Chapter 889: Indulging Ambition, Qifu Bares Fangs

Gao Jiong squatted beside the horse stable of the Qifu tribe's new camp, picked at his teeth with a withered blade of grass, and spat the chewed grass residue onto the frozen soil beside his feet.

Songqi ran over from the direction of the granary tent, his boots splashing a patch of dirty flowers in the muddy snow water.

"Boss, the grain has all been exchanged. Qifugu's steward didn't look very good when he inspected it."

Gao Jiong pulled the withered grass out of his mouth and threw it away.

"It's right that he didn't look good. He has been eating fine grain for two months, and his mouth has been spoiled. Suddenly changing to goods mixed with sand, it would be strange if he looked good."

Songqi squatted down beside him, rubbing his ears, which were red from the cold, with both hands.

"Boss, what if Qifugu flips his face? He has more than four thousand men under his command who can fight now, and after swallowing the Helan tribe, he has enough horses. If he really wants to make a move against us, our fifty-some people won't be enough to look at."

Gao Jiong poured a mouthful of wine from the leather bag at his waist and wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

"He won't flip his face."

"Why?"

Gao Jiong patted Songqi on the back of the head.

"Because his ambition is bigger than his temper. A person who has already tasted sweetness won't cut off all future business for the sake of a few bags of millet mixed with sand."

He stood up and patted the mud on his knees.

"Let's go, it's time to go talk to Qifugu."

Qifugu's new royal tent was more than three times larger than the tattered tent from two months ago. The tent walls were double-layered cowhide captured from the Helan tribe, copper bells and wolf-tooth strings hung from the tent roof, and two blood-stained banners were inserted in front of the tent, embroidered with the Qifu tribe's totem.

When Gao Jiong lifted the curtain and entered, Qifugu was sitting on a low platform covered with a whole white bear skin, playing with a horizontal blade in his hand. The blade flipped back and forth in the light of the fire basin inside the tent, reflecting his bloodshot eyes.

"Lord Gao has come."

Qifugu did not get up. He spun the horizontal blade in his hand, stabbed the tip of the blade onto the low platform, and the blade body vibrated with a buzzing sound twice.

"Sit down, I was just looking for you."

Gao Jiong sat cross-legged on the old carpet opposite the low platform and scanned the furnishings in the tent, from gold bowls to silver pots to the dozens of bolts of fine silk piled in the corner; the Helan tribe's family foundation had been eaten clean by Qifugu.

"What does the Chieftain want with this official?"

Qifugu pulled the horizontal blade from the low platform, and the tip of the blade swayed in Gao Jiong's direction.

"Lord Gao, what kind of dog-fart stuff was your grain exchanged for? When my steward opened the grain bag, he almost broke his teeth. The millet was mixed with sand and broken stones. Is that for people to eat or for horses to chew?"

Gao Jiong shifted his buttocks on the carpet, finding a comfortable position to sit firmly.

"Chieftain, this official will tell you the truth."

Qifugu's blade lay across his knees, his gaze fixed on him.

Gao Jiong took a piece of dried meat from his bosom, tore a strip off with his teeth, and chewed it. He chewed three times before continuing.

"The granary in Xia Prefecture is not something this official alone can decide. Above there is the Pillar of State, and above the Pillar of State is the Court. The allocation of fine grain must have a reason."

"What reason?"

Gao Jiong swallowed the chewed dried meat and rubbed the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"Military merit."

Qifugu's eyebrows twisted toward the middle.

Gao Jiong extended his hand, and five fingers pointed one by one on his knee.

"The Chieftain fought the Helan tribe, and this official reported the merit for you. The higher-ups approved two months of fine grain. Those two months have already arrived, the fine grain is gone, and what remains is only this inferior stuff mixed with sand."

"If you want fine grain, you must give this official new merit to report upward."

Qifugu slapped the horizontal blade onto the low platform, and a few drops of mare's milk wine splashed out of the gold bowl.

"Merit? What merit? Who do you want me to fight again?"

Gao Jiong put his hand down from the dried meat and pulled a thin wooden board from a hidden compartment in his boot tube. On the wooden board, a rough topography of the eastern part of the grasslands was drawn with charred charcoal sticks.

He placed the wooden board on the low platform, and his finger pointed at three marked points in sequence.

"The Sele tribe, the Tuhai tribe, the Puchang tribe."

Qifugu looked down at the wooden board and smacked his lips.

"These three broken tribes combined don't even have one thousand tents. What profit is there in fighting them?"

Gao Jiong's index finger drew a circle on the mark of the Sele tribe.

"The profit is not in the heads, but in the cattle and horses."

His finger moved to the position representing the Royal Court in the upper right corner of the wooden board.

"Wen Ge Ti issued a conscription order a few days ago, forcing these small tribes to hand over able-bodied men to seal the border. Does the Chieftain know what this means?"

Qifugu's fingers rubbed back and forth on the spine of the horizontal blade, not answering.

Gao Jiong pushed the wooden board half a foot in Qifugu's direction.

"The Sele tribe has more than six hundred people. After one hundred and fifty able-bodied men were drawn away, everyone left in the camp is old, weak, women, and children. They don't even have enough young men to stand guard at night to make up the number of one tent."

His finger slid to the mark of the Tuhai tribe.

"The Tuhai tribe is even more miserable. During the Battle of Jinshan, most of the able-bodied men died, and this time another one hundred were drawn away. The number of men in the camp who can mount a horse does not exceed eighty."

The finger moved down again.

"The Puchang tribe, four hundred or so people. After fifty are drawn away, only three hundred and a bit are left. The old are old, the young are young, and even if their curved blades are rusted, there is no one to sharpen them."

Qifugu's fingers stopped on the spine of the horizontal blade, his fingertips pressing on the cold steel surface, and his eyeballs jumped back and forth between the three marks on the wooden board twice.

"You mean, taking advantage of their able-bodied men being drawn away by the Royal Court, I should go eat these three families?"

Gao Jiong withdrew his hand from the low platform, leaned back, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"The cattle and sheep of the three families combined total more than twenty thousand, and there are at least three thousand horses. If the Chieftain takes these three families, it won't cost a single soldier or a single blade, and all the cattle, sheep, and horses will enter your own pen."

Qifugu stood up from the low platform, holding the horizontal blade in his hand, and paced back and forth in the tent three times. His leather boots made a muffled sound on the white bear skin.

"Three thousand horses, twenty thousand cattle and sheep."

His voice rolled up from the depths of his throat, carrying a roughness burned hot by desire.

"Added to the foundation left by the Helan tribe, I will have the largest livestock herd in the eastern part of the grasslands."

Gao Jiong held his arms on the carpet, his face carrying a relaxed look of watching a good show.

"The Chieftain calculates clearly. With this family foundation, the Qifu tribe will be the number one largest tribe in the entire eastern grassland, second only to the Royal Court."

Qifugu turned around and stared at him, the horizontal blade pointing in Gao Jiong's direction.

"Lord Gao, every time you draw a big cake for me, you smile like a fox. I will ask you one question, and you answer me honestly."

Gao Jiong tilted his head.

"Chieftain, ask."

Qifugu walked to a position two steps away from him and stopped, retracting the horizontal blade and tucking it into his waist.

"I fought the Helan tribe, and you said it was done by Turkic remnant soldiers. Now you are letting me fight these three families again. Who do you intend to blame?"

Gao Jiong laughed, laughing until his mouth split open, revealing a row of teeth stained by dried meat residue.

"The Chieftain is smart. This time, there is no need to blame anyone."

He picked up the wooden board from the low platform and flipped it over. On the back were three arrows drawn, pointing from the direction of the Qifu tribe toward the three small tribes respectively.

"The able-bodied men of these three families have been drawn away by the Royal Court. The people left in the camp don't even have the strength to resist. The Chieftain takes five hundred people and rides over. No need to kill anyone, just drive all the cattle, sheep, and horses away."

His finger flicked on the arrow on the back of the wooden board.

"They can't survive the winter without livestock. Either they surrender to the Chieftain to get a mouthful of food, or they run south to Da Zhou's trade fair to make a living. No matter which path, the territory and livestock of these three families are the Chieftain's."

Qifugu squatted down, pressed both hands on his knees, and leaned his face in front of the wooden board.

"No need to kill anyone?"

Gao Jiong handed the wooden board into his hand.

"If you kill people, the news will be hard to control. If you don't kill people, it doesn't matter where these old, weak, women, and children run to and what they say. Who will believe the crying of a group of refugees with nowhere to go?"

Qifugu stood up clutching the wooden board, his thumb pressing hard on the board surface twice.

"What about the Royal Court? Won't Wen Ge Ti care?"

Gao Jiong got up from the carpet and patted the grass residue on his body.

"Wen Ge Ti is now in a state of scorched head and rotten forehead, chasing and suppressing Turkic remnant soldiers on one side and sealing the border on the other. He has drawn tens of thousands of people from various tribes and scattered them along the border line of thousands of miles. His mobile forces in his hands have already hit the bottom."

He extended his right hand, and five fingers clenched into a fist.

"Even if he knows that the Qifu tribe is expanding in the east, he can't draw troops to fight you. He can only stare with wide eyes."

Qifugu's palm squeezed and loosened on the handle of the horizontal blade, loosened and squeezed.

"Fine grain? After I finish fighting these three families, will there still be fine grain?"

Gao Jiong patted Qifugu on the shoulder, the force neither light nor heavy.

"After the Chieftain takes the cattle and sheep of these three families, this official will immediately report the merit upward. Fine grain will be enough, and horizontal blades will be enough. As many as the Chieftain wants, this official will get for you."

The corners of Qifugu's mouth split to both sides, and a smile between excitement and greed squeezed out on that face that had been battered by wind and sand for thirty years, looking ferocious when twisted together.

"When to make a move?"

Gao Jiong turned around and walked two steps toward the direction of the tent curtain, his boots stepping over the bone residue scattered on the ground, emitting a fine creaking sound.

"The conscription order requires people within ten days. The able-bodied men of the Sele tribe and the Tuhai tribe were urged to set off by fast horses three days ago, and the able-bodied men of the Puchang tribe set off tomorrow."

Qifugu looked at the wooden board twice, flipping it over and over, his rough thumb scraping back and forth on the board surface.

"Setting off tomorrow, then the Puchang tribe camp still has to leave a gap for one night."

Gao Jiong stopped in front of the tent curtain, tilted his head, and smiled at him.

"The Chieftain calculates faster than me. By tomorrow night, there will only be empty shells left in the three camps, and they won't even be able to gather a decent guard dog."

"The day after tomorrow?"

"The night after tomorrow, the Chieftain can set off."

Qifugu stood on the white bear skin clutching the wooden board. The light of the fire basin pulled his shadow on the tent wall into a crooked giant. That face, burned red by desire, carried an irrepressible restlessness.

"The night after tomorrow, I will wait for your good news."

Gao Jiong lifted the tent curtain, and the night wind wrapped in the smell of rotten frozen soil on the grasslands poured in, pressing the flames in the fire basin down by a section.

He looked back at Qifugu, the smile still hanging on the corner of his mouth.

"Chieftain, remember, drive the cattle, sheep, and horses clean, don't touch the people."

"I have remembered."

The tent curtain fell behind Gao Jiong, and the wind blew the copper bells on the tent roof until they jingled twice, the lingering sound dragging a long tail in the night wind before dissipating.

Songqi was waiting beside the horse stake twenty steps away from the tent. He had been rubbing his hands in his sleeves for a long time without getting warm. Seeing Gao Jiong come out, he hurriedly leaned up.

"Boss, is it done?"

Gao Jiong didn't answer him, walked straight to the horse stake, untied the reins from the stake, and nimbly flipped onto the horse's back.

"Send a letter to the Pillar of State. Qifugu has taken the bait. Make a move the day after tomorrow, sending troops from three directions simultaneously."

Songqi followed onto the horse, leaned toward Gao Jiong on the horse's back, and lowered his voice.

"Boss, I have a sentence, I don't know if I should ask."

Gao Jiong turned the horse's head and walked slowly toward the outskirts of the camp. The horse's hooves made a smacking sound on the half-melted muddy snow.

"When have you ever had a time when you shouldn't ask? Speak."

Songqi urged the horse to follow, walking side by side with Gao Jiong, his voice lowered even more.

"Qifugu eats three tribes in one mouthful. Two thousand cattle and sheep and three thousand horses all enter his pen. In the future, his family foundation under his command will be thicker than half of the Royal Court. Will it become a big trouble?"

Gao Jiong didn't look back at him, his two hands hanging loosely on the reins, his figure on the horse's back swaying with the horse's steps.

"Do you think the Pillar of State wouldn't have thought of this layer?"

Songqi grinned.

"The Pillar of State naturally thinks further than me, but I always feel uneasy in my heart. This Qifugu was originally a wolf that couldn't be fed full. Now feeding him the meat of three tribes..."

Gao Jiong turned his face on the horse's back. It was impossible to see his expression in the night, only his teeth looked white for a moment.

"There is never such a thing as raising a tiger to cause trouble on the Pillar of State's chessboard. Songqi, you have followed me for so many years, there is one sentence you must remember firmly."

"Boss, speak."

"Feed it big before killing it, so the meat is enough to share."

Songqi was stunned for a moment, then swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue. The horse shadows of the two people dragged into two long, thin black lines on the muddy snow ground, soon swallowed by the night outside the camp.

Two nights later, on the open ground outside the Qifu tribe's camp, five hundred cavalrymen wearing black leather armor lined up silently under the moonless sky.

The horses' mouths were all stuffed with cloth balls, their hooves were wrapped in withered grass, and the horizontal blades tucked at their waists were not unsheathed. Five hundred people didn't even cough once; only heavy breathing gathered into a muffled white mist in the night wind.

Qifugu rode on the tall black horse at the very front of the team, the handle of the horizontal blade gripped by him until it creaked.

Amu Ri urged his horse to lean over from the side, suppressing his voice.

"Chieftain, the three routes of people have all arrived."

Qifugu's gaze swept from left to right. In the darkness, only a row of black shadows and the occasional reflection of blade handles could be seen.

"How are the routes arranged?"

"The east route, one hundred and fifty cavalry, rushes to the Sele tribe; the west route, one hundred and fifty cavalry, rushes to the Puchang tribe; the Chieftain personally leads two hundred cavalry on the middle route to pounce directly on the Tuhai tribe."

Qifugu wrapped the reins around his wrist. The horse's hooves stepped twice on the spot, crushing a patch of withered grass stubble under his feet.

"Move simultaneously on all three routes. Before dawn, all livestock must be driven away from the other party's territory. Whoever drags it out until the sun comes out and is still hanging around the edge of someone else's camp, when they come back, I will whip them myself."

Amu Ri nodded.

"Chieftain, rest assured."

"There is one more thing." Qifugu loosened the circle on the reins, his index finger pointing in Amu Ri's direction. "Remember what Lord Gao said. Don't kill anyone. Drive all the cattle, horses, and sheep away. Don't worry about the old, weak, women, and children. Let them love to go wherever they want."

Amu Ri grinned, revealing a mouthful of teeth that looked white in the darkness.

"Chieftain, rest assured, the brothers are all looking forward to this meal of meat. Who has the time to use a blade on a bunch of old ladies and little cubs."

"Roll back and lead the team."

Amu Ri turned his horse and retreated to the flank. Qifugu pulled the horse's head toward the north, raised his left hand high above his head to clench his fist, and then fiercely waved it forward.

Five hundred black shadows scattered into three snake-shaped columns in the moonless night. The sound of horse hooves muffled under the withered grass shattered into a piece, like a group of ghosts sliding silently on the wilderness, soon swallowed by the contours of the distant undulating hills.

And in Xia Prefecture City, thousands of miles away, in the private room on the second floor of Chunman Lou covered with Persian carpets, Wurigen was hugging the headlining dancing girl he had bought for five hundred warhorses, snoring earth-shakingly, drool flowing from the corner of his mouth and soaking into the dancing girl's shoulder.

He was having a sweet dream, in which the flags of the White Wolf Tribe and the Rouran Royal Court were fluttering side by side on the grasslands. ===== CHAPTER 890 =====