Chapter 14: The Ways of the World

How many guards have to die before they learn not to cause trouble at the city gates?

After so many attempts to enter Ping City, I’ve never once managed to get in without incident.

Maybe next time I should just break their bones without killing them—that might send a stronger warning.

As Yan Qing watched Gai Louxian approach, he pondered whether the game system would allow a “just enough” attack.

Facing a second-tier messenger, an untransferred rookie had virtually no chance to resist, but dying quietly wasn’t Yan Qing’s style. So “Ye Si” picked up a fallen guard’s spear.

Seeing Ye Si’s move, the knights behind Gai Louxian wanted to rush forward, but the old veteran raised a hand, and they obediently held back.

Gai Louxian seemed utterly unconcerned that Ye Si might attack him, letting the old horse carry him right into the spear’s range.

“Why must you kill him?” he asked with mild curiosity. “Charging him extra entry fees wouldn’t warrant death, would it?”

“He knows that old woman,” Yan Qing replied. “I caused this trouble; I can’t let others get dragged into it.”

“Makes sense.”

Gai Louxian nodded seriously, pulled the reins, and turned toward the city. “Follow me. If you run, they’ll catch and kill you.”

Yan Qing felt this scene was oddly familiar.

Are you Northern people really this easy to manipulate?

However, instead of going to the barracks, Gai Louxian headed to a tavern. He sat at one table, four knights at another, and Yan Qing, carefree, plopped down opposite him. Whatever dishes came, Ye Si would eat one portion and store the rest in the communal warehouse—dinner was sorted for tonight!

“Are you Dingling? Or Kusait?” Gai Louxian asked.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from a village outside the city, the abandoned one. I left home years ago and returned to find the village gone.”

“What do you want to do by entering the city?”

“Find a way into the barracks.”

Yan Qing answered honestly, though his intentions clearly differed from Gai Louxian’s.

“I can recruit you into the Hundred Guards,” Gai Louxian offered.

“I’ll clean the secret realms every day.”

Gai Louxian wasn’t surprised. “You want to become a messenger?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“Then you’d better change your temper. It’s fine to bully those below you, but if you treat your superiors the same way, you might as well be a mere foot soldier.”

“If I don’t change, then just kill me if I cause trouble,” Yan Qing thought. He’d endure as long as he could do dungeons.

“Tsk tsk, you’re the cockiest kid I’ve ever met. How have you lived this long without getting beaten to death?” Gai Louxian laughed and scolded. “Damn your temper! Fine, if you stir up big trouble, I’ll be the first to kill you!”

“Deal.”

“Deal!”

At that moment, a few guards entered, shouting for the owner to bring fine wine and dishes—obviously soldier ruffians. Noticing Ye Si’s gaze, Gai Louxian said, “Honestly, life isn’t easy for these gate guards. Without dipping into their positions for side gains, they probably can’t even support their families. You’ll want to be gentler with them.”

Yan Qing wasn’t convinced. “Why isn’t their life easy?”

“Because their monthly pay is low.”

“Then why is their pay so low? With the secret realms alone, the Hundred Guards could feed the whole city comfortably, right? The Hundred Guards are so rich they drip oil, yet Ping City doesn’t get a drop?”

If the Hundred Guards' barracks were a large house, Ping City was more like a latrine. Yan Qing had seen how the Hundred Guards “raided” secret realms—raiding the Zheng family every day, 360 times a year—360 Zheng families equaled several Ping Cities!

Even if the Hundred Guards had to offer much up to the authorities, wood, bricks, livestock, grain—surely some of it leaked out, enough to feed the entire city. High salaries don’t guarantee honesty, but low pay certainly drives men to pinch a few coins from an old woman’s entry fee.

Gai Louxian paused. “You know a lot about secret realms. Is your family part of the Hundred Guards? Or the Thousand Blades?”

Yan Qing was just testing. If Qi only had one or two secret realms, Gai Louxian would have confidently pointed out their scarcity. His attitude suggested Qi controlled many secret realms, and their output could sustain the whole country.

Seeing Ye Si silent, Gai Louxian thought for a moment and sighed softly. “Few people think like you. They’d rather hide everything about the secret realms... Do you know how big the gap is between messengers and ordinary people?”

Before Yan Qing could answer, Gai Louxian drew a dagger from his waist and, with a palm rub, crushed it into a small iron ball.

“This is my token, the Bronze Skin Armor.” He showed the copper-colored lining he wore. “With this token, I can single-handedly crush bandits and suppress rebels. But an ordinary person, even if they had my token, couldn’t activate the Bronze Skin’s power.”

“As long as messengers exist, the common people can’t rise up in rebellion or refuse taxes.”

“We do tax the people, but even if they don’t farm, we can still enjoy plenty of meat.”

“The government drafts them for corvée, but only the bureaucrats have to worry about that. Many military men don’t care.”

“Besides serving as our servants, the common people are almost worthless to us. They’re like wild grass—whether they exist or not, it makes little difference.”

Yan Qing was puzzled. “If you don’t care about their output, why tax them?”

Gai Louxian pointed to the meat, eggs, and milk on the table.

“To become a messenger, you either have to be literate or physically strong,” he said calmly. “We need to make sure the people don’t starve to death.”

Not starve to death.

But don’t expect them to eat well.

Since transferring requires skill training, the ordinary people must have no time or energy to hone skills. The peasants must be squeezed dry, low-ranking officials kept at each other’s throats, corvée labor frequently drafted to exhaust them. This minimizes the chance of “wild messengers” arising.

This world has dungeons, almost infinite resources, and messengers with powers beyond mortals, yet ordinary people may suffer even more. The elite wield absolute violence but have no real use for common folk.

Yan Qing pointed to the tavern owner with a Central Plains face. “Is it just because they’re from the Central Plains?”

Gai Louxian laughed. “Nonsense. Weren’t you once poor? Central Plains or Northern people, poor folks all have to pay taxes honestly.”

“And our Qi is already quite good. At least there are many farmers. Look at the southern Liang Kingdom—commoners there, if not serfs or slaves to noble families, don’t even have land to farm. There are almost no free people, only slaves.”

“If you want to change the world a little, then rein in your temper and try to climb upward. Like Prince Pengcheng governing Cangzhou—no thieves, officials don’t oppress the people.”

...

Next came the tedious task of entering the barracks to train skills, which Yan Qing entrusted to the system while he focused on more important matters.

Gai Louxian mentioned the southern Liang Kingdom, sparking a fleeting inspiration in Yan Qing—

Of course, he didn’t need to keep grinding the Nightless Heaven’s affiliated area. He could open new maps in Jiangnan or Chang’an.

More importantly, he could create a new character to scout intelligence in Chang’an and even help him steal from the Bingzi Pepper Grove in four days!