Chapter Thirty: Dusk of a Turbulent World

  Guan Hai held the knife and stood up, intending to send off the guest. Shi Xun couldn't just leave like this, so he quickly picked up the conversation: "What else do you need to prepare? They arrived last night, and that surnamed Guan actually wanted to take advantage of the dark night to launch a sneak attack on your camp, fortunately I stopped him..."

  Upon hearing the words "taking advantage of the dark night to launch a sneak attack", Guan Hai's face turned even darker, and he immediately interrogated: "What did you stop him for?"

  "Too pitiful," Xun said, deliberately squeezing his eyes shut and letting out a long sigh, fully embodying the tragic atmosphere. "How many soldiers do you have in your camp? With so many old, weak, women, and children, if he steals into the camp, amidst the chaos of war, who knows how many will be killed or trampled to death..."

  Guan Yu heard this, his thick eyebrows raised slightly, and he coldly smiled: "You're so kind? I don't believe it..." Although he said this with his mouth, his expression had already betrayed him. In fact, he was quite afraid that Guan Yu would really sneak into the camp at night, and he was also grateful to Zhou Yu for stopping Guan Yu.

  "Taking advantage of the momentum, he continued to expound: 'That day on Mount Fusu, General praised me as a filial son. Filial piety is always linked with benevolence; how can one be filial to parents but not benevolent towards relatives and friends? Of course, you are not my relatives, but at least we are from the same prefecture, even the same county, fellow townspeople. And those children still in their mothers' wombs, crying out for nourishment - if one feels no compassion or sympathy for them, can they be called human? They must be beasts!'"

  "Hey," Zhang Fei curled his lip, "even if you're genuinely kind-hearted, I appreciate the sentiment. You can go back and tell Guan Yu that I've already formed my battle array, with the old and weak at the rear. He can attack now."

  Xī suddenly pretended to explode, and raised his right hand, pointing at Hài with two fingers: "Are you still going to harm those old, weak women and children? Don't you want to be human anymore, do you want to be a beast?!"

  "Asshole!" A loud shout came from behind, "You dare to scold my dad as a beast!" Suddenly, a strong gust of wind swept over, and Xun felt a great force on his buttocks. He involuntarily fell into Guan Yi's arms again. This time, Guan Yi didn't stop him, but instead shifted his body to the side, causing Xun to fall to the ground with a thud, hitting his nose squarely. Immediately, tears came streaming down.

  Guan Hai raised his knife and pressed it against Zuo Xun's neck: "You say I don't want to be human, that I want to be a beast?! If what you say makes sense, I'll spare your life. If not, I'll cut off this dog head of yours to offer as a sacrifice!"

  He slowly straightened up, supporting himself with both hands on the ground. He wanted to wipe away his tears, but suddenly thought that this appearance was actually more convenient for the performance below, so he raised his head with tears in his eyes and glared at Guan Yu: "If you can win, it's fine, but what if you lose? The old, weak, women and children behind the formation will all be trampled by the defeated soldiers and pursuers. How can they survive? Moreover, you had a fierce battle with the Pingyuan army, is Kong Rong in Changshan City just a wooden man? If he opens the gate to attack from both sides, do you plan to use the old and weak as cannon fodder... or as a shield to resist the Northern Sea soldiers?"

  Guan Hai hadn't even responded, when Guan Si suddenly shouted: "What 'old, weak, women and children'? We are all great virtuous masters' disciples, we are the people of Zhong Huang Tai Yi, not a single one of us is afraid to die!"

  "Aren't you afraid of death?" Xun's face was covered in tears, yet he still sneered coldly, his appearance eerie to the extreme. "When Zhang Jiao and his brothers were still alive, where were you? If you're not afraid of death, then you should have charged all the way to Ji Province to rescue them! Why did you keep circling around Qingzhou?! You shouldn't be afraid of death, so why didn't you fight with all your might to take Linzi City?! Why did you retreat as soon as Jiao sent out some grain?! Did Zhang Jiao tell you to rebel so that you could live on, or so that you could die?!"

  "We are not afraid of death," said Guan Hai in a deep voice, "but we also don't want to die. The great wise teacher's rebellion against the Han is to create a better world where everyone can live well, no more foolish kings, no more corrupt officials, no more evil tyrants, everyone has land to farm, everyone has food to eat - for this goal, not one of us is afraid of death!"

  "Is that so?" Xun continued to sneer. As he spoke, he kept his hands on the ground, propping himself up, and looked up at Guan Hai with a strange expression, as if he was about to kowtow. But Guan Hai's large knife was still held horizontally, and he didn't dare stand up, so in the end, he simply twisted his waist, spread his legs, and sat down on the ground. He asked Guan Hai: "Are you sure those old, weak, women, and children are not afraid of death? Those babies who have just been born for a few days, can they also be beheaded at any time for your ideals?"

  "You... " couldn't think of a retort for the time being. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xun asked him: "If Zhang Jiao brothers didn't die and you really succeeded in overthrowing the Han Dynasty, would the legendary beautiful Yellow Sky World be achieved? Who would become the emperor then?"

  "Of course it's the great virtuous teacher who should be the emperor!"

  "Good," said Xun, nodding his head. "Zhang Jiao as the Emperor, Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao as the Prime Minister and General, I suppose you can also be a Governor or Magistrate..."

  Guan Hai shook his head: "I don't want to be an official, I'm going back home to farm."

  "Alright, even if you are noble and upright, what about Bai Yu, Zhang Jiao, Yu Du, and Mu Fu? Are they all going to give up their official positions and go back to farming? Who will then govern the people? Is Zhang Jiao going to use his magical powers to split himself into over a thousand bodies, placing one in each county? As long as there are officials, there will be corruption, oppression, and exploitation. Can you guarantee that every single one of your Yellow Turban officials is a good person? Alright, even if they are all good people, what about the next generation? Will the world under the Yellow Heaven become increasingly rotten, eventually becoming just as corrupt as the world under the Blue Heaven?"

  "Who cares about what happens later?" Guan Mei chimed in again, "As long as it's better than before, that's all that matters!"

  "You've been making trouble for many years, has the world become better than before?" Xun asked coldly. "You brought out these old, weak, women and children. If it were a peaceful time, even if officials and local tyrants bullied them, they could still survive with some difficulty. Since you started the rebellion and followed me, how many strong men have died, how many old and weak people have died? Do you dare say that if they had stayed in their hometowns to farm, they would be worse off than now?"

  He had nothing to say, actually, he had nothing to say for a long time. He originally planned well, but was led astray by the father-daughter duo, and had no choice but to use 70% of his energy to change the subject and 30% to confuse them. Fortunately, when it comes to eloquence, although he is not really glib, he is not someone that these rough men and women can look down on, especially since in his previous life, he had seen and played with all sorts of nonsense online, and even among real scholars, there are not many who can or dare to play like this.

  In the end, Zhang Wuji could only put away his sword and let out a long sigh: "I'm no match for you in an argument... so what do you think we should do?"

  "I'll ask you first, do you want those old, weak women and children to live or are you going to drag them down with you to death?"

  "Of course I want them to live. If it weren't for them, for the sake of everyone's parents and children being able to live a good life, who would risk their lives to rebel?"

  "Then hurry up and withdraw!" Xun Yu said, "I'll go block the Pingyuan and Duchang troops, you take the old and young and quickly retreat, escape to another place."

  Guan Mei pouted: "Where can we escape to... The food is almost gone, two days ago my father didn't even plan to besiege Dou Chang City, he sent someone to ask Kong Rong for food, as long as he gave us food we would leave, but that dog wouldn't give a single grain!"

  Xun had cursed Kong Rong a hundred times in his heart, but he said with his mouth: "There is not much grain stored in the city of Du Chang... You should retreat south first, and then make a circle to go to Qi Guo. Jiao He can give you food for the second time if he gives it once. Then you can go south to Mount Tai again. There are many mountains there, and it is not easy for government soldiers to chase and attack. Even if you set up a camp in the mountains and cultivate land, it's better than starving and running around everywhere."

  "Speaking of which, he glanced at Gu Mei: "General, can you really bear to let your own daughter die on the battlefield one day?"

  Guan Hai let out a long sigh and slumped down beside Shi Xun: "Alright, you go block the Pingyuan army and the Douchang army... If you can't block them, I'll fight it out with them. One against one is even, one against two is a profit!"

  He emerged from the yellow scarf array, just had a verbal sparring match with the housekeeper and his daughter, scaring... no, killing him to be drenched in sweat, went outside and felt the cool breeze, thinking: "I'm done for, this time I'll definitely catch a cold."

  Return to inform Guan Yu, Guan Yu is puzzled, and his tone also becomes somewhat gentler: "I didn't expect that Mr. has the talent of debate, but how did you persuade that Gan Hui?" Shi Xie doesn't plan to tell him the details, so he can only give him a high hat: "It's all thanks to your lordship...the prestige of the Sima family, which had already intimidated Gan Hui in Pingyuan." Guan Yu strokes his beard, looking very pleased.

  Guan Yu ordered the Pingyuan soldiers to remain vigilant and supervise the retreat of the Yellow Turbans. Shi Xie asked Taishi Ci to rush into the city of Duchang on horseback, blocking Kong Rong from taking advantage of the situation to pursue them - he was a bit too anxious, Kong Rong had been worried to death lately, where did he have the guts for this?

  The million-strong Yellow Turbans, slow to organize and gather, finally began to withdraw from the city of Douchang in a scattered manner, with some going east and others west. The father-daughter duo of Guan, wielding sharp blades, brought up the rear, while Zhang Fei bid farewell with clasped hands. Guan Yu still wore a cold expression, seemingly with three parts reluctance and unwillingness, but his tone was warm: "Mr. Zhang, you've saved us all this time; in the future, if there's anything we can do for you, just come find me...find old...me, and I'll definitely exert my utmost effort to repay your great kindness."

  He was about to say, "Give me your daughter," but he couldn't bring himself to say it. Afterwards, he found it strange that in neither his past life nor this one had he ever been a lolicon. Or perhaps it was because this little loli, despite her delicate appearance, had the abilities and demeanor of an adult, which gave him a mistaken impression?

  He could only clench his fist and say "until we meet again". But unexpectedly, Guan Mei suddenly chimed in: "Meet your sister!" After saying this, perhaps feeling it wasn't quite right, her small face actually turned slightly red, pouting as she said: "Probably there won't be another chance for us to meet... just like you said, my dad and I might die on the battlefield at any time - when will the world be at peace?"

  "The world of Huang Tian may not be built, but you may still have the opportunity to return to the countryside, although it's not happiness, but can live a peaceful life," Xun was also infected with Xiao Luoli's emotions and felt a bit down, but he immediately took a deep breath, "I believe that day will come, in the near future!"

  He couldn't help but shift his gaze westward, gazing at the orange-red sky that was dyed with brilliant sunset colors - that older brother of his who was about to subdue the million-strong Hebei Yellow Turbans, what was he doing right now?

  The End of Volume One of Xian Da's Helplessness