I asked you to go hunting, and you ended up wearing a yellow robe?

Seventy li away, on the north bank of the Yinma River, lies the Yelü tribe's main camp.

The general's tent was brightly lit, and the brazier crackled as it burned. Several abducted Han Chinese women, dressed in thin gauze, knelt on the ground and danced, their hands and feet shackled.

Yelüda leaned back in the tiger-skin chair, gnawing on a leg of lamb with oil dripping from his mouth, but his eyes remained fixed on the dancers' slender white necks and collarbones.

He suddenly threw the lamb leg on the table and pointed with his greasy fingers at the woman on the far left.

"You, come here."

The woman trembled, knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, her forehead hitting the felt carpet with a loud thud.

Yelüda waved his hand impatiently.

"Take them away and replace them. These are all too dark, their skin is as rough as horsehide."

The guards beside him bowed and dragged all the women out. After a moment of silence in the command tent, Yelü Da took a swig of wine.

"I've heard that the noble ladies of the Han Chinese dynasties in the south have skin so tender it's like you could squeeze water out of it, and it's as smooth as satin to the touch."

He wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, his eyes revealing undisguised desire.

"Once we take over the capital of Shanhe Province, we can choose any woman in the city. Then I, the general, will see if they are really that fair and tender."

The centurions sitting at the lower end chuckled, some raising bowls to offer wine, and the tent was filled with crude laughter.

Just then, the tent flap was suddenly flung open, and a scout covered in mud and sweat staggered and knelt down on the ground.

"General...General! Something terrible has happened!"

Yelüda frowned and slammed the copper bowl in his hand heavily onto the table.

"What's got you so flustered?"

The scout looked up, and the expression on his face instantly silenced everyone in the tent.

"The Wood Wolf Centurion...is dead. The people of Qingyang City have hung his head on the city gate."

The entire command tent fell silent for a moment.

Then Yelüda slowly stood up, the copper bowl in his hand deformed from his grip, and wine dripped down between his fingers.

"What did you say?"

His voice wasn't loud, but every word sounded like it was being squeezed out from between his teeth.

The scout trembled and repeated his words.

"The entire army of the Wood Wolf commander was wiped out; not a single one of the five hundred men escaped. A ruthless man named Qi Shan emerged in Qingyang City; it was he who beheaded the Wood Wolf commander."

All expression vanished from Yelüda's face, leaving only a chilling calm.

He walked to the brazier, picked up the red-hot iron tongs, and when he turned back, even the centurions instinctively shrank back.

My nephew is dead.

He pressed the iron tongs onto the table, and the wooden table hissed and emitted blue smoke, filling the air with a burnt smell.

"I raised him myself. He went to the battlefield at the age of fourteen, killed a thousand men at the age of sixteen, and led thirty cavalrymen to break through an army of two thousand men at the age of twenty."

Yelüda finally raised his eyes, which were bloodshot.

"He ended up dying at the hands of a constable in a small county town, and his head was even hung on the city gate."

He drew his curved sword from his waist and cleaved the wooden table in front of him in half, scattering wine and meat all over the floor.

All the centurions and guards knelt down, and no one dared to raise their heads.

Yelüda stood there, holding his scimitar, panting for a long time before he could suppress his surging emotions.

"Order the entire army to assemble."

His voice was as somber as the cold wind of December.

"Since we can't take the provincial capital in time, let's wipe out Qingyang County first."

The centurions looked up at him, awaiting further orders.

Yelüda sheathed his scimitar, tightened his belt, and walked out.

"Bring all the siege equipment, and move all the gunpowder, arrows, and oil bombs out of the warehouse. Also, send a message to Zhao Wuji to have his men come as well."

When he lifted the tent flap, a cold wind rushed in, causing sparks to fly from the brazier.

"This general will use 20,000 heads from Qingyang County to appease my nephew's spirit in heaven."

Outside the tent, the bugle sounded continuously, and the entire camp began to stir, with the sounds of soldiers' horses' hooves and the clanging of armor plates everywhere.

Yelü Da mounted his horse and gazed in the direction of Qingyang County, his eyes flashing with both fire and killing intent.

"Qi Shan... I'd like to see how many heads you have that I can chop off."

................

Meng Da led the county soldiers to examine the corpses. When they found any usable weapons or armor fragments, they immediately ordered them to be moved down to the city gate for registration.

"Watch your step! A broken scimitar can be forged, and a missing piece of leather in an armor can be repaired. Anyone who dares to hoard it, I'll chop off their hand!"

Several county soldiers who were about to stuff silver into their pockets were startled and quickly threw what they had touched into the wooden basket.

Qi Shan walked through the barbican, his feet sinking into the black ash covering the ground.

Outside the city gates, chaos reigned. Warhorses, having lost their masters, wandered about, some startled and kicking wildly at anyone who approached.

A dozen or so veteran horse handlers carefully surrounded the warhorse with lassos, and it took them more than an hour to finally bring it under control.

After Chen Chong finished counting the items, he ran over with his face covered in cigarette ash, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.

"Magistrate, we have 370 live horses, but more than 30 are too badly injured to be saved!"

After he finished reciting the numbers, he swallowed hard. When had Qingyang County ever seen such a large herd of warhorses?

The county government originally had forty-one post horses, and the county military camp had more than sixty more, which were usually used for delivering messages and pulling carts.

There were quite a few horses, but at most only about twenty had actually worn armor and heard the bugle call.

But these Yelü warhorses in front of me are different. They have high shoulders and strong legs, and they can still stand firm after seeing blood. They are all good horses that can charge into battle.

Meng Da stroked the neck of a black horse, grinning from ear to ear.

"Damn it, this beast eats more hay in a day than I eat grain, yet it's enough to feed ten people!"

An old soldier beside him couldn't help but correct him, saying that if cavalry really charged, ten infantrymen might not be able to stop a single warhorse.

Upon hearing this, Meng Da became even more reluctant to let go, and immediately turned around and ordered someone to give the black horse a separate bag of bean feed.

Qi Shan looked at the herd of horses and quickly calculated the number in his mind. There were exactly more than two hundred horses that could be ridden.

A few hundred cavalrymen might not amount to much in a border army camp, but in Qingyang County, they would be a force capable of changing the course of the war.

If it were a direct confrontation on flat ground, it wouldn't be too difficult for two hundred cavalry to crush a thousand ordinary infantrymen.

The prerequisite is that the riders are willing to charge, know how to control their horses, and can maintain formation under command, without colliding with each other first.

The county soldiers of Qingyang County used to only know how to deliver messages on horseback. To expect them to become elite cavalrymen overnight is suicidal.

Qi Shan was not blinded by the capture; he immediately summoned several veteran horse breeders and had them select usable warhorses one by one.

"Treat injured horses first, skin and butcher dead horses, inspect all horseshoes, and replace any missing ones as soon as possible!"

The veterans readily agreed, their gazes towards Qi Shan now filled with even more awe than yesterday.

They originally thought this county magistrate was only good at killing people, but now it seems he's not entirely ignorant of even the details of horse breeding.

Chen Chong then delivered a list of spoils, which included over 370 scimitars, 200 short bows, and over 300 sets of iron and leather armor.

In addition, there were tens of thousands of arrows, two carts of dried meat, more than a dozen bags of fried rice, as well as some wound medicine and tools.

Qi Shan couldn't help but laugh.

A month ago, the county soldiers couldn't even gather enough knives; now, the warehouse probably can't even hold all the spoils.

"Fighting wars can actually make you richer; no wonder border generals, once they have troops under their command, dare to disobey even the imperial court!"