Chapter 30: Battle Ends, Weeding Out the Roots

“The injury isn’t light.”

After Luo Meng and Erhu crawled into the cellar and carried out a seriously injured and unconscious teenager, placing him flat on the kang, Li Xiao lifted the clothes on the teenager’s chest. Looking at the wound before him, he shook his head gently.

“He fought with an enemy on horseback and was slashed in the chest from the front with a curved saber.”

Based on the teenager’s injury, Li Xiao quickly deduced the combat situation at that time in his mind.

Obviously, the enemy was a strong adult Karluk, whose strength and combat experience were far beyond what he, a teenager, could compare with.

“And he has been injured for at least two or three days,” Li Xiao said softly.

The teenager’s injury was very serious. A deep knife wound on his chest ran from his shoulder all the way to his abdomen. The flesh was turned outward and had not healed at all.

Moreover, because of the rain over the past two days, the humid air in the cellar bred a large number of bacteria.

Without effective treatment, the flesh around the wound had already begun to rot, oozing white pus.

The moment the clothes were lifted, a foul stench could be clearly smelled.

“The injury is too severe, and it has dragged on for too long; the flesh has started to rot. I’m afraid he can’t be saved,” Luo Meng looked at the wound, shook his head slightly, and said.

They often fought with other tribes and villages on ordinary days, and had quite a few scars on their bodies too. But Luo Meng had never seen anyone survive an injury as severe as this teenager’s.

“He’s a good man too. What a pity,” Erhu said with a slight look of regret.

He admired warriors the most.

This teenager in front of him, not much older than himself by two years, dared to fight the Karluks desperately. Just for this point, Erhu thought highly of him.

“He is not necessarily unsavable,” Li Xiao looked at the teenager’s wound and murmured to himself.

In his previous life in the army, Li Xiao had been trained on how to treat infected wounds in emergency situations.

And he had also read quite a few books on black technology, which recorded quite a few good things.

After returning, Li Xiao planned to make some and try them out.

Maybe he could save the teenager’s life.

…

Soon, Li Xiao and the others left the courtyard with the unconscious siblings.

The battle hadn’t ended yet; Li Xiao and the others couldn’t rest for the time being.

Moreover, the Karluks in Sanhe Fortress hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned out yet; leaving the siblings in the village wasn’t safe.

So, Li Xiao had Erhu find a horse cart, loading the unconscious teenager and the corpse of the Karluk leader onto it to take away.

As for this unconscious girl, Li Xiao indicated he could take care of her.

After all, the cart was full after loading two people.

Helping the unconscious girl onto the horse, Li Xiao then jumped up directly, sitting behind the girl.

Holding the horse lance in one hand and the reins in the other, he incidentally supported the girl’s waist to prevent her from falling off.

When the group walked out of the courtyard, they happened to meet Li Dashan and others.

After looking at each other, both were stunned for a moment.

Li Xiao was supporting a girl in front of him, and Li Dashan’s horse was also carrying an unconscious woman.

“Oh? Where did this little girl come from?”

Li Dashan saw the girl in front of Li Xiao and said in surprise.

“A girl from Sanhe Fortress, picked up from a cellar!” Li Xiao said.

A smile instantly appeared on Li Dashan’s face: “Hehe, Da Long, I heard before that your grandma and your mom were planning to find you a wife!”

“Didn’t expect you to find one yourself so soon.”

“The little girl is quite pretty; Da Long, you have good taste.”

Li Dashan clicked his tongue and shook his head, staring at the girl’s face full of dirt and blood, sizing her up, and nodding with satisfaction.

Hearing this, Li Xiao immediately rolled his eyes at him.

“Nothing of the sort! Sixth Uncle, don’t talk nonsense.”

“What about you, what’s going on here? Careful I go back and complain to Sixth Aunt.”

Li Xiao pointed at the woman on Li Dashan’s horse and said.

Li Xiao had seen this woman.

She was the sister-in-law from the pair who attacked Li Dashan and the others earlier, specifically the younger sister-in-law.

Looking seventeen or eighteen, quite pretty, with a nice figure. She had been knocked unconscious by now.

As for the other Karluk young married woman, she was carried on Chen Erqiang’s horse behind.

Li Xiao gave them a deep look.

“Two dirty dogs up to no good.”

All being men, how could Li Xiao not understand their dirty thoughts?

Li Dashan laughed dryly: “Cough, don’t tell your aunt when we go back.”

“Tch.” Li Xiao rolled his eyes at him, turned his head, and left.

After returning to the camp, Li Xiao watched helplessly as these two bastards hid that pair of sisters-in-law into the tent he had just set up.

“Damn it, two dirty dogs.”

“Really know how to enjoy themselves.” Li Xiao gritted his teeth and cursed secretly in his heart.

Sisters-in-law.

Really damn exciting.

Unlike this girl in his arms, who could only be looked at but not eaten.

But in this situation, Li Xiao indeed didn’t have any romantic thoughts.

After entrusting the siblings to the care of the rescued Han people of Sanhe Fortress, Li Xiao continued to lead people to sweep up the Karluk remnants.

By this time, the Karluks had long lost the power to resist. When discovered by Han soldiers, their unified action was to kneel and surrender.

Thus, the number of Karluks in the prisoner camp outside Sanhe Fortress was constantly increasing.

Most were women under forty, as well as other men who had lost their combat power or were too cowardly to resist.

They attempted to survive by surrendering.

With the passage of time, the eastern horizon began to show a faint light of dawn, and the light of daybreak was about to pierce this dark land.

The rain also disappeared unknowingly, and nature seemed to return to calm.

The battle of Sanhe Fortress was also declared over.

And at this time, the Lord of Hedong Fortress, Luo Ping, found Li Xiao.

“Da Long, I see the battlefield is almost cleaned up. It’s time to let the brothers rest!”

Rest?

Hearing Luo Ping’s words, Li Xiao’s gaze unconsciously turned toward the camp holding prisoners in the distance.

He certainly understood Luo Ping’s meaning; this rest wasn’t simply sleeping.

The emphasis was on sleeping with someone, not resting.

“What does my grandpa say?” Li Xiao asked directly.

Luo Ping chuckled: “Uncle Li said you are now the Hexi Fortress Lord. You arrange these things; he won’t get involved.”

Hearing this, Li Xiao nodded gently.

Alright!

The Old Master actually left even this kind of thing for him to arrange; he really didn’t treat him as a child anymore.

So he said: “Uncle Luo, I don’t understand these things very well either. Just follow the old rules, whatever they were before.”

Luo Ping immediately laughed loudly and winked at Li Xiao.

“The old rule is that us Fortress Lords pick first.”

“Then the brothers go pick according to their merits.”

“Now that you are the Hexi Fortress Lord, let’s go over and say a word together; otherwise, the brothers won’t feel at ease having fun.”

Pick what?

With so many female Karluk captives, what else could they pick?

However, his soul came from later generations after all, and he felt a bit unaccustomed to this barbaric behavior.

But morality could only restrain Li Xiao himself; he couldn’t use these standards to demand things of soldiers in this era.

Moreover, Luo Ping and these people weren’t regular soldiers either, just a group of armed herdsmen.

Although he was the Hexi Fortress Lord, this tacit rule wasn’t something he could change.

Li Xiao shook his head helplessly and smiled: “Uncle Luo, I have other things to busy myself with. You guys arrange it yourselves.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

Luo Ping thought Li Xiao was a young man with thin skin, embarrassed to face such things.

But how could a vigorous young man be so easily restrained?

So he laughed: “Da Long, if you’re shy, your Uncle Luo will help you.”

“Later, I’ll pick two pretty little girls first and send them to your tent.”

After speaking, ignoring Li Xiao’s objections, Luo Ping laughed loudly, rode his horse, and left directly.

Watching Luo Ping’s back without looking back, Li Xiao shouted repeatedly: “Hey hey hey hey!”

“Uncle Luo!”

“Uncle Luo!”

Only to find that Luo Ping seemed not to hear at all, running far away in the blink of an eye.

Finally, Li Xiao could only sigh heavily in helplessness.

“Sigh.”

“Uncle Luo, you’ve really got me in trouble!”

After speaking, Li Xiao shook his head, rode his horse, and followed behind Luo Ping toward the prisoner of war camp.

Although Hexi Fortress had no military regulations, there was a hierarchy of status internally.

If Li Xiao, as the Fortress Lord, didn’t speak, the herdsmen of Hexi Fortress might have complaints.

Arriving in the prisoner camp, it became even more chaotic.

The blood and corpses on the ground hadn’t been dealt with yet, and then many more prisoners were locked in.

Screams and pleas for mercy were everywhere.

“Boohoo…”

“Help, don’t kill me!”

Those here were basically all women, and mostly young women of childbearing age.

The Karluk tribe of more than three thousand people, after nearly two hours of slaughter, lost more than half of their men, leaving only women and children.

The habit of nomadic peoples on the grassland was not to kill children shorter than a wheel.

But the Han people didn’t have this habit.

The Northern Border Han people, influenced by Central Plains culture, knew only one sentence.

“Cutting the grass without removing the roots leaves endless trouble for the future.”

“Oh my, what a tragedy on earth.”

In the camp, Luo Ping rode on his horse, looking at the women crying and begging and the teenagers crying and shouting gathered in the distance, and chuckled.

Turning to look at Li Xiao beside him, he said: “Da Long, I feel we are simply a bunch of demons, too despicable, doing things no human would do.”

“We will definitely go to hell in the future.”

Listening to Luo Ping’s teasing, Li Xiao scoffed lightly. The orange firelight shone on his face, indifferent as ice.

Looking at the Karluks with their tragic fate, his frosty heart wasn’t moved in the slightest.

He said with an unchanged expression: “Hell? Hmph, Uncle Luo, do you believe in that stuff?”

Luo Ping laughed loudly: “I don’t believe it.”

“Who believes in the stuff of those bald donkeys?”

“And even if there really is a hell, it will be these Karluks going down first.”

The Karluks were warlike by nature and cruel in character. Han captives who fell into their hands didn’t fare much better.

Even what the Karluks did was more excessive than what the Han people were doing now.

So Li Xiao and the others didn’t feel the Karluks were pitiful at all; they only felt they had killed too few Karluks.

(End of Chapter)