Chapter 32: Thunderous Means, Killing the Chicken to Scare the Monkey

“Two days ago, people from Hou Village came to Aslan’s tribe.”

“I happened to know some Karluk language, so I was present during the conversation.”

Inside a tent, Wu Dayong knelt on the ground, recounting the situation at that time.

Sitting in front of him were the Old Master with an indifferent face and Qin Kaishan covered in murderous aura.

“What did the people from Hou Village come for?” Li Xiao asked.

“They wanted to submit to the Karluks.”

Hearing this, the Old Master frowned slightly: “These cowardly things clinging to life.”

The human heart is unpredictable; greed for life and fear of death is human nature.

The Old Master also knew very well that when the situation was unfavorable, people’s hearts would definitely waver.

Just like Wu Dayong, but at least this guy was forced to surrender to the Karluks.

But the people of the Hou family actually wanted to submit voluntarily?

Did they have any Han backbone left?

“At that time, the condition proposed by Hou Village was that they wanted to help the Karluks manage all the Han people in Jin Prefecture.” Wu Dayong continued recalling.

“And their bargaining chip was to help the Karluks ambush the Han coalition at a critical moment, and they were willing to offer the heads of the two brothers, Li Da Hai and Li Erjiang.”

Hearing this, Qin Kaishan immediately couldn’t sit still and slapped the table.

“What? Ignorant dogs seeking death, I’ll slaughter them all,” Qin Kaishan said murderously.

Rage burned in his heart, impossible to suppress.

The Old Master waved his hand gently, signaling him to calm down, then looked at Wu Dayong with a gloomy expression and asked, “Is Erjiang dead?”

“Shouldn’t be.” Wu Dayong shook his head vigorously.

“At that time, the Karluks proposed to skin Li Erjiang alive, and the people of Hou Village agreed.”

“It seems because the two brothers killed some important figure of the Karluks, so the Karluks hated them so much.”

“But later, the two sides didn’t reach an agreement. The Karluks didn’t want Hou Village to manage all the Han people.”

After saying this, the matter became clear.

Li Erjiang should have been captured alive by the people of Hou Village, and Li Da Hai’s body also fell into their hands.

And they used this to negotiate with the Karluks.

“The people of Hou Village are simply seeking death.”

Qin Kaishan had the most violent temper and flipped the table angrily.

Inheriting Qin Kaishan’s temper, Erhu was equally furious. The people of Hou Village actually wanted to use his father’s and second uncle’s heads as chips for their promotion.

Unforgivable!

And with their spineless bones, they actually wanted to manage all the Han people in Jin Prefecture?

Who do they think they are!

“Grandpa, Brother, let’s go wipe out Hou Village,” Erhu clamored.

Although Dahu didn’t speak, his expectant eyes meant the same thing; he wanted to wipe out Hou Village and rescue his father even more.

“Da Long, what do you think?” The Old Master’s face was cold, looking at Li Xiao, seeming to wait for Li Xiao’s decision.

Now, Li Xiao was the Hexi Fortress Lord.

Facing everyone’s gazes, Li Xiao just said coldly.

“Kill!”

“Exterminate the clan!”

If these traitors weren’t killed, it wouldn’t be enough to appease the people’s anger; if their clan wasn’t exterminated, it would be letting down the Han soldiers who died in the Battle of the Northern Mountains.

Even more so, this action was to let everyone know the fate of being a traitor.

Applying thunderous means, killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

Deterring other Han fortresses and villages in Jin Prefecture.

The Old Master nodded gently: “Definitely must kill.”

But he sighed and said: “Unfortunately, the Battle of Sanhe Fortress just ended; we can’t spare too much manpower to go to Hou Village.”

The Old Master was being polite. The real reason was that the soldiers of the four fortresses were war-weary.

After a night of fighting, the casualties of the four-fortress soldiers were not small, and they definitely needed rest.

Most importantly, the spoils of this battle at Sanhe Fortress were amazing.

Aslan’s tribe was a large tribe among the Karluks, with strong power and a large number of cattle and sheep.

Then in the Battle of the Northern Mountains, the Jin Prefecture Army suffered a disastrous defeat.

The legacy of the Jin Prefecture Governor-General’s Office all fell into the hands of the Karluks.

The amount carved up by Aslan’s tribe was also astonishing.

After that, Aslan’s tribe captured Sanhe Fortress, and all the cattle, sheep, and property of the original Han people were snatched by the Karluks.

Although many people in Sanhe Fortress were still alive, quite a few households had been wiped out directly.

And even for those alive, it wasn’t easy to get back their cattle, sheep, and property from the hands of the four-fortress coalition.

Getting a part back would be good enough.

So, these amazing riches in Sanhe Fortress would all be divided by the four-fortress coalition.

Under such circumstances, how could the soldiers still be in the mood to continue fighting?

Unless the enemy attacked proactively, soldiers would definitely fight to the death to protect their family’s safety and wealth.

But making them risk their lives to attack Hou Village…

What did Hou Village have?

Did they have as many cattle and sheep as Sanhe Fortress?

Understanding this point, Li Xiao frowned slightly, and his mood instantly worsened.

“Really fucking screwed up,” Li Xiao cursed secretly.

There’s a saying: ordinary people become unmotivated when they have money, and soldiers become greedy for life and afraid of death when they have enough wealth.

The current four-fortress coalition was in this state.

They no longer wanted to fight meaningless wars; they just wanted to divide the spoils quickly, go back to guard their wives and children on the warm kang, and count money.

Wait until the Karluks really attacked again before picking up their knives to fight.

Therefore, Li Xiao’s expectation for these ordinary herdsmen lowered again.

They might have first-class individual combat power, but they also had various problems.

And unfortunately, Li Xiao’s current prestige couldn’t change them at all.

Even the Old Master couldn’t possibly achieve this.

Unless, like Nurhaci*, one used absolute force to unify the various tribes, directly exterminating anyone who disobeyed.

Over time, people’s hearts would definitely be united.

But achieving this wasn’t easy, and it also required a long time to unify.

“Must build a true iron cavalry,” Li Xiao said solemnly in his heart.

Expecting a group of herdsmen holding knives to conquer the world was wishful thinking.

“Even so, I still want to attack Hou Village. Second Uncle must be saved,” Li Xiao looked at the Old Master and said firmly.

Difficulties certainly existed, but for Li Xiao, this might be more of an opportunity.

Dahu was originally somewhat disappointed, but hearing Li Xiao’s firm words, light shone in his eyes again.

“Brother” he murmured excitedly.

“How to fight?” the Old Master asked. Naturally, he wanted to rescue his son even more.

“Troops are valued for quality, not quantity; war relies on wisdom, not just bravery,” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.

His gaze swept over the Old Master and Qin Kaishan.

“Don’t need too much manpower, one hundred is enough.”

“I want to select the people personally,” Li Xiao said.

He already had a plan in mind on how to select people.

Seeing Li Xiao’s confident look, the Old Master nodded slightly.

“Good, you are the Hexi Fortress Lord; you decide this matter.”

Selecting one hundred people who dared to fight from the current four-fortress coalition was still very simple.

Not everyone would become degenerate and afraid of war, blinded by wealth.

Although this battle wouldn’t be easy, since Li Xiao was confident in taking down Hou Village and rescuing Li Erjiang with one hundred people, the Old Master was willing to believe him.

His eldest grandson was extraordinary.

Risks certainly existed; everyone wanted their children and grandchildren to live peacefully. But in this place, the Northern Border, it wasn’t that you’d be fine if you didn’t want to fight.

Men must fight with heaven and earth for fate, and fight with people for power.

Otherwise, sooner or later, they would be enslaved and oppressed by others, eventually losing their lives, with their whole family dying tragically.

“You can pick anyone from Gushan Fortress. If anyone is afraid of death and dares not go, Grandpa will whip him to death.”

Qin Kaishan also stated his position, looking furious.

His subordinate bastards guarding the captured spoils only wanted to go home, which had already made Qin Kaishan lose face.

But if they couldn’t even scrape together these last one hundred people, then the four of them old guys wouldn’t be worthy of being Fortress Lords anymore.

After learning all the information about Hou Village from the Old Master and the others, Li Xiao already had a rough idea of how to breach Hou Village.

Time was of the essence; Li Xiao prepared to set off as soon as possible.

However, when he took Dahu and Erhu about to leave the room, his gaze turned to Wu Dayong kneeling on the ground.

Meeting Li Xiao’s calm gaze, Wu Dayong trembled and hurriedly said: “Fortress Lord, Fortress Lord, I have already told you everything I know.”

“I have merit!”

“I can also atone for my crimes by merits; I am willing to be a pawn to charge at Hou Village.”

Watching him kowtowing like pounding garlic, a trace of anger flashed in Li Xiao’s eyes.

He couldn’t help but wonder if he also looked this obsequious in front of the Karluks.

Schwing~

Just at the moment Wu Dayong raised his head, a cold and sharp sound rang out.

Li Xiao’s cavalry saber instantly slit his throat, and blood gushed out suddenly.

“Although I am very grateful that you told me news of my second uncle, sorry, I still can’t keep you.”

Li Xiao said in a low voice.

If even someone like Wu Dayong could atone for crimes with merits, then there would only be more and more people defecting to the enemy in the future.

Not killing him would be letting down the hundreds of Sanhe Fortress Han people who died tragically at the hands of the Karluks!

“You!”

Wu Dayong stared wide-eyed, clutching his neck tightly with both hands, but unable to stop the gushing blood at all.

Soon, his body fell heavily to the ground, and the light in his eyes gradually faded.

Regarding Li Xiao’s behavior, the Old Master and Qin Kaishan didn’t change their expressions from beginning to end. Even if Li Xiao didn’t act, they would have killed Wu Dayong.

Li Xiao’s clean decisiveness and unrelenting character actually made the two gratified.

After killing the person, Li Xiao looked at Dahu and Erhu behind him and ordered: “Get the body out.”

“Then you go to the prisoner of war camp and kill his son too.”

Regardless of whether his son was innocent or not, since Li Xiao had killed his father, to prevent him from seeking revenge in the future, Li Xiao had to kill him too.

Weeding out the roots!

“Yes.”

Dahu and Erhu looked at each other, nodded heavily, and said.

Then the two worked together to drag Wu Dayong’s body out.

“Grandpa, Grandpa Qin, I’ll go pick people first. You rest for a while!”

After speaking, Li Xiao turned and left. At this time in the sky, orange-red light had already dyed the east red.

(End of this chapter)

*Nurhaci (14 May 1559 – 30 September 1626), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing, was the founding khan of the Jurchen-led Later Jin.