Chapter 261: Er Ya’s Man Is The Great Protector Of The Northern Frontier
“Eight years…”
Wei Xuan’s gaze trembled like withered branches as it fell on the woman’s face, overlapping and separating from the girl in his memory who tied sheepskin hair ties.
Yet in those eyes that once disregarded the life and death of tens of thousands on the battlefield, water light slowly welled up, reflecting the face before him that was both strange and familiar; as his eyelashes trembled violently, a drop of warm tear slowly smashed onto the bloodstained cotton armor on his chest.
Eight years of time lay between the Northern Frontier and Hexi; ever since Da Ya far married into Liangzhou City, this pair of siblings adrift in chaotic times had lost contact.
Though years and windfrost had long reshaped this face, the woman before him still faintly retained the contours of her childhood in her brows and eyes, bearing too many similarities to the eldest sister in his memory who always protected him behind her.
“Eldest Sister!” he called out loudly, his voice trembling involuntarily.
He waved back the cavalry on either side, dismounted, and slowly stepped forward, the mist in his eyes blurring his vision.
His throat felt as if it held a hot wave, and he struggled to produce a sound: “Eldest Sister, it’s Hu Zi!”
This cold-faced general who made enemy armies quake in fear was now merely a young man reunited with lost kin.
The joys and sorrows pent up for eight years suddenly surged forth, and scalding tears finally broke through the defenses.
“Eldest Sister, it’s Hu Zi! Waaah~”
At this moment, Da Ya stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning, the call both strange and familiar causing her pupils to contract sharply.
Her gaze also fixed dead on Wei Xuan’s face, awakening a name long dormant in the depths of her memory.
Her dry, cracked lips suddenly trembled violently; she staggered forward half a step, her gaunt fingers hovering above the young man’s bloodstained armor, hesitating to touch, as if the person before her was a fragile illusion.
“Hu Zi…”
Her voice was hoarse, her body trembling, her face full of disbelief.
Yet the little bean who always tugged at her clothes in memory gradually merged with the heroic young man before her.
“Hu Zi, you’re Hu Zi~”
Da Ya’s expression grew even more agitated; two streams of clear tears flowed down her face, her excited voice murmuring as her palm slowly fell onto Wei Xuan’s face.
She finally confirmed it—this was her younger brother, Wei Xuan, Wei Hu Zi.
“Aaaah waaah~”
“Hu Zi, you’re Hu Zi!” Da Ya hugged Wei Xuan’s neck and burst into loud sobs.
Wei Xuan’s eyes also brimmed with hot tears; his trembling lips murmured, “Yes, I’m Hu Zi, Eldest Sister, I’ve come to see you.”
After eight years apart, the siblings reunited; this deeply moving scene left all the others utterly shocked.
Wei Xuan’s personal guards had never imagined that their own Myriad Household Commander actually had an elder sister in Liangzhou City.
Then, upon second thought, the personal guards were even more shocked.
“Hiss~ This woman is also Madam Wei’s eldest sister?”
“The Great Protector’s elder sister’s husband?”
Once they sorted out these relations, the personal guards looked at Wei Daya differently—this was a thick thigh indeed.
Meanwhile, Su Renli nearby was even more dumbfounded.
Watching his own wife embracing and crying with another man, his heart held only shock.
“Hu Zi?”
He was of course no stranger to this name.
Over these eight years, he had heard his wife mention this name countless times—it was his own brother-in-law.
It was just that their only meeting had been eight years ago at the wedding.
The childish figure in his memory slowly merged with the young general before him.
Su Renli’s heart filled with shock; his pupils dilated instantly as he murmured to himself, “Good heavens, this is my brother-in-law Su Renli?”
“This is unbelievable, unbelievable~”
The next second, he suddenly grinned; judging by his brother-in-law’s bearing, he seemed to be no small general in the Northern Frontier Army.
In that case, wouldn’t his family’s farmland be preserved?
Su Renli grew more excited the more he thought, even forgetting the pain in his chest.
But by contrast, Wang Er and the others, with blades at their necks and trembling on their knees, felt entirely differently.
They were doomed.
This soft egg Su Renli actually had a brother-in-law who was an official in the Northern Frontier?
With this connection, why the hell didn’t you speak up earlier!
Then your brothers wouldn’t have come to rob you.
Now what the hell was this situation?
Throwing bricks into the latrine—courting death.
“M-Master Su~”
“Spare us, spare us, Master Su~”
“Please help us plead with this Northern Frontier Army officer, spare our lives, and we’ll serve you like oxen and horses afterward~”
“Yes, Master Su, we drank flower wine together before; for the sake of our old kiln visits~”
Listening to these bastards’ pleas, Su Renli’s face slowly darkened; he gritted his teeth and whispered, “Shut up.”
Soon, Wei Xuan and his sister gradually calmed their emotions and turned to look at Su Renli and the others.
“Sister, who are they?”
He had already recognized Su Renli; he hadn’t changed much from memory.
But who were the others?
“They are rebel soldiers.”
Da Ya said in a tearful sob, but her eyes stayed fixed on Wei Xuan’s face, as if afraid he would vanish if she looked away.
Rebel soldiers?
Wei Xuan’s eyes instantly sharpened; he scanned Wang Er and the others, then barked directly, “Drag them out and kill them all.”
A pack of bastards, daring to target my Wei Xuan’s eldest sister.
Simply courting death.
Hearing this, Wang Er and the others turned ghastly pale and knelt crying for mercy: “Master Wei, Grandpa Wei~”
“Spare us, spare us~”
They then begged Su Renli: “Master Su, Grandpa Su, please put in a word for us~”
Su Renli swallowed hard, secretly glancing at Wei Xuan, but ultimately didn’t dare say anything against his conscience.
Eight years ago, the first time he saw this brother-in-law, he was fair and chubby, very cute.
But after eight years, though he had grown taller and more handsome, why did he seem utterly un-cute now.
Su Renli still felt intimidated by him.
“Shut up.”
“Drag them down.”
The personal guard captain bellowed, punching a thug in the mouth and shattering his front teeth.
He then had men break these fellows’ hands and legs, dragged them outside the courtyard, and swung blades down.
“Ah~”
The miserable cries vanished instantly, everything returning to calm.
Soon after, Wei Xuan’s personal guards sealed off this street; surrounding neighbors quietly poked their heads out, peering curiously at the situation at Su Renli’s house.
Something was very wrong at the Su house!
Only because Da Ya was now wailing loudly inside the room.
“Waaah aaaah~”
“Father~ Mother~”
Her tears soaked her rough face; her body trembled uncontrollably, her face flushed purple as she let out a despairing cry.
In these years since marrying into Liangzhou City, she had almost completely cut ties with the Northern Frontier.
She had only just learned from Wei Xuan about what happened at Sanhe Fort.
The Gelulu People rebelled, attacked Sanhe Fort, parents were killed, grandfather and relatives all died; the Wei Clan family was left with only Wei Xuan and Er Ya—this news struck Da Ya’s heart like a heavy hammer.
She had never imagined that her marriage would become an eternal farewell from her family.
“Mother, don’t cry.”
“When I grow up, I’ll definitely avenge Grandfather and Grandmother.”
Su Wuji gripped his short bow tightly, his face muscles taut, his expression resolute as if vowing an oath.
He then looked up at Wei Xuan’s face: “Uncle, can you teach me how to kill?”
“My arrows always lack power; even when I hit them, they don’t die.”
“I want to learn skills to avenge Grandfather and Grandmother.” Su Wuji said in a naive yet firm voice.
The Gelulu People killed Grandfather and Grandmother, making Mother so pained—seeds of hatred gradually buried themselves in Su Wuji’s heart.
Revenge seemed to become his mission as well.
Looking at his eldest nephew, Wei Xuan felt a surge of affection and nodded approvingly.
Though it was their first meeting, the boy showed no timidity or strangeness toward him, bearing the look of one destined for great things.
Moreover, Wei Xuan had seen the wounds on Wang Er’s body—two arrows consecutively to the chest, penetrating an inch into the flesh.
To achieve such skill at this age showed he was a born martial general.
Gently stroking his head, Wei Xuan said gravely, “You can’t kill them because you’re too young.”
“When you grow up, you’ll naturally draw heavier bows.”
“Practice diligently, and in future, let alone people—even tigers or wild boars won’t escape your arrows’ sharpness.”
“But relying only on your arrows and martial prowess, how many enemies can you kill?”
“Ten? Or a hundred?”
“You’ll still only be a match for a hundred men at best.”
“You’re my Wei Xuan’s nephew—if you’re to do it, become a match for ten thousand.” Wei Xuan heavily patted Su Wuji’s shoulder, instructing him gravely.
From the first glance at this child, he had taken a great liking to him.
The Su family was a scholarly lineage, and his eldest sister a woman, so the task of training Su Wuji into a match for ten thousand naturally fell to Wei Xuan.
“Uncle, how can I become a match for ten thousand?”
“Study and fight wars.” Wei Xuan said.
He then quietly explained the importance of studying to Su Wuji: without knowledge, one was merely a brute, but one mustn’t overly rely on book knowledge either.
Ultimately, it had to be applied live on the battlefield, requiring vast war experience to discern which knowledge was useful, which useless, which vital, and which could be skimmed.
Summarized in a later era’s phrase: theory combined with practice—this was also what Li Xiao taught them in Hexi Military School classes.
After a long while, Wei Daya’s crying gradually stopped, only because her throat was hoarse and she had no strength left to wail; her eyes were red and swollen, her whole person appearing utterly dejected.
Wei Xuan stepped forward, his rough palm covering Da Ya’s trembling hand back, his face showing cold resolve and determination: “Eldest Sister, the dead cannot be revived.”
“But as long as we siblings live, Sanhe Fort’s spirit endures.”
“The Wei Family still has you and me, and Er Ya; things will only get better hereafter.”
“Er Ya?” Hearing this name, a trace of reminiscence flashed across Da Ya’s face.
She remembered that when she married out, Er Ya was still a little girl with pigtails, always clinging to her even when she worked.
Eight years had passed; that little girl should have grown up by now, right?
“Yes, grown up.” Wei Xuan nodded gently.
“Very beautiful, just like you.”
“Looks like our mother, build like our father—not shorter than you, just not as sturdy.”
“Oh, I haven’t told you yet—Er Ya also married.”
Hearing Wei Xuan, Da Ya’s tears stopped flowing; she murmured, “Er Ya also married?”
“Which stronghold did she marry into? What’s her husband’s family surname?”
Wei Xuan sat by the bed, continuing to shift her mood: “A Hexi Fort family, surnamed Li, called Li Dalong—now named Li Xiao.”
“Hexi Fort Li Family?” A trace of relieved smile finally appeared on Da Ya’s face; she nodded gently.
Hexi Fort was very close to Sanhe Fort, with many families connected by kin.
Da Ya naturally knew the Li Family and had even heard of Li Dalong, knowing he was the eldest son and grandson of the Hexi Fort Master.
“Hexi Fort Li Family is one of the best in our Jin Prefecture.”
“Er Ya marrying Hexi Fort’s Young Fort Master would let our parents’ spirits rest easy in heaven.” Da Ya said, tears still in her eyes.
Er Ya finding a good family resolved one of her worries.
At this moment, however, Su Renli carefully looked toward Wei Xuan, his tone slightly nervous and stumbling: “Um~ Hu Zi~”
Though brother-in-law, he truly felt intimidated by this brother-in-law, especially thinking of how Wang Er and those guys got their heads chopped off with one word from him.
This made Su Renli terribly afraid of Wei Xuan, even tensing up when speaking.
“That, you just said the second brother-in-law is called Li Xiao?”
“I heard the Northern Frontier Great Protector’s name seems…”
Wei Xuan nodded slightly, a touch of helplessness in his voice: “Correct, it’s him.”
“Er Ya’s husband is Northern Frontier Great Protector Li Xiao.”
Hearing this, Su Renli let out a shocked shout: “What?”
At this moment, his eyes were wide open, his Adam’s apple bobbing, his previously tense fingers frozen in midair.
“N-Northern Frontier Great Protector?”
He staggered back half a step, knocking over the clay jar behind him.
“That’s the one commanding a hundred thousand iron cavalry, routing the Imperial Court army, seizing the entire Hexi Corridor…”
His words cut off abruptly; he stared dead at Wei Xuan’s calm face, suddenly recalling rumors that the Northern Frontier Army leader was only in his twenties, similar to second brother-in-law Li Dalong.
At this moment, he only felt his throat tighten: “Th-this~ is real?”
His stammering words mixed awe for Li Xiao with shock at the truth.
And faintly, a trace of wild joy.
He had always wanted a Northern Frontier relative to vouch for him, ideally swaying a Northern Frontier bigwig to keep his family’s farmland.
But he never expected the bigwig to be his own.
Brother-in-law to the Northern Frontier Great Protector?
Was this status hard enough?
At this moment, Su Renli suddenly wanted to slap himself—for having such a background, yet still fixating on those dozens of acres?
Spineless thing.
Meanwhile, Da Ya nearby also widened her eyes in disbelief, her mind echoing one phrase: “Er Ya’s man is the Northern Frontier Great Protector?”
……
Meanwhile, large numbers of Northern Frontier Army entered the city, purging remaining resistant forces inside the city.
By sunset over the western mountains, Li Xiao finally entered the city amid Imperial Guard protection, riding into the Liangzhou Prefect mansion.
Prefect Su Binara and others were also brought before Li Xiao.
“Clerk Wang, not seeing you for one day and you’ve withered so much—how did you end up like this?” Li Xiao sat high in the hall’s head seat, his voice cool and flat.
“Y-Your lowly one, I~” Wang Hongchang’s face was ashen, his expression mournful, unable to utter a word.
In this one day, he had suffered immensely, enduring great physical and mental pressure.
To the point of utter dishevelment, even with more streaks of white hair on his head.
Li Xiao turned to Liangzhou Prefect Su Binara, saying gravely, “We’ve already questioned the defending soldiers—up to the moment before Liangzhou City fell.”
“The soldiers received no order from you, Prefect Su Binara, to open the gates; they opened them themselves.”
“Prefect Su Binara, Clerk Wang—we already told you, no surrender before the city falls means no survivors.”
Li Xiao’s words instantly threw everyone into panic; Wang Hongchang even knelt to the ground.
“Great Protector spare us, Great Protector spare us—we were preparing to open the gates to welcome the Heavenly Master, but city spies obstructed us, and we were one step late~”
Li Xiao had no interest in their excuses, merely glancing indifferently at the aloof-standing Su Binara.
He said gravely, “Though the gates were opened, that was the merit of Liangzhou soldiers and people; as for you!”
“In this war, you did nothing beneficial to my Northern Frontier.”
“So to my Northern Frontier, you’re just a bunch of useless trash.”
“Men, drag them down.”
“Confiscate their homes, conscript into army!”
At these words, Wang Hongchang and the others turned deathly pale with shock, scrambling to kneel and beg Li Xiao.
Even Su Binara himself couldn’t stay calm, his body trembling slightly, face full of alarm.
He had wanted to show loyalty and unyielding before Li Xiao, to gain his notice and employment, but Li Xiao seemed utterly indifferent to him.
Directly ordering conscription.
“Great Protector, allow me to speak.”
Su Binara lifted his robes and knelt, veins bulging on his forehead with rapid breaths.
“If you execute us now, it’s like throwing a stone into a pool, bound to make officials everywhere grieve like hares and foxes at a rabbit’s death. In future sieges, generals will mimic Jincheng’s pooled defenses, resisting to the death and only increasing civilian suffering.”
“But if you show mercy and pardon our crimes, we are willing to hold whips and stirrups, labor like dogs and horses.”
“Then we can issue proclamations to the four directions, proclaiming the Great Protector’s capacity to embrace virtue and talent, making the world admire your righteousness—this is subduing without fighting, attacking the heart as paramount!”
Su Binara’s words were ultimately unoriginal, trying to bind Li Xiao with reputation.
But Li Xiao cared least about reputation.
So-called reputation was just a tool for the scholar-official class to play power games; Li Xiao had no desire to wallow with them.
If merely to quickly take a town or region, cooperating with local scholar-officials and magnates.
It would be like swallowing poisoned fruit, eventually suffering their backlash.
Thus, he needed no cooperation; his goal was singular: topple the scholar-official and magnate classes.
Dividing their cake among the other poor common people.
After all, poor common people made up the vast majority under heaven; as long as the Six Garrisons remained stable, using scholar-official and magnate interests to win over these poor common people.
Dividing the cake as evenly as possible would naturally stabilize the realm.
Thus, in Li Xiao’s plan, scholar-official and magnate interests must be sacrificed.
For this, he was even willing to increase his own difficulty, delaying entry into the Central Plains, to solidify foundations and purge these people.
Otherwise, it would end like the Mongols or Manchu Qing.
“Hahahaha~”
Listening to Su Binara’s literary moral binding, Li Xiao suddenly clapped and laughed, a faint disdain in his eyes.
“Hold whips and stirrups? Labor like dogs and horses?”
He suddenly leaned forward, his sharp gaze piercing beside Su Binara’s pale face.
“Today you wag tails at Northern Frontier’s might; tomorrow if tiger-wolf armies array below the walls, you’d likely be first to bind the city and offer seals.”
“My Northern Frontier warriors’ blood scars are for home and country, for loyalty and righteousness—how dare waverers like you whitewash flattery with ‘magnanimity’.”
“In this commander’s view, you’re just a pack of petty, groveling curs.”
“If you know subduing without fighting is paramount, how not know ‘virtue unmatched to position brings calamity’? Without thunderous means, whence comes the bodhisattva heart?”
With that, Li Xiao waved his hand decisively, barking gravely, “Drag them all down, confiscate homes; male laborers to mine slaves, women conscripted as slaves.”
These people must be toppled.
Otherwise, whence the money for rewarding the army? Whence the land to resettle landless common people?
Amid Wang Hongchang and others’ miserable cries, the Imperial Guards dragged them all out; their fate awaited in Western Sea coal and iron mines—likely dying en route.
Afterward, Northern Frontier Army stormed into various mansions.
Amid screams and pleas, they rounded up all male laborers, guards, and male servants from each mansion.
Female kin and maidservants were not spared either.
They then used torture to extract the families’ wealth.
In just two days, Liangzhou City was utterly transformed.
Meanwhile, a fast horse charged into Xingqing Prefecture.
The soldier bore three command flags on his back, signifying an 800-li urgent dispatch.
“Make way, 800-li urgent!”
“800-li urgent!”
The soldier shouted loudly, galloping under city gate guards’ escort straight to the Bureau of Military Affairs.
“My lord, my lord, urgent report from Hexi, 800-li!”
Privy Councillor Nai Ling Sicong’s face changed drastically upon hearing this; he abruptly stood from his chair: “Quick, bring it.”
Nai Ling Sicong took the wooden box, tore open the sealing wax; merely glancing at the letter, he seemed struck by lightning.
Eyes wide, body swaying, full of disbelief.
“What?”
“Th-this, this is impossible~”
Nai Ling Sicong slumped into his chair, face pale, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
He kept shaking his head, muttering nonstop: “Impossible~”
“How could this be? How could they lose?”
This report was personally written by Liangzhou Prefect Su Binara, stating only two things: Waiming Shian’s army defeated, Northern Frontier Army at the gates, Liangzhou City in peril.
At the same time, he claimed he would stand or fall with Liangzhou City—city stands, he stands; city falls, he falls—vowing to repay imperial grace, even ending with “final words.”
Utterly the demeanor of a loyal minister and patriot, moving Nai Ling Sicong to grief and indignation: “Loyal minister, loyal minister~”
“If he perishes with Liangzhou, Su Binara’s name will endure in history.”
With that, he immediately rose and strode toward the Imperial Palace.
Such a grave matter must be reported to His Majesty the Emperor.
