Chapter 125: A Man Like a Lion

The long winter of the Northern Frontier finally came to a quiet end. The sunlight gradually became warm, bringing the power of rebirth to this silvery-white land.

On the plains, the thick layer of snow slowly melted, revealing the tips of grass that had been dormant for a long time. Tender green sprouts impatiently poked their heads out of the moist soil, curiously looking at this brand-new world.

And the Han people of Jin Prefecture had not been idle throughout this whole winter.

Li Xiao gathered all the craftsmen in Jin Prefecture and established a ‘Hexi Arms Factory’.

Specifically for forging weapons.

The Old Master led a group of trustworthy old brothers to carry out the first step of weapon manufacturing.

Which was smelting Wootz steel.

Then, ingots of Wootz steel were sent to the hands of other blacksmiths.

According to their respective tasks, these blacksmiths forged the Wootz steel into various weapons.

Among them, arrowheads and armor plates were the most numerous.

Arrowheads forged from Wootz steel were harder than ordinary arrowheads and had stronger armor-piercing ability.

And armor plates forged from Wootz steel also had stronger protective power than ordinary iron plates, serving as an important component of cotton armor.

In this long winter, the Hexi Arms Factory forged tens of thousands of arrowheads, more than a thousand cavalry sabers, more than two thousand hooked spears, and one thousand suits of cotton armor.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to make more cotton armor, but there wasn’t enough cotton.

Calculating seven jin of cotton per suit of cotton armor, one thousand suits required seven thousand jin of cotton.

This directly consumed all the cotton Li Ergun had bought from the Desert the previous two times.

Therefore, when the long winter of the Northern Frontier passed and the ice and snow on the roads began to melt, Li Ergun prepared to set off for the Desert again.

Hexi Distillery.

Dozens of men were moving jars of West Wind Fury out of the house and loading them onto horse carts.

After a winter of brewing, Hexi Fortress already had a stock of three thousand jars of West Wind Fury filling up several courtyards.

At the same time, it directly promoted the development of the pottery industry.

The pottery in Jin Prefecture basically came from a household in Heishan Village.

Because of orders from the Hexi Distillery, this household also made a fortune and began to hire people to help fire pottery.

Jin Prefecture had its first pottery factory.

Before the horse carts, Li Xiao stood side by side with Li Ergun, watching the large number of wine jars fill the carts.

Li Xiao turned his head and asked, “There are more goods this time; is the manpower of the caravan enough?”

Although there was already a stock of three thousand jars in the distillery, there was a saying —rarity increases value.

So this time, Li Ergun would only take away one thousand five hundred jars.

With no supply for a whole winter, those merchants in the Desert would definitely be able to digest all these one thousand five hundred jars.

“I hired another twenty people from Hedong Fortress and Ta Village; the manpower is sufficient,” Li Ergun nodded.

Then he added, “However, we bought quite a lot of grain and cotton the previous two times; those merchants in the Desert might raise the price.”

Raise the price?

Li Xiao shook his head gently— “It’s fine. As long as they can get these two things, it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit more expensive.”

After all, West Wind Fury itself was hugely profitable.

Plus, the ten thousand strings of cash Xiao Sima rewarded before hadn’t been touched yet.

So Li Xiao wasn’t stingy about this small amount of money.

“Moreover, as the prices of grain and cotton rise, there will be more people planting them in the Desert this year.”

“After some time, the price will fall anyway,” Li Xiao said in a faint voice.

This was just market laws, not worth haggling over.

The most important thing now was to buy more grain and cotton, enhance Jin Prefecture’s ability to resist risks, and make more cotton armor.

After watching the caravan people leave Hexi Fortress, Li Xiao took his group of little buddies and started the day-after-day training again.

Even in winter, the Hexi Military Academy continued to operate normally.

It was just that those Thousand-Man and Hundred-Man Commanders had long left, leaving only this group of teenagers.

After a winter of study, except for a few truly dull individuals, most other teenagers could recognize three to five hundred characters.

Simple written communication was no problem.

What Li Xiao taught them now was mainly some insights and experiences from combat.

Of course, more often, he practiced martial arts with these teenagers, teaching them mounted archery skills, and how to command cavalry in battle, etc.

Just as Li Xiao was leading this group of teenagers practicing sprints on the snow.

Suddenly he saw San Feng riding over.

“Big Brother! Big Brother!”

Still far away, San Feng shouted loudly.

After the New Year, San Feng was already nine years old. Although in Li Xiao’s eyes, she was still an innocent and naive child.

But unknowingly, San Feng had indeed grown taller.

In a few more years, she would reach marriageable age.

And it just so happened she had a big brother who was the Vice Military Governor of Jin Prefecture, and other uncles and brothers were all impressive figures.

So although she was still young, some people had already started to have ideas openly or secretly.

There were too many people wanting to form marriage alliances with the Li family.

Not only San Feng, but also Er Feng and Si Feng from Li Xiao’s Second Uncle’s family, and even daughters from more distant branches of the Li family.

As long as they were unmarried, they all became hot commodities.

Li Xiao certainly knew that the ultimate fate of these girls in the Li family was political marriage.

But he definitely wouldn’t let them marry hastily.

Especially Er Feng, San Feng, and Si Feng, these three; Li Xiao would definitely choose carefully for them when the time came.

“Big Brother, Grandpa wants you to go home.”

“Someone has come.”

San Feng stopped her horse in the distance. Although wrapped up like a little white bear, her cheeks were blown red by the cold wind, like frozen ripe apples.

“Who came?”

Li Xiao hung his bow and arrows on the horse’s back, let Wei Xuan, San Bao, and the others practice mounted archery by themselves, walked up to San Feng, and asked.

“Two Khitans. I’ve seen one of them; he’s the one who follows the Princess.”

Hearing San Feng’s words, Li Xiao smiled.

“Could it be this woman sent me a love letter?”

Subsequently, he took San Feng and rushed towards home.

At this moment, in Li Xiao’s home.

The atmosphere seemed a bit awkward.

The Old Master sat on the grand chair in the middle of the main hall without saying a word.

On the left and right sides sat two Khitans respectively.

One of them was precisely Xiao Yanyan’s former guard, named Duoga.

He understood the Han language and had lived in Hexi Fortress with Xiao Yanyan for a period of time.

So Xiao Yanyan sent him to deliver the letter.

But what he didn’t expect was that Li Xiao wasn’t home, and only the Old Master was the man in the house.

But the Old Master happened to be the taciturn type.

So, the three people sat in the room, staring at each other, the atmosphere quite awkward.

After a moment of silence, Duoga couldn’t stand it and greeted with a smile—”I haven’t seen you for a winter; your old body looks even sturdier.”

The Old Master nodded gently and said faintly, “Not bad, i won’t die yet.”

Duoga: “…”

It really wasn’t that he didn’t know how to find a topic, but the Old Master spoke too infuriating; one sentence could choke someone to death.

But who told this old man to be Li Xiao’s grandfather?

And Li Xiao and the Princess had that kind of relationship, which was equivalent to Li Xiao becoming half his master.

So, even if he was choked by every sentence from the Old Master, he had to smile and compliment him.

“I see Hexi Fortress seems to have become a bit different; it much bigger than the last time I came,” Duoga laughed, asking the question in his heart.

Coming to Hexi Fortress this time, he really found it different.

Many large courtyards were built in the west, and some women were going in and out of those courtyards.

Faintly, sounds of wood and blacksmithing could be heard.

Why did he feel Hexi Fortress seemed a bit wrong?

But in fact, inside those courtyards were the newly built factories and warehouses of Hexi Fortress.

There were women weaving cloth and men blacksmithing inside, and many rooms stored the weapons forged and wine brewed in Hexi Fortress during this period.

So, Hexi Fortress indeed looked much bigger.

But in reality, this was far from the true scale of the Hexi factories.

For example, blacksmithing— only a small number of blacksmiths living in Hexi Fortress would work in the workshop.

Those living far away worked in their own homes, coming to Hexi Fortress every once in a while to collect Wootz steel ingots, deliver forged weapons, collect wages, etc.

The textile factory was the same.

In short, the entire Jin Prefecture was very busy this winter.

Hexi Fortress gradually became the core of Jin Prefecture; everything naturally felt unusual.

Facing Duoga’s confusion, the Old Master just nodded faintly and said concisely, “It is bigger!”

Then, there was no then.

The smile on Duoga’s face became awkward again.

Chatting with this old man could really give one a heart attack; he could always kill the conversation.

“Yes, yes!”

Gulp..glup..glup..

Duoga could only use drinking water to dissolve this awkward atmosphere.

But fortunately at this time, with the sound of hoofbeats, Li Xiao’s return made Duoga heave a huge sigh of relief.

“Finally back.”

“i better see less of this old man in the future.”

Immediately, Duoga stood up and walked out the door to welcome Li Xiao.

Watching Li Xiao dismount in the courtyard, his movements clean and neat, done in one go, full of the unique heroic spirit and dashing manner of young people.

Duoga had to admit he was charmed by this bastard’s handsomeness.

He said secretly in his heart: “No wonder he could captivate the Princess so much.”

However, Duoga discovered that after not seeing him for a winter, Li Xiao seemed to have grown much taller again.

Almost reaching more than five and a half chi, which would be over 1.8 meters in later generations.

Moreover, Li Xiao’s physique was stronger than before. His broad shoulders seemed capable of carrying a millstone, and his chest was as solid and majestic.

Every muscle contained amazing power.

When he stood casually in the courtyard, he like a lion standing in its territory— his eyes revealed arrogance and fearlessness.

When his gaze swept over casually, Duoga felt as if he was really being stared at by a lion.

A feeling of hair standing on end and coldness all over the body.

“It shouldn’t be; we only haven’t seen him for half a year, how did this kid become so scary?” Duoga said with fear in his heart.

Standing in front of Li Xiao, he suddenly had the feeling of facing Xiao Sima directly.

In just half a year, the aura on Li Xiao had become so terrifying?

But fortunately, after seeing Duoga’s familiar face, the indifference and arrogance on Li Xiao’s face dissipated completely.

Turning into a gentle smile, smiling because of Xiao Yanyan.

“Duoga, my brother… welcome to Jin Prefecture.”

Li Xiao laughed loudly, stepped forward, and gave Duoga a hug.

Li Xiao was half a head taller than him and stronger; this scene was like a lion pouncing on an antelope.

And Duoga, feeling the power from Li Xiao’s arms was also secretly surprised.

Finally released, he hurried to smile: “Governor Li, have you been well?”

“Good, very good,” Li Xiao chuckled.

“I just miss the Princess very much!”

Duoga smiled gently and said, “The Princess in the Eastern Capital also misses Governor Li very much.”

“This is a letter from the Princess to you.”

Saying this, Duoga took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Li Xiao.

After Li Xiao checked that the wax seal on it was fine, he opened it and read it.

However, when he read the second half, the smile on his face slowly disappeared.