Chapter 127: Chapter 116: Life Finds a Way (2)

This might be the other side of doing whatever you want; people always have to bear the consequences of their actions.

Of course, Du Chengfeng wasn’t without the courage to bear the consequences, but the problem was why did these people insist on clinging to him?

"Because... we have nowhere else to go."

The grassland army general named Zhi’er Huo, who was dragged out by Du Chengfeng, couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed.

Indeed, there was nowhere else to go. After all, the grassland vanguard army that entered Yanzhou City, due to different circumstances, had already been divided into three parts—the first part was unlucky; they all became corpses under the pursuit of Du Chengfeng and Xiang Rong. The second part was considered lucky; they discovered the State Preceptor had gone mad, so they escaped before the city gates were sealed.

As for the third part, those were the more than three hundred captives.

Go back? Impossible. Just during the period of being captives, treated with good food and drink, they couldn’t even explain themselves. Not to mention that even if they returned to the grassland, they’d only be ridiculed by others. If they encountered the Khan in a bad mood, they might all lose their heads.

As for not going back...

Where could they go?

It seemed that following this fireblade warrior was the best choice. After all, this warrior had been good to them, even sparing their lives.

Moreover, while the Yanzhou citizens might not know what happened in the city because they escaped early, those grassland soldiers who experienced everything firsthand knew exactly how powerful this fireblade warrior was.

Following such a strong person was almost instinctual for a warrior.

Life will find its way out; they all knew who they needed to follow to live longer.

"So at worst, we die in battle. Anyway, we all owe you our lives... Just tell us, who do we fight?"

"..."

Du Chengfeng couldn’t speak for a long time.

All right then, being the first and only rebel within South Chen’s territory, he now at least had his first battle-worthy troop.

But the problem was, who did he need to fight?

"Be frugal with the food. When you have time, find some work to do."

This was Du Chengfeng’s greatest expectation for these grassland soldiers.

Perhaps this was also why those Yanzhou citizens were so eager to leave; not everyone could accept a troop mixed with over three hundred unidentified grassland soldiers, even if they took off their armor. And with more than three hundred extra mouths to feed, Liu Bolun, who kept an eye on the account books daily, was even more troubled—the only happy person might be Yang Xuan, the old man. He saw them as more than three hundred strong laborers; with so many strong men helping, Yang Family Fortress would eventually be rebuilt in another place.

Of course, it might no longer be called Yang Family Fortress, since it would be the common hometown of all the villagers.

"Why not call it Du Family Fortress?"

Glancing at Du Chengfeng in front, Yang Xuan shook his head.

Not because he didn’t want to but because it wouldn’t be appropriate. After spending some time together, he knew this warrior’s character well; if he used the name Du Family Fortress, the other might reject it outright, feeling embarrassed.

They had to come up with a better-sounding name, at least giving everyone a sense of homeland...

"By the way."

Just as Yang Xuan was still thinking, Du Chengfeng, who was on horseback, turned around.

"Old man, what were you talking about earlier regarding Northern Mountain Dao and Southern Mountain Dao, what’s that all about?"

"Uh, warrior, you don’t know?"

Yang Xuan was stunned by the question.

How could anyone not know such common knowledge?

But clearly, Du Chengfeng was the one lacking common knowledge; he really didn’t know about geography—so Yang Xuan could only try to recall and explain what he knew.

If on the Northern Desert Grassland, people divided regions by tribes, into small and large parts, then in South Chen, the divisions were more detailed. Above each settlement or village, the smallest regional unit was the county, above the county was the prefecture governing the local counties, and above the prefecture was the dao governing the local prefectures.

In terms Du Chengfeng could understand, dao was like a province, and prefecture was like a regional city.

"No wonder I always felt this prefecture seemed a bit small..."

Du Chengfeng couldn’t help but scratch his head.

When he first heard the term prefecture, he thought it was a provincial-level unit, but it turned out to be just a regional city—he realized that it was impossible for a province to have just over one hundred thousand people; the real issue was here.

"So what about counties? Why haven’t I seen any counties?"

"Well..."

This time, it was Yang Xuan’s turn to scratch his head.

"In the south, prefectures and counties should still be comparatively intact; as for the northern border..."

Yang Xuan awkwardly smiled.

That indeed wasn’t easy to explain because such things were rather subtle to discuss—strictly speaking, the county system still existed, but due to the fierce folkways at the northern border, each village and Dock Fortress could at least easily gather a hundred or more people. So in practice, the county system was almost non-existent.

If people couldn’t be controlled, who would care about this?

Of course, at the prefecture level, words still carried weight, since the chief officer of a prefecture was a commanding general. Even if those villages and Dock Fortresses gathered people, it wasn’t easy to show force against real soldiers—thus at the northern border, a situation slowly formed where the commanding general directly governed the towns and Dock Fortresses, with the county system being practically non-existent.