Chapter Ten Unexpected Harvest

  The Yang brothers were like they had just woken up from a dream, and everything was over. Only the scattered corpses and abandoned war horses all around them truly reminded the two brothers that what had just happened wasn't a dream, but a harsh reality.

  While the Yang brothers were still staring blankly, in a daze. Di Lie had already cleaned up the battlefield and mounted a captured warhorse, calling out to the brothers: "Hey, what are you standing there for? Quickly help me round up all these ownerless warhorses."

  The Yang brothers suddenly woke up like a dream, looked at each other, and jumped up excitedly to rush forward. Among them, Yang Zhechong was so excited that he forgot to take off his net bag, running with a thud, and even fell over. Not only did Di Lie and Yang Fen laugh loudly, but eventually Yang Zhechong himself couldn't stop laughing either.

  "This, this is a 'Ring Leader', and there's another one over there..." Yang Feng carefully counted, and to his surprise, there were five Jurchen "Ring Leaders", leaving him speechless.

  It's worth noting that before this, the Song and Jin armies had been at war for nearly two years, with numerous battles big and small, yet they had obtained very few "ringed heads" - not because the Song soldiers were made of tofu, unable to fight back when attacked, but because in almost every battle since the start of the war between the two countries, they had been defeated. No matter how fiercely they fought or how many Jin soldiers they killed, as long as they ended up losing, they couldn't collect the enemy's heads. Therefore, being able to obtain one "ringed head" was extremely precious. And now, there were actually five of them - if these five heads were presented to the authorities, a promotion of three ranks and a reward of 100 taels of silver would be a certainty. The only problem was that it seemed like the Song dynasty didn't have any authorities left, so this great military achievement had nowhere to go.

  The Yang brothers began to gather their spoils with a hint of regret, leaving behind nine corpses on the scene. However, only seven horses remained, as two had run away. Nevertheless, the harvest was still quite satisfying, not only did they obtain robust warhorses, but also various gold and silver treasures hidden in the saddle bags. The brothers roughly estimated that each horse's saddle bag contained no less than a hundred taels of treasure.

  Jin army broke through Bianjing, destroyed the country and returned. The whole army, regardless of whether they were Jurchen generals or their vassal troops, all made a fortune. The valuable spoils of war that were plundered, everyone carried them with them, no matter whether they were on the march or in battle, they never left their side. This way, it was actually beneficial for Di Lie and others.

  The Yang brothers excitedly rode on the tall war horses, stretching their arms and shouting "Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha!", performing various high-difficulty movements as they galloped back and forth.

  Di Lieke was not as good at riding as the Yang brothers, and could basically only sit steadily on the horseback and move slowly. Since he had a horse, he decided to practice his riding skills well. In this era, riding horses was as common as riding bicycles or motorcycles in later generations, not only did you need to know how, but also be skilled.

  Di Lie silently gazed at the bloody scene before him, and a sense of introspection arose in his heart: When did he become so cold-blooded and ruthless? He had killed so many people, yet there was not a shred of guilt within him. Was it due to the anger rebounding from the injuries inflicted upon him by the Jin people, or was it because he saw so many Song people suffering and his indignation could not be alleviated? Or perhaps, he had always regarded all this as just a game, a dream...

  The slanting sun cast a clear and distinct face, with bright and dark shadows, giving a strong sense of three-dimensionality, like an ancient Greek statue. Di Lie gazed out at the vast and desolate landscape of this chaotic Song Dynasty world, feeling a melancholy sense of "being a guest in a dream".

  The Yang brothers galloped back with joy, each pulling two horses behind them. The horsebacks were piled high with various weapons and armor stripped from the dead Jin soldiers, although most of them were damaged or incomplete, after all, the power of sniper bullets was too great.

  The two brothers looked at Di Lie with eyes full of reverence and admiration, their tone of voice extremely respectful: "Young Master Di, what should we do next? Please instruct us, your brothers will obey without fail."

  Di Lie took a deep breath, putting aside his unnecessary melancholy. He had no time or qualifications to indulge in petty emotional struggles. It was better to muster up his spirits and fight for the survival of himself and those few thousand refugees.

  "Di Lie immediately returned to the mountains to gather men and rushed to the Jin army camp to transport supplies. He went in with Yang Fen first to see if there were any remaining Jurchen soldiers. After assigning tasks, Di Lie repeatedly warned Yang Zhao, "Be careful on the road, beware of stray Jin cavalry."

  Yang Zhe patted the saddle beside him, where two large bows and several quivers full of arrows were placed. With a burst of heroic spirit: "With these things here, I'm not just eating plain food. In those years, Xia Ren's 'Iron Swallow', I also took down a few. Even if Golden Dog is ten times more ferocious, I won't let him get away."

  Di Lie and Yang Fen rushed to the Jin army camp on horseback, spending half a time circling around, finally confirming that it was deserted. The camp was in disarray everywhere, with broken and scattered tents, shattered wooden boards, broken arrow shafts, mutilated limbs, and bloodstains... Although the Jin army had also made some arrangements, they were hastily cleaned up and not thoroughly, only burning or burying the bodies of men and horses before hastily withdrawing. This left the entire camp filled with a pungent smell of blood and smoke, making it very uncomfortable to be there. Fortunately, the joy of seeing the massive pile of supplies in front of them greatly alleviated Di Lie's discomfort.

  Di Lie and Yang Fen were searching east and west, about a hundred paces apart, constantly using their knives to cut open sacks for inspection: wheat flour, corn, dried meat, black beans (horse feed), cloth, leather... what a rich haul!

  Yang Fen's face was flushed with excitement, so much grain and hay, it's probably over 10,000 dan. As long as they can all be transported back to the mountain, they can fully support several thousand people hiding for several months, waiting for the Jin army to withdraw before coming out of the mountain again. Heaven blesses, meeting this Di Xiao Ge is really a great fortune in misfortune!

  Two men were busy, but heard a commotion outside the camp, and soon saw several riders rushing over. The first rider was Yang Zhechong, who had returned to report and gather the transportation team. Behind him followed several Western army comrades, as well as someone else - Hou Fangjing. It was unexpected that this thin and weak translator's horsemanship wasn't bad either. That's right, this person used to be a merchant on the border and wouldn't have been able to ride a horse otherwise.

  Yang Zhechong and Hou Fangjing saw the supplies stretching for dozens of feet, piled up like a mountain, and were overjoyed, their mouths agape, unable to say anything.

  At this time, the gate of the village was wide open, and nearly a thousand refugees rushed in. Seeing such a magnificent sight of grain, fodder, clothes, and leather, they all smiled with joy, and some even had tears streaming down their faces, and there were those who wailed loudly and cried bitterly. For a moment, the whole camp was filled with joyful voices.

  Hou Fangjing sighed: "Last night, this place was like a Shura hell to us, but today it's like heaven. The wonders of life are really sigh-worthy."

  "Sir, what you said is absolutely right. Precisely because of this, we must be even more careful to remember the person who led us from hell to heaven."

  Yang Zhesheng nodded heavily: "From now on, I will only follow Big Brother Di, through thick and thin, without any retreat!"

  Di Lie did not hear the Yang brothers' words of surrender, as he was attracted by a dispute between several people not far away. One side of the dispute was Ajie, and his uncle Zhou Dewang was standing behind him, twirling his mustache with a bitter smile, without participating in the dispute.

  As soon as Di Lie rode over on his horse, before he had a chance to ask about the cause of the dispute. As soon as they saw him, both sides immediately fell silent and knelt down on the ground, answering in a low voice.

  Di Lie was taken aback and quickly dismounted to help them up one by one, saying: "What are you doing? I'm not some high-ranking official, don't have to give me such a big show of respect."

  Old Zhou Dewang said seriously: "Brother Di is the savior of all our escaped prisoners, and he risked his life to get us these life-saving rations. With such great kindness, even if we were to become slaves or servants, it would be only natural. Who dares to say that Brother Di doesn't deserve this small reward?"

  Di Lie felt somewhat helpless and could only shift the topic: "What are you two arguing about?"

  Those craftsmen who had a dispute with Ah Qi said: "We said that all the big carts should be used to transport grain and fodder, which is also what Brother Di meant. But this little guy insisted on leaving one cart to load these toys, we certainly do not allow it. Now the sky is vast, the earth is vast, but food is the most important thing, how can it be used to load such trivial things? That's why there was a dispute, and we didn't want to disturb Brother Di, please forgive us."

  Di Lie smiled and looked at Aji: "What kind of toy is this, why are you so nervous?"

  Ajie's thin face showed a few hints of embarrassment, and he said in a low voice: "Actually, Ajie isn't here to play around either. These things are also military supplies."

  Those craftsmen were skeptical and muttered in a low voice: "What kind of military equipment is this, it can only scare people, but it won't hurt many..."

  Di Lie's curiosity was piqued: "What exactly is it?"

  Ajie grasped Dilie's sleeve and arrived in front of a large carriage wrapped tightly with thick oilcloth: "Brother Dilie, come take a look. It's this one. There are also the seals of the Attack City Garrison here. Ajie is usually in charge of this kind of work and has seen it many times before."

  Di Lie carefully looked at the note on it which read: 7 stones of flame saltpeter, stored in the warehouse in the third year of Xuanhe.

  Flaming saltpeter? Di Lie's heart skipped a beat, and he blurted out: "Is it saltpeter?"

  "It turns out that Di Ge also recognizes it." Ah Ji pointed excitedly at the several tar-covered carts behind, "Over there are sulfur, carbon powder, yellow dan, dry lacquer, hemp reed and so on, which are essential materials for making thunder fireballs, poisonous smoke balls and other military firearms..."

  The craftsman next to him chuckled and said, "It's also an essential item for making firecrackers and fireworks."

  Ajie's little face turned red: "I'm not here to play, Di big brother..."

  Di Lie cut him off with a wave of his hand: "Bring all these things back to me without missing a single item."

  Ah! The workers were stunned, unable to utter a sound, but Ah Qi was overjoyed and couldn't help but want to hug the lovely Di Gege and spin him around a few times. Of course, he didn't dare to, nor did he have the strength to do so.

  Zhou Dewang was very anxious: "Nephew Hu is making trouble, Di Xiaoge must not indulge him. Sun San and the others are right, at present the most urgent thing is food..."

  Di Lie smiled faintly: "Grain is very important, and these materials are equally important - grain can keep us alive, but if we don't have corresponding military strength as a backing, not only will the grain be lost again, but our lives will also be insecure."

  These are all important strategic materials, and in this era, no one knows more about the powerful force formed by their mixture than Di Lie. Since those newly civilized people from Jin Guo didn't know their value and would rather transport armor and weapons first and abandon them, he wouldn't be polite and accepted them with a smile. Perhaps in the future, there will be an opportunity to let you see what a truly powerful weapon is.

  Di Lie turned his head and patted Ajie's shoulder: "Kid, not bad, these are all really good stuff...... Oh, what did you say earlier about Thunderfire Ball, Poison Smoke Ball, can you make them?"

  Aggie's face turned bright red, she nodded her head vigorously and said loudly: "I can do it!"

  "Alright, I'm leaving these supplies with you. Come up with a few samples later." Di Lie flipped onto his horse and shouted loudly, "Everyone, put in some extra effort! We must transport all the supplies into the mountains before sunset!"

  "Alright!" everyone responded in unison.

  The golden sunset shines on every face, making them rosy, radiant and joyful.