Chapter Thirty-Three: One Man Dares to Fight Alone

  After walking a few more miles, it was still some time before nightfall, but from the distance, they had already left Fuping County fifty miles away. The soldiers loudly complained and refused to take another step.

  Tang Biao was unable to do anything, so he had the troops stop and gather some firewood by the side of the road to start a bonfire and prepare for camping. Li Qin took out dried rations again and shared them with the soldiers, still not leaving Tang Biao behind, and gave him a piece of dried meat as well. However, Tang Biao still had that rogue expression on his face and didn't even say thank you this time. But no one paid attention to him anymore, treating him as if he didn't exist.

  After finishing dinner, after a while, the sky gradually darkened, Li Qin had some inner urgency, so he entered the forest, untied his belt and squatted down to relieve himself. After relieving himself, he plucked a handful of dry grass from beside him, sighed, and thought: "The Han Dynasty is not good in other ways, let's not say it, but after relieving oneself, one has to use dry grass to wipe one's buttocks, which is really painful! I think my top priority in the Han Dynasty is not anything else, but to quickly popularize toilet paper, otherwise, using grass every day is unbearable!"

  Outside the forest, the soldiers suddenly shouted in unison, "Who's there? Halt! You're not allowed to come over!"

  Li Qin was taken aback, thinking: "What's going on? Why the sudden shouting? Could it be an enemy?" He didn't even bother to brush off the dry grass that had stuck to his buttocks and hastily pulled up his pants to run out.

  Then I saw a man running towards me from the front, stumbling and staggering, with blood all over his body. He looked like a soldier, but it was hard to see clearly in the dark.

  Li Qin shouted: "Where is Wu Danzi? Investigate and make it clear!"

  "Woot!" exclaimed Wudan, rushing forward to greet him. In an instant, he helped a Han soldier back and shouted: "Shi Zhang, it's one of our own men! He's from Long County, the iron transporter!"

  Tang Biao was shocked upon hearing the news, stomped his foot and said: "Something has indeed happened! If I had known earlier, I would have let Meng Mu come instead!" He was a scoundrel who only took advantage of situations and never suffered losses.

  Li QIN was good at tying belts and also went forward to support the Han soldier, supporting him to sit down by the bonfire, and checking his injuries. He saw that the Han soldier had been stabbed in the back with a knife, the wound was extremely deep, the injured muscle was turned outward, almost visible bone, really didn't know how he survived.

  Li Qindao said: "Damn it, this wound is so big, I didn't bring a needle and thread, can't suture it!" He had to take out the golden ointment and apply it to the Han soldier. In his heart, he was clear that this Han soldier wouldn't make it through the night. The wound contained fragments of clothing, surgery was necessary, but how could they do surgery now? They couldn't even disinfect.

  The Han soldier's mind was already unclear, he croaked his throat and muttered: "All dead, all dead, buried alive..." He had been seriously injured and hid for a long time. When the enemy left, he dared to come out and saw his own people, but he couldn't hold on anymore.

  Tang Biao hastily said: "What's going on? Speak clearly!"

  But the Han soldiers could no longer hold on, their heads drooping, and they died.

  Li Qin gently put him on the ground and said, "He's a real man!" He raised his head and said, "Wu Danzi, what did he say to you?"

  Wu Danzi shook his head and said: "He only mentioned that he came from Longxian, I guess it's the iron transporter, nothing else was said."

  Li Qin nodded and said: "You ride my horse, go ahead and take a look, scout out the situation, come back quickly."

  Wu Danzi responded with a sound, mounted Li Qin's black horse and galloped out along the main road.

  Tang Biao saw the situation and hastily asked his subordinates: "Who among you can ride a horse?" Seeing one soldier raise his hand, he said: "You ride another one and follow up to take a look!"

  "Those are my horses, what right do you have to dispose of them!"

  Li Qindai shouted loudly and scolded: "Jing Qi, no internal strife is allowed! The overall situation should be prioritized, give the horse to him!"

  The soldier turned over and mounted his horse, following behind Wu Dalang, also rushing down.

  Li QIN said to his men: "This brother died in a foreign land, when he entered the soil for peace, everyone dug a hole and buried him!" He picked up his long spear and entered the forest to dig a hole, Wu Xiaosan and others followed behind.

  The other soldiers looked at Tang Biao, and Tang Biao snorted, saying: "At a time like this, you still have the heart to bury people, don't you know what's urgent?"

  The soldiers listened and were all furious. What kind of nonsense is this? Although they didn't know the Han soldier, he was still a fellow Han Chinese. Is there anyone who dies and doesn't get buried according to reason? If you don't bury him now, then later you won't bury us either. This kind of superior is really the most stupid. No one answered him again, two people lifted up the Han soldier's corpse, the rest also entered the forest.

  Tang Biao didn't think he had done anything wrong, seeing that only he was left outside the forest. He loudly said: "A woman's benevolence, only knows how to buy people's hearts!" But thinking again, if I were dead, who would... How dare they! How could I die? Spit, spit, spit.

  Li Qīn led the soldiers to dig a deep pit and buried the Han soldiers. Since they didn't know the names of these Han soldiers, they couldn't set up a memorial tablet in front of the tomb, so they could only pile up a few more stones to prevent wild beasts from digging out the corpses.

  Just after burying the Han soldiers, they heard the sound of urgent horseshoes coming from outside. Li Qin hastily came out and saw under the moonlight two horses rushing forward one after another. They were Wudanzi and the soldier who had gone to scout ahead.

  Wu Danzi ran ahead, and before he arrived, he shouted: "Something is wrong, we've encountered robbers! They're Di people, those raw meat-eating guys!" He rushed forward, jumped off his horse, and turned around to block the horse behind.

  Li Qin rushed forward and asked: "Don't worry about the bandits, are you injured?"

  Wu Danzi was moved in his heart, Li Qin didn't ask about the enemy's situation, but first asked if he himself was hurt. What a good boss can be found nowhere! He said: "I'm not hurt, but this brother is probably going to be in trouble!"

  Li Qin hastily went to look at the soldier behind, and saw that this soldier had three arrows inserted in his back, lined up in a row, and they all hit the spine. He was already dead when he escaped, but because his two feet were tightly tied to the rope, he didn't fall off the horse!

  The soldiers gathered around, all of them were shocked. Tang Biao even shouted: "It's over, it's over, we've encountered a tough one."

  Li Qin pulled out an egg and said: "What's going on? Tell me clearly."

  Wu Danzi pointed behind him and said, "The robbers are less than twenty miles away from us. They spent the night at the edge of a large forest. The number of people has not been investigated clearly, but there were thirty-five horses. So the number of people should be below this, all of them are Di people, they are raw and untamed, I don't know which tribe they belong to!"

  Liangzhou is located on the border, with many Hu tribes, mainly Qiang and Di people, and then there are the Xiongnu people on the grasslands. However, many of the Qiang and Di people have been sinicized, such as Liu Sheng's Daliang Qiang, who were sinicized Qiang people, and some Di tribes were also like this. But a portion of the Qiang, Di, and Hu people had not been sinicized, and were called "raw barbarians". These raw barbarians were more ferocious than Han people, but they couldn't defeat the Xiongnu people on the grasslands, living in the cracks between Han people and Xiongnu people, their lives were difficult to bear. Therefore, some tribes made a living by robbery, such as the Di people who robbed iron, belonged to this kind of tribe.

  Li Qin listened to this and immediately looked at Shen Yi and Wu Xiaosan, these two subordinates were originally bandits, they might have some understanding of this group of bandits. However, he saw the two shaking their heads together, Shen Yi and Wu Xiaosan used to be bandits, but like Wudanzai, they were all lone wolves, when doing business without capital, they would rather come and go alone, most afraid of getting entangled with fellow travelers, Wudanzai couldn't figure out which group of bandits it was, they also didn't know.

  Li Qinchao furrowed his brow and looked at Tang Biao again. No matter what, Tang Biao was the leader of this small army, so in an emergency, they still had to listen to his opinion.

  Tang Biao's face was filled with horror, and he exclaimed: "Raw Barbarians? Won't they be the kind of Raw Barbarians that eat raw meat?! This is terrible, there are more of them than us, and they're cannibals too! We probably can't defeat them, it's better to return to the city quickly and let our clan uncle make a decision!"

  All the soldiers looked at him with contempt after hearing this. With such a character, he is still a squad leader? Is he worthy of it?

  Li Qin said, "Tang Tunzhang, it's necessary to go back and report the news, but we also need to follow up. We have to find where the robbers are hiding, otherwise even if we inform Lord Tang, there's no way to retrieve the raw iron."

  Even if they send someone back to report now, it will take until tomorrow to gather the troops. If they drag their feet a bit, it's possible that by this time tomorrow, they might arrive here, but by then the robbers would have long since fled, so where can they be found?

  Tang's face twitched, and he said, "Not bad, it should indeed be someone to follow up. Surname Li, you are the first brave warrior in my Fuping army, why don't I send you to follow up? I won't feel at ease sending anyone else!"

  Shen Yi was furious and shouted: "You, surnamed Tang! You think you can take advantage of the situation to harm people? As a commander, even if you want to pursue the enemy, it should be you who leads the team. How dare you be so cowardly and still claim to be a leader? Get out of here at once!"

  Wu Xiaosan and the others also started scolding, while Tang Biao's subordinates all hid to one side. They were also dissatisfied with Tang Biao, but they didn't dare to speak up for Li Qin in public.

  Tang Biao ignored the others' shouts and only spoke to Li QIN: "Li... no, I'll call you Li Lang. I'm your superior, now I order you to be a scout, track down the enemy. Are you going or not? Give me a clear answer, don't let your subordinates shout for you!"

  Li Qin stared at Tang Biao and snorted, saying: "What are you afraid of? Even if I'm the only one left, I'll still dare to fight!"

  He turned to his soldiers and said, "Take this brother's body back, hand it over to his family for burial, and tell his family that I, Li QIN, will avenge him!" After finishing speaking, he grabbed a long spear, mounted the black horse, kicked the horse's belly with both feet, and galloped forward.

  Xu Xiaoni shouted: "Qin Ge, I'll go with you!"

  Tang Biao shouted back: "Do you dare to disobey orders? When we return to the city, I will report to our clan uncle that Li led good soldiers and actually wanted to rebel on the battlefield!"

  Xu Xiaoni and others glared at him angrily, but for a moment, they didn't dare to move, fearing that if they acted impulsively, it would give Tang Biao an excuse to frame Li Qin.

  Tang Biao's expression frightened Xu Xiaoni and the others. He coldly sneered, "Listen to me or you'll know the methods of Ben Tun!"

  Shen Yi could no longer hold back, shouting: "This soldier is really suffocating! Grandfather doesn't care, even if it means being punished by the county magistrate, I'll take care of this scoundrel!" As he spoke, he swung his large head at Tang Biao and rammed into him with a crash!

  With a loud crash, Tang Biao was knocked dizzy and fell backwards, sprawling on the ground. Wu Xiaosan and others rushed up and kicked Tang Biao violently!

  Tang Biao loudly shouted: "I'm injured, don't kick me, I'm your superior..." His ribs hadn't healed yet, and now he was beaten again, adding insult to injury!

  Suddenly, Wu Danzi said: "Brothers, stop! Someone is coming from over there, and it looks like a kid!"

  ——

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