Chapter 53: You Really Are a Talent

Endless bonfires burned in the dark night, illuminating this chaotic land.

There was no dripping blood, no neighing of weapons.

Only the uneasy howling of warhorses and the joy of the Hexi cavalry after victory.

“Separate all prisoners from their warhorses, detain them separately, and confiscate all their weapons.”

In the dark night, Li Xiao, wearing armor and holding a horse lance, patrolled on horseback and ordered loudly.

Behind him, Shou Hou and Tie Tou followed closely like loyal guards, holding torches and spears.

The battle was over!

When the Hexi cavalry completed the encirclement of the Čarlan people.

Using three times the number of torches as themselves, they made the Čarlan people erroneously overestimate the number of Hexi cavalry, thereby causing great panic and psychological pressure on the Čarlan people.

At this moment, the battle had no suspense.

The vast majority of Čarlan people dismounted and surrendered.

A small number of Čarlan people who resisted stubbornly or wanted to escape were all shot dead by the Hexi cavalry.

In the end, the Hexi cavalry defeated this Čarlan cavalry unit with almost zero casualties.

Following Li Xiao’s order, the Hexi cavalry moved quickly.

Rounding up the Čarlan people’s warhorses, forcing them to throw away their weapons, and then walk to another open space to squat down.

Anyone who disobeyed was shot dead directly.

Soon, Lin Dazhuang rode over and reported to Li Xiao: “Fortress Lord, the count of prisoners is complete; there are three hundred and eighty-two people.”

Three hundred and eighty-two?

That’s really quite a lot!

Fortunately, these Čarlan people were coerced into surrendering.

If these Čarlan people fought back desperately, even if Hexi Fortress and Ta Village had the numerical advantage, they would inevitably suffer considerable losses.

Not worth it.

At this moment, Li Xiao once again realized the importance of that saying.

The world (Jianghu) is not about fighting and killing, but about worldly wisdom.

Grasping the enemy’s psychology could help reduce a lot of trouble and losses.

Subduing the enemy without fighting is always the first choice in battle.

“Dazhuang, take that slave from just now and pick out a group of people with the highest status among these prisoners,” Li Xiao instructed.

Hearing this, Lin Dazhuang’s face twitched slightly, instantly realizing what Li Xiao wanted to do.

Force those lower-level prisoners to pay a certificate of allegiance (commit a crime to prove loyalty).

This was done in Hou Village before, and Lin Dazhuang was the one leading it.

Now, it was time for those Čarlan people to contribute their loyalty.

“Yes, sir.” Lin Dazhuang nodded solemnly with a serious expression.

Before long, Lin Dazhuang led people to pick out a group of Čarlan nobles from the prisoners, and then brought two tightly bound prisoners to Li Xiao.

“Kneel!”

Lin Dazhuang scolded the two loudly.

These two were precisely Nierdu and that Khitan supervising army official named Kuotu.

Facing Lin Dazhuang’s scolding, Nierdu turned a deaf ear, looking at Li Xiao’s face instead, seemingly surprised by Li Xiao’s age.

Frowning slightly, Nierdu snorted lightly, as if his attitude was very tough and disdainful.

But he was hit on the leg by Tie Tou with a stick from behind.

With a scream of “Ah!”, Nierdu fell directly to the ground.

As for the other Khitan, he was even more arrogant.

“I am a Khitan, a supervising army official sent by the Eastern Capital Regency.”

“You Han people are simply audacious.”

“Release me quickly, otherwise Lord Xiao will definitely not let you off.”

The Khitan struggled constantly, but the rope bound him tightly, and then he was forcibly pressed to kneel on the ground by two Hexi youths.

He was still cursing constantly, his attitude extremely arrogant.

“What is this guy saying?”

Although Li Xiao couldn’t understand, judging from this guy’s expression, the ‘mother content’ (profanity involving mothers) should be extremely high.

He was just about to have someone chop this guy down directly, but the slave from before whispered: “Master, he is the Khitan supervising army official, asking us to release him.”

Previously, Li Xiao had asked for this slave’s name; it was Hutu.

He was from a Central Asian nomadic tribe, captured as a slave by others since childhood, passed around, and finally fell into the hands of the Čarlan people.

In short, this guy’s life was quite tough (hard to kill).

Now he decisively recognized Li Xiao as his new master.

“You even understand the Khitan language?” Li Xiao glanced at Hutu and said.

Hutu smiled gently, lowered his head slightly, and said: “Hutu’s former master was a Khitan.”

“So, you learned your Chinese from a previous Han master too?” Li Xiao said.

Hutu nodded hurriedly.

He even felt he was a language genius; whenever he followed a master, he could learn a new language.

Li Xiao nodded gently, then asked seemingly casually: “Are your two previous masters dead?”

Hutu was stunned for a moment, not understanding why, looked at Li Xiao’s face carefully, shook his head, and answered: “No, no.”

“Now, they should be living well.”

Oh, then it’s fine!

Li Xiao nodded gently, feeling relieved.

After all, this slave’s life was a bit tough (unlucky for others), but fortunately, he wasn’t a Bane of Solitude (bringing misfortune to everyone around him).

“Master, that person is Nierdu, the chief of the Čarlan tribe; his son was killed by Master…”

“This Khitan supervising army official is named Kuotu. He likes gold, silver, and treasures very much; Nierdu has given him a lot of treasures.”

Hutu introduced the identities of the two to Li Xiao.

Li Xiao had no interest in this chief named Nierdu and nothing to ask.

On the contrary, Li Xiao had too much curiosity about this Khitan supervising army official.

“Go ask him, how many people came from the Eastern Capital Army? Where have they arrived? Coming in how many routes?” Li Xiao said to Hutu.

These matters were very important, and Li Xiao needed to know urgently.

Immediately, Hutu communicated with Kuotu in Khitan for a while, then said to Li Xiao.

“Master, he refuses to say anything, just clamoring for us to let him go, otherwise we will definitely be severely punished.”

Li Xiao had already seen the Khitan’s toughness through his body language and expressions.

He originally thought of torturing the Khitan to extract the intelligence he wanted.

Unexpectedly, Hutu said: “However, Master, although this Khitan refuses to speak, I know a little.”

“Oh?” Li Xiao became interested in his newly accepted slave.

He nodded and said: “Let’s hear it.”

“I heard Nierdu and the Čarlan nobles say before that for this eastern expedition, there are a total of five thousand troops from the Khitan Six Divisions.”

“Also mobilized ten thousand troops from various tribes in Yin Mountain and Beihai, totaling about fifteen thousand troops in the Eastern Expedition Army.”

“Probably split into two routes. For the troops from Yin Mountain, with the Čarlan tribe as the vanguard, the main force should still be sixty li away at this time.”

“As for the troops from Beihai, your slave is not clear.”

Although Hutu’s understanding wasn’t detailed, it was enough for Li Xiao.

But what surprised Li Xiao was the number of the Eastern Capital Army.

“Fifteen thousand people?”

What did the Khitans want to do?

The number of Karluk rebel troops in Jin Prefecture was only about three thousand at the beginning.

Now that Aslan’s tribe was destroyed by Li Xiao, the number was even smaller.

Mobilizing fifteen thousand troops to suppress them, was it necessary to bully people like this?

But thinking of the Naimans supporting the Karluk rebellion, Li Xiao’s expression became serious.

“Could it be they want to go to war with the Naimans?”

The Naimans were not comparable to the Karluks of Jin Prefecture.

That was a super-large tribe in the western Mongolian Plateau. Although it experienced a split a few years ago, it still had over a hundred thousand tribesmen now and could easily pull out ten thousand cavalry.

If they went to war with the Naimans, Jin Prefecture would be in danger, directly becoming a battlefield for armies of tens of thousands.

“Ask him, is the Eastern Capital Army preparing to go to war with the Naimans?” Li Xiao asked urgently.

After communicating with the Khitan supervising army official again for a while, Hutu shook his head at Li Xiao and said: “Master.”

“He says he doesn’t know, and says even if he knew, he wouldn’t tell us.”

Damn it.

Li Xiao’s violent temper made him want to slaughter this Khitan on the spot.

But Hutu said at this time: “However, Master, I actually have some understanding.”

Seeing Li Xiao’s serious gaze glancing over, Hutu hurriedly said: “When the Eastern Capital Regency issued orders to the Čarlan tribe, they specifically instructed to prepare more winter clothes.”

“And also asked who understood the language of the Naimans.”

Hearing this, Li Xiao looked straight at Hutu, touched his chin, and said: “Don’t tell me you even understand the Naiman language?”

Stared at by Li Xiao like this, Hutu was a bit nervous. After all, he had just pledged allegiance and didn’t know his new master’s temper yet.

He could only nod carefully and say: “Yes, I understand a little bit of the Naiman language.”

“Ha!” Li Xiao laughed directly.

He just asked casually, but didn’t expect this guy actually understood it.

What is this?

“You damn well really are a talent.” Li Xiao pointed at Hutu with his horsewhip and said.

What is most important in the 13th century?

Talent!

Those who can devise strategies and win battles from a thousand miles away are talents; those who can deploy troops and lead armies well are talents; those who can manage logistics and civil affairs well are also talents.

And someone like Hutu, who can understand multiple languages, is a rare talent.

Unexpectedly, fighting a battle actually sent him such a gift.

To be honest, Li Xiao was a bit envious of Hutu’s language talent.

Unlike himself; although a transmigrator, apart from a bit of half-baked English, he only knew a little Kazakh.

“I should master a few more foreign languages.” Li Xiao said secretly in his heart.

The first one must be Khitan because Western Liao was a country ruled by Khitans, and there would be plenty of opportunities to deal with Khitans in the future.

Learn Khitan well, and travel all over Western Liao without fear.

But who to find as his Khitan language teacher?

Li Xiao seemed to forget Hutu, and a beautiful figure appeared in his mind.

“She should be a good teacher, right?” The corner of Li Xiao’s mouth raised slightly, and he said secretly in his heart.

“Some night when there’s a chance, I must take the initiative to visit and ask for advice.”

Mainly because Li Xiao really liked learning foreign languages.

(End of this chapter)