Chapter 13: Two Fine Horses

  This horse is slightly taller than others, and from head to toe it's a snowy white. On the outside of each hoof there are long hairs that grow backwards in a spiral shape. On its forehead there are two slight bulges that can't be made out without careful observation. Its mane is very long, hanging down from its neck all the way to its chest, with a slender waist and back, and long legs. It has a subtle dragon-like appearance.

  Long Fei remembered that there was no such horse among his group of white horses. Even he, an outsider, could tell at a glance that this horse was absolutely good, not to mention Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang, who had been in contact with horses for many years. Long Fei took a look at Zhang Shiping, who was directing the stable boys to round up the stray white horses and separate that particular horse.

  "It turns out that you two bought my horse with an ulterior motive! Indeed, it's a good horse!" Long Fei suddenly had the urge to get his hands on this horse.

  Zhang Shiping smiled: "What a good horse, this is just one of the younger brother's horses. Among the whole herd, he is the most powerful, from last night to now, making the whole herd restless, you guys hurry up, we still have a long way to go! Hurry up!"

  Zhao Yun leaned over to Long Fei's side, exchanged a glance with him, and shook his head slightly towards Long Fei. Long Fei let out a light sigh: "What a pity! Now I'm somewhat regretful for selling this horse to you!"

  Zhang Shipei chuckled and said, "Young brother, you were clear at the beginning that once sold, it would not be returned or exchanged. How come you don't want to sell this inferior horse now? This seems a bit unreasonable, doesn't it?"

  Suddenly, a commotion broke out inside the city gate. A man dressed in general's attire rode a tall black horse. This horse was no worse than that ill-tempered white horse. Its entire body shone like brocade under the sunlight, radiating a white glow. It seemed even taller and more majestic than the white horse, with a particularly striking tuft of white hair on its forehead, perfectly proportioned, and could only be described in two words: handsome.

  Dou Bo led the men to surround Long Fei, Zhang Shi Ping, Su Shuang and that group of white horses. The general on the black horse saw at a glance the still restless white horse, looked at Long Fei and Zhang Shi Ping separately: "Whose horse is this?"

  Before Shi Ping could respond, Dou Bo hastily pointed at Long Fei and said: "It's theirs! These white horses are all theirs! The two horse traders bought them from these people!"

  "Right, right, right!" Zhang Shiping hastily nodded his head, seemingly worried that this group of white horses would get him involved in trouble, and he kept nodding: "Yes, yes, we bought them from that little brother for 1,000 yuan each!"

  "That's quite expensive, did you buy this horse together?"

  "Yes, they were all bought! Twenty-three horses in total, for a price of 23,000 yuan!"

  "Hmm!" The general's face suddenly changed: "Take down these horse thieves for me!"

  Soldiers rushed forward, and with a loud shout, they surrounded Long Fei and the others. The long, cold spear tips forced Long Fei and the others to retreat to the horse carriage. Judging from this situation, as soon as any general gave an order, Long Fei and the others would immediately become piles of minced meat. Long Fei somewhat understood that Zhang Shi Ping was willing to pay double the price for his horse, and the purpose must be to cover up this one horse. A high-quality good horse is precious, but compared to a horse with a dragon-like appearance, it's much inferior. In today's era, horses are the best means of transportation, and on the battlefield, a good horse is the foundation of a general's ability to kill enemies and escape. Those generals must be willing to spend a lot of money to buy even better warhorses. Otherwise, Dong Zhuo wouldn't have been able to pull Lu Bu, such a fierce general, under his command with just one "Red Hare".

  "General, may I have a word with you!" Long Fei struggled to stand up straight, leaning against the carriage, he didn't want to lose his life because of a horse.

  "Speak your last words quickly! You are indeed a thief, first stealing General Gong Sun's war horse and now our general's war horse. Last time you managed to deceive us, but this time see how you can weasel out of it!" Dou Bo sneered coldly.

  Long Fei said, "It's true that I sold these horses to them. My horse was originally outside the inn, he carefully examined it, dare to ask this military officer, have you ever seen this one inside?"

  Everyone was stunned. If you say you saw it, then it's that you intentionally let Long Fei go. If you say you didn't see it, then naturally this horse and Long Fei have nothing to do with each other. This is exactly the effect Long Fei wanted. He turned around and looked at the general riding on the horse: "General, now you understand what's going on, right?"

  The general glared at Du Bo, scaring him into hastily lowering his head. The general waved his hand and the soldiers surrounding Long Fei retreated several steps. He looked at Zhang Shi Ping and Su Shuang: "Do you have anything to say?"

  "This general, we are just horse traders, these horses were really bought from this little brother's hands!" Zhang Shipei was very wronged: "This, there is the general's horse inside, we really didn't know, please ask the general to understand!"

  "Ah, you think you're so clever?!" The general snorted: "I've been paying attention to you two since the first day you entered Yanmen. Recently, many good horses from wealthy families in various places have been stolen, so I've been extra cautious. You two came into the city and started lurking around my mansion, don't think I didn't notice! My Jade Lion likes to be alone, but with this group of inferior horses, how can you not cause trouble?"

  Zhang Shiping's eyes rolled around in his eye sockets, his mind constantly thinking of how to make excuses. Su Shuang quietly hid behind Zhang Shiping and placed her right hand on the hilt of her knife. The horse boys who were just driving the horses all gathered behind the two, their eyes gleaming with ferocity.

  The general on the black horse sneered: "You two ignorant thieves, you actually dare to come to my Yanmen to steal horses. Tell me! Whose subordinates are you? If you dare to conceal a single word, I will immediately let you be torn into pieces!"

  Dou Bo is a clever man, seeing that the general has already exposed Zhang Shi Ping and Su Shuang's true nature, he immediately drew out his waist knife and faced Zhang Shi Ping and Su Shuang. Long Fei felt that these changes were happening too quickly, even he, as a special forces soldier, was having trouble keeping up with the rhythm. Not to mention the civilians who were gathered around watching the commotion. Zhang Shi Ping smiled and slowly backed away step by step. Behind them was the group of white horses that had gathered together.

  Long Fei took a look at the situation and estimated Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang's escape route based on experience. When Zhang Shiping and his group had already retreated to the side of the horse herd, Long Fei suddenly understood. He pulled Zhao Yun over with one hand and indicated the white horse with his eyes. Zhao Yun nodded slightly. After moving a few more steps, he leaned into Talun's ear and whispered a few words, then climbed up onto the carriage, cracked the whip, and the several horses pulling it started to move towards the crowd.

  The general and the lieutenant did not pay attention to Long Fei's departure, all the soldiers surrounded Zhang Shi Ping and Su Shuang in the core. The general stood far away on his horse. Zhang Shi Ping was still denying it. Having done so many deals, he didn't want to fall here today.

  "Release the horses!" Su Shuang suddenly roared. Immediately following was the sound of a whip cracking. The originally calm herd of horses, in an instant, scattered and fled like a pot boiling over. Although there were only twenty or so horses, the force with which they charged was not small. It's unknown what method they used, but the horse herd was startled in an instant. The encirclement formed by the soldiers was instantly torn open.

  Zhang Shipei and Su Shuang grabbed the mane of a white horse that was running wildly, flipped over and climbed onto its back, and followed the frightened horse herd as they rushed outwards. The surrounding soldiers who were closing in scattered to avoid them. Even the onlookers who had gathered to watch the commotion let out a shout and immediately ran away. Things happened too quickly, and many people didn't have time to turn around before being knocked to the ground by the white horse, followed by the hard hooves trampling over their bodies.

  Cries of horror, wails of despair, and mournful howls came from outside the city gate of Yanmen. The commotion was great, and Long Fei and his companions had already walked a long way, but they could still hear it clearly.

  "Big brother, something seems to have happened over there!"

  Long Fei looked back and saw the chaos of the crowd, the white horse's charge, and the soldiers who were closely pursuing them. They were spreading out in all directions from the Yanmen Gate: "Nothing's wrong, why did those two bandits run? It looks like those two guys are old hands, they even thought of this strategy!"

  Hua Tuo sighed: "Alas! This chaos, I don't know how many people will die, and how many will be injured!"

  Long Fei said: "It's just a few dozen horses, no big deal! If it were a herd of elephants, the number of deaths would not be limited to just a few people! As long as you are trampled by them, you will definitely die!"

  "An elephant? Has Big Brother ever seen an elephant? That's something only found in the southern barbarian lands!" Wang Wei's curiosity was piqued.

  "What about those two? Where did the big black guy and the little white-faced guy go?"

  "Black Big? Small White Face? Hehe! This name is quite fitting!" Long Fei chuckled and said: "Don't worry about it, I'll be back soon. Let's hurry up and leave this place of trouble, let's go!" With a flick of the whip in his hand, a crisp sound was heard, and the speed of the horse carriage increased slightly.

  They ran out for thirty miles and saw that the horses were already sweating. Long Fei pulled on the reins, stopping the carriage. He shook his head vigorously, wiped the sweat from his face, shook off the dust on his body, let out a breath, and jumped down from the carriage. Looking back, there were no pursuing soldiers, so he called for everyone to come down and rest.

  He conveniently took out food and clear water from the back of the horse cart, letting Wang Wei distribute them to everyone. Hua Tuo stood beside the horse cart, twisting his waist while saying: "Fortunately the road is not far, if it's like this for a bit longer, my old bones will fall apart!"

  "What are we stopping here for? There's no village ahead and no store behind! Are we feeding wolves here?" Wang Qiang glared at Long Fei.

  "Wait here for the black big guy and the little white face! Can't just throw them away, can we!" Long Fei didn't understand why Wang Qian always glared at him with anger in her eyes, rarely seeing her smile. Actually, that girl's smile was quite good-looking. Speaking of which, during this period, she was one of the four great beauties, and who knows how beautiful that girl could be. Would she really be as rumored, so beautiful that even the moon wouldn't dare to gaze directly at her?

  The distant sound of horseshoes interrupted Long Fei's daydream. Talen and Zhao Yun rode two horses, running towards this side from afar. Several people hastily stood up and stared at the silhouettes of the two men. Wang Qian suddenly felt that something was strange about the two of them, but for a moment, she couldn't think of what it was.