Chapter 48: Zhelan Cavalry
“By the way, how is your brother doing?”
Li Xiao thought of the girl’s brother again, the severely injured youth rescued from the cellar.
About the same age as him, just a bit thinner and weaker.
If he hadn’t seen this girl, Li Xiao would have almost forgotten about him, mainly because there had been too many things these past few days.
“Not too good.”
Er Ya shook her head gently, thinking of her brother who was still unconscious with a persistent high fever, her face full of worry.
“The elders in my family have already treated my brother’s wounds, but he still passes out from time to time.” Er Ya said sadly.
Apart from her sister who had married far away to Western Xia, her brother was now her only remaining relative.
She didn’t want to lose her brother.
But the youth’s injuries were too severe.
“Take me to see him!” Li Xiao said.
Because battles were frequent in the Northern Frontier, herdsmen often got injured too, so they were no strangers to treating external wounds.
Li Xiao believed that the Wei Family elders could properly treat the girl’s brother’s wounds.
But the problem was dealing with infection!
“My home is over there.” The girl nodded slightly and pointed to a tent in the distance.
That was where she and her brother were living now.
There weren’t enough rooms in Hexi Fort, so people from Sanhe Fort and Hou Village could only live in tents temporarily.
After entering, Li Xiao found it really simple inside. Apart from some daily necessities brought back from Sanhe Fort, there was just a bed laid with a sheepskin mat.
A youth lay on it.
About the same age as Li Xiao, with a thin build and a haggard face, clearly tormented badly by his injuries.
Li Xiao stepped forward and touched his forehead; it was still very hot.
Although the rotten flesh from the wound had been cleaned, the inflammation inside his body hadn’t subsided.
“What’s his name?”
Li Xiao lifted the clothes on the youth’s chest to examine his wound again.
“My brother is called Wei Xuan,” Er Ya said.
Li Xiao suddenly found it amusing and looked at the girl with a laughing expression: “Your brother’s name is quite elegant.”
Although it seemed like praise for her brother on the surface, the girl felt that this guy was actually mocking her.
Saying her own name was rustic.
Fine!
She admitted that the name Er Ya was indeed not very elegant.
After all, the Han People in the Northern Frontier were all a bunch of rough men, with basically no scholars or refined people.
The name Wei Xuan was given by her grandfather back then when he went to Western Xia on business and specially asked a local teacher to come up with it for a good sum of money.
Naturally, the girl hadn’t had that privilege.
Meeting Li Xiao’s half-smiling gaze, the girl’s eyes widened slowly as she glared at him, puffing up her cheeks and said: “You’re not allowed to laugh.”
“Why can’t I laugh?” Li Xiao chuckled.
“You~ you, anyway, you’re just not allowed to laugh.”
The girl said with puffed cheeks, looking very cute.
She only then realized how bad this guy in front of her was!
Li Xiao shook his head lightly: “Alright, I won’t laugh.”
“But if you want a nicer name, I could help with that.”
“Li Xiao is one I gave myself.”
Hearing Li Xiao’s words, Er Ya pursed her lips and muttered: “I don’t want that!”
“Let’s check on your brother first! His injuries are quite serious.”
Li Xiao smiled lightly and stopped teasing the girl, instead looking toward the youth on the sheepskin.
There weren’t many Han People in Western Liao, and for Li Xiao, every Han Person was a source of assistance, especially a youth like this.
“The wound has been handled well; it looks like the work of an experienced doctor,” Li Xiao said softly.
Er Ya nodded gently: “Yeah, my fifth grandfather treated it. In our Sanhe Fort, anyone with an external injury goes to him.”
“But your fifth grandfather could only clean the rotten flesh on the outside of the wound; he couldn’t clear it completely from inside,” Li Xiao said.
“That’s also why your brother has a persistent high fever.”
“Then what do we do?”
Hearing what Li Xiao said, Er Ya immediately panicked.
Thinking that her brother might die, all her thoughts vanished instantly, leaving only grief and anxiety.
Her misty, teary eyes looked toward Li Xiao.
“Hard to say, but he won’t necessarily die,” Li Xiao shook his head gently.
Second Uncle’s injuries were even more severe than Wei Xuan’s, and he’d endured them longer.
But over these past two days, with large doses of allicin, his condition seemed to have improved somewhat.
This morning, he had even woken up, spoken for a while, and then fallen asleep again.
So it proved that the allicin Li Xiao made was successful and had some antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects.
Li Xiao planned to give Wei Xuan allicin too.
“Really? You can really cure my brother?”
After hearing Li Xiao’s words, the girl’s face was instantly full of hope, and the tears in her eyes stopped.
“Let’s try!”
“But we need to prepare some things first,” Li Xiao said softly, not making any absolute promises.
By evening, Li Xiao came back again, holding a small cloth bag in his hand.
“Go boil a bowl of warm water,” Li Xiao said to Er Ya.
Soon, he poured half of the yellow powder from the cloth bag into the warm water and fed it to Wei Xuan.
Then he handed the cloth bag to Er Ya and said: “One hour later, feed him the other half of this bag too.”
Although she didn’t know what it was, Er Ya instinctively chose to trust Li Xiao.
After all, he was the one who rescued the people from Sanhe Fort, and there was no reason for him to harm her and her brother.
“Okay.”
Er Ya gripped the cloth bag tightly in her hand, followed Li Xiao out of the tent, and watched him mount his horse.
“I’ll come back tomorrow.” With that, Li Xiao turned and left.
The girl stood outside the tent, staring blankly at Li Xiao’s receding figure until it disappeared before slowly turning back.
The next few days, Hexi Fort was calm and peaceful.
News of the Four Fort Allied Army eliminating the Aslan Tribe soon spread throughout Jin Prefecture.
The many forts and villages of the Han People were all thrilled upon hearing this.
No one had expected that the Aslan Tribe, one of the powerful three Geluolu tribes in Jin Prefecture, would be completely annihilated like this.
It was simply unbelievable.
Not only the Han People of the Nine Forts and Eighteen Villages, but also the various Geluolu tribes and other nomadic tribes in Jin Prefecture were all shocked by this news.
Like a strong stimulant, it instantly firmed up the resolve of those who had been wavering.
It turned out the Geluolu People weren’t as powerful as imagined.
The Battle of North Mountain might have just been a fluke.
Thus, the resistance from the forts, villages, and nomadic tribes in Jin Prefecture instantly became fierce; no one mentioned surrendering to the Geluolu People anymore.
Over the next few days, the Geluolu offensives made no progress.
After all, even the Geluolu People themselves were plunged into doubt: could they still win this uprising?
It could be said that the destruction of the Aslan Tribe had an enormous impact on the entire battle situation.
For the next period, Jin Prefecture’s situation fell into a strange balance, with no news coming out.
Until this day, when a nomadic cavalry suddenly appeared southwest of Tazhai.
“Master, we’ve arrived in Jin Prefecture.”
“There’s a Han People’s tribe ahead.”
On a high slope, a group of nomadic men’s men stood high up, gazing far into the distance.
Two scouts quickly rushed up to them and respectfully reported their findings to the scar-faced man in the middle.
“A Han People’s tribe?”
The scar-faced man sneered lightly and shook his head.
As if looking down on the Han People.
“As expected of Han People’s style, they even built a circle of earthen walls to enclose themselves,” a young man beside him laughed.
Then a burly man’s voice rang out: “That just shows the Han People’s courage is as small as mice; when they meet enemies, they only hide and don’t dare charge out to draw their blades and fight.”
“Exactly, aren’t Han People just a bunch of mice on the grassland!”
“Hahaha~”
“If Han People dared to fight Geluolu People, the Governor wouldn’t need to summon our Zhelan Tribe from so far away to suppress the rebellion.”
The group unabashedly mocked the Han People, not taking them seriously at all.
After all, Han People were famously tolerant, always seeking harmony in all things.
But among nomadic peoples who followed the law of the jungle, so-called harmony was just another word for weakness.
“This Han People’s tribe looks pretty wealthy; they have so much cattle and sheep,” a burly man from the Zhelan Tribe suddenly said.
Then he turned to look at the scar-faced man, who was the Zhelan Tribe’s chieftain, Nie Erdu.
“Chieftain, the Khitan People summoned us to fight Geluolu People but gave us nothing; we’re relying entirely on our own supplies.”
“Along the way, the brothers have been eating only dried meat; they all want some fresh mutton.”
This time, the Zhelan Tribe was required to travel light, with supplies limited to their own dried meat, coarse grains, and horse milk.
They had planned to rob Geluolu People’s cattle and sheep, but now Han People’s cattle and sheep would do just as well.
“Geluolu People’s sheep are for robbing, Han People’s sheep are for robbing too; no difference.”
“Chieftain, let’s attack!”
“The brothers want to eat sheep.”
“Best if we can take down this Han People’s tribe and grab all the women inside to enjoy for a few days before going after the Geluolu People.”
“Exactly, we’re here helping Han People fight Geluolu People; it’s only right they bleed a little to reward us.”
These Zhelan Tribe cavalry got excited discussing it, increasingly thinking it was a good idea.
Rob this Han People’s tribe first.
But Chieftain Nie Erdu didn’t act rashly; instead, he turned to his slave, the one who had scouted ahead, and asked.
“How many people in this Han People’s tribe?”
The slave thought for a moment and replied: “Including women and children, about eight hundred or so.”
Eight hundred people—not too many, not too few, just the size of an ordinary nomadic tribe.
Whereas the Zhelan Tribe was a major tribe under the Yin Mountains Governor’s Mansion.
For this campaign alone, they had mobilized five hundred cavalry.
“Xia Erda~”
Nie Erdu turned to look at his son.
As he grew older, he increasingly felt overwhelmed and began preparing to train his son to take over.
And Xia Erda was the most outstanding among all his sons.
“Are you confident you can take this Han People’s tribe?”
Hearing his father’s words, the young Xia Erda’s face immediately lit up with excitement.
“Yes~”
“Father, give me two hundred men, and I’ll take this Han People’s tribe before sunset.”
Looking at his youthful, tiger-like son, Nie Erdu nodded in satisfaction.
“Go!”
