Chapter 58: A Small Troop
The ruined walls barely held out a small camp, crammed with fourteen people and over twenty horses.
The campfire smoke rose and mingled with the breath of everyone, bringing a touch of warmth to the frozen wilderness.
Before dawn, Old Pan was already busy by the campfire.
He moved a few relatively regular stones, built a simple stove, and set up a small, chipped iron pot. Boiling snow water made a gurgling sound.
Smelling the meat, Xiao Yi opened his eyes and saw Old Pan sprinkling millet and mashed dried beans into the pot.
Recalling the words “feed the refugees” he heard while collecting bodies yesterday, he couldn’t help but ask, “What meat are you boiling?”
“Horse meat,” Old Pan sighed. “Live horses are the lifeblood of an army. Dead horse meat is tough, but it shouldn’t be wasted.”
Looking up, by the treeline, Xi Hou and Hu Deng were skinning horses, and Wu Gouzi was hanging the meat on tree branches to dry.
Xiao Yi let out a soft sigh, got up, and took out feed from his luggage to give to his Wuzhui horse.
Seeing ice frost in the horse’s nostrils, he took a piece of linen cloth to wipe it.
“Captain Xiao, take it easy,” Old Pan said. “A horse’s nose is delicate. This cloth has been frozen all night and is stiff; it could easily cause a scrape. You need to rub it gently with your hand, using body heat to melt the frost. Don’t use brute force.”
Xiao Yi did as he was told, warming the frost, and then wrapped his horse’s fetlocks with dry grass for warmth and to promote circulation.
The horse seemed to understand his gentleness and nudged him twice. Xiao Yi then stroked its mane.
Old Pan couldn’t help but laugh, “This horse is magnificent, but much more precious than people. It’s difficult to please and eats better than us.”
Fan Si was observant. Seeing Xiao Yi’s actions, he quickly took care of each horse. Lu You and Wei Liang followed to help, and Hua Heng, shouting that he wanted to learn, chased after them with Guo Zongyi.
“Give them some warm water,” Old Pan instructed again. “After feeding them, take them for a walk for a couple of rounds. Don’t let them lie down immediately.”
“Alright!”
Only then did Old Pan fumble out a small, flat pottery pot, shake some coarse, yellowish salt into the pot, and slowly stir it with a peeled willow branch.
Wei Liang sniffed and said, “It smells really good. Brother’s cooking is better than Fan Si’s.”
“There’s no choice. My old teeth can’t chew hard food. Marching biscuits are the worst; I can only drink something soupy.”
Jiang Er Niang was also not idle. She warmed water in a small, battered pottery pot by the campfire and roasted the stiff Hu Bing until the surface was golden brown and the inside was warm.
She blew the dust off the bread, broke it open, and stuffed it into Hua Heng and Guo Zongyi, scolding them, “You two rascals! Stop messing around and eat; don’t choke.”
But when she turned to Hua Nong, her tone became displeased again.
“Drinking thin porridge in Kaifeng City that you could see your reflection in would be better than chewing this in the ice and snow…”
Hua Nong awkwardly forced a smile. Seeing Hu Deng about to change Wu Gouzi’s dressing, he took out an oil-paper package from his luggage and handed it over, saying, “This is heirloom herbs. Add some; it won’t fester easily.”
Wu Gouzi was stunned. Hu Deng then slapped him on the head and cursed, “You idiot, you don’t know how to thank people.”
“Thank… thank Mister.”
After a simple breakfast, everyone had become more familiar.
Although their backgrounds were different, Xiao Yi naturally held the highest rank and had the best demeanor, while Old Pan was the oldest and most experienced. Naturally, the two led the group, one as the main leader and the other as his assistant.
After eating, they extinguished the embers and covered them with a layer of thick snow.
Old Pan checked the horses one by one, and when he found a loose horseshoe, he wrapped it with hemp rope a couple of times.
Xi Hou was the first to drive the horses onto the official road, shouting, “From here north, Ye Du is still over a hundred and thirty li away. On normal marches, we would see the walls of Ye Du before dark. But we have women and injured soldiers, so it’s hard to say…”
“A day or two won’t matter. Safety is the priority.”
This distance was actually closer than Xiao Yi had expected.
He had always heard others say that Ye Du was a crucial border town, and it felt as if it were on the edge of the world. This was a misconception after the cession of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun. In reality, the territory of this “Great Han” was very small, and Ye Du was likely in the area of Handan and Daming County in Hebei.
It wasn’t even as far as Xingtai, the hometown of Guo Wei and Zhang Mantun.
Setting off, Xi Hou was very cheerful, leading the way and disappearing for an hour or two at a time, then reining in his horse on a dirt slope by the official road to wait, scratching his frozen red ears, truly resembling a monkey.
Lu You, Fan Si, and Wei Liang were tacitly spread out around them, with Old Pan, Hu Deng, and Wu Gouzi bringing up the rear.
Xiao Yi, along with the Guo family aunt and niece, and Hua Nong’s family, rode in the middle.
The snowy plain was vast and desolate, and the distant mountains were like dark eyebrows, outlining a bleak silhouette against the gray sky.
Most of the villages by the official road were dilapidated, with collapsed earthen walls and no signs of life. Crows stood on the bare tree branches, cawing harshly.
Seeing this scene, Hua Nong couldn’t help but sigh.
“I once read Du Fu’s poem, ‘Jackals block the roads, people are severed; beacon fires light the night, corpses lie strewn about,’ describing the scene of ‘warfare unending for ten years.’ Even now, the chaos has lasted for a century. Truly, every word is tears and blood. Who knows when they will be washed away.”
Xiao Yi said, “Soon. With the suppression of chaos and the establishment of prosperity, you will see it in your lifetime.”
He could always instill confidence in those around him with his unwavering certainty.
Hua Nong wanted to continue the conversation, but Jiang Er Niang, riding with him, pinched him and complained, “Don’t always say useless things; let Captain Xiao have some peace.”
“Alas, you also make my ears…”
“What do you want to say?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
The couple’s horses slowed down.
Guo Xin naturally rode her horse alongside Xiao Yi and asked, “Do you think my mother and the others are alright?”
Xiao Yi was silent for a moment, his tone calm, “The Imperial Court is wary of Commander Guo’s military power and will not easily harm Madam. Moreover, Commander Wang of Chan Prefecture has already sent people to Kaifeng for assistance…”
He paused.
In fact, there were many other reasons he could have fabricated, but the words of Wang Yin evaluating Liu Chengyou and Li Ye, “greed makes the wise foolish, and madness drives them to frenzy,” echoed in his ears.
The Guo family had met with misfortune and encountered a madman without reason.
“Mm.”
Guo Xin’s slender back, which had been tense, finally relaxed.
She turned her head, her eyes brightening slightly, and said softly, “Qing Wen trusts the Young Master… Oh, I, this Captain, will trust you, Deputy Commander.”
As Ye Du drew nearer, it felt as if hope was drawing nearer, and her mood improved considerably.
Xiao Yi responded with a faint smile, his eyes cast down, avoiding her gaze.
At noon, the sun was slightly higher but offered no warmth. The white light reflected from the accumulated snow was dazzling.
Xi Hou rode back and shouted, “We are approaching Xiang Prefecture!”
The group did not enter the city but rested in a village outside the city, near the official road.
The earthen houses in the village were low and disordered. There were few pedestrians, and those who were there looked gaunt and hurried past. Along the muddy road, about a dozen stalls were set up, selling coarse pottery bowls, straw sandals, reed mats, and other travel necessities, or some rare winter vegetables like Chinese cabbage and turnips.
There were also stalls selling children.
The liveliest place was a small tavern with a tattered wine banner. A shed was erected at the entrance, a pot was set up, and a murky soup bubbled, giving off a few wisps of a gamey smell.
The crowd naturally gravitated towards it. Even Lu You, a native of Kaifeng who had seen much, approached the pot and took a deep breath.
“Damn it, let’s have some hot soup.”
“First, roast twenty millet cakes!”
Old Pan glanced at the soup in the pot and frowned, “A few scraps of offal, so thin you can see your reflection in it. Throw it to the horses. Cook this meat for us, and go buy some Chinese cabbage and turnips to add. Do you have wine?”
The old man tending the pot, his face full of wrinkles and wearing a worn-out padded jacket, smiled apologetically, “Military officers, this pot of soup is fifteen coins, the cakes are four coins each. To cook meat soup requires seven coins for firewood, and Chinese cabbage and seasonings are fifteen coins. We have wine; it’s fifty coins a pot…”
“Nonsense!” Hu Deng’s eyes widened, and he cursed, “You old scoundrel, selling so expensively, you’re running a black market and trying to rob us.”
The old man’s face immediately fell. He pleaded, “Have mercy. These lamb offal are not much to you military men. I bought them with my own money. The wine was brought by my son from Fuyang. The roads are not safe, and the travel expenses alone are more than this. This old soldier understands Hebei market prices.”
“Oh? You think my brother Pan is easily bullied?”
The old man looked like he was about to cry, knowing he should offer some deference but finding it difficult.
Seeing this, Xiao Yi glanced at Wei Liang.
Earlier, he had asked Wei Liang to distribute cakes to the children, and now he wanted to see Wei Liang’s reaction.
Their eyes met, and Wei Liang understood. He took out a bag of money from his luggage and stepped forward.
“Heh heh, why would we let our brothers from Chan Prefecture pay? Old man, take this. Consider the extra a reward from our Captain. Serve good wine and dishes; we’ve been frozen all the way.”
“Alright!” The old man seemed greatly relieved.
Hua Nong, who had been watching with worry, breathed a sigh of relief and nodded repeatedly.
The group entered the tavern and sat down.
Xiao Yi looked out the window and saw Fan Si and Wei Liang taking care of the horses together, murmuring in their hometown dialect.
“Wow, the sun rose from the west today. You’ve changed your ways.”
“Ah, didn’t Mister Hua say that soldiers fight for pay and protect their folks?”
“Don’t you usually hate such grand principles?”
“How can it be the same? Mister said that arguing with others is a different matter… Right, give it to me.”
“What?”
“The half-string of coins you lost to me in a bet,” Wei Liang said. “The Captain said he could lead us to great fortune and honor. It must be Mister Hua, as he’s read books.”
“So what if he’s read books? Don’t you hate scholars the most?”
“Nonsense, there are many types of scholars. The ones we hate are definitely not the gods of wealth who will bring us great fortune.”
“Get lost.”
“You can’t deny this half-string of coins; you’ll have to give it eventually…”
