than an hour, Old Cao brought a man and a woman to Yun Ce’s side, pointed at the lame man, and said to Yun Ce: “Old Cheng, formerly a Centurion of the Black Armored Army in the Tiger Guards. He knows your reputation in the Tiger Guards, brother. No need for extra words. From now on, for outside matters, find Old Cheng.”
2 Then he pointed at the woman and said to Yun Ce: “Hua Ji of the Drunken Immortal Tower, a rare heroine among women. Since brother wants to seal the Hunting Palace, for matters related to the female family members, just find Hua Ji.”
2 Yun Ce carefully looked at the two in front of him. Seeing Steward Qiu hurriedly driving a sheep cart over, he cupped his hands to Old Cao and said: “When there’s a chance to flee, come to the Royal Hunting Ground. No time to lose; we’re setting off now.”
2 It must be said that Old Cheng was capable. In a short time, he organized the convoy. He rode a Thunder Smoke Beast at the front to lead the way, Yun Ce rode the Red Date Horse at the back to bring up the rear. The twenty-three sheep carts of the Hunting Ground Camp were half at the front of the convoy, half at the rear, sandwiching the one hundred twenty sheep carts full of the old, weak, women, and children in the middle.
2 The benefit of doing this was that, once in danger, they could quickly use the Hunting Ground Camp’s convoy as a barrier to buy a little life-saving time for the old, weak, women, and children in the middle.
2 And the ones responsible for saving these old, weak, women, and children were undoubtedly Old Cheng at the front of the convoy and Yun Ce at the rear. As for these families’ ordinary guards, they could handle ordinary wild beasts and ordinary thieves, but if facing Spirits or experts, they could only rely on these two.
3 Yun Ce was the last to leave Chuyun City. After he followed the convoy completely into the Wasteland, Yun Ce looked back and found that the City Gate had closed at some point, and even the suspension bridge in front of the City Gate had been raised.
3 It seemed that City Lord Pang Bei and Inspector Han Du had no good way to solve the tribute loss issue and could only use high-pressure rule to completely squeeze the people of Chuyun City into submission.
3 They wouldn’t proactively explain the tribute loss to the Great Han Court. Explaining it would only prove they were good-for-nothings, nothing more.
3 For a Protectorate Prefecture, what the Great Han wanted was tribute. Without tribute, there was no Protectorate Prefecture, only enemies.
3 As long as Chuyun Prefecture could pay the tribute on time, even if Chuyun Prefecture rotted or was engulfed in endless war, it had nothing to do with the Great Han Court.
3 Pang Bei and Han Du could still sit firmly in their positions.
3 Therefore, Chuyun Prefecture must scrape together the ten million tribute, or else.
3 As for having each city’s City Lords and super-rich households to pool this money, it was utterly unreasonable. These people’s foundations weren’t in Chuyun Prefecture at all; they were merely money bags for the nobles in Chang’an or Luoyang of the Great Han, only responsible for filling them, not taking out.
3 Yun Ce looked back at Chuyun City again and saw a large mass of dark clouds drifting toward the city. It seemed that tonight, Chuyun City would have a Blizzard.
3 The most annoying thing about a marching convoy having women and children was that they always liked to cry. The crying of women, children, and babies was what Doggy liked most.
4 So, after a long howl came from the distance, all the Doggy on the Wasteland began to howl. Due to fear, the crying of those women and children grew even louder.
4 Yun Ce had no particular feeling about Doggy. Their meat wasn’t tasty, their leather didn’t fetch a good price, and they were cowardly. Except for some threat when clustering against people, ordinarily, a strong man with a stick could chase away a pack of Doggy.
4 Old Cheng was vigorously driving away and pursuing Doggy at the front. In the middle, there were each family’s guards and the Hunting Ground Camp’s hunters dealing with Doggy, so Yun Ce at the rear seemed to have nothing to do—mainly because those Doggy didn’t dare approach him at all.
4 This was probably the so-called killing aura. After all, Yun Ce had killed too many Doggy.
4 “Woo woo——”
4 Another dog howl rang out not far away. Yun Ce frowned because on Earth, dogs that howled like this were called wolves.
4 Doggy had quarreled with Yun Ce until tired earlier. Now it suddenly said lazily: “Tell you, this one has become a Spirit. Be careful how you handle it.”
4 Yun Ce glanced at the long convoy ahead and said to Doggy: “Find it.”
4 “Why? It finally got a heaven-sent opportunity to become a Spirit, and you want to kill it?”
4 Yun Ce shook his head and said: “This is something done from a human standpoint. On this land of the Great Han, animals frequently evolve into Spirits and then gain wisdom. For the human race, this is not allowed. Whenever seen, they should be killed. The Great Han is too merciful toward these Spirits that threaten the human race.”
5 “One day you won’t kill even me, right? After all, in a sense, I’m also a kind of Spirit.”
5 “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re just a machine now, and you’ll be a machine later too.”
5 Doggy seemed hurt by Yun Ce’s words and didn’t argue further, merely pointing a silver thread straight to the left.
5 “I’m going to catch the Doggy King.”
5 Yun Ce called out to Steward Qiu, and the Red Date Horse shot forward.
5 Blocked by a large pack of Doggy, the Red Date Horse didn’t tangle with them but neighed and jumped over three meters high, flying over many Doggy heads, finally landing in the middle of the Doggy pack and trampling several to death.
5 Its skin was tough; the Doggy’s teeth couldn’t bite through. Even with a Doggy hanging on its buttocks, the Red Date Horse jumped again and charged bouncing into the center of the Doggy pack like that.
