Chapter 472

Even the Gounaodai Dawang of South Yang couldn't reach him with a whip; he still had to first return to Youzhou before saying anything else.

The Great King was unhappy, yet someone still came to his door; when the cavalry was still far from Menge Valley, the Sky Sovereign, Lord Sky-Covering, discovered these people.

These days it wasn't idle either; the tribes on the grassland, without fixed settlements, were all mobile. The Great King's intelligence wasn't as good as Lord Sky-Covering's eyes; whenever it found where people gathered, the Great King would bring people to kill them there.

We had agreed to go home, no doubt, but when we passed a place on the way home where a crowd had gathered, what was that supposed to mean? The Lord Sky-Covering, out for a fly, realized it had figured it out.

This beast swooped down and seized a war horse hidden in a valley...

The people of Huye had also just arrived; they hid the horse in an even deeper valley for fear of noise, and when Lord Sky-Covering took off from the sky, a cavalryman inadvertently looked back and was stunned.

He rubbed his eyes hard and looked again, but the war horse was still flying in the sky.

He let out a startled cry and was even scolded by his superior, 'This, this...' What the hell?! He pointed at the sky, unable to speak; the person lying beside him followed his gaze and saw a terrifyingly wide-winged eagle snatch their war horse, then turn and fly back.

On the grassland there are plenty of people who raise eagles and hawks; they believe they can snatch a lamb, but a war horse? What nonsense!

Lord Sky-Covering flying back with a horse didn't affect its speed; when this beast lowered its altitude, the Youzhou cavalry were also shocked, after all, the only ones who had seen its majestic form when it captured the Pig Hag Dragon back then were the Great King's personal guards.

Changli narrowed his eyes, looking in the direction Lord Sky-Covering was flying from, then turned his horse and rode back to find the Great King.

Lord Sky-Covering, when it returns from hunting, never lets go until it sees the Great King; even if it catches just a mouse on the grassland, it must bring it to the Great King for display, and the Great King doesn't want to hear anything else.

Today's prey was so huge that this beast rushed straight to the Great King; the experienced Great King and Weishen immediately scattered and fled in different directions, with a 'thud', the war horse weighing over half a ton fell to the ground, twitched twice, and lay still.

When Changli came over, the Great King was leading the study of the horse corpse with keen interest.

Weishen: 'This is a Xianbei horse, right?'

Great King: 'Is it tasty?'

Weishen: 'Like a war horse, it's fierce enough to be tasty.'

The Great King fumed: 'Lord Sky-Covering has never caught anything edible!' Along the way it dragged back all sorts of junk, even bringing back a field mouse to show off, and the Great King has no liking for those strange wild foods.

Changli: '... Is that the point?'

He stepped forward and said, 'Your Highness, although this horse lacks a saddle, one can see the marks of long-term riding; its appearance belongs to the outstanding among Xianbei horses, unlikely to be used for grazing, so it's probably truly a war horse.'

Indeed, Lord Sky-Covering at a glance picked out the largest, fattest one from the valley...

Great King: 'Ah, that definitely isn't edible.'

Changli:...

Probably because Chief Chang's gaze was too helpless, the Great King straightened up and said, 'Alright, what do you want to say?'

'Although the scouts haven't returned yet, just ahead we've entered Xianbei territory; there should be no tribes or herders left, but there is a large valley where the appearance of war horses is highly suspicious.'

Great King: '...... An ambush?'

Weishen: 'Do they still have the guts?'

Changli:...

The Great King thought, 'There's still a tough battle this afternoon! Let's rest and have lunch first; these ingredients are ready at hand.'

Horse meat isn't very tasty, but since it's already dead, in an age where people starve to death every day, there's no possibility of wasting it.

The whole unit stopped to start cooking, and the Great King, idling, began to 'interrogate' his beloved clever pet.

He pointed ahead and asked, 'Are there enemy ambushes up front?'

Lord Sky-Covering couldn't answer that skill; it waved its wings toward the route it had taken to seize the horse, 'There's a pile, go loot!'

How many?

Lord Sky-Covering kept raising its wings~

The Great King jabbed the person's forehead hard, 'How can you not speak? Is that reasonable!'

The nearby guards: ……Speechless. They look just like the giant roc from stories, able to snatch a fine horse at will, yet this Great King still demands they be able to talk……

The horse meat wasn't even cooked yet when the scouting scouts returned; the Great King's Snow Cavalry scouts' monocular telescopes are standard issue, and upon returning they said there was an abnormal ambush in the valley ahead.

Huye's ambush in the valley, though invisible to the naked eye, was nowhere to hide in the telescope.

Weishen noticed the Great King didn't care at all, 'Are you really that confident? Sounds like a pocket valley; the situation looks pretty dire!'

The Great King pointed at Changli, 'What's there to fear? There's an experienced veteran general; go ask him.'

Weishen looked at Changli's youthful face and thought, 'Is that the kind of old general who's only led troops once?!'

Changli, having been named, actually came over and explained to Weishen how to break through a valley known to have an ambush: for example, speed outweighs a head-on clash, the advantage lies in surprise, the longer the delay the worse for our side; for example, we can sacrifice some supplies to lure the enemy away from favorable terrain; for example, we can concentrate elite forces for a pivotal breakthrough, the supply train must definitely split, and he went on and on.

Weishen actually understood the big picture as well, 'So how are we supposed to get through this time?'

'This time it's simple; we have telescopes and Lord Sky-Covering, we just need to chase down and capture the ambush.'

Weishen: ……Makes sense.

Lord Sky-Covering was on the scene, even providing aerial positioning.

They didn't wait for Huye to roll down stones, but instead went along Huye's road to capture them; the Great King didn't mind spending half a day to punish the Xianbei who defied orders.

With Lord Zhetian, those eyes were better than radar; anywhere the Xianbei could go, the Snow Riders could go too, and they even went around to the rear of the ambushing enemy troops.

The Great King and Wei Shen didn't go; they waited in the distance for the Snow Riders to act.

Hu Ye had prepared rolling stones and was lying stupidly waiting on the hilltop; Lord Zhetian flew a circle above their heads and was completely exposed. He even started wondering whether the Great King had changed route to the Xiongnu, when suddenly he heard a miserable cry from behind!

He turned sharply, and behind him was a blinding expanse of silver-white.

He knew it was over.

The Snow Riders climbed up on foot; they didn't even use consumable arrows, and the sword-and-shield troops with a round shield in one hand and a straight sword in the other charged up without hesitation.

It was already too late to change the direction of the rolling stones.

In a skirmish testing skill, no one could match the Northern Border troops, and those who came today were even the elite among them, the Snow Riders.

As soon as they clashed, Hu Ye realized his judgment was wrong; the several thousand extra troops he had were completely useless.

After waiting for the shouts of killing to come from behind the valley, and then waiting another two quarters of an hour, everything fell completely silent; even Lord Zhetian, who was helping with positioning, flew back, and the Great King knew it was over.

Hu Ye brought over five thousand men, half of them died, and the rest surrendered at lightning speed; this put Changli in a bit of a bind.

Killing surrendered troops goes against heavenly harmony; keeping them means they still have to be fed. Food is tight; even the Great King doesn't want slaves. For now, any available laborers, even refugees, are put to work.

The remaining over two thousand captives, together with five thousand horses, were quickly dragged back to the valley. "Your Highness, there are still two thousand captives who have surrendered. How should we deal with them?"

The Great King thought, this is simple!

"Drag the people back to the border on the way, then send someone to the Bald-headed Xianbei to demand an explanation—they actually dare to ambush cavalry and assassinate the king?! They haven't even heard of the Xiongnu's lesson!"

"I said I hope they quickly bring my shock‑relief fee to Secluded Prefecture to apologize, and the amount should be the same as before for the Xiongnu!"

"Right, I mercifully released the captives, letting them go. These two thousand people, ten taels each, let them pay money to ransom themselves. For fighting desperately for the royal court, they won't even spare this bit of money, will they?"

Wei Shen: …… Excellent.

You've already taken millions in shock‑relief fees, and you still want to sell these few people for extra money?

Seeing Wei Shen's difficulty in speaking, the Great King educated him: "Do you know how big the grain shortage in the northern border is? Every day refugees pass through Luo River Pass heading north to seek shelter; I'm almost letting them go first to the Xianbei to chew grass!"

The ever‑watching Bai Ze lazily opened his mouth: "Not bad, being poor yet righteous and bold~"

Wei Shen: ……

The Great King: ……