The Golden Age - Chapter 83: Chengchao
In the dark forest, the remaining Tusun riders were like helpless elks being chased by beasts, waiting to be finished off one by one by the Eldest Son and his men.
At last, there were only two of them remaining, both were completely full of despair and lost the will to keep running. They fell onto their knees and begged for mercy.
The Eldest Son walked in front of them with his saber in his hand. Without a single word, he slashed it through one of them. The other watched terrifyingly as if his soul was about to fly out of his body. “Zhao Yi, Pang Yu, tie this trash up.”
Pang Yu and Zhao Yi stepped forward, picked the Tusun soldier up, and then tied him with his hands on his back.
After that, the two of them searched their surroundings for a very long time to make sure they didn’t leave a single one alive. When they came back, Zhao Yi smiled proudly, “Eldest Son, it’s all done. He’s the only one left.”
After a night of the killing, all of them were already extremely exhausted as they sat down in the forest. Pang Yu took out his wine bag and threw it to the Eldest Son. The Eldest Son caught it, pulled the cork out, and gulped a few large gulps. Seeing Qin Xiao beside him, he stopped for a second and handed the wine bag over, “Here brother, drink some wine.”
Qin Xiao hesitated, but then also smiled. He knew the Eldest Son was complimenting him, so he took the wine over and also took a gulp.
After a night of fighting against the Tusun riders, they spent most of their energy, and at this time, they hadn’t completely calmed down yet. The wine went down Qin Xiao’s throat and made his whole body feel warm. It felt extremely comfortable.
Pang Yu smiled as he saw Qin Xiao drinking. Qin Xiao was still very young, yet the way he drank looked like he has been doing so for ages.
Also after seeing this, Zhao Yi couldn’t help but say, “Hey brother, save me a bit. There are still more people in line.”
Qin Xiao handed the wine bag back to the Eldest Son and whipped his mouth with his sleeve. The Eldest Son took another sip, and then Zhao Yi reached his hand forward to grab it. Pang Yu blocked his hand and took the wine bag for himself. He rolled his eyes, “Not as good as any of us yet grabs the wine faster than anyone else, huh? This is my wine, what is your hand doing here?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Zhao Yi frowned, “What do you mean not as good as any of you? I killed six tonight, is that not enough?”
Pang Yu took a gulp and then covered the cork back on, “Under the Eldest Son’s excellent commands, I killed ten. This little brother here saved the Eldest Son’s life from the arrow. So we three get to drink. You only killed six, not quite good enough to deserve some wine.”
Zhao Yi turned his head around, “Alright, you fatty. If you insist, then you might want to watch out. I’ll teach you a good lesson in the future.” He crossed his arms, “Now even if you beg me, I wouldn’t even take a sip.”
The Eldest Son looked at Qin Xiao and asked, “I see that you have quite some skills. Who did you learn it from?”
“Eldest Son, you wouldn’t believe me,” Qin Xiao sighed. He caught the arrow with his bare hands, the other three would not take it like it was an everyday thing, “I saw the arrow coming and didn’t know what to do. I just reached forward to grab it and unexpectedly, I actually caught it. It’s not anything I learned. The three of you are what real skills are. Twenty or thirty Tusun riders got finished off so quickly by you guys.”
“It’s because we knew the mountains well,” Seeing Qin Xiao trying to avoid answering the question, the Eldest Son didn’t keep asking. He smiled. “I was in a hurry at a time and forgot to use the mountain to our advantage. Thank you for your reminder.”
Zhao Yi turned his face back forward and nodded, “Little brother, the Eldest Son’s right. I guess I also wasn’t thinking properly at the time and didn’t think of going on the mountain. If it wasn’t for you, we’ll probably be corpses under arrows by now.” He laughed. “In the mountains, those Tusun people are as good as blind.”
“Those should be some of the most elite soldiers,” The Eldest Son continued seriously, “If it wasn’t for the mountain, we wouldn’t stand a chance against them.”
Zhao Yi immediately asked, “Eldest Son, how did these Tusun people come to Xiling? There were dozens of them, and they don’t have wings. They couldn’t have come from over the mountain, could it be that they crossed the Great Gobi?”
“You’re indeed as dumb as I thought,” Pang Yu sneered on the side, “If they came all the way from the Gobi, do you think no one would have realized that dozens of riders randomly appeared in Zhen County? This is no coincidence. They all knew where the Eldest Son was and they were well prepared.”
“You know what, I think you might be right,” said Zhao Yi after thinking for a bit.
“When am I not right?” Pang Yu smiled.
Zhao Yi frowned, “But we’re in Yuwen County, and who would dare to attack the Eldest Son? Isn’t that basically suicide?”
“If it wasn’t for the mountain tonight, the Eldest Son would have probably been dead by now,” Pang Yu replied, “They weren’t here to kill themselves, but to commit murder.”
Zhao Yi wanted to say something, but the Eldest Son suddenly coughed once. Zhao Yi glanced at Qin Xiao, and then closed his mouth.
Qin Xiao knew that obviously the Eldest Son didn’t want to say too much in front of him.
After watching the fight tonight, Qin Xiao knew that the Eldest Son was a calm person. His thoughts should also be very careful.
Although he rescued him by grabbing an arrow tonight, the Eldest Son still didn’t seem to trust him fully.
Qin Xiao didn’t mind. If it was himself, he wouldn’t trust anyone this easily too.
“I wonder how Da Peng and the others are doing,” Zhao Yi frowned again, “I saw a dozen or so Tusun riders going after them. Their horses are not as fast, what if…” He looked worried and did not continue.
Although Pang Yu also looked very solemn, he tried to comfort the Eldest Son, “Da Peng is very clever, and his riding skills are better than those Tusun riders. Plus, our horses aren’t bad either. They should be okay.”
The Eldest Son knew that even if he was worried, he couldn’t do anything. He stood up, “Let’s go find Duan Cheng and the rest.”
Duan Cheng must be one of the two people that were shot and killed by the riders back there. The Eldest Son was probably going back to collect their corpses.
The four of them grabbed then stripped the Tusun soldier naked and went down the mountain.
They have been hunting for quite a while already and were very familiar with the mountain surroundings. Although they were very deep in the mountains, they managed to get back down in only two hours.
When going up the mountain, the Eldest Son and the others ditched their horses, and the Tusun riders had to do the same to go up the mountain. Most of the horses were already gone by now, but there were still a few Tusun horses standing there calmly eating the grass.
Afraid that they would have to walk, everyone was extremely excited when they saw some horses still there. They all grabbed a horse and mounted.
“Little brother, do you know how to ride a horse?” The Eldest Son brought two horses over and threw the reins of one to Qin Xiao.
While still working for the Manor of the Governor, he occasionally had the chance to ride a horse. But he wasn’t very good at it, nothing compared to the ones standing in front of him. He replied awkwardly, “Uh, I’m not very good.”
“That’s alright,” The Eldest Son said with a smile, “You must practice in order to be perfect. In Xiling, it’s very important to know how to ride horses.”
Qin Xiao nodded and held the horse’s rein. At this moment, Pang Yu walked over with his horse, “Eldest Son, these are not horses from the grasslands. This is definitely a Xiling horse.”
The Eldest Son also studied the horse and his expression became even more solemn.
Qin Xiao knew that there were thousands of horse breeds in the world. Most ordinary people can’t tell the difference at all.
But a true horseman can see the difference with just a glance.
As of now, the best horses were purebreds from Mobei Grasslands. Followed by horse breeds from Monan and Moxi.
For Xiling, although there were some grasslands that were suitable for horse breeding, the Xiling Menfa must give some horses to the Imperial Court. After all, in all of the Tang Empire, only Xiling can breed the best horses.
The warhorses of the Wutuo people were extremely strong. But when it comes to speed, it was much slower to Xiling horses, not to mention the ones from the grasslands.
The Tusun people riding Xiling horses to attack and attempting to kill the Eldest Son was very strange.
The Eldest Son was silent for a moment, and without a word, he mounted on the Tusun rider’s horse. He laid low, whipped the horse, and went directly east. Zhao Yi and the Pang Yu immediately followed. By the time Qin Xiao got onto his horse and was ready to go, the other three had already disappeared in front of him.
Qin Xiao sighed, knowing that the Eldest Son was right. In Xiling, horse riding was definitely a must-have skill.
But he knew the direction they were going, so he wasn’t very worried. He looked back and looked at the dozen or so horses left over. He hooked his head, knowing their Tusun owners had already died on the mountain.
The horses of the Manor of the Governor were already old and slow. Bringing any of these horses back would make Han Yunong cry in tears of joy.
Even trading these horses for silver would bring a huge sum of money.
But he could only imagine, as he knew this was not possible.
After riding for a while, he heard some horse hooves. The Eldest Son and the others had already come back.
Pang Yu and Zhao Yi each had a corpse on their back.
He knew that since these two came hunting with the Eldest Son, they must know each other very well. Now that the Eldest Son lost two of his men, he must be feeling very sad.
“Little brother, do you have a place to go?” The Eldest Son asked Qin Xiao on the horseback.
Qin Xiao wanted to say that he was going to Fenggan City, but he knew he couldn’t. He replied, “I’m just wandering around and trying to look for a job. I can’t beg for food forever.”
“You’re right,” The Eldest Son nodded, “If you want, you can come with us. I can’t guarantee you anything, but at least you’ll get three meals a day. If you really want something to do, I might be able to find you something.”
“Isn’t this too much trouble?”
“You saved my life. Don’t say things like that,” Although the Eldest Son was very sad at the moment, he forced out a smile, “Oh, by the way, I am Yuwen Chengchao. You can still call me Eldest Son.”
Translated by: UnderTheMoon
Edited by: EyljeeÂ