Chapter 18: Life And Death Are Fated, Wealth And Honor Depend On Heaven
The sky grew increasingly dim, and piles of bonfires were lit in Hexi Fort, creating a lively atmosphere.
Today’s battle victory had slightly dispelled the shadow of the Battle of North Mountain in people’s hearts, and everyone’s faces now showed a bit more smiles.
The women were gathering firewood, while the men selected a few horses with the most severe injuries and began showing off their knife skills.
Among the captured war horses this time, more than twenty were injured, and several had died directly.
If they could be saved, they would certainly try their best to treat them; if not, they could only give these horses a quick end.
“Hiss hiss hiss~”
Under the burning bonfire, a miserable neighing sound from a horse rang out.
Chen Erqiang raised his knife and brought it down, directly slitting the neck of a severely injured horse.
Blood instantly gushed out, but fortunately, someone had already placed a wooden basin below to catch the horse blood.
This was also a good thing!
For the Han people of Hexi Fort, nothing edible could be wasted.
This horse blood would be made into blood sausage for storage and eaten gradually later.
“Erqiang, your horse-killing skills haven’t slipped at all~” Li Dashan praised.
Erqiang laughed heartily: “If it were killing Geluolu beasts, I’d be even neater and tidier!”
A group of men chatted and laughed while working together, quickly dismembering a war horse into pieces of meat.
Nothing would be wasted—not even the horsehide, which would be dried and made into leather armor!
Although horsehide armor’s defense was not as good as cowhide armor, it was still better than nothing.
An hour later, pots of steaming horse meat were cooked.
Tonight, the whole village would feast!
Regardless of men, women, old or young, regardless of whether they participated in today’s battle.
Everyone, come to the village entrance to eat horse meat—eat as much as you want!
Soon, Da Hu and Er Hu each held a leg bone and gnawed on it directly.
The previous battle had drained their stamina greatly; they were starving.
Moreover, this was horse meat captured from Geluolu people—eating their horses was like eating Geluolu people’s flesh. The two boys ate with great relish.
Since learning of Li Dahai’s death in battle, this was the first time smiles appeared on their faces.
“Bro, you’ve become Fort Master now. Grandpa can’t control me anymore, haha~” After swallowing a big mouthful of horse meat, Er Hu suddenly chuckled.
He then gave Da Hu a look on the other side: “Da Hu, from now on, us brothers can do whatever we want!”
Da Hu also smiled lightly, though not as smug as Er Hu, shaking his head as he said: “You do whatever you want yourself; don’t drag me into it!”
He even glanced at the Old Master sitting in the distance talking with a group of old men.
“You’re really no fun~”
Er Hu shook his head and dropped the topic, instead pestering Li Xiao: “Bro, have you figured out how to get revenge on the Geluolu people?”
“No!” Li Xiao said.
Compared to Er Hu’s fierce and rough demeanor, Li Xiao seemed more refined, using a knife to cut the horse meat into small pieces before putting them in his mouth.
To be honest, it didn’t taste good—very tough!
Mainly because spices were limited in this era; it couldn’t compare to the delicacies of later generations!
“Even if just for spices, we must raid India a few times in the future—not to mention those Indians like hiding gold in temples~” Li Xiao thought to himself.
If there was a chance, he would definitely conquer the South Asian Subcontinent and turn all those Indians into his own slaves.
Nothing else—just grow grain, spices, cotton~
But seeing his distracted look, Er Hu grew anxious: “How can you not have thought about it yet?”
He then said viciously: “The Geluolu people killed our dad; a hundred heads definitely aren’t enough.”
“Best to kill every single Geluolu person in Jin Prefecture clean.”
Seeing Er Hu’s murderous look, Li Xiao knew in his heart that this kid might turn into a butcher who would make foreign races tremble in fear.
In the future, this kid would kill plenty of people~
But there was nothing wrong with that!
Li Xiao shook his head and calmly said to Er Hu: “The Geluolu rebels aren’t that easy to kill. This time, we just got lucky and killed a hundred.”
“But there are over three thousand Geluolu rebels in Jin Prefecture total. Hexi Fort alone definitely can’t do it. Wait until Third Grandfather contacts the other villages!”
Right now, the most important thing was to gather intelligence, scout the Geluolu people’s specific situation, contact other Han villages, and then look for opportunities to strike the Geluolu people.
Fighting couldn’t rely solely on hot-blooded impulses and reckless charging!
Li Xiao didn’t want to trade Hexi Fort people’s lives for Geluolu lives.
“Anyway, when the time comes, I’ll definitely be the vanguard!” After hearing Li Xiao’s words, Er Hu huffed.
After today’s battle, Er Hu felt he had transformed; next time they encountered Geluolu people, he could at least kill ten more!
This gathering in Hexi Fort celebrated the victory of killing a hundred Geluolu rebels and also Li Xiao becoming Hexi Fort Master.
From now on, Li Xiao would face the whirlpool of storms in Jin Prefecture head-on.
No one would shield him from wind and rain anymore; he himself would become that umbrella.
Until the hour of Hai, nearly midnight, the villagers of Hexi Fort gradually dispersed and returned home!
Soon, Li Xiao’s family returned home, but following them were three strangers.
It was Xiao Yanyan and her two guards.
“These few days, make do living in the village; conditions aren’t great, please bear with it.” Li Xiao dismounted, tying his little mare into the horse stable.
Then he went to round up the other horses driven into the courtyard.
Besides Li Xiao killing nineteen Geluolu people, the Old Master had also killed three, gaining three good horses, several sabers, bows and arrows, and more.
Da Hu and Er Hu together killed two Geluolu cavalrymen and each got a horse, a knife, bow and arrows, etc.!
A total of thirty horses and a large number of other weapons.
It could be said that just this haul nearly matched all of Li Xiao’s family’s previous property.
The previous horse stable definitely wasn’t enough; Li Xiao and the others would have to quickly build a simple horse pen later.
“It’s fine, I’m not picky!” Xiao Yanyan walked into the courtyard and smiled frankly.
Western Liao’s princess was different from Central Plains princesses.
Like other herdsmen, Xiao Yanyan lived in tents, smelled horse manure, and at best had better food and clothing.
Moreover, Xiao Yanyan hadn’t had it easy as a child, without proper princess treatment until her brother gradually rose, improving her life.
So, Hexi Fort’s living conditions were completely acceptable to Xiao Yanyan.
However, what surprised Xiao Yanyan was that an eight-immortal table stood in front of the room door, with a spirit tablet and other tributes on it.
Looking around the courtyard, it was clearly decorated like an altar of mourning.
This scene immediately made Xiao Yanyan uneasy.
She wasn’t afraid of hardship, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t afraid of ghosts!
“Li Xiao, this is?” Xiao Yanyan’s steps halted at the gate, looking at Li Xiao somewhat unnaturally.
“My dad~” Li Xiao said candidly.
He didn’t even glance at her, continuing to temporarily tie horse after horse to the railings in the courtyard.
“Died in North Mountain a few days ago~”
Li Xiao said in a calm tone, while Da Hu and Er Hu slowly stopped their work, both looking toward Xiao Yanyan and her two companions.
They wouldn’t forget that the war’s failure was due to that Khitan governor’s reckless commands.
In the end, he had deceived Li Dahai into holding off the pursuers while he fled first.
Li Dahai’s death was entirely caused by that Da He Chu Luo Duo.
Consequently, they looked upon Xiao Yanyan and these Khitan people with displeasure.
Li Xiao didn’t explain further.
Xiao Yanyan didn’t know; otherwise, she wouldn’t dare enter Li Family’s courtyard.
“Uh~ really?~”
“That’s truly regrettable~” Xiao Yanyan said softly, embarrassed.
In her heart, she cursed Da He Chu Luo Duo again—he was no man at all.
Waste!
Fortunately, besides her two guards, no one in Hexi Fort knew of her connection to Da He Chu Luo Duo.
Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t dare stay in Hexi Fort another moment.
Hexi Fort villagers wouldn’t care if you were governor or princess—revenge would be taken.
Western Liao Royal Court was over two thousand li away, and even Eastern Capital was eight hundred li from here; their control over Jin Prefecture’s grassroots forts and villages was actually quite limited.
If pushed too far, Hexi Fort Han people could simply rebel against Western Liao and submit to the Naiman.
“No regrets—life and death are fated, wealth and honor depend on heaven!”
“In this place, ordinary people’s lives are worthless~”
With that, Li Xiao set down his work, turned to Xiao Yanyan at the door, and said: “Come on, I’ll take you to your quarters.”
After speaking, Li Xiao walked out the courtyard gate, with Xiao Yanyan following behind, seemingly still pondering Li Xiao’s earlier words.
“Life and death are fated, wealth and honor depend on heaven? What does that mean?” Xiao Yanyan asked puzzled.
Though she understood Chinese language, it was only at the level of listening and speaking everyday talk.
She didn’t quite grasp slightly more complex phrases.
Li Xiao slowed his steps, turned to Xiao Yanyan with a faint smile, lips curling as he said: “It means: whoever dares mess with me, I’ll kill their whole family, exterminate their clan—not even sparing their dog.”
“Nothing to fear about death—just do it!”
With that, Li Xiao chuckled and continued walking ahead.
Xiao Yanyan stood stunned, clearly shocked by Li Xiao’s words.
Openly saying to kill whole families and exterminate clans?
Were Jin Prefecture’s Han people this barbaric?
Li Xiao and the other Hexi Fort Han people gave Xiao Yanyan a completely different feeling from the Han people she saw in the royal court.
More fierce, more crude!
In front of Li Xiao, Xiao Yanyan felt this Khitan was utterly weak; Jin Prefecture Han people were more like ‘barbarians’.
“Hmph, trying to scare me~” Xiao Yanyan shook her head with a forced smile.
Habitually raising her neck, she displayed her confidence and pride, like a defiant white swan.
But this youth Li Xiao indeed gave Xiao Yanyan a fresh, novel feeling.
Crude, barbaric, unrestrained~
