Pain is relative. When others are more miserable than you, your own pain can be greatly reduced. This is a strange sentiment that only humans possess.
Relatively speaking, when others are happier than you, we feel pain in our hearts. Yun Ye was now in great pain. Wherever the Camel City went, enemies fled at the sight of it, so fast that even the fiercest Eight-Ox Crossbow arrows couldn’t catch them. Looking at the empty cities, Yun Ye felt even more pained.
The damned Tokharians were implementing a scorched earth policy. Not a single grain of food or livestock could be found in the cities. These fellows had gone too far. This was not how a neutral country should behave.
“Did you expect the Tokharians to welcome you with fine wine? Tokharistan is not Shache. Their fighting spirit hasn’t been worn away. All those who dare to fight are baring their teeth at you. As long as you show the slightest negligence, they’ll rush up and tear you to shreds.”
Du Ruhui never spoke auspicious words, especially after purchasing two Persian dancing girls—he had become even more unbridled. He didn’t even go out in broad daylight. This was the prelude to planning to exhaust himself to death on women’s bellies.
“We’ll soon be the first to reach Huolu City. There we’ll meet up with Xiao Miao, then slowly withdraw from the battlefield. After we choose a battlefield favorable to us and finish off the Dashi people, we’ll return to Chang’an and hand everything here over to Li Yuanxiang and the others to govern. Only Heaven knows why these power-crazed people would abandon the beautiful mountains and rivers of Jiangnan to come to this desolate world.”
Yun Ye put down the telescope in his hand, preparing to consult Du Ruhui about this matter. After all, he simply couldn’t understand these people’s behavior.
Only after drinking a sip of tea did Du Ruhui slowly say, “Their behavior is normal—your behavior is abnormal. A great man commanding one hundred thousand strong troops should naturally swagger across the world. You’ve achieved this—after all, you’ve led your subordinates to dominate the wilderness for ten thousand li. People throughout the world dare be angry at you but dare not speak.”
“But there’s another point you haven’t achieved—the pleasure of shepherding the people, the exhilaration of having your word be law and making final judgments with a single statement. You’ve never experienced this. Li Yuanxiang and their goals are very realistic. As imperial princes, they only want to be their own emperors. Competing with His Majesty for the throne is very difficult—they don’t even have a ten percent chance of success. So they can only settle for second best. Even in a desolate land, they want to be emperors. Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of an ox. Is this sentiment so hard for you to understand?”
“A fellow without ambition. I thought that with over a hundred thousand warriors in your hands, you’d have more courage. I didn’t expect you still can’t change your timid nature.”
Any old fellow, as long as they were with Yun Ye, couldn’t help but lecture him a couple of times. When they didn’t understand him well, they’d be stunned speechless by his enormous reputation. But after spending time together, they’d discover this fellow was actually an outwardly strong but inwardly weak guy. Many things he did were completely incompatible with this world. No one knew what was going on in his head. Things others dared to do, he didn’t dare to do a single one. Things others didn’t dare to do, he did with great joy.
However, this fellow was also infuriatingly clever, and his temperament was like a clay ball—with a helping hand, you could pinch out something. Prompted by the nature of loving to be a teacher, they wanted to transform this fellow. It was like suddenly discovering on a neat bookshelf a blank book that was incompatible with other books in both size and cover—everyone wanted to write a couple of strokes on it. Yan Zhitui, Li Gang, the Old Man of Mount Tai, Cheng Yaojin, Niu Jinda, Li Jing, Li Er, Empress Zhangsun—all these people had done this. How could Du Ruhui be an exception?
“Oh, I understand. You’re saying Li Yuanxiang and the others all feel they’re supremely talented and learned, can’t tolerate their talents being buried, and so are preparing to make a great display of their abilities in the Western Regions to prove to their emperor brother that they’re not good-for-nothings?”
When readily accepting advice, Yun Ye never cared about the other party’s tone. As long as he could receive education from their words, these small matters truly didn’t count for anything. Li Er and Zhangsun’s attitudes were even worse, and he had never refuted them either.
“Old Du, after we fight one more battle, we’ll return to the capital. Don’t you plan to get yourself some benefits in the Western Regions? I’ve heard your youngest son Du He doesn’t seem to be any easy lamp to keep lit.” Yun Ye kindly reminded Old Du—while he was still in position, if he didn’t grab something now, there’d be no opportunity later.
“Give me a piece of land in the small town below Tianshan Mountain. My family will also build a few rooms there. Have a word with He Shao—there must be a Du family shop in that town. To tell the truth, I always feel that town will become an extremely prosperous place in the future. What do you say?”
Yun Ye had nothing to say. The old fellow’s vision was viciously sharp. From a slight change in the Daoist sect, he could keenly find an excellent investment location. There weren’t many families with such vision. At least the Qin family wasn’t as good as Old Du. Madam Qin was complaining about why Yun Ye wanted to throw large sums of money into the desert—she couldn’t see any prospects.
“You should go talk to Yuan Shoucheng. It would be better if you could get a room on the mountain.”
“Tell me, are there really immortals on that Tianshan Mountain? Have you seen them?”
“I originally knew, but after taking a ten-thousand-gold-coin hush money from Yuan Shoucheng, I became ignorant.” Yun Ye said to Du Ruhui with a smile.
“That’s a matter for the future. Right now they’re implementing scorched earth, clearly wanting to trap us to death. Do you have any good solutions?” Du Ruhui put away his joking words and asked Yun Ye seriously.
“Yes. Just go two hundred li further west and we’ll reach Aiyuan City. This is Tokharistan’s ancestral city. This country has now become twenty-nine city-states. I don’t believe this city-state has the perseverance to scorch their important city too.”
Du Ruhui laughed and said, “Be careful—it won’t be that easy. The Tokharians once subjugated the Turks. Be careful they make a comeback. You plan to break through at Aiyuan City?”
“Yes. If the mountain won’t come to me, we’ll go to the mountain. Supplies ultimately need to be replenished, especially fodder for the camels. We have nearly two hundred thousand livestock that need fodder—the numbers are enormous, the consumption astonishing. If we don’t replenish supplies at every turn, that’s seeking death.” Yun Ye accompanied Du Ruhui back to his room. After sitting down, Du Ruhui suddenly asked Yun Ye, “Do you truly have no designs on the Western Regions at all? Don’t deceive this old man!”
“None, not even a bit, and it’s impossible. My aspirations differ from others. Muddling through life waiting for death is quite good. The Western Regions, land that can startle a person three times a day, really isn’t the first choice for the Yun family to manage a family business.” Yun Ye answered very seriously.
Du Ruhui let out a long breath and said, “The reason His Majesty enfeoffed the Sixteen Princes in the Western Regions was actually to lock all the tigers in one cage. Don’t be fooled by the fact they’re all blood brothers—once they’re enfeoffed with countries, I believe within ten years there will definitely be renewed warfare. The Warring States story will repeat itself. His Majesty is not the Zhou Son of Heaven and won’t tolerate them merging into one country. He will definitely employ methods to divide and win them over, even secretly support them. This land will never have peace.”
“The Western Regions are too far from Chang’an. This is the prerequisite for the Sixteen Princes to think they can dominate one region. Just watch—His Majesty’s arrangement of the Sixteen Princes’ fiefs will be very interesting!”
Yun Ye and Du Ruhui looked at each other, each giving a meaningful glance. Then they simultaneously picked up their teapots, took a delicious sip, and abandoned the previous topic to begin discussing the influence of water quality on tea quality.
Cheng Chumo felt he was already exhausted like a dog. The Camel City was moving slowly. He led the cavalry continuously scouting in all directions. Plunder was the theme—they had to ensure the Camel City had sufficient provisions for use.
Small villages were destroyed, small towns were destroyed. Small Aiyuan City was taken by Cheng Chumo in one assault. Eight-Ox Crossbows loaded with gunpowder easily tore open Aiyuan City’s heavy city gates and blasted away the soldiers at the city walls who had been standing in strict formation. When the first gunpowder crossbow bolt exploded on Tokharian land, the plundering of this nation also began.
“The Great General orders that Aiyuan City must hand over ten thousand dan of provisions and five thousand dan of bean fodder, or the city will be massacred!” The interpreter stood with chest thrust out before the city lord who knelt on one knee at the tall city gate, arrogantly issuing Yun Ye’s command.
“Noble victor, Aiyuan City is small with poor people. We cannot produce so much supplies. We request the noble victor to plead with the Great General. We can only prepare fifty thousand jin of grain and twenty thousand jin of bean fodder…”
The city lord didn’t need to finish his words, because Guo Ping had already severed the city lord’s head with one stroke. The blood-stained horizontal blade pointed once more at a military officer wearing chain mail beside the city lord’s corpse. He said to the interpreter, “Tell him if he can accomplish these things, the city lord’s position is his.” The interpreter pulled up the timid general and said, “You’re in luck. The colonel says as long as you can find enough grain, we’ll support you as city lord.”
The timid general stopped trembling in the first instant. He immediately turned around and loudly issued orders to his subordinates, and also put his mouth to the interpreter’s ear to speak softly. “General, this General Wula says he can meet our demanded conditions. However, he requests that we kill all the old city lord’s former subordinates and family members. For this, he’s willing to pay out the same amount of provisions again.”
“This son of a bitch is truly vicious enough. To become city lord, he doesn’t care about anything. Good method. When we collect provisions in the future, can we establish this as a regulation?” Chen Shu vigorously tightened the silk cord of his armor束, staring at that general and said.
“As you wish!” The interpreter let out a crow-like cry and, cackling with laughter, pointed at the people identified by Wula and loudly issued orders to the soldiers.
For a time, blood flowed like a river at the city gate. Chen Shu’s iron cavalry took the lead charging into Aiyuan City, heading straight for the city lord’s mansion. Killing people didn’t count as anything to Chen Shu. At Kucha’s city walls, he didn’t know how many people he had already killed.
Guo Ping hesitated for a moment but also followed closely. Cheng Chumo’s bloodshot eyes seemed to be staring at his back, stabbing so that his five organs and six bowels all felt uncomfortable.
Then kill! The army needs provisions!