Chapter 22: The Old Blind Man and the Old Cripple

Early the next morning, the sky was gloomy. A misty drizzle had been falling since last night.

The sky was covered with dark clouds, and accompanied by the cool summer breeze, it stirred people’s hearts.

Summer in the Northern Border was just like this, rainy and cool.

Amidst this misty drizzle, a cavalry unit of over a hundred men was rapidly advancing toward Hexi Fortress.

When they were a few hundred meters away from Hexi Fortress, the speed of this cavalry team slowly decreased.

“Whoa whoa whoa~”

Riding at the front of the team was an old man of about sixty.

He wore an earth-yellow hemp robe, with a sheepskin jacket over it, sheepskin boots on his feet. His hair was gray, his skin dark, his face full of wrinkles, and his figure tall and burly.

From his only remaining eye, a gaze as sharp as a falcon’s swept over Hexi Fortress in the distance.

“It seems the Karluks haven’t reached Hexi Fortress yet!” The old man breathed a sigh of relief.

Immediately after, he said to a young strong man beside him: “Let’s go, enter the village.”

After speaking, the two led more than a hundred riders slowly toward the village.

At the same time, the people in Hexi Fortress also discovered their arrival.

Several riders galloped out from within.

Still quite far away, Erhu’s loud and excited voice could be heard.

“Grandpa, Grandpa~”

In the distance, the one-eyed old man heard Erhu’s voice and laughed heartily with full vigor: “This kid Erhu is still so lively!”

Beside him, a young man who looked similar to the old man also laughed heartily: “This is inherited from your temperament!”

Soon, the two groups of people met.

“Grandpa, Second Uncle, you finally came, I missed you.”

Erhu jumped off his horse, rushed to his grandfather, and jumped up happily.

“Hahaha, Erhu, you kid have gotten stronger again, hahaha!”

Grandpa also jumped off his horse and hugged Erhu.

He wanted to pick him up like when he was a child, but he couldn’t lift him anymore.

“Heh, so heavy now!”

“Erhu, let go of your grandfather first. Squeezing with such strength, your grandfather can’t take it.” Second Uncle chuckled from the side.

While they were talking, Li Xiao, the Old Master, and others also dismounted.

Grandpa rubbed Erhu’s head, looked at the Old Master, took a light breath, grinned, and laughed loudly: “Big Brother, I’m here.”

The Old Master also looked at him, his expression unchanged, nodded gently, and simply said one word: “Good!”

Qin Kaishan shook his head: “Ha, Big Brother, speaking is even harder for you than before.”

The Old Master snorted lightly and remained silent.

Li Xiao, listening to their conversation from the side, felt speechless.

This one-eyed old man was his maternal grandfather, named Qin Kaishan.

He and the Old Master were lifelong iron buddies, the kind of friendship where they would take a knife for each other on the battlefield.

Li Xiao thought the reunion of old buddies should be so exciting that they couldn’t control themselves, hugging each other, thumping each other’s backs hard, or even sleeping foot-to-foot and talking all night.

But in reality, no passion could be seen at all; instead, it was as plain as water.

Li Xiao could only attribute it to the unique way of communication of the older generation.

True brotherhood cannot be expressed in words; everything is understood without saying.

“Da Long, come here, let Grandpa have a look. You’ve become an adult.”

“Hahaha~”

After greeting the Old Master, when Grandpa looked at Li Xiao, his face once again showed a flower-like smile, beckoning to Li Xiao.

Li Xiao stepped forward, smiled lightly, and greeted: “Grandpa, Second Uncle.”

But in reality, his thoughts were still from later generations, and he couldn’t be too close to relatives like his grandfather.

So when Grandpa kneaded Li Xiao’s head, Li Xiao could only force a smile.

Fortunately, the Old Master came to the rescue and said: “Da Long is now the Lord of Hexi Fortress.”

Hearing this, Grandpa was stunned for a moment, both happy for Li Xiao and somewhat sad.

So, he patted Li Xiao gently on the shoulder and said: “Let’s go, take me to pay respects to your father.”

In fact, Li Xiao’s eldest uncle also went to the Northern Mountains before and didn’t return either.

It was just that no news had come back, allowing the Qin family to maintain a glimmer of hope.

“En, let’s go home first.”

The Old Master nodded gently, turned, and mounted his horse, saying at the same time: “Old Zhao has also just arrived.”

Hearing this, Qin Kaishan said somewhat unexpectedly: “That old cripple moved quite fast.”

After speaking, the group walked toward the village.

After entering, Qin Kaishan did find that there seemed to be more people in Hexi Fortress. Some courtyards were crowded with warhorses carrying tents, weapons, and food.

Many people were squatting in houses, eating horse meat in big mouthfuls.

“Are these people from Ta Village?” Qin Kaishan pointed at those people and asked.

The Old Master, riding on his horse, nodded gently and said: “En.”

“They arrived not long ago. Da Long has already arranged for them to rest.”

“Later, let Da Long arrange a few courtyards for you, let your people from Gushan Fortress get some sleep too. There’s something to do tonight.”

Something to do tonight?

Qin Kaishan realized that Hexi Fortress was preparing for a big operation.

But before he could ask carefully, everyone arrived at the Li family courtyard.

From a distance, Qin Kaishan could see several figures standing in front of the courtyard gate.

The most eye-catching one was an old man with only one leg, his face full of vicissitudes, using a spear as a crutch to support his body.

“Haha, you old cripple came quite fast! Did you make your son carry you here?” Still far away, Qin Kaishan laughed loudly and said.

The one-legged old man was named Zhao Tiezhu. Not to be outdone, he laughed and cursed: “Even a cripple like me arrived earlier than you. Did you, you old blind man, fail to see the road clearly and ride your horse into a ditch?”

“Hahaha~”

The two laughed loudly. After getting close, they hugged each other and gave each other a few hard punches.

These few punches made Li Xiao feel very comfortable watching.

Right, this should be the normal greeting when old friends meet.

Before was purely an accident; the Old Master’s character was like that, too oppressive.

After exchanging a few words with Old Man Zhao, Qin Kaishan looked at the teary-eyed Qin Da Ni aside, and the smile on his face faded again.

“Dad~”

Qin Da Ni’s tears wet her face, dripping down constantly.

Seeing her father arrive, she slowly began to wail loudly.

“Sigh, Da Ni.”

Qin Kaishan stepped forward and patted Qin Da Ni gently on the shoulder.

Just two days ago, Qin Da Ni had specially returned to her parents’ home, but unexpectedly, such a huge change happened in the blink of an eye.

Not only did Li Da Hai die in battle, but there was also no news of Qin Da Ni’s eldest brother.

Qin Kaishan felt grief in his heart, but like all fathers, he opened his mouth but didn’t know how to comfort his daughter.

At this moment, how he wished his old woman could have come with him!

“Da Hai was a good man; he didn’t shame us Han men,” Qin Kaishan nodded and said.

Seeing this situation, Li Xiao stepped forward with Erhu to support Qin Da Ni.

“Mom, you’ve cried fiercely these few days, watch your health.”

“You can’t collapse again!”

After a while, Qin Da Ni was comforted.

The group walked into the house. Qin Kaishan stood in front of Li Da Hai’s spirit tablet and lit a stick of incense, while Li Xiao’s Second Uncle respectfully kowtowed a few times.

Under urgent circumstances, the funerals for Li Da Hai and others in the village couldn’t be held grandly; they could only wait until the Karluks were repelled.

After doing all this, everyone sat down, and Qin Kaishan immediately asked: “Big Brother, what are the arrangements for tonight?”

Old Man Zhao aside wasn’t moved at all; he came earlier and already knew the Old Master’s decision.

There were a total of Nine Forts and Eighteen Villages of Han people in Jin Prefecture. Conflicts occurred among them often.

But there were also many who were on good terms and intermarried.

The Old Master and these few were good brothers when they were young, sworn brothers.

Later, they became in-laws.

The Old Master had two sons and a daughter. The eldest son married Qin Kaishan’s daughter, who were Li Xiao’s parents.

The daughter married Zhao Tiezhu’s son.

In addition, Li Xiao’s eldest sister, Li Da Feng, married into Hedong Fortress two years ago.

So, these few fortress villages were all connected by marriage!

Close relations on ordinary days meant that once faced with foreign enemies, they could quickly unite and support each other.

“Arrangements are definite. Let your people from Gushan Fortress eat first, then have a good sleep,” the Old Master said indifferently, looking at Li Xiao.

Li Xiao understood immediately, nodded gently, and said: “I’ll go arrange it.”

After speaking, he took Erhu and left the house.

Just like before, he had to clear out a few houses in the village for the people of Gushan Fortress to rest for the day.

One day was enough; there would be a battle at night.

So, the sleeping problem was easy to solve. Soon, several houses were cleared out, all with long earthen kangs inside, enough for everyone to sleep.

Li Xiao also had people serve them horse meat so they could have a good meal.

Eat as much as they wanted, enough for everyone.

During this process, Li Xiao counted the number of people from Gushan Fortress.

“One hundred and twelve people.”

And Ta Village before had just over a hundred people.

Adding up to more than two hundred people.

Hexi Fortress currently had more than three hundred male adults, but not all of them could be sent out.

People like Dawu and Little Heizi who returned from the Northern Mountains, many were injured and couldn’t continue fighting for the time being.

Some who were really old and weak were also kept from participating as much as possible, and some with combat power had to be left to guard the village.

So, the manpower Hexi Fortress could mobilize for this battle was just over two hundred.

Adding up to more than four hundred.

However, it wasn’t over yet. Hedong Fortress, where Li Xiao’s eldest sister’s in-laws lived, was located thirty li east of Hexi Fortress and also faced the threat of Karluks from the direction of Sanhe Fortress.

It was just that the strength of Hedong Fortress was slightly inferior to Hexi Fortress. Excluding those staying behind, they could also only send out just over a hundred people.

In this way, the total strength of the four-fortress coalition would reach about six hundred people.

Compared to the eight hundred Karluk rebel troops predicted by Li Xiao, the numerical difference of the four-fortress coalition wasn’t large.

But there was an issue that couldn’t be ignored: the Karluks were a nomadic people.

As long as it wasn’t a long-distance expedition, for ordinary battles, the whole tribe migrated together.

Men fought at the front, while women and the elderly managed logistics at the rear.

Sanhe Fortress had been captured for two days. The follow-up old, weak, women, and children of the Karluks might have already arrived at Sanhe Fortress to rest.

At critical moments, these people also posed a considerable threat to the four-fortress coalition.

In this way, the numerical advantage of the Karluks would be even more obvious. Confronting them head-on offered little chance; even if they won, the losses would inevitably be heavy.

“So, we can only night raid,” Li Xiao said to himself.

Looking up at the sky, gloomy dark clouds blocked the sun, and would likewise block the moon at night.

“Today is good weather,” Li Xiao said coldly.

(End of this chapter)