Chapter 1: The Sun Rises for the First Time Section 11

  Li Hong stared at Murong Feng's face, which had suddenly become extremely ugly, and asked in a panic: "General, what did I say wrong?"

  Murong Feng sternly stared at Tie Lang and asked: "Who told you to come pick us up?"

  Tie Lang and others were shocked and frightened, and they all knelt down. They rarely saw Murong Feng get so angry, so they were extremely terrified in their hearts.

  "Returning to General, he is Xiao Shuai Murong Lin of the Golden Eagle tribe."

  Murong Feng's face sank, and he waved his hand at them, saying: "Get up." Then he stood with his hands behind his back, silent.

  Tie Lang and a few others didn't dare disturb Murong Feng, so they dragged Li Hong to a distant place.

  "You idiot, what kind of crazy idea is this. You've been bothering me from midnight till dawn, and several horses have died from exhaustion, not to mention people." Tie Lang looked around and estimated that Murong Feng couldn't hear, so he immediately kicked Li Hong and started scolding him.

  "You can't run, you can come and call me." Li Hong smiled and said, "Such a wonderful scene, I didn't see any of it, what a pity. Ke's that dead fatso must have been tormented by you until he was out of breath, vomiting blood."

  "Of course, this kind of pretentious thing, I'm the most skilled at it." Tie Lang, who was soft but not hard to deal with, immediately said with a pleased expression, "However, compared to your crazy and deceitful skills, I'm far inferior."

  "Only you call him an idiot, but Da Shuai says he's a genius." Wu Bao said with a smile.

  "I would rather hope that he remains as ignorant as before. What's good about fighting? Every day it's you killing me, I killing you, and one of these days you'll be killed by someone else too. Look around us, how many familiar faces do we have left?"

  He patted Tie Lang's shoulder and said: "He is young and capable, he should make something of himself. Don't discourage him."

  Tie Lang shook his head, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

  "How many days has Leopard been with us? But he's already killed over a hundred people, without even raising an eyebrow. General says he might have been a top-notch assassin in the past, I think so too." Gong Sun Hu said with a sneer, "Iron Wolf, are you jealous of this little brother of yours?"

  "Joke," Iron Wolf said, "I'm doing it for his own good. If I hadn't taught him personally, he might still not know how to dress himself now. Don't laugh, at that time he really was an idiot."

  "When a person suddenly loses their memory, they have to start from scratch. But it seems like the leopard is recovering particularly quickly, which may not be entirely thanks to you." Gong Sunhu deliberately provoked him.

  "These are all due to Big Brother Lang's kindness, I will never forget it in my lifetime." Li Hong said gratefully.

  "Alright, as long as you don't call me uncle, we're even."

  Gongsun Hu and several others burst out laughing.

  From afar, several long and drawn-out bugle calls echoed across the battlefield, signaling that the army was about to retreat.

  Yuwen Shang gazed at Murong Feng, who was pacing back and forth in thought, and suddenly asked Li Hong: "Leopard, why did the commander's face turn sour as soon as he heard your words just now?"

  "Yes, you and General Shuai have been fleeing together for over a dozen days. You're clear about the process in between. Is there anything wrong with that?" Gong Sun Hu asked.

  "I fled with General all the way, nothing happened in between." Li Hong scratched his head and said in a low voice, "However, if you ask me to guess, I think someone among us betrayed General."

  Several people were suddenly frightened. The consequences of being betrayed were too painful a lesson for them. The great defeat on the Ben Niu Yuan, the miserable cries of comrades before death, are still vivid in their minds. Several of you looked at me, I looked at you, with shocked expressions, and deep fear in your eyes.

  The ox horn sounded again, and the army was waiting for Murong Feng's command.

  Murong Feng seemed to have thought of a way to solve the problem, he called on everyone to mount their horses and rushed to the army at high speed, leading the iron cavalry to chase after the wild geese. Due to the need to escort prisoners, the marching speed of the main force was not very fast.

  On the road, Murong Feng called Yuwen Shang to his side and whispered a few words in his ear. Yuwen Shang nodded solemnly, whipped his horse and galloped away.

  At noon, the army returned to Yeziwei.

  On the grassland surrounded by Wild Geese, two armies have already set up camp. To the left of the main camp are the 2,000 Iron Riders who came to reinforce Murong Feng, and to the right are the 3,000 cavalrymen of the Linghuo tribe.

  Li Hong saw Xiong Ba. Xiong Ba was of medium build, with a lean physique, looking more like a hunter than the famous Xianbei warrior. His appearance and name were vastly different. Duan Song was the small commander of the Linghu tribe, with a smiling face.

  Murong Feng inquired about the situation and then introduced Li Hong to the two men. Xiong Ba and Duan Song, like all Xianbei people, were somewhat prejudiced against Han people, but due to Murong Feng's relationship with them, they nodded casually at Li Hong as a greeting. It was rare for Xianbei people to treat Han people like their own kin, as Murong Feng or Tie Lang did. Li Hong had long been accustomed to this and bowed in response without taking offense.

  Murong Feng continued to say to the two: "Baozi killed Kuye at Ma Zui Slope. At dawn today, we successfully attacked Kuye's largest camp according to his plan and annihilated the 5,000 iron knights of the Hu tribe. Don't underestimate this Han person."

  Xiong Ba and Duan Song gazed at Li Hong in surprise, re-examining this Han person who was specially introduced by Murong Feng. This young man had helped Murong Feng before and now had some reputation among the Xianbei people in the central region; many people knew that there was a foolish Han person. Xiong Ba and Duan Song couldn't see where the foolishness of this tall and sturdy eighteen- or nineteen-year-old lay, except for his disheveled long hair which didn't match their shaved heads, everything else seemed normal.

  Two people followed behind Murong Feng, asking about the attack on Ke Zui. It's not strange that Murong Feng could defeat Ke Zui, what's strange is how easily Murong Feng defeated Ke Zui.

  "Tiewu and the others are bringing back captives and spoils of war, if you want to know the details, go and meet them. Also, order each department to rest in place. I need to think about a few things, once I've figured it out, we'll set off."

  Xiong Ba and Duan Song responded in unison, and immediately passed down the order. For a time, wild geese surrounded people shouting and horses neighing, extremely lively.

  Murong Feng slipped into a well-pitched tent, thinking about his problem. Li Hong lay slantingly at the entrance of the tent, gazing at the bustling campsite in front of him, and slowly fell asleep. When he was tapped awake, it was already afternoon.

  One of Murong Feng's attendants held a plate of half-cooked horse meat and asked Li Hong to help deliver it into the main tent. When Murong Feng was deep in thought, no one dared to disturb him, including his junior generals, but Li Hong, who had been following him closely lately, could come and go as he pleased. Firstly, Li Hong didn't understand the rules, and secondly, Murong Feng liked him very much, so even if Li Hong burst in recklessly, Murong Feng wouldn't blame him.

  Inside the big tent, Murong Feng was using a horse whip to draw on the ground. He saw Li Hong enter and didn't even lift an eyebrow, casually saying: "You eat some first. You only had dry rations on the road, you must be starving by now?"

  Li Hong responded with a grunt, unceremoniously picking up the small knife stuck in the meat and starting to eat on his own. Perhaps due to his brain being damaged before, Li Hong was extremely dull when it came to etiquette, and most of the time people still treated him as half an idiot, nobody paying attention to his lack of manners and strange behavior.

  "If Emperor Daowu were still alive, the Xianbei state would be extremely powerful by now." Murong Feng said suddenly, "Eight years ago, when I was discussing state affairs with the emperor on Mount Pohan, he proposed creating a writing system for our Xianbei people, so that future generations of Xianbei wouldn't have to rely on just drawing a few symbols on small wooden blocks to record events and using knots in strings to count numbers. Unfortunately, the emperor's ambitions were left unfulfilled when he passed away prematurely, leaving behind us useless ministers who not only failed to carry out his will and make the Xianbei state even stronger, but instead squandered the great legacy he left behind."

  Murong Feng sighed with emotion, "Even if I die, I would have no face to see the great king."

  Li Hong ate horse meat while persuading: "General, you are invincible in the world, can you achieve the king's last wish?"

  Murong Feng bitterly smiled: "I am now a rebel of the Xianbei state, and even survival is a problem, how can I still talk about fulfilling the great king's will? Now the most important thing is that we cannot let the Xianbei state perish."

  "Is it that serious?" Li Hong asked: "General, I just heard the scouts reporting outside, and it seems the situation is very unfavorable to us."

  Murong Feng burst out laughing, "Young one, were you eavesdropping outside?"

  Li Hong scratched his head and smiled awkwardly, "General, who are we going to fight next?"

  "Don't take it so lightly, as if others are just weeds that can be trampled at will." Murong Feng said, "The enemy is coming fiercely. Now, in front of us is He Lian's army. He Lian is still secretly marching, and there are still three days' journey between us. Meng Li Zhe has already bypassed Tian Ma on his left side, cutting off our retreat route back to Da Yan Mountain. On the right side, Quan Ju suddenly accelerated his pace, rapidly approaching He Lian, while behind us is the wet water river. The army is surrounded in the middle, and it seems that flying with wings is difficult."

  Li Hong wanted to speak but stopped himself.

  "Tell me your views on the battle situation." Murong Feng pointed at Li Hong with his whip, "Yesterday, wasn't your idea quite good?"

  "General, I was just casually saying that yesterday, blindly bragging." Li Hong said with embarrassment, "The specific attack method of the night raid, the clever combination of the location and time of the attack, as well as many other aspects, were all personally planned by you. We were able to win because of your good command."

  Li Hong cupped his hands and bowed: "General, I beg of you, don't mention this again in front of others next time."

  Murong Feng was amused by his embarrassed expression and burst out laughing. Li Hong's face turned even redder.

  "Alright, I won't say anything more." Murong Feng patted Li Hong's head intimately, "Then you tell me, how are we going to break out of this encirclement?"

  "General, I think this crisis is deliberately caused by you." Li Hong put down the wooden plate in his hand and said with a smile, "The general lured them all here, preparing to wipe them out at once, solving all problems, but the general's troops are too few. Otherwise, we can take advantage of the enemy's scattered forces on this grassland, before they form an encirclement, block one unit, lure another unit, and then concentrate our main force to annihilate one unit."

  Murong Feng's smile on his face gradually disappeared with Li Hong's words, he looked at Li Hong in surprise, nodding repeatedly: "Leopard, this idea of yours is good. Don't worry about whether our army is enough or not, first talk about how to fight this battle."