Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 256: Grasslands

He impatiently rode his horse out of the pass, gazing at the faintly discernible military tents on the horizon.

Suddenly, he quietly took a detour while silently cursing himself for being so foolish and confused as to why he was in such a hurry.

He Lei’s death had been announced to the world, and there had been no such thing for Yue Hongling. She was still on the Ranking of Man. Since there was no announcement pertaining to her death, that at least proved that she was alive.

It seemed that aside from causing trouble and revealing your accomplishments sometimes, the greatest advantage of the Tome of Troubled Times was reporting one’s safety...

From this, Zhao Changhe could easily extrapolate that when it came to someone as prominent as Yue Hongling, if she had truly been captured by the barbarians, they would have definitely publicized it. Since they had not done so, this indicated that she had not been captured at all. It was more than likely that she had not encountered any danger at all, and he had simply been worrying himself by overthinking things.

The vastness of the Grasslands was immense. To the west lay the Gobi, while to the north lay yet another great desert. Regardless of whether one crossed the desert or the Grasslands, it was entirely possible to travel for months without making contact with anyone. It was completely normal not to be able to communicate with anyone for a month or two.

Cui Yuanyong must be speechless right now. One moment, he was praising my intelligence, and then I went and made a stupid move the next. Well...whatever, there’s nothing I can do. Concern brings poor judgment. If it was his sister instead of Yue Hongling, I’d just be as anxious, and he’d be anxious too.

Anyway, now that I’ve left the pass, I’ll complete the task he gave me while searching for information about Yue Hongling.

Zhao Changhe calmed down and quietly rode his horse at a slower pace, taking a detour and observing the surroundings along the way. The areas beyond and behind the pass, separated by merely one city, were like two different worlds, and the difference felt like quite the impact.

Beyond Yanmen Pass, where barbarians roam,

no worm silk woven, nor flax grown.

For hundreds of li, no pear or jujube tree,

in three springs, neither peach nor apricot thrive.

This marked the division between those who led agricultural and nomadic lifestyles. Two distinct civilizations separated by a mountain.

Seeing the countless rugged mountains within the pass failed to evoke any poetic sentiments within him, but as he crossed beyond them, the scenes portraying the distinct forms of civilization suddenly brought forth many verses from within him. He suddenly thought of the line “make the barbarians dare not cross the Yin Mountains[1].” It had not occurred to him before, but now, upon seeing the Grasslands and the military tents on the horizon, he suddenly remembered that this was precisely where the Yin Mountains met the Taihang Mountains, where the barbarians could cross the Yin Mountains!

The meeting point of different civilizations, separate yet connected in time and space. The feeling was intriguing.

This area was still a war zone, and it was not where his mission lay, so Zhao Changhe made a wide detour and headed westward.

“The northern barbarians” was a collective term; in reality, it was not a single nation but a union of multiple tribes. Although the Khagan Timur was also called a king, in the eyes of the Central Plains, his position was more akin to that of an alliance leader. Even his own tribe was subdivided into countless groups. He was from the Golden Wolf Tribe, and the Warring Lion and Black Wolf tribes were subordinate to him. Recently, however, his tribe had encountered some difficulties.

He Lei was the leader of the Warring Lion Tribe, and just like the Black Wolf Khan, whom Yue Hongling had killed to enter the Ranking of Man, he was a powerful figure from Timur’s tribe.

It was hard to say if this would cause any thoughts to rise among the other tribes, as the deterrent power that Timur had, while being ranked third on the Ranking of Man, was much lower than Xia Longyuan’s grasp on the forces of the Central Plains.

Who was second on the Ranking of Heaven?

The Great Shaman of Tngri.

In fact, he actually did not belong to the same tribe as Timur, but he did not involve himself in tribal disputes and only stayed in the temple. Whoever unified the Grasslands had nothing to do with him. However, his power over the Grasslands might even surpass that of Timur.

Well, he was not entirely uninvolved in the battles of the Central Plains. Fox Spirit Chi Li was his direct descendant.

From this perspective, it could be said that Xia Longyuan single-handedly held down the ones ranked second and third. They had not personally appeared on the front lines, which showed that they had some kind of tacit understanding with Xia Longyuan.

Or perhaps they held hidden battles from afar? For example, could that lightning bolt have something to do with Tngri?

Zhao Changhe felt that it might be possible, at least the blind woman did not seem to be the kind to just smite someone because of a slight disrespect. With that in mind, it was possible that it had something to do with the ongoing battles with the barbarian divinities.

In any case, due to the characteristics of the various tribes in the Grasslands, the locations of the coalition forces’ encampments were often not close to each other, and some were even very far apart. This also provided opportunities for people like Yue Hongling to cause trouble everywhere. That was how she had been able to break into the Black Wolf Tribe’s camp and wreak havoc.

The small team that had been sent out not too long ago was heading to a relatively distant tribal settlement, mainly to collect information. If there was an opportunity to do so, they were free to also burn some of the enemy’s supplies. They were more or less military scouts but with a more special operations focus.

It was definitely dangerous, but their main task was still just reconnaissance rather than sending themselves to their deaths. If they encountered trouble, they could simply scatter and run, so there should not have been a situation where they were all wiped out to the point where not even a single one of them was able to escape.

Cui Yuanyong felt that it was necessary to determine what happened, or at the very least confirm deaths. If they had not died and were just trapped or captured, then they had to try and rescue them.

Zhao Changhe’s sense of duty made him feel the exact same.

However, it was truly far. He had let Snow-Treading Crow gallop for pretty much the entire day, all the way until the sky darkened.

Looking at the map was useless since he didn’t really know where exactly he was to begin with.

Just as he was feeling a bit of a headache coming on, Zhao Changhe heard voices approaching from afar. He reined in his horse and looked around, spotting a small mound. He quickly rode over and hid behind the mound to observe who it was.

Damn it, even finding a small mound in this desolate wilderness isn’t easy. Fortunately, Snow-Treading Crow is quite smart and knows not to make a sound.

Under the cover of night, a caravan gradually approached. It was well-organized and numbered over a thousand people. They appeared to be a well-disciplined army, but there were also numerous carriages and horses in the caravan. They looked like a merchant caravan, but their carriages were empty.

Zhao Changhe was a little surprised. Most of them appeared to be people from the Central Plains... They seemed to be trading with those in the Grasslands, and it looked like they had already unloaded their goods. However, it was strange that their carriages were empty on their return journey.

Hm? There are still people trading while war is ongoing?

Zhao Changhe thought of the shops at Sword Lake City.

Since there were products from the Grasslands reaching the south, why couldn’t products from the Central Plains reach the north?

Someone was speaking in the standard tongue of the Central Plains. “...and seriously, who would be afraid of bandits at a time like this? There’s no way any of them are nearby.”

Another person replied, “We’re not afraid of bandits. Which one of them would dare to approach this area at a time like this? We’re afraid of people from the army disguised as bandits.”

“They wouldn’t do that, would they? They might play around like that on ordinary days, but there’s no way they’d do it during these times... right?”

“It’s hard to say.” Someone sighed. “You do know that it isn’t just those from the tribes of the Grasslands who pretend to be bandits, right?”

“Then who else?”

“Of course, it’s Huangfu Yongxian. If he robs you, all you can do is grit your teeth and bear it. The old man would eat you to the last bone if you let him.”

Zhao Changhe has the answer.

Damn, so the merchants of the Central Plains are selling grains to the barbarians at this time, huh? I mean, it’s not like I haven’t heard of this kind of thing before, but I never thought they’d still be doing it during wartime. It’s honestly quite impressive.

Huangfu Yongxian ruled the border, so he probably knew about what was going on. There were probably various considerations preventing him from taking direct action, so resorting to robbery might not be a bad idea.

Meanwhile, those in the caravan were still chatting.

“What’s even more disgusting is that there’s been another type of lone bandit on horseback lately.”

“Ah? What do you mean by lone bandit? Can they still rob anything when they’re alone?”

“When her name is Yue Hongling, she can do whatever the fuck she wants.”

Zhao Changhe: “...”

“So it’s better to move in bigger groups. There have been several instances where Yue Hongling has robbed groups on her own.”

“I see...” The man shrank his neck. “She wouldn’t be nearby now, would she?”

“We’re quite a big group this time, so she wouldn’t dare. She might be waiting on the road to Huangsha Market ahead. Some people have been messed up by her on this path before, and it’s been making everyone anxious.” The man gritted his teeth. “Just wait until I report this to the clan head. We’ll find a way to get revenge on that bitch. She’s from the Central Plains, so she’ll come back eventually. She won’t be able to escape the consequences for offending us!“

Someone laughed and said, “With thousands of us this time, if she dares to come, we can just strip her naked and let some of our brothers have some fun.”

What followed was a slew of obscenities.

Zhao Changhe frowned and pondered for a moment, then he had a sudden realization and looked up at the sky.

The Big Dipper points north, and that’s the direction that this group of people is traveling.

He thought it over and roughly understood what was going on... These people were probably delivering grain and weapons to the tribe he originally intended to visit, but he had gone off course, heading north instead. After unloading their cargo, they were probably heading to Huangsha Market to restock.

Zhao Changhe hesitated for a moment.

Should he go south to visit the tribe, or should he continue north to Huangsha Market?

1. This is a line from a poem by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Changling (王昌龄) titled “Leaving the Frontier” (出塞). ☜