Chapter 248: Huo Qubing’s Aunt Is The Empress—what Is Yours?
Xiliang Prefecture, which is Wuwei in later generations, also known as Liangzhou City.
It is the largest in scale, most populous, and most commercially prosperous town on the Hexi Corridor, even stronger than Ganzhou City.
Early this morning, as soon as the city gates opened, a group of common people eagerly surged in.
Some wore tattered clothes, their faces sallow, looking destitute and down-and-out, while others appeared to have modest wealth, carrying family members and supplies in horse carriages.
The soldiers guarding the city, seeing this scene, all looked baffled.
“What the hell, why are so many people entering the city today?”
A middle-aged squad leader in black clothes muttered in surprise.
Then he shouted loudly at these common people: “Don’t crowd, come one by one.”
Soldiers holding spears and sabers began maintaining order.
In the chaos, a frail old woman was knocked down by the crowd, her shabby bundle in her arms spilling open, several blackened flatbreads rolling onto the ground.
She panicked and tried to pick them up, but they were snatched clean by the surrounding common people, her turbid eyes instantly filling with despair.
“Damn it all.”
“You are all beasts! Give me back my flatbreads, my grandson needs them to survive.”
But her hoarse voice was quickly drowned out by the noisy crowd. In this man-eats-man era, grain is life.
Inside the city it’s still okay, but in the desolate wilderness, starving common people might even eat her too.
“Make way! Make way!”
A rundown horse carriage came charging recklessly, the servant driving it waving a whip and lashing at the nearby common people.
A young soldier stepped forward to stop the carriage: “Stop, routine inspection for entering the city.”
The next second, an angry voice came from inside the carriage: “Are you blind? You dare inspect me?”
The nearby middle-aged squad leader hurried over: “It turns out to be Lord Puchá Ayida. He’s new and doesn’t know the rules.”
“We wouldn’t dare stop your carriage, please go ahead~”
The squad leader smiled obsequiously at the person inside the carriage, then directed the soldiers to drive away the common people and clear a path, letting the carriage pass first.
Then he lectured the young soldier: “We gatekeepers must above all be sharp.”
“If you offend a noble, you won’t have enough heads to chop off.”
The young soldier felt wronged, his face falling as he said: “I didn’t see him!”
That man earlier was the prefect’s brother-in-law, who usually strutted around in Liangzhou City, and the soldiers certainly wouldn’t dare provoke him.
But just now he looked disheveled and dirt-covered, his brocade robe turned into a hemp robe, his signature luxurious horse carriage gone, looking completely like a country bumpkin.
Who could recognize him as the prefect’s brother-in-law!
Fortunately, this guy had urgent business in the city and didn’t bother with the soldiers, or he’d have been whipped raw.
“Looks like something big really happened!” the middle-aged squad leader said with a serious expression.
Afterward, he led his men to continue maintaining order at the city gate, and also learned a piece of news from these common people.
It made all the soldiers’ faces change dramatically.
“Brother-in-law, brother-in-law~”
Puchá Ayida’s carriage stopped in front of the prefect’s office. The gate-guarding soldiers saw a beggar and were about to intercept him, but upon hearing that familiar voice, they all stopped.
Joking aside, he was the prefect’s wife’s own younger brother, one of the famous Four Young Masters of Liangzhou.
Without the prefect’s order, who would dare stop him?
Thus, Puchá Ayida smoothly rushed into the inner residence of the prefect’s mansion and arrived at his sister’s courtyard, where he was finally stopped by guards.
“Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, something huge happened.”
“Disaster struck~”
Puchá Ayida shouted urgently from the courtyard, disturbing Prefect Su Binara so much he couldn’t sleep anymore. Looking annoyed, he angrily said: “What’s wrong with your brother? What racket this early in the morning?”
The woman beside him had woken even earlier.
In her early twenties, she lay sideways on the bed, half-covered by the quilt, revealing fragrant tender shoulders and two large white hemispheres.
Her face had an exotic brilliance, with a high nose bridge; at that moment, her eyes were half-closed, her posture lazy and relaxed.
She was Puchá Ayida’s sister, Puchá Yu.
The siblings were both Uyghur people. Their family had originally been ordinary merchants in Liangzhou. After Puchá Yu became the prefect’s concubine, the Puchá family began to rise.
Once she used some means to become the prefect’s main wife, the Puchá family truly soared.
“Master, don’t be angry.”
“Ayida is still a child and doesn’t know better. I’ll go see what’s up.”
With that, Puchá Yu draped a red robe over herself and went out, while Su Binara began dressing with the help of a maidservant.
Nowadays, with the Northern Frontier Barbarians pressing the border and Heishui City in crisis, the Imperial Court dispatched Deputy Minister of the Bureau of Military Affairs Waiming Shian to provide support.
Although the army was still far from Liangzhou City, as prefect, he needed to prepare reception arrangements early.
If he could please Waiming Shian, he might get promoted.
By the time he was fully dressed, his brother-in-law rushed in hurriedly.
Seeing his appearance, Su Binara was stunned: “How did you end up like this?”
“Doesn’t your family have any clean clothes?”
Although Su Binara was a Tangut person, he had studied classics extensively since childhood and considered himself a scholar, with strict rules, disliking slovenly dress the most.
He thought that was the attire of lowly commoners, undignified and offending his scholarly eyes.
But Puchá Ayida couldn’t care less, saying urgently: “Brother-in-law, forget the clothes. Let’s save our lives first.”
“The Northern Frontier Barbarians are coming.”
“Ganzhou City has already been breached.”
Puchá Ayida had luckily escaped before the Northern Frontier Army besieged the city. To avoid detection by the Northern Frontier Cavalry and prevent attacks from fleeing lowly people,
he had dressed like this. If he had been in his usual arrogant style, the lowly people would have eaten him down to the bones long ago.
When order collapses, who cares about past status?
Hearing his words, Su Binara couldn’t care about clothes anymore.
Shocked, he jumped up from his chair, shouting in disbelief: “What?”
“Ganzhou City breached? How is that possible?”
“Aren’t the Northern Frontier Barbarians still at Heishui City?”
Nearby, Puchá Yu looked equally surprised, covering her ruddy little mouth, looking panicked at her brother: “Ayida, where did you hear this? Were you fooled?”
Ganzhou City was only a few hundred li from Liangzhou City, with just two small towns in between, which couldn’t stop the Northern Frontier Army’s advance.
She didn’t dare imagine the consequences of Ganzhou City falling—it meant the Northern Frontier Barbarians would soon reach Liangzhou City.
Thinking of those sheep-stinking, pitch-black, big yellow-toothed, brutal and bloodthirsty Prairie Barbarians, Puchá Yu felt terrified, her delicate face turning pale.
Su Binara wasn’t much better, calm on the surface but panicked deep in his eyes.
His brother-in-law Puchá Ayida said with a fallen face: “Sis, you know me—when have I ever lied?”
“I saw the Northern Frontier Cavalry outside Ganzhou City with my own eyes. On the way back, I heard people say Ganzhou City has fallen, and the Northern Frontier Barbarians are looting wildly inside~”
Hearing this, Su Binara finally gave up hope, slumping into a chair, gripping the table edge tightly, his voice trembling: “Northern Frontier Barbarians, how did they advance so fast?”
How long had it been since he learned of the Northern Frontier Army besieging Heishui City?
Not only had the Northern Frontier Barbarians breached Heishui City, they had even pushed south to Ganzhou City.
This meant Suzhou, Guazhou, and Dunhuang City were probably in danger too.
“Yeah~”
“Those Northern Frontier Barbarians attack and capture fortifications so quickly,” Puchá Ayida said.
A large-scale war normally takes months.
Especially siege warfare—if provisions and water are sufficient, it takes ten times the troops to breach the city walls.
But what was going on with the Northern Frontier Barbarians?
Heishui City and Ganzhou City breached one after another, as easy as drinking water—completely unreasonable.
“What do we do~”
“The Northern Frontier Barbarians are coming to our Xiliang Prefecture. Can the city’s troops hold?”
“When will the Imperial Court’s reinforcements arrive?” Puchá Yu was extremely anxious, her exquisite fair face full of panic.
She didn’t want to be taken by the Northern Frontier Barbarians and forced to bear litters of children.
“The city has over ten thousand troops. For defending, it should~” Su Binara said, frowning.
But before finishing, he fell silent.
Ganzhou had conscripted all male laborers, over twenty to thirty thousand, and still couldn’t hold the city.
Could his mere ten thousand really defend Liangzhou City?
But such military and political matters couldn’t be discussed with this sister-brother pair.
Thus, Su Binara immediately left for the main hall, summoning all his advisors and the city’s officials and generals.
He first informed them of Ganzhou City’s fall, immediately causing an uproar.
“Impossible? Ganzhou City’s walls are over three zhang high, not much worse than ours—how could it fall so fast?”
“Yeah, shouldn’t the Northern Frontier Barbarians still be at Heishui City?”
“Our intelligence is too slow.”
“The Northern Frontier Army is all cavalry. A few days is enough to kill from Heishui City to Ganzhou City.”
“But how did they breach the city?”
The clamor of officials and generals filled the hall.
When the Northern Frontier Army was still at Heishui City, they could be carefree, enjoying pleasures while sending others’ husbands and sons to the battlefield.
But now, the Northern Frontier Barbarians were about to arrive at the gates.
It concerned everyone’s life and property—no one could stay calm.
Listening to their chaotic noise, Su Binara felt even more irritated. He had called them to discuss countermeasures, not to hear complaints and fears.
So he lightly knocked on the table, and everyone quieted down.
Su Binara’s gaze turned to a general on his left: “General Yeli.”
“How many soldiers does our Xiliang Prefecture have?”
Yeli Duowen was Liangzhou City’s garrison commander, in charge of military affairs.
Unlike Suzhou City’s Liu Cunyi.
Su Binara was a proper Tangut person, so he had enough status and prestige to control the garrison commander.
“Three thousand troops in the city, and fifteen thousand in the camp outside the city.”
Due to the Northern Frontier border pressure, Liangzhou City had responded to the Bureau of Military Affairs’ order, conscripting fifteen thousand troops to join the Imperial Court’s main force heading to Heishui City.
Totaling eighteen thousand.
But Su Binara still thought it too few, saying gravely: “Continue conscripting.”
“In ten days, I want to see thirty thousand troops.”
Yeli Duowen said nothing, just nodded lightly.
Though this would surely affect Liangzhou City’s agricultural production and commercial development, they couldn’t worry about that now.
More troops were naturally better.
Then Su Binara issued another order: “From now on, Liangzhou City is sealed. No entering or leaving at will.”
“Keep all those refugees outside.”
He did this to prevent Northern Frontier spies from mixing in, but essentially it was disdain for lowly people.
After all, large numbers of refugees entering would disrupt city security and environment, and accelerate consumption of city grain.
But Yeli Duowen took the chance to propose: “Lord, there are many young and strong among these refugees who can be conscripted.”
“Thus, this general requests you set up porridge sheds outside the city to house the refugees, making it easier for our army to conscript soldiers.”
Su Binara couldn’t refuse his face outright—defending the city still needed these generals.
So he nodded lightly: “Good, do as you say.”
Afterward, they discussed defense matters and wrote a report on Ganzhou City’s fall, sending it by fast horse to Xingqing Prefecture.
……
Although Su Binara ordered the gates closed in time, some refugees had already entered before that.
News of Ganzhou City’s fall had spread through Liangzhou City.
The common people inside the city became panic-stricken; the smart ones had already started buying grain, firewood, and other daily supplies.
Though the atmosphere in the city was tense as a drawn bowstring, it didn’t affect the half-grown kids playing happily.
In a narrow alley south of the city, over a dozen half-grown boys chased each other, kicking up dust, their clothes nearly flying off.
The leading boy wore coarse cloth short clothes, a battered straw hat crooked on his head—the brim curled but he wouldn’t take it off— a willow-branch loop around his neck as “armor,” clutching a polished jujube wood stick as a spear.
He thumped his chest loudly, shouting at the top of his lungs: “I’m the Grand Sima, General of Agile Cavalry, Marquis of Champion Huo Qubing.”
“Brothers, charge with me, beat those Xiongnu people till they piss themselves and run.”
The kids following weren’t slack either—some tied red rags to bamboo poles as army flags, others draped straw mats over themselves as battle robes, their little faces red with effort, shouting: “Charge!”
They had heard of Huo Qubing’s exploits from storytellers, knowing he was a very powerful general.
And he had crushed the Xiongnu people, so these children idolized Huo Qubing endlessly.
But they didn’t know that Huo Qubing’s campaigns against the Xiongnu had been in the Qilian Mountains, right under their feet.
Perhaps even against their ancestors.
“Xiongnu brats, Great General Huo is here~”
The group of children dashed through the alley, and at a corner, the leader collided head-on with an oncoming man.
“Ouch~”
The man cried out in pain, falling backward, but clutching a sack tightly in his arms—seemingly grain.
“Ah, bad—it’s my dad.”
The leading boy was also knocked down, but kids’ bones are soft; he patted his butt and stood up.
Then he looked fearfully at the fallen man, forcing a crying smile: “Dad, how come you’re back?”
The man also realized it was his son.
His face angry: “You little brat! Playing wild again!”
“Come quick and help me up.”
The man was in his early twenties, fairly tall but thin, wearing a green robe, looking scholarly and refined, like a scholar.
Because holding the grain was inconvenient, he had his son take the sack.
The boy was only five, but had inherited his mother’s build, and never starved young, so he was sturdy as a little calf.
Carrying a sack of grain wasn’t too hard for him.
“You blockhead, always studying that nonsense Huo Qubing—why not use your lazy bones to block the Northern Frontier Iron Falcons?”
The man said, kicking the boy’s butt hard, lecturing: “Being a general isn’t that easy.”
“One general’s success means ten thousand bleached bones; ten thousand die for one general.”
“You little brat—are you that one, or one of the ten thousand?”
“Besides, Huo Qubing’s aunt was the empress—what’s yours?”
“Stop dreaming useless things. Study properly with me, pass the jinshi exam, and bring glory to our Su family.”
The man was named Su Renli, a scholar himself, naturally hoping his son would follow in his footsteps and pass the jinshi exam he never did.
Most importantly, the Xia Kingdom was now at war with the north, and soldiers were the ones dying.
Su Renli naturally feared losing his son, so he was set on making him study literature.
But alas, this eldest son had inherited his mother’s build and temperament—tadpole script made him dizzy, and he still couldn’t read a single character.
Su Renli was nearly desperate.
He earnestly lectured his son on studying’s importance, but the boy let it go in one ear and out the other, looking indifferent, which infuriated him green-faced.
Soon, father and son returned home.
Just a small courtyard hidden in the bustling market, with seven or eight rooms, keeping one horse and five sheep; outside the city, over fifty mu of thin fields under cultivation.
Such assets made them a middle-class family in Liangzhou City.
After entering, the man first hid the sack of grain in the kitchen, then eagerly went to the inner room, saying hurriedly: “Wife, wife~”
“Something happened, something big~”
At that moment, a young woman in her early twenties sat on the bed, tall-framed and round-faced, nearly as sturdy as a man.
In her arms was a one-year-old boy nursing.
Hearing her husband return, the woman relaxed and continued lifting her hemp cloth clothes to feed the child.
She asked curiously: “Husband, what’s wrong? What happened to make you so urgent?”
Su Renli gulped down a cup of water, then slumped in a chair, frowning worriedly: “The Northern Frontier Barbarians are coming.”
“It’s all over the city now—says the Northern Frontier Barbarians have tens of thousands of cavalry, first breached Heishui City, then Ganzhou City, and now heading straight for our Liangzhou City.”
“What are we gonna do!”
“Can our Liangzhou hold off those Northern Frontier Barbarians!”
Hearing the man call “Northern Frontier Barbarians” repeatedly, the woman was displeased, glaring with almond eyes, fierce-faced: “Hmph, don’t forget you still have a Northern Frontier woman right here!”
“What? Want to ‘handle’ me too?”
The woman’s words made Su Renli chuckle awkwardly. Married so many years, he’d almost forgotten she was from the Northern Frontier!
But his wife wasn’t easy to provoke.
When they first married, he had looked down on this rough woman, but her grandfather had once saved his father’s life.
The Su family couldn’t be ungrateful; he had no choice but to accept the marriage arranged by the elders.
But he wasn’t content—after marriage, he stayed out, carousing with fox friends, even gambling.
Until one time, bandits outside the city kidnapped him, demanding sky-high ransom.
Unexpectedly, one night, this wife sneaked alone into the bandit lair and chopped off the sleeping bandit leader’s head with one saber stroke.
She killed several more underlings and escaped with him.
After that, Su Renli never went out again, staying home devotedly with his wife.
A year later, they had their eldest son, Su Wuji.
Later, one more son and one daughter, Su Dimei and Su Wuyang.
So the man truly became dutiful, loving and fearing his wife.
Seeing her glare, his heart pounded, but he couldn’t lose face as a man.
He stepped forward, eyeing her bosom, chuckling: “Handle you? Of course.”
“Tonight~”
Hearing the bawdy talk, the woman scoffed: “What virtue!”
Then they chatted about the war, her heart filled with strong crisis.
Though she dared raid a bandit lair alone, the terror of Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry was incomparable to mere bandits.
Endless cavalry charging— even immortals couldn’t withstand.
Since Northern Frontier People breached Ganzhou City, was Liangzhou City in danger too?
“How about, before the enemy comes, we move?” Su Renli said.
“Move?” The woman frowned.
Possessions and such weren’t worth mentioning.
But in these war-torn times, leaving their comfort zone meant becoming refugees—people away from home are despised, and the outcome might be worse.
“Who knows when the Imperial Court’s reinforcements will arrive—wait and see first!”
“If it’s really hopeless, we’ll flee into the Qilian Mountains and hide for now,” the woman sighed lightly.
Mentioning Northern Frontier made her heart stir.
After all, that was her homeland!
Since marrying to Liangzhou years ago, due to the long distance, she’d lost contact with her maternal home.
Now, hearing the Northern Frontier Army was looting the Hexi Corridor, though she thought it unrelated to her family, her heart still felt warmth.
“Parents, grandfather, Hu Zi, Er Ya~”
Thinking of her relatives, Wei Daya’s eyes welled with tears.
She wondered how they were, if they were healthy.
And if they’d ever meet again in this life.
“Mom, why are you crying?” Su Wuji came over and asked.
Wei Daya quickly wiped her tears with her sleeve, hugging her son, shaking her head with a smile: “Mom’s fine, just missing your grandfather and grandmother, uncle and them.”
“Aren’t grandfather and grandmother in the Northern Frontier?”
“Will uncle and them come this time?” Su Wuyang looked up, full of expectation.
“They probably won’t come,” Wei Daya shook her head gently.
Her gaze turned to the sky, as if praying.
This Northern Frontier Army’s southward push must be orders from the governor’s mansion and commandery office—those Khitan people.
She wondered if Sanhe Fort’s villagers had been conscripted to join south.
Wei Daya prayed not.
Not only did she not want kin fighting kin, but war is merciless—she worried her relatives might die battling Xia Kingdom troops.
Especially Wei Xuan~
If the Northern Frontier conscripted, his age made him prime target.
He might even become a squad leader, but still very dangerous.
“Hu Zi is at marriageable age now~”
“Wonder what wife parents found him, if they’ve had a big fat boy~”
