Chapter 88: Chapter 80: Liu Bolun
To be fair, Du Chengfeng doesn’t have a good impression of this Liu Bolun.
As the chief of military weaponry in Yanzhou, this Liu Bolun resigned his post while fighting fiercely at the front in Jizhou. Even though Du Chengfeng is not a native of Southern Chen, having fought his way out from Jizhou, it’s hard for him to have a good opinion of a deserter like that.
"Just for deserting from the battlefield, he’s already worse than Yang Sanlang."
This was Du Chengfeng’s evaluation of Liu Bolun.
No matter how much the other tried to curry favor, it was the same.
Yet Liu Bolun kept lingering around him, chattering incessantly with a comforting tone.
And after talking for so long, this workplace veteran was really only talking about one thing.
To persuade Du Chengfeng to resign with him.
"Da Chen is completely rotten!"
Liu Bolun took two gulps from a gourd and continued to persuade.
"It’s meaningless to stay in that position! The governor of military weapons can control the weapons, but can he control the people wielding them? Can he control the people who control them?"
"...Wait? Are you saying you initially supported the campaign to support the north of Ji?"
Du Chengfeng suddenly felt something was off, as Liu Bolun’s words seemed to carry implicit meanings.
If Liu Bolun was originally in the faction that supported the campaign to Ji’s north, but this opinion was dismissed by the governor of Yanzhou in a word, then resigning could oddly make some sense—simply a matter of ambition thwarted, somewhat irresponsible, but at least within Du Chengfeng’s realm of comprehension.
But just when Du Chengfeng thought Liu Bolun would nod his head in acknowledgment, this ugly man six feet tall gulped down a couple more sips of wine.
"Wrong, I was in the faction that didn’t support the campaign."
"...Huh?"
Du Chengfeng couldn’t help but furrow his brow.
Under the influence of the alcohol, Liu Bolun continued speaking.
"The words ’send troops’ are easy to say, but where do the soldiers come from? Where do the generals come from? Having come to Yanzhou, you’ve seen it too; although it’s close to Ji’s north, the customs are different. Conscripting soldiers here to fight will kill how many people? How many monsters will it breed?"
Monsters.
Du Chengfeng’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Although Liu Bolun’s actions were essentially akin to desertion, as someone who personally fought from Ji’s north, he had to admit that Liu Bolun’s judgment was unexpectedly correct.
It was precisely because in Ji’s north, when he managed to defeat He Xiqing, partly by risking his own life, but also because after He Xiqing conquered Ji Town, no other enemies appeared.
Southern Chen reinforcements? None. Local volunteer troops? None. From start to finish, He Xiqing faced only Du Chengfeng as an opponent.
This directly starved He Xiqing, who was hoping to grow stronger through slaughter and gain momentum for further victories.
If troops had been sent from Yanzhou, the outcome would have been different.
You must know that over the past few days, Du Chengfeng had also experienced the local customs of Yanzhou. Although it could be considered having some martial virtues being close to Jizhou, with Capturers maintaining public order strongly, murders still occurred frequently. However, these nighttime murders were rather trivial compared to Ji’s routine stabbings out of disagreement—if soldiers were conscripted and sent north to Ji, He Xiqing might break them in a single encounter and feast jubilantly on the gains.
If such a situation occurred, facing a fully matured He Xiqing sweeping across all of Jizhou with majestic victories, no matter how much Du Chengfeng fought for his life, it would be impossible to turn the tide.
In other words, Liu Bolun resigning inadvertently helped him out?
"Of course, another reason I don’t support conscription is simply because soldiers can’t be conscripted."
Liu Bolun grinned.
"You don’t think people from Yanzhou are genuinely willing to risk their lives to help Jizhou fight, do you?"
With that, Liu Bolun handed his gourd to Du Chengfeng.
"So, stop overthinking it, leave when you’re tired. Since you are also a Master Craftsman, you should sense something... our world has gone mad! Everyone in the world has gone mad! Rather than accompanying lunatics every day, drink more wine, it can at least let you relax a bit, let you find some joy."
"I prefer to think that everyone might just have... their own persistence?"
Although speaking like that, Du Chengfeng still took the gourd of wine Liu Bolun passed and hung it at his waist.
Clearly, Liu Bolun leans towards a more pessimistic view, which Du Chengfeng could understand, but it wasn’t something he personally agreed with—rather than drinking away his sorrows waiting for death, he preferred to use his own hands to create a good living environment.
Of course, just using your hands may not be enough, but he still had his knife.
He and his weapon were already in perfect harmony.
"Well, since you still have your own ideas, I won’t persuade you anymore. Anyway, Yanzhou really does need someone to clean up this mess."
As he spoke, Liu Bolun leaned in, throwing an arm around Du Chengfeng’s shoulder.
"I’ll teach you a lazy way, don’t foolishly try to suppress the murderous grievances of weapons with the righteousness of poetry and books. Doing that too much will ruin you... remember those homebrews stored in my house? You can take the weapons back, toss them into the wine jars, once the vengeful weapons drink their fill, the grievances dissipate, and they won’t cause any more trouble."
"Oh? There’s this method?"
Du Chengfeng couldn’t help but become interested.
He had tried grinding a blade with wine once, and that time after sharpening, his Heavy Great Saber gained the ability to unleash fiery blade attacks—only he didn’t expect Liu Bolun to use the same method, even earlier than him.
But then, he suddenly felt that something was amiss.
Knife’s evil qi, he knew about that, but what on earth was this ’murderous grievance’? And using poetry and book righteousness for suppression... what was that?
Although filled with doubt, Du Chengfeng did not ask directly.
Clearly, compared to the original methods of sharpening in this world, his unconventional sharpening technique was a bit too different. If he foolishly blurted out "I just sharpen it directly," he might soon become an exhibit for all the students in this mountain to gawk at like a golden snub-nosed monkey.
Rather than show off himself, it was better to learn from others first, understand what exactly poetry and book righteousness and murderous grievance were all about, and then make plans.
So, he simply opened his saddlebag and drew out his Broken Horse Long Saber.
"Actually, coming to Ziyang Mountain this time, it wasn’t to bother you, but for this."
As he spoke, Du Chengfeng unsheathed his blade.
"This saber once broke, and although it was repaired later... you see, it’s like it’s dead, it wasn’t fixed properly at all."
"Your saber... has killed quite a few people, hasn’t it?"
Liu Bolun frowned immediately.
"Why did you use it to kill so many?"
"Weren’t there battles in the north of Ji back then? The barbarians were coming south... there wasn’t much choice."
Du Chengfeng mumbled a couple of words, sidestepping the topic.
"What’s the matter, is it hard to repair?"
"It’s not about being hard to repair, it’s about being beyond repair."
After examining the Broken Horse Long Saber, Liu Bolun sighed deeply.
"It has borne too much murderous grievance; this saber is already at the end of its life."
