Han official!

Chapter 180 Hexi
The torrential rain in the southern desert washed away the bloodstains on the sand dunes. Guo Jie knelt on one knee on the golden bricks of Weiyang Palace, and the salt water seeping from the gaps in his chainmail etched winding fine marks on the brick surface.

The eunuch's edict, unfurled on a plain silk scroll, hung down nine steps. The vermilion seal on the corner of the scroll, bearing the inscription "Imperial Edict Censor," reflected the setting sun outside the palace, resembling congealed blood.

"Two thousand seven hundred enemy soldiers were beheaded, and three hundred Xiongnu tents were burned."

The voices of the Imperial Attendant echoed among the beams and pillars of the Jiaofang Palace.

Guo Jie's shoulder wound throbbed faintly; it was left by the whistling arrow of the Left Wise King. Although the malachite poison on the arrowhead had been neutralized, it would still turn bluish-purple whenever it rained.

Wei Guang's ten-stone bow lay across the jade steps, the ox horn at the bowstring stained dark red with blood, and the three cracks corresponded to the three Xiongnu kings he had shot and killed.

Emperor Wu rose and stepped down from the steps, the twelve symbols on his black imperial robes shimmering in the twilight: "The Marquis of Zhi led his troops out of Yinshan, fought across a thousand miles, and was granted an additional two hundred households in fiefdom."

As the newly cast gold seal settled in his palm, Guo Jie suddenly remembered the blind snake on the shore of the North Sea Salt Lake.

Those creatures, blind yet able to discern the salt path, seemed to be wandering among the tortoise-shell patterns on the seal.

When they left the palace, the night rain had just stopped, and Wei Guang was waiting for them at Zhimen.

His newly changed khaki robe was stained with iron filings from the armory, but the old quiver from the second year of Yuanshuo still hung at his waist. "I request to be stationed in Shuofang."

He handed over a secret letter soaked in fish oil, the sealing wax stamped with the wolf head totem of the new Xiongnu Chanyu.

Guo Jie stroked the "Five Hundred Households" engraving on the bottom of the gold seal and suddenly felt that the weight of this small object was greater than that of the ring-pommel sword used in the bloody battle in the southern desert.

In the Salt God Temple in Zhixian County, a newly cast gold seal hangs from the beam.

Swallows have built their nests on the salt-stained branches of the old locust tree in the courtyard.

Guo Jie scooped up a ladle of brine and poured it onto the base of the statue. As the water seeped into the inscription "Fifth Year of Yuanshuo," the sound of the courier's hooves startled the sparrows under the eaves.

The smoke from the beacon towers in the northern border has already dyed the sky above Yanmen Pass red.

The floating ice on the Yellow River shimmered with a deep blue hue in the morning light. Guo Jie plunged his ring-pommel sword into the icy river water, the bloodstains on the blade swirling into a crimson vortex with the ice shards.

The horns of the Xiongnu on the opposite bank tore through the thin mist, and the rooftops of the tents of the remnants of the White Sheep King's army were covered with salt frost, resembling a ghost town in the Gobi Desert under the rising sun.

"Thirty miles upstream, the ice layer is unusual."

Wei Guang's arrows carved winding cracks in the riverbed, and the bowstring, made of mulberry wood, held the blood and ice of last night.

Guo Jie bent down and struck the ice surface, the hollow echo startling the vultures.

Buried beneath this is a secret passage cast by the Xiongnu using salt water, with the ice layer less than three feet thick.

Suddenly, the black horse reared up and neighed loudly, and Guo Jie grabbed the hook ingot with his other hand.

A ten-foot-long cloud of ice erupted from the river surface as Xiongnu assassins broke through the ice, their curved blades wrapped with poisoned horsehair.

These warriors, originally bandits from the Hexi Corridor, could walk half a mile under the ice with reed pipes in their mouths.

Wei Guang's whistling arrow pierced through the ice mist, and the salt powder from the exploding arrow shaft blinded the bandits. Guo Jie then threw out his hook, the barbs of which pierced the ice and hooked the stealth rope.

"rise!"

Three hundred officers pulled together, and the thirty-foot-long ice surface was overturned with a crash.

The lurking Xiongnu water monsters struggled like fish caught in a net amidst the broken ice.

Wei Guang's rockets chased the leaking fish oil into the ice cave, while blue flames burned along the saltwater tunnels toward the grain tents on the opposite bank.

The Aries King's battle banner turned to ashes in the flames, and the smell of burnt millet mixed with the stench of burning human flesh spread across the river.

The Left Wise King's Xuanjia cavalry suddenly appeared on the western sand dunes. Their warhorses were covered in rhinoceros hide soaked in salt, and the sound of their iron hooves breaking the ice was like the cracking of bones.

Guo Jie cleaved the winch of Wu Gang's cart, and the supply wagon, fully loaded with salt bricks, rushed down the slope.

When the Xiongnu heavy cavalry rammed the salt cart, Wei Guang's steel arrow pierced through the seams of the rhinoceros armor. The aconitine on the arrowhead ignited upon contact with blood, burning the men and horses into a raging torch.

"Change to a fully drawn crossbow!"

Guo Jie kicked open the frozen arrow box, and the armor-piercing darts newly made in the first year of Yuan Shou gleamed with the cold light of water-patterned steel.

The creaking sound of the crossbow arm tightening startled the seagulls, and just as the iron arrow, over ten feet long, pierced through the Left Wise King's mount, a muffled thunder suddenly came from beneath the ice.

The Xiongnu detonated the pre-buried saltpeter, and the Yellow River's raging torrents broke through the ice shell, with the tattered armor of the Han army, which had remained frozen for a century, swirling in the eddies.

Wei Guang grabbed the hooked chain at the edge of the floating ice and caught a glimpse of the bronze halberd tip among the crests of the waves.

That was Li Gan's old halberd, and the armor ribbon wrapped around the shaft with the inscription "Year 6 of Yuanshuo" had not yet rotted away.

Guo Jie charged forward on the floating ice, his ring-pommel sword cleaving through the leather rafts of the Xiongnu navy. The whimpering of the deflated sheepskin air bladders mingled with the wails of the dying, creating a hellish soundscape in the valley.

The Left Wise King's golden helmet bobbed in the waves, and Guo Jie threw out Li Gan's broken halberd.

The moment the crescent blade hooked onto the iron ring around the neck guard, rocks suddenly rolled down the cliff face of Hexi.

The Xiutu King's forces actually set up catapults on the cliff, and burning oil tanks were used to smash the Han army's warships.

Wei Guang's whistling arrow pierced through the smoke, the steel arrow embedded in the winch's gap, and the snapped camel sinew pulled the Xiongnu gunner into the abyss.

As dusk painted the river red, Guo Jie stepped ashore, treading on the floating corpses of Xiongnu warhorses.

The salt grains in the seams of his chainmail were soaked with blood, and every step felt like walking on a mountain of corpses from the Yuanshuo era.

Wei Guang's quiver was empty, and the last three whistling arrows were covered in brain matter.

Twelve plumes of smoke rose from behind the sand dunes on the opposite bank, their twisted columns forming a map of the Yanzhi Pass.

That place holds the last salt, iron, and grain depots of the Xiongnu.

Suddenly, the black horse bit Guo Jie's cloak; the beast had sensed the approaching sandstorm.

Yellow clouds in the northwest sky rolled in like the banners of the Xiongnu Chanyu, and gravel struck the bronze arrow box with a clanging sound.

The remnants of the Left Wise King's army regrouped their cavalry amidst the sandstorm, and from the newly hung pottery jars on either side of the saddles, the stingers of Hexi scorpions were oozing a ghostly blue light.
On the gravel beach at the northern foot of the Qilian Mountains, Guo Jie squinted at the horizon.

The scorching wind whipped sand and gravel against the chainmail, and fine sand seeped into the gaps between the plates, falling in a soft rustling sound with each step.

Suddenly, the black horse reared up and neighed, its front hooves digging out half of a rusted arrowhead.

The inscription "Fourth Year of Yuanshuo" on the arrow shaft has been polished to a shine by the wind and sand.

"Fifteen li to the northeast, a dust column three zhang high." Wei Guang's arrowheads drew arcs in the sand, and the mulberry wood bowstring cracked with fine lines due to dryness.

In the distance, the yak-felt tents of the Xiongnu yurt twisted in the heat, and the battle flags of the remnants of the White Sheep King's army fluttered in the wind, their surfaces soaked with camel blood that had formed black scabs.

Vultures suddenly took flight from behind the sand dunes, and three hundred light Xiongnu cavalrymen slithered out like sand snakes.

Millet grains were leaking from the straw bags hanging on both sides of the saddle, yet they were strangely arranged in the shape of arrows in the yellow sand.

This is a deadly trap designed to lure the enemy in.

"Winged formation, spread wings!"

Guo Jie waved his red banner, and eight hundred Han cavalrymen spread out like goose feathers.

The Xiongnu centurion at the forefront suddenly reined in his horse and slashed the reins with his scimitar.

Thirty ownerless warhorses charged madly at the Han army.

Wei Guang's whistling arrow pierced the air, the hollow shaft of the arrow startling the sand foxes. As the three-edged arrow pierced the horse's eye, the sand suddenly collapsed.

"Quicksand pit!"

Zhang Teng roared and threw out the lasso.

Guo Jie grabbed the rope and soared into the air, catching a glimpse of the stark white bones at the bottom of the sandpit.

There are Han army ring-pommel swords and Xiongnu curved-blade swords intertwined on the skull, clearly indicating that the defeated army from the Yuanshuo era has been transformed into sand demons here.

The black horse leaped out of the danger zone, trampling over the corpses of its companions. Amidst the sandstorm stirred up by its iron hooves, the Left Wise King's black-armored cavalry pressed in like a black tide.

The scorching sun of the Gobi Desert made the iron armor scalding hot, and Guo Jie tore off a piece of his tunic and wrapped it around the hilt of his sword.

The rhinoceros-hide armor of the Xiongnu heavy cavalry gleamed with oil, and the sound of their spears piercing the air was accompanied by waves of heat.

He spun around to avoid the spear's edge, and his ring-pommel sword smoothly pierced the gap in the armor plate. His skill, honed over ten years of campaigning in the northern deserts, was as precise as a falcon's.

The moment the blade twisted, the entire shoulder armor flew off.

Wei Guang's whistling arrow pierced through the chaotic crowd, its tip embedding itself in the eye socket of the Left Wise King's mount.

The maddened steed flung its commander toward the Han army's chariot formation. As Guo Jie swung his sword and cleaved the neck guard ribbon, he suddenly noticed the tattoo on the inside of the golden helmet.

It turned out to be the wolf head totem of the Hexi bandits. "The bandits are impersonating the royal army!"

Before the roar had even faded, fifty Bactrian camels emerged from behind the sand dune.

The crossbows strung between the camel humps gleamed with an eerie light, and iron arrows over ten feet long pierced through three soldiers, their remaining force pinning the armored chariot to the rock face.

Guo Jie snatched the Xiongnu scimitar, and the words "Zhangye" engraved on the copper ring on the back of the blade made his pupils shrink.

These are the weapons that were stolen from the Protectorate of the Qiang three years ago.

Yellow clouds suddenly appeared on the northwestern horizon, and a sandstorm swept in like the banners of the Xiongnu chieftain.

Guo Jie tore his battle robe to cover his mouth and nose, and his chainmail clanged like a chime amidst the flying sand and stones.

Five paces away, a Hun strongman's chain hammer came crashing down. He bent down and rolled, striking the opponent's ankle with the back of his blade.

This is a technique used by herdsmen in Hexi to train camels.

The sound of bones cracking mingled with the howling wind, and the ring-pommel sword swung upwards, its tip piercing through the skull from the lower jaw.

Wei Guang's quiver suddenly trembled, and the three whistling arrows vibrated on their own.

The bandits' early warning techniques.

Guo Jie cleaved open the burning supply wagons, and the fireballs rolled into the camel caravan.

The buried oil pot exploded with a roar, and flames shot up from the felt between the camel humps, burning the wolf-head banner of the Xiutu tribe to ashes.

As the setting sun bleeds like blood, the Han army pursues them to the old course of the Shule River.

On the dried-up riverbed, the remnants of the Xiongnu were digging sand to get water.

Guo Jie swung his knife and cut the leather bag open. The muddy water mixed with sand seeped into the crack, revealing the dark iron artifacts beneath the riverbed.

Hundreds of crossbows were lined up in formation, and the inscription "Protector of the Qiang" on the crossbow's blade was glaring and alarming.

"It's the armory that fell in the sixth year of the Yuanshuo era!"

Wei Guang's roar was interrupted by the camel bells.

After leaving the sand dunes, the Western Regions caravan poured the oil from the glass bottle into the river.

The Left Wise King's golden sword cleaved the chains, and the black oil dragon instantly ignited the entire riverbed.

Guo Jie dragged Wei Guang towards the crevice in the rock, the flames whipping their hair as they swept over their heads.

As the cold moon rose over the Singing Sand Dunes, Guo Jie stepped on the scorching gravel to survey the battlefield.

The sand from the gaps in my chainmail mixed with blood and hardened into a scab, making every step feel like walking on a knife's edge.

Wei Guang suddenly drew his bow and pointed it at the starry sky.

Twelve plumes of smoke rose from the handle of the Big Dipper, their trails forming a topographical map of the Yanzhi Pass.

The black horse bit the reins and refused to move forward; the beast had caught the scent of the sand fox.

Guo Jie split the charred black Xiongnu battle flag open, and the sheepskin map hidden inside the flagpole fluttered down.

The route drawn in cinnabar meanders to Dunhuang, and the locations of the springs marked along the way are completely opposite to those explored by the Han army scouts.

"It's a reflection!"

Wei Guang's dagger pierced the sand, and the turned leather scroll revealed new patterns.

In the poplar forest by Crescent Lake, three hundred steel armored vehicles are disguised as sand dunes.

The veins on the back of Guo Jie's hand, which was gripping the knife, bulged. It was in this kind of ambush that General Li Gan met his end in the fifth year of Yuanshuo.

As the owls took flight in fright, the Han army entered the poplar forest.

The crisp sound of a dry branch breaking on the sole of a boot overlapped with the sound of bones cracking from a comrade who died in battle twenty years ago.

The remnants of the Left Wise King's forces suddenly emerged from the tree hole. Their oil-soaked leather armor ignited upon contact with a spark, forcing everyone into the quicksand area.

"Change the hook setting!"

Guo Jie kicked over a burning poplar tree, the embers drawing a firebreak in the sand.

Wei Guang's whistling arrow pierced the tree canopy, startling a flock of vultures that were roosting there.

In the chaos, Zhang Teng's hook caught on a crack in the rock strata, and the three hundred soldiers used the force to escape the sea of ​​fire.

The Left Wise King's white banner flashed behind the wall of fire, and his golden sword cleaved the hidden fuse, instantly turning the entire poplar forest into a fire tornado.
A sandstorm swept across the Yanzhi Mountain Pass, and the burning poplars dyed the sky crimson.

Guo Jie leaped out of the inferno, clutching half a charred military flag. Blood seeping from his chainmail left a trail in the sand.

On the northern horizon, the smoke signals of war from the Xiutu Kingdom rose again, while the faint sound of copper bells from a camel caravan in the Western Regions could be heard beneath the shifting sands of the old course of the Shule River.

This bloody battle sweeping across Hexi is brewing a new deadly trap deep in the yellow sands.

Outside Chang'an city, banners fluttered in the wind.

Guo Jie reined in his horse, gazed at the majestic city wall in the distance, and let out a long sigh of relief.

The smoke of the Battle of Hexi still seemed to be right before his eyes; those scenes of flashing swords and flying blood often woke him up in his dreams.

"Uncle!"

A clear call came from behind. Guo Jie turned around and saw Huo Qubing riding towards him.

The young general, clad in silver armor that gleamed in the sunlight, possessed a handsome face that still held a touch of childishness, yet already revealed an extraordinary demeanor.

"Go away, sick." Guo Jie smiled with relief. "Have you gotten used to the journey?"

Huo Qubing dismounted and strode to Guo Jie's horse: "Uncle, I heard that His Majesty is going to hold a banquet at Weiyang Palace to welcome us back."

His eyes gleamed with excitement. "We have made a great contribution in this battle of Hexi!"

Looking at this spirited young man, Guo Jie was filled with mixed emotions.

He also remembered that when Huo Qubing was a child, he would often pester him to tell him stories about the battlefield.

Now, this boy has grown into a true general, invincible on the battlefield.

"Yes," Guo Jie looked up at the distant city wall, "we lost many soldiers in this battle."

His voice lowered, "Captain Zhang, Lieutenant Li, and those young soldiers."

Huo Qubing's expression also turned serious: "Uncle, war always kills people. What we can do is make their sacrifices worthwhile."

Guo Jie nodded, about to say something, when suddenly he heard the sound of a horn coming from afar.

A troop of Imperial Guards rode up, and the leading general announced loudly, "By order of His Majesty, General Guo and General Huo are requested to enter the palace immediately!"

The Weiyang Palace was resplendent with gold and jade.

Emperor Wu of Han sat high on the dragon throne, the jade beads hanging from his crown obscuring his face, but unable to hide his sharp eyes.

Guo Jie and Huo Qubing stood side by side, with the generals who were going on this expedition behind them.

"In the Battle of Hexi, we decisively defeated the Xiongnu and displayed the might of our great Han Dynasty." Emperor Wu's voice echoed in the hall. "Huo Qubing, you led a light cavalry on a thousand-mile raid, beheading eight thousand and capturing countless cattle, sheep and horses. I am very pleased."

Huo Qubing stepped forward and knelt on one knee: "Your subject dares not take credit; it is all thanks to Your Majesty's great fortune and the soldiers' bravery."

Emperor Wu of Han nodded slightly: "I hereby enfeoff you as Marquis of Champion, with a fief of two thousand households. I will also bestow upon you a thousand taels of gold and a hundred bolts of brocade."

"Thank you for your great kindness, Your Majesty!" Huo Qubing kowtowed in gratitude.

Guo Jie watched this scene with a mixture of relief and emotion. This young man had finally received the glory he deserved.

"Guo Jie," Emperor Wu of Han's voice rang out again, "you led the army to cover the rear and fought fiercely against the main force of the Xiongnu, buying time for our main force to retreat. Your contribution in this battle is indispensable."

Guo Jie stepped forward and knelt down, saying, "Your subject does not dare to accept such praise."

"I hereby enfeoff you as the Marquis of Zhi, with your fiefdom increased to eight hundred households. I also bestow upon you five hundred taels of gold and fifty bolts of brocade."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Guo Jie kowtowed, but felt little joy in his heart.

He knew that behind these rewards lay the blood of countless soldiers.

(End of this chapter)