Chapter 97: My System Couldn’t Possibly Be This Sleazy (Part Two)
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“All right, I give up.”
Zhang Yu quickly accepted the system’s shameless and despicable nature and continued turning the pages.
On the Badge screen, in addition to the five badges that had originally included [Sickly Constitution], two new ones had appeared: [Master of Seven-Character Verse] and [Talent Worth Eight Bushels]. Zhang Yu felt far more confident as a person, as though he could no longer speak without dressing his words up in literary flourishes.
Yes, a beating should cure him.
After he turned past the Badge page, the Quest screen appeared.
Zhang Yu lowered his head to examine the newly updated Reputation Quest—and nearly choked.
“[Reputation Quest]: Raise reputation to [Immortal Renown]. [Quest Reward]: Item—[Gilded Twin-Barreled Matchlock with Entwined Floral Design], eight bullets.”
“A gun!”
Although he had no idea what exactly a matchlock was, and understood that it was certainly less advanced than the pistols and other firearms of later ages, it was still a gun—a gun that used bullets!
Zhang Yu seemed to see the rising sun all at once, and the future suddenly appeared full of hope.
“As expected of the power of firearms. I feel all fired up.”
He hurriedly looked further. Although raising his reputation another level would require more than twenty thousand points, for Zhang Yu, who had the system at his disposal, it was merely a matter of having everything ready except for the final push.
“Bang!”
“Sorry. The truth is, I’m a military commander.”
“…You! What kind of concealed weapon is this?”
“The pistol is truly wonderful.”
Daydreaming was good for the brain. After his brief burst of yearning, Zhang Yu continued reading.
“[Bond Quest]: Raise the number of Bonded Friends to ten. (Note: A Friendship Bond requires an intimacy level of eighty; a Special Bond requires an intimacy level of ninety.) [Quest Reward]: Greatly increase intimacy with one designated military commander.”
“Completion: 18/10.”
“Submit: Yes/No.”
Zhang Yu was just about to click “Yes,” but then he reconsidered. At present, there was no one whose favor he urgently needed to win. Besides, the Bond Quest amounted to nothing more than reaching a certain number of bonds, and those bonds were not going anywhere. After some thought, he decided to leave it unsubmitted for the time being.
“[Career Quest]: Establish an independent power or pledge allegiance to a ruler. [Quest Reward]: One random architectural blueprint.”
“Well, there’s no hurry with this one either.” Zhang Yu stroked a nonexistent beard.
“Establishing my own power would be exhausting and dangerous. As for pledging allegiance… I originally intended to join Cao Cao, but given that I bear the identity of Liu Bei’s nephew, he would surely be suspicious of me. Besides, who knows whether this uncle of mine will participate in the Belt Edict plot in the future… Yet if I join my own uncle, I have no confidence that I could help him conquer an empire. If I alter history too drastically, I’ll lose whatever advantage I have over the grand scheme of things.
“This is a thankless, backbreaking endeavor.”
“As for the others, Yuan Shao seems fairly decent at present. Still, from the perspective of a time traveler, that man must have plenty of deep-seated flaws. I can investigate him when I return. If none of them are suitable, then I’ll simply bring my family along and honestly become a reclusive sage who writes books. Once my uncle conquers Yi Province, I can go join him. As long as I keep that boy Lu from burning everything down in one stroke, the Shu kingdom may still have a future…”
After the Personal Information and Quest screens came the System Shop, which remained unchanged. Countless treasures of civilization still lay quietly within it.
Beyond those, however, the tabs at the top of the interface now displayed the most important content added in this update.
[Intelligence].
Intelligence! Zhang Yu held his breath and hurriedly opened it.
A map of the entire realm appeared!
It extended northeast to Liaodong, northwest to the Protectorate of the Western Regions beyond Qian City, southeast to Yi Province, and south to Jiaozhi.
Most of the regions, however, appeared gray, meaning that their status could not be viewed.
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Only Sili, where Zhang Yu currently was, and Hebei, his homeland, were lit with color.
Most of Sili was shrouded in black. As a longtime fan of the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Yu naturally knew that this was the color representing Dong Zhuo’s army.
When he moved the illusory cursor over it, a set of data automatically appeared.
“Power: Dong Zhuo.”
“Territory: Sili; Liang Province.”
“Military strength: 240,000+.”
“Population: 2,360,000+.”
“Military provisions: Average.”
“Regional prosperity: Poor.”
“Overall power rating: A+.”
Two hundred and forty thousand troops!
If Dong Zhuo was represented by black, then Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan were naturally gold and orange, while the sliver of green caught between them belonged to his own uncle…
“Power: Yuan Shao.”
“Territory: Ji Province.”
“Military strength: 40,000+.”
“Population: 4,230,000+.”
“Military provisions: Below average.”
“Regional prosperity: Below average.”
“Overall power rating: B+.”
Four million people!?
“Power: Liu Bei.”
“Territory: Pingyuan.”
“Military strength: 10,000+.”
“Population: 160,000+.”
“Military provisions: Above average.”
“Regional prosperity: Average.”
“Overall power rating: C.”
Well, he really was terribly weak.
“Power: Gongsun Zan.”
“Territory: You Province.”
“Military strength: 60,000+.”
“Population: 1,990,000+.”
“Military provisions: Below average.”
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“Regional prosperity: Below average.”
…
After skimming through the information, Zhang Yu voiced the question troubling him.
“System, does Dong Zhuo really have that many troops?” Zhang Yu asked tentatively.
“What a stupid question.”
“Damn it.” Zhang Yu was furious at being insulted by the system.
“I don’t believe it. If he had that many troops, how could the lords east of the Pass have driven him away? In an age like this, wouldn’t taking two hundred thousand men to war be exaggerated into five or six hundred thousand?”
“Do you think all those troops can be mobilized at any moment? Aside from the forces actually needed for battle, the figure also includes the permanent garrisons stationed in every city, the mobile units responsible for attack and defense that can be deployed at any time, the volunteer militias at various strongholds throughout the territory, and the soldiers tasked with suppressing rebellions and maintaining order.”
“Put that way, the number does make sense… But Yuan Shao’s population is still absurd, isn’t it?”
“Foolish child, don’t doubt me. I’ll prove it to you right now.”
The system replied with the swagger of a self-important school dean. A moment later, a series of beeps came from its side, as though it were using an old-fashioned calculator to perform the arithmetic.
“According to the census conducted in the third year of the Yongshou era under Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han, in the year 157, the realm contained a total population of fifty-six million, of which Ji Province alone accounted for six million. And that figure included only registered inhabitants.”
“Based on my deductions, the realm’s population at the time was probably around sixty million, while Ji Province should have had approximately six and a half million.”
“Deductions!? That’s your idea of proving it?” Zhang Yu smacked himself hard on the head, though unfortunately he was still the only one who felt the pain.
“Not so hard!”
“What? You feel it when I hit myself?”
“Of course not. How could I possibly feel pain?”
“Then why did you tell me not to hit so hard?”
“Obviously. The noise is loud enough to frighten me.”
“You little—”
The system did not give Zhang Yu the opportunity to finish his censored outburst and continued:
“According to the census conducted in the first year of the Taikang era under Emperor Wu of Western Jin, in the year 280, after the Three Kingdoms period had ended, the entire realm contained only sixteen million people. Still, it is not yet too late in the present age, and a considerable portion of the population remains.”
Zhang Yu, who had been seething with rage, fell silent at that figure.
From fifty-six million to sixteen million—a loss of forty million people.
And that was the result after the wars of the later Three Kingdoms period had diminished considerably compared with the earlier warlord conflicts, allowing the land some time to recover!
Had Zhang Yu known that, by the time of the Battle of Red Cliffs—after the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the conflicts among the rival lords—the vast realm of Huaxia would have been left with barely a million people, he might once again have felt that this Literary System was like a rib: tasteless to consume, yet a pity to discard. He might even have steeled himself, laid down his pen, and taken up arms to fight on the front lines—though that was probably unlikely.
The Five Barbarians would overrun the Central Plains, bandits would invade—if Huaxia had no people left, on what grounds could it be thrown into chaos, and on what grounds could it be invaded?
In the final years of the Eastern Han, the realm was divided into the Three Kingdoms. Countless heroes emerged, a galaxy of brilliant stars illuminating the age, captivating later generations for centuries.
Yet this was an age of chaos, a catastrophe, a grand and mournful song of Huaxia.
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