Chapter 30: Battle’s End, Eradicating The Roots
“That’s a serious injury~”
After Luo Meng and Er Hu crawled into the cellar and dragged out an unconscious youth with heavy injuries, laying him flat on the kang.
Li Xiao lifted the clothes from the youth’s chest, looked at the wound in front of him, and shook his head lightly as he said.
“He fought a mounted enemy and was slashed across the chest from the front with a saber.”
Li Xiao quickly deduced the battle situation at the time from the youth’s injuries in his mind.
Clearly, the enemy was a strong adult Geluolu man, with strength and combat experience far beyond what a youth like him could match.
“And it’s been at least two or three days since he was injured.” Li Xiao said lightly.
The youth’s injuries were very serious, with a deep knife wound across his chest from the shoulder all the way to the abdomen, the flesh flipped open and never having healed.
Moreover, due to the rain over the past two days, the damp air in the cellar had bred a large number of bacteria.
Without effective treatment, the flesh around the wound had already begun to rot somewhat, oozing white pus.
The moment the clothes were lifted, a clear fishy stench could be smelled.
“The injury is too severe, and it’s been dragged on too long; the flesh has started to rot. I’m afraid there’s no saving him.” Luo Meng looked at the wound and shook his head slightly as he said.
They often had to fight with other tribes and villages in daily life, and they had plenty of scars on their bodies too, but Luo Meng had never seen anyone survive an injury as serious as this youth’s.
“He’s also a real man, what a pity~” Er Hu said with a slightly regretful expression.
What he admired most were warriors.
This youth in front of him, who was no more than two years older than himself, dared to fight desperately against a Geluolu man; just for that, Er Hu respected him.
“It’s not necessarily hopeless~” Li Xiao looked at the youth’s wound and said softly to himself.
In his previous life, Li Xiao had been trained in the army on how to handle infected wounds in emergencies.
Moreover, he had read quite a few black tech books, which recorded many good things.
After returning, Li Xiao planned to make some and try them.
Perhaps he could save the youth’s life.
……
Soon, Li Xiao and the others took the unconscious brother and sister and left the courtyard.
The battle was not yet over, so Li Xiao and the others could not rest for the time being.
Moreover, the Geluolu people in Sanhe Fort had not been completely cleared out, so leaving the brother and sister in the village was not safe.
So Li Xiao had Er Hu find a horse carriage, loaded the unconscious youth and the Geluolu leader’s corpse onto it, and pulled them away.
As for this unconscious girl, Li Xiao said he could take care of her himself.
After all, the carriage was already full with two people.
He helped the unconscious girl onto the horse, then Li Xiao jumped on directly and sat behind the girl.
One hand holding the horse spear, the other gripping the reins, while also supporting the girl’s waist to keep her from falling.
When the group walked out of the courtyard, they happened to run into Li Dashan and the others.
After the two men looked at each other, they both froze for a moment.
Li Xiao had a girl in front of him, and Li Dashan’s horse was also carrying an unconscious woman.
“Yo? Where’d this little girl come from?”
Li Dashan saw the girl in front of Li Xiao and said in surprise.
“A girl from Sanhe Fort, picked up from the cellar!” Li Xiao said.
A smile immediately appeared on Li Dashan’s face: “Heh heh, Da Long, I heard earlier that your milk and your mom were planning to find you a wife!”
“Didn’t expect you’d find one yourself so quickly.”
“The little girl is pretty good-looking; you’ve got good taste, Da Long.”
Li Dashan shook his head with a tsk tsk, staring at the girl’s face covered in dirt and blood, sizing her up before nodding in satisfaction.
Hearing this, Li Xiao immediately rolled his eyes at him.
“What are you talking about? Sixth Uncle, don’t make stuff up~”
“What about you? What’s this? Watch out, I’ll tell Sixth Aunt when we get back.”
Li Xiao pointed at the woman on Li Dashan’s horse and said.
Li Xiao had seen this woman before.
She was the younger sister-in-law of the aunt-and-sister-in-law pair who had attacked Li Dashan and the others earlier.
Around seventeen or eighteen years old, quite pretty, with a good figure; she had been knocked unconscious by now.
As for the other Geluolu woman, she was being carried on horseback by Chen Erqiang behind them.
Li Xiao gave them a deep look.
“These two bastards are up to no good.”
All men, how could Li Xiao not understand their dirty thoughts?
Li Dashan gave a dry laugh: “Cough, don’t tell your aunt when we get back.”
“Tch~” Li Xiao rolled his eyes at him and turned to leave.
When they returned to the camp, Li Xiao watched with his own eyes as these two bastards hid the aunt-and-sister-in-law pair in the tent they had just set up.
“Damn, two bastards.”
“They sure know how to enjoy themselves.” Li Xiao gnashed his teeth and cursed inwardly.
An aunt-and-sister-in-law pair~
Really damn stimulating.
Unlike this girl in his arms, who he could look at but not touch.
But in this situation, Li Xiao truly had no amorous thoughts.
After entrusting this brother and sister pair to the Han people from Sanhe Fort who had been rescued for care, Li Xiao continued leading men to clear out the remaining Geluolu fish that slipped the net.
At this point, the Geluolu people had long lost the power to resist; when discovered by Han soldiers, their uniform response was to kneel and surrender.
Thus, the number of Geluolu people in the prisoner of war camp outside Sanhe Fort kept increasing.
Most were women under forty, as well as other men who had lost combat strength or were too cowardly to resist.
They hoped to preserve their lives by surrendering.
As time passed, a faint white light had begun to appear in the eastern horizon, with the dawn glow about to pierce this dark land.
The rain had also disappeared unnoticed, and nature seemed to have returned to calm.
The battle at Sanhe Fort was declared over.
At this time, Hedong Fort Master Luo Ping came to find Li Xiao.
“Da Long, I see the battlefield has been mostly cleaned up. It’s time to let the brothers rest!”
Rest?
Hearing Li Dashan’s words, Li Xiao’s gaze involuntarily turned toward the distant camp holding the captives.
He of course understood what Li Dashan meant; this rest wasn’t just simple sleeping.
The focus was on sleeping, not on the awareness.
“What does Grandfather say?” Li Xiao asked directly.
Luo Ping chuckled: “Uncle Li said you’re now Hexi Fort Master, so you arrange this kind of thing; he won’t interfere.”
Hearing this, Li Xiao nodded lightly.
Fine!
The Old Master was even leaving this kind of thing for him to arrange; he really didn’t treat him like a child.
So he said: “Uncle Luo, I’m not too familiar with this sort of thing either. Just follow the old rules as before.”
Luo Ping immediately laughed heartily and gave Li Xiao a knowing look.
“The old rule is that us fort masters pick first.”
“Then the brothers pick for themselves according to merit.”
“Now that you’re Hexi Fort Master, let’s go together and say a word, or else the brothers won’t feel at ease playing.”
Pick what?
With so many Geluolu female captives, what else could it be?
But his soul came from a later era, so he felt a bit unadapted to this barbaric behavior.
Yet morality could only constrain Li Xiao himself; he couldn’t impose it on the soldiers of this era.
What’s more, people like Luo Ping weren’t regular soldiers anyway; they were just a group of herdsmen with weapons.
Although he was Hexi Fort Master, he couldn’t change this default custom.
Li Xiao shook his head with a helpless smile: “Uncle Luo, I have other things to do; you arrange it yourselves.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
Luo Ping thought Li Xiao was just a young man with thin skin, embarrassed about this kind of thing.
But a hot-blooded youth wasn’t so easily restrained?
So he smiled and said: “Da Long, if you’re too shy, your Uncle Luo will help you.”
“In a bit, I’ll pick two pretty little girls and send them to your tent.”
After saying that, ignoring Li Xiao’s objections, Luo Ping laughed heartily, mounted his horse, and rode off.
Watching Luo Ping’s back as he rode away without looking back, Li Xiao called out repeatedly: “Hey hey hey hey~”
“Uncle Luo~”
“Uncle Luo~”
But he found that Luo Ping seemed unable to hear at all, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
In the end, Li Xiao could only let out a helpless heavy sigh.
“Sigh~”
“Uncle Luo, you’ve really put me in a tough spot!”
After saying that, Li Xiao shook his head, mounted his horse, and followed behind Luo Ping toward the prisoner of war camp.
Although Hexi Fort had no military regulations, there was still a hierarchy of status internally.
If Hexi Fort Master Li Xiao didn’t say anything, the herdsmen of Hexi Fort might complain.
Arriving at the captive camp, it had become even more chaotic.
The blood and corpses on the ground hadn’t been dealt with yet, and more captives had been thrown in.
Everywhere were screams and pleas for mercy.
“Wah wah wah~”
“Help, don’t kill me~”
Here were basically all women, and mostly young women of childbearing age.
The Geluolu tribe of over three thousand, after nearly an hour and a half of slaughter, had lost more than half their men, leaving only women and children.
The grassland nomadic people’s custom was not to kill children below cart-wheel height.
But the Han people didn’t have this custom.
The Northern Frontier Han people, influenced by Central Plains culture, only knew one phrase.
“If you don’t eradicate the roots when cutting grass, endless troubles follow.”
“Ah, what a human tragedy.”
In the camp, Luo Ping on horseback looked at the women and crying youths gathered together in the distance, begging, and chuckled.
He turned to Li Xiao beside him and said: “Da Long, I feel like we’re simply a bunch of demons, not good people at all; what we’re doing isn’t humane.”
“We’ll definitely go to hell later.”
Listening to Luo Ping’s teasing, Li Xiao gave a light chuckle, the orange-red firelight illuminating his indifferent, icy face.
Looking at the Geluolu people with tragic fates, his frosty heart showed no touch at all.
With unchanged expression, he said: “Hell? Hmph, Uncle Luo, do you believe that stuff exists?”
Luo Ping laughed heartily: “I don’t believe it.”
“Who believes that bunch of bald donkeys’ nonsense.”
“And even if hell really exists, these Geluolu people will go first.”
Geluolu people were warlike by nature and cruel in disposition; Han captives who fell into their hands didn’t fare any better.
In fact, what the Geluolu people did was even more excessive than what the Han people were doing now.
So Li Xiao and the others didn’t feel the Geluolu people were pitiful at all; they just felt they had killed too few Geluolu people.
