Chapter Thirty-Two: Encounter with Ma Gun Huang Again

  There were two horses in total, Li Qin rode one of them, and the other carried helmets and dry rations. Li Qin said to the soldiers: "Brothers, I had some past conflicts with Tang Biao, this time when we go out with Tang Biao, he will definitely make things difficult for us. If there's anything improper in his words, we still need to be patient and can't let him grasp the opportunity to attack, or else we'll end up suffering."

  Xu Xiaoni couldn't help but say: "Qin Ge, in the past, it was clearly Tang Biao's fault, how can he still have the face to make things difficult for you?"

  Wu Xiaosan hummed and said, "We think he's wrong, but he also thinks something is not right! There's nothing strange about it, most people in the world are like that."

  Shen Yi also said: "When the enemy comes, we will stop them; when the flood comes, we will dam it. What is there to fear? If he dares to make a move, I'll beat him until he's straight!"

  Li Qin said with a smile, "Let's bear it for now. If we can't bear it anymore, we'll take care of him later. However, even if we want to take care of him, we can only do it secretly, otherwise, if we offend our superiors, it will be hard to explain ourselves in front of the county magistrate."

  All the soldiers nodded together, and no one took Tang Biao's stinky rogue to heart.

  When they arrived at the East City Gate, the gate had just opened. As soon as the gate was open, a group of people walked out from inside, led by Tang Biao. Tang Biao saw that Li Qin had already arrived and snorted. He had gotten up so early to wait for the opening of the city gate precisely in order to find fault with Li Qin. If Li Qin had come late, he would have been able to put on a superior air as his superior and scold Li Qin, at least to show off his verbal authority. But unexpectedly, Li Qin arrived even earlier than him.

  Didn't find the guy, and Tong Biao was unhappy in his heart. He saw that Li Qin actually had a horse to ride, while he didn't, which made him even more displeased. He glared at Li Qin and said loudly: "Li, this errand has risks, if you're not brave enough to go, you'd better roll back early, I'll put in a good word for you with my uncle, or else my uncle will slap your face."

  Li Qin neither dismounted nor saluted, but snorted and said, "There's nothing I'm afraid of." In the end, he didn't say anything unpleasant, not stooping to Tang Biao's level.

  Tang Biao wanted to let Li Qin come down and give the horse to him to ride, but after glancing at Wu Xiaosan and the others, seeing that these soldiers were all glaring at him with hostility, he didn't dare speak up. He thought: "There will be plenty of opportunities on the road to deal with them, no need to rush for now."

  Three hundred soldiers gathered together, Tang Biao walked in the front, Li Qin walked at the back. Everyone was silent, and they rushed eastward all the way. The iron transport team came from the east.

  The soldiers did not march quickly, according to the Han army's regulations, troops of over 10,000 men marched thirty miles a day, and those under 10,000 marched fifty miles a day. It didn't matter if the soldiers couldn't cover the distance, but if they were made to march more, no one would do it.

  It's not yet noon, and they've only marched 25 li. Li Qian's soldiers didn't say anything, but Tang Biao's soldiers were complaining loudly about being tired, and no one was willing to move forward anymore. Tang Biao had no choice but to order the army to stop and rest while eating dry rations; his wound hadn't healed properly either, and he didn't feel like moving on.

  Li QIN got off the black horse, took down the dry ration bag and shouted: "Brothers, I have a lot of dried meat here. If you want to eat, come over and take it. First come first served!"

  Wu Xiaosan and the others immediately came up to grab the dried meat and started devouring it. The other two soldiers heard the commotion and also gathered around, peeking in with their heads, hoping to scrounge up a piece or two.

  Li Qin divided a large piece of dried meat into small strips, and each soldier got a share. The soldiers were overjoyed, thanking him repeatedly, saying that Li Lang was the most righteous!

  Tang Biao saw the situation and secretly scolded in his heart, "This little Li Kinn is again buying people's hearts with his wealth. How can he be so rich? He even brings dried meat when going on a business trip, does he want to celebrate the New Year every time he goes out?" It's really detestable! He knew that Li Kinn wouldn't give him any dried meat, and even if he acted shamelessly, Li Kinn still wouldn't respond to him. So he could only endure it, taking out a piece of coarse flatbread from his pocket and dryly chewing on it.

  A large piece of dried meat was torn open, and one strip remained. Li QIN looked at the surface of the soup and thought to himself: "Forget it, it's better to let bygones be bygones." He called over one of Tang Biao's soldiers and stuffed the dried meat into the soldier's hand, nodding his head towards Tang Biao. The soldier understood and handed the dried meat to Tang Biao.

  Tang's face showed a hint of surprise, and he thought to himself: "This kid actually gave me dried meat, does he think he can buy me off? Dream on!" He took the dried meat and ate it without even saying thank you. It was Li Qin who had given it to him voluntarily, but Tang didn't care about Li Qin's intentions, and he didn't acknowledge the favor.

  Other soldiers looked on, shaking their heads. What a rascal! He didn't even know the most basic etiquette. He ate at someone else's place and didn't even say thank you.

  Shen Yibei's temper flared, he jumped up from the ground and shouted: "Hey, Tang, you ate our meat, how can you not even fart once!"

  Tang's face suddenly revealed a rascal expression, saying: "What's up, want to smell fart? Alright..." He tilted his body and sat back properly, saying: "There isn't any now, let's keep an account first, I'll let you smell two later!"

  Shen Yida was furious, and he clenched his fists, ready to fight. Li Qin hastily stopped him, saying: "Forget it, we are comrades-in-arms, on the battlefield we should support each other, how can we turn against each other because of such a small matter?"

  Shen Yi had no choice but to sit down again, staring at Tang Biao. The other soldiers also felt disgusted by Tang Biao's behavior and kept their distance from him, instead gathering closer to Li Qin.

  Tang's face was calm and collected, but in his heart he thought: "These guys are all disloyal to me, it's just a pity that the few brothers who usually get along with me didn't join the army, otherwise I wouldn't be left alone."

  After finishing the dry rations, they rested for a while before continuing on their journey.

  After traveling about 17 or 18 miles, suddenly saw a group of barbarians on the side of the big road ahead, who were roasting and drinking. This group of barbarians had no horses, with around thirty people, including old and young.

  The Hui people were originally laughing and roasting over the bonfire, but when they saw a team of soldiers passing by, they immediately fell silent, stood up, and quietly watched Li QIN and others. Several young Hui people even picked up clubs, ready to fight.

  The county of Fuping has a mix of Hu and Han people, almost to the point of being half and half. However, due to differences in living habits, many Hu and Han people cannot get along well, and disputes often arise. When the Han imperial court handles affairs, it naturally favors the Han people and does not treat the Hu people as its own citizens. In handling disputes, it often sides with the Han people. In the eyes of the Han people, it is only natural for the government to favor their own kind, but for the Hu people, there is a feeling of being excluded. They pay taxes and tribute just like everyone else, and in fact, they have to pay more, yet the government handles affairs unfairly, leaving them with feelings of discontent and opposition.

  Li QIN and the others counted Tang Biao, there were only nineteen people in total, while the other side had more than thirty. If a conflict really broke out, it would be difficult to deal with. However, Tang Biao turned around, waved his hand at Li QIN, and said: "Mr. Li, go ask them what they are doing here, have they evaded taxes or not?"

  This is clearly a trap, and if Li QIN makes one misstep, he will likely be attacked by the crowd. Tang Biao will then say that he handled it improperly and not only won't help him but also report to the county government after returning, saying that Li QIN oppressed the Hu people, which would lead to public outrage.

  Li Qin hummed, dismounted his horse and walked towards the Hu people in big strides. As he approached, the Hu people immediately became tense, with several of them retreating to the back, while the young man directly raised his stick.

  Li Qin walked up and pointed behind him, saying: "That person asked you, have you evaded taxes or underreported income."

  A barbarian old man stepped forward and said in fluent Chinese: "As for what the general of the imperial army said, we are all good citizens who have never resisted paying taxes."

  Li Qin nodded and turned around, shouting: "Tang Tunzhang, they are not at fault, no need to make things difficult for them." After finishing, he turned his head and smiled at the crowd.

  Suddenly, a little head popped out of the crowd, and the child cried: "Li Lang, where are you going?"

  Li Qin hummed, he saw that the child looked pretty, but it was the kid who went to Fu Jiao Village that night and asked him for oil residue to eat. It seemed that this child was surnamed Ma and was from Shi Ba Po Village.

  Li QIN smiled and said: "How is it you? How did you end up here?"

  The child saw Li QIN and recognized him, hurriedly squeezed out from behind the back of the barbarian, holding a large string of roasted meat in his hand, shouting: "He went with Ah Da to sell things, just came back." The barbarians' habit is to call their grandfather Ah Da.

  Li Qin hummed, no wonder this kid looked different from ordinary Han kids, it turned out to be a mixed-blood of Hu and Han, but didn't know which tribe these Hu people belonged to, were they Di or Qiang?

  The child was very happy to see Li Qín and affectionately pulled on his sleeve with one hand, while holding up a skewer of meat with the other, saying: "Li Lang, eat!"

  Li Qin took the skewer of meat and smiled: "It's roasted lamb skewers, really well done. How's your family, is your mother's illness better?"

  The child nodded heavily and said, "It's much better now. Thanks to Li Lang's righteousness, we have been provided with food, and my mother has been drinking meat soup every day for these days, and her illness has improved a lot."

  Li Qinxin thought to himself, it seems like a disease caused by hunger. He looked at Hu Ren and saw that everyone was wearing tattered blue clothes, obviously they were all poor people, and must have done some business to afford eating meat. He patted the child's head and said: "You are a big man now, take good care of your mother and younger brother."

  The child nodded heavily again, puffed out his little chest and indicated that he was a grown-up.

  Li Qin turned back to the team and said to Tang Biao: "Nothing's wrong, let's continue on our way." As he spoke, he ate the roasted lamb skewers in his hand.

  Tang Biao's nose almost got crooked, originally wanted to pick a fight, but nothing happened, Li Qin not only didn't get beaten up, but even brought back lamb skewers, eating with relish, it's really infuriating!

  Li Qin took down a bag of dried meat from the horse, turned around and stuffed it into the child's hands, laughing: "You treat me to kebabs, I'll treat you to dried meat. This is salted and tastes great when cooked in porridge."

  The child didn't understand what it meant to decline politely, and hugged the bag excitedly, saying: "Li Lang gave me something again, thank you Li Lang!"

  Li Qinchao burst out laughing, this child is really lovely. He mounted his horse and followed the army back on the road.

  The old man of the Hu people looked at Li QIN's back and said: "Xiao Chao, is he that kind-hearted Li Lang, the one from Fu Jiao Village?"

  The child looked up and said: "Yes, Li Lang's heart is the best."

  The old man of the Hu people sighed and said, "What a pity! It seems that they are going to find the iron-arming Han soldiers. If they encounter those bandits, won't it be a disaster? What a pity for this good person!"

  The child blinked with big eyes, couldn't understand why there were more disasters than blessings, but looking at Ah Da's expression, it seemed that Li Lang would be in danger.

  ——

  Wishing brothers and sisters an early happy National Day, and taking the opportunity to ask for everyone's support, asking for recommendation votes, asking for collection, and thanking you very much!