They say when the cart reaches the mountain, there will surely be a road—this saying is not false at all. The road ahead buried by the mudslide had already been excavated. An official covered head to toe in mud knelt in the muddy water to respectfully welcome the arrival of Li’er’s carriage. The army ahead had already passed through the collapse zone. Li’er looked at the collapsed mountain and sighed, saying, “Well done.” After speaking, the carriage carefully proceeded along the paved road.

That official, as if granted amnesty, lay flat on his back in the muddy water wailing and crying loudly. Yun Ye keenly discovered his mouth was full of fresh blood—he didn’t know how the man had endured until now.

They had actually managed to pave this section of road with head-sized stones—truly not easy. The ability of Tang craftsmen was indeed not to be underestimated. The road, over ten meters long, was built quite smoothly without a single stray stone. A trickling stream cascaded down from the rocks and splashed onto the stones. Then Yun Ye’s vision darkened in waves—those head-sized stones weren’t stones at all, but actual human heads. Needless to say, what was buried in the earth layers were corpses.

“Husband, this official is really capable! This whole journey, this section of road is the best to travel—not bumpy at all.” Na Rimu poked her head out the carriage window, smiling sweetly at her husband.

“Yes, not bad. Pull your head back in and sit properly. We’ll find a place to rest soon.” Yun Ye forcibly suppressed the discomfort in his stomach, settled the restless Na Rimu, and ordered the convoy to quicken its pace and leave this section of road. Every additional step taken on a road filled with human lives was a sin.

Bear Man and Gou Zi had discovered this long ago. Exchanging glances, they exerted force together to push the carriage out of this human hell. Even after the carriage had traveled far, Yun Ye didn’t dare look back, fearing those wronged souls would come to trouble him.

Imperial commands were merciless, military orders were merciless, and officials were merciless too. He didn’t know how that surviving official would explain to the wives and children of the conscript laborers after returning. Yun Ye felt he had no way to explain it to himself right now.

Leaning against a small tree in the rain, he vomited until the sky spun and earth turned dark. His stomach seemed to have reached his throat—with just a little more effort, he could vomit it out. Liu Jinbao handed the water flask to the Marquis to rinse his mouth. When the clear water entered his stomach, it immediately triggered a new round of vomiting.

Explosion sounds came from the distance. This was Yun Ye’s arrangement. The barrier lake had to be cleared; otherwise, it would absolutely bring disaster to the common people downstream. Li’er had agreed to Yun Ye’s arrangement. In fact, Yun Ye hadn’t planned on caring whether Li’er agreed or not—he was prepared to do it first and discuss later.

Standing on the ruined foundation of Qipan Pass looking north, faintly visible was the Huangba Post Station in Shunxian County of Guanzhong—one of the most important post stations on the Jin-Niu Road. Further north, the Jin-Niu Road connected with the unforgettable Bao-Xie Road that Yun Ye had just emerged from. Near Baocheng, turning left, passing through the Qinling Mountains and exiting Xie Valley, it led directly to the eight-hundred-li Qin Plain, reaching the heartland of the Central Plains.

The continuous autumn rain was still falling. At the ruins of Qipan Pass, the large force had already rested for two days. They were about to enter the Qinling Mountains—men and horses must make final preparations. This section of road required six days to traverse; in heavy rain, perhaps ten days?

Only at this time did they discover that lacking fuel was an extremely terrifying thing. The great army had long since begun eating dry rations. Even in the Yun Family, only the women and children had hot food to eat. Everyone else, including Yun Ye, was gnawing dry rations. The coarse flatbread scraped the throat painfully. Tilting his head back to swallow some rainwater counted as drinking water.

Li’er, thinking the Yun Family had also run out of firewood, specially ordered someone to send over a load. This was preferential treatment specially given because of the old grandmother and children. Yun Ye ordered people to send the firewood to the wounded in the rear camp—letting them cook a mouthful of hot porridge to drink was also good.

The Emperor’s carriage finally started moving. The heavy rain had become slightly lighter. The wheel ruts on the mountain stone-paved road were filled with rainwater. Fortunately, Yun Ye hadn’t carelessly altered the distance between the Yun Family cart wheels, so they could travel especially smoothly on such ancient roads. The carts moved both fast and steadily. The policy of standardized cart tracks was very necessary indeed.

Li’er’s carriage wouldn’t do. Wide and luxurious were its characteristics, so his wheels would frequently sink into the grooves and break the axles. Li’er had no choice but to yield to the great policy of standardized cart tracks and ride in a narrower carriage to continue forward.

The ancient Yinping Road was also in this area. Having just turned around the mountain foot, a fierce mountain reaching straight into the clouds suddenly burst into view. Yun Ye knew this was the famous Motian Ridge on the ancient Yinping Road—the place of extreme danger that Deng Ai had led troops through years ago, narrowly escaping death nine times, ultimately achieving victory through surprise and conquering Shu in one stroke.

It was now approaching dusk, yet the road became frighteningly steep and treacherous from here. Sinister winds and rock howls suddenly arose, shadows flickering all around, making one’s heart tremble with fear. Fortunately, there were people all around, so there was no need to overly worry about ghosts and spirits. This put Yun Ye considerably at ease.

The heavy rain finally stopped. Cotton-like white clouds filled the sky. Motian Ridge was embraced by white clouds, its peak illuminated a brilliant gold by the long-absent sunlight. Such scenery was rarely seen. The great army unconsciously stopped, because Li’er had stopped. He just stood on the mountain road, looking up at Motian Ridge, lost in thought.

“The Five Strong Men opened the mountain, thus came the ancient Jin-Niu Road. Could one deception make the King of Shu open his own gates?” Yun Ye quietly asked Li Tai. Could such a foolish strategy of the King of Qin succeed? How stupid would the King of Shu need to be to believe something as absurd as cattle that defecated gold?

“How would I know? The historical records record it this way. The King of Shu specially sent the Five Strong Men to open this road to welcome the golden cattle and beautiful women. As a result, the beauties didn’t come, but Sima Cuo’s great army did, and the State of Shu perished.”

Li Tai’s answer was dry and lacked any creativity. Yun Ye knew Li’er now very much hoped someone would ask him, “Your Majesty, why do you contemplate here? Have you gained insights?” Then he could rattle off a great deal.

If not for the matter of corpses paving the road, Yun Ye would have been very willing to play the role of this sycophantic minister. But having seen those corpses, Yun Ye would rather ask Li Tai, who was born without much romantic flair, than let Li’er feel comfortable and satisfied.

Heaven didn’t comply with human wishes. Li’er had such a person, and that person was Empress Zhangsun. Empress Zhangsun came to Li’er’s back and asked, “Why does Your Majesty contemplate? Have you gained insights?” Hearing this, Yun Ye disdainfully turned his head away.

“Motian Ridge rises ten thousand zhang high. Deng Ai stole into Yinping, and the Latter Ruler Liu Chan opened the gates to surrender—the State of Shu perished. Pitiful that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang’s life’s work flowed away with eastern waters. One can see that the dangers of mountains and rivers are insufficient as barriers. To achieve transmission through ten thousand generations, one must construct a fortress in the hearts of the people.”

Yun Ye gritted his teeth and endured listening to Empress Zhangsun’s lengthy flattering words. He fished out a baked, soft potato from his pocket and handed it to Li Tai. He still had one in his own pocket.

These two—one arrogantly self-important, the other a famous master of flattery who took pleasure in it. When kind, they could be kind to the extreme; when vicious, blood could flow like rivers without them furrowing their brows even once.

The gauze on Wei Zheng’s face was finally removed. Those bone-chilling white cataracts were gone, and those eyes had become as sharp as a hawk’s again. Fortunately, he hadn’t seen those corpses paving the road; otherwise, who knew how sorrowful he would become. Sometimes, being blind was much better than being sighted. Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui seemed to have seen nothing. Zhangsun Wuji believed this matter should be handled exactly this way. Those old generals also didn’t think there was anything improper about doing it this way.

Just having finished saying “Heaven and earth are impartial, treating all things as straw dogs,” he himself had treated the common people as straw dogs. From now on, regarding what he said, which sentence was true and which was false—Yun Ye felt he had no way to distinguish clearly.

When people speak, there’s actually always a time limit. When said at the time, one cannot deny it was indeed sincere. But after circumstances change, this statement often gains another interpretation that also makes sense. In the end, it becomes an utterly empty statement.

Flattery is hereditary. Yun Ye flattered so much that Yun Shou inevitably inherited some of it. Jumping down from the carriage with two potatoes baked to a golden brown bundled in his robe, with a couple of hops he reached the Empress.

“Empress Grandmother, this is a potato Shou’er baked for you. It’s really fragrant.” Yun Shou looked up with his chubby face expectantly at the Empress, waiting for her to praise him properly. Even if you beat Yun Ye to death, he wouldn’t believe Yun Shou could bake such potatoes.

Empress Zhangsun pinched Yun Shou’s chubby face, smiling as she picked up a potato. After peeling it, she took a bite herself before handing it to Li’er, saying, “Your Majesty, try it. The little chubby one baked it well.”

Li’er frowned and looked at Yun Shou, saying grumpily, “Everyone else has no firewood to cook with, yet you still have firewood to bake potatoes? Tell me, what good method do you have?”

“That’s because they’re too stupid. When Shou’er uses dry firewood, he adds a bit of wet firewood to the fire. By the time the dry firewood burns out, the wet firewood has become dry firewood. So Shou’er always has some dry charcoal, which means endless firewood.”

Hearing Yun Shou’s words, Empress Zhangsun burst into laughter. Li’er also scratched the back of his head. This kind of common-sense life knowledge was very novel to him. In fact, not only did the Yun Family do this, but some older scouts also did the same. Basically, anyone who had been to the grasslands would do this. It was just the herdsmen’s method of drying cattle dung. This was a skill Na Rimu had taught Yun Shou. On the grasslands, fuel was extremely scarce, and only this method worked. It just couldn’t be applied on a large scale, which was why food on the grasslands was basically half-cooked when eaten.

Li’er was very satisfied with the potato Yun Shou baked and gave him face by eating one. Cheng Yaojin walked over and quietly asked Yun Ye, “Did you teach him?”

Yun Ye shook his head. He had never taught Yun Shou these things. To handle such a small matter so flawlessly was very rare. First, his Second Mother would die before saying the potato was baked by her, would die before saying the matter of drying firewood was taught by her. Yun Shou took this credit upon himself with complete peace of mind, without any worries.

What was important was that the target of flattery was clear, going straight for the most important objective. No wonder Empress Zhangsun would say after Yun Shou caused trouble: “Anyone who dares lay hands on this child, this old woman will spit on them.”

“The descendants of the Old Cheng family lack this cleverness. Different people, different fates. By age nine, one sees old age. In the future, this will also be a shrewd person.” Cheng Yaojin stood at the side watching Yun Shou and the Empress chat and laugh, speaking with emotion.