Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 13 Harvest
The meal was eaten quickly, but everyone was happy.

How could those barbarians have ever eaten yak jerky in the Tibetan army? Even eating bamboo tube rice was something they couldn't even imagine.

On the other hand, the Han people, such as Xianyu Yue, Ren Tong, and Song Yuan, were all elite generals from Chengdu. Their daily food, clothing, and other necessities were much better than these people. Even Zhao Liu was a military musician under the Lizhou army, and he usually had plenty of meat.

But they also ate happily because Zhao Da said he would bring wealth to everyone.

A piece of meat and a bowl of rice were eaten up quickly.

After everyone finished eating, Zhao Huaian said to Aqi Mo:
"Lao Mo, you translate whatever I say later."

The old Mexican was picking the dried meat between his teeth with his fingers. After hearing this, he nodded quickly.

Zhao Huaian clapped his hands and said to the barbarians:
"Brothers! In the past, we were bullied by the Tibetans and suffered terribly, but fortunately we escaped. But as a man, how can we allow such a great vengeance to remain unrevenged? Now, the opportunity for revenge has arrived! I have explored the path ahead. There are few Tibetans inside the pass, but there is a wealth of treasure. Those who are willing to follow me through the pass will receive a reward of five strings of cash now. After we have broken through the pass, I will reward you with ten strings of cash! If you do not want to, raise your hand now. I will not force you to stay. Let you go."

After saying that, Zhao Huaian took out the silver ingot from his bag. It was the forty-liang silver ingot that he had scraped from the Dadu River battlefield.

Seeing that Zhao Huaian had secretly hidden a large silver ingot, Zhao Liu curled his lips and muttered, "What a black heart."

The six barbarians present looked at each other, then looked at the others who had surrounded them, and then they all bowed their heads at the same time.

In this way, Zhao Huaian used a knife to divide the silver ingot into six parts and distributed them to the barbarians on the spot.

Then he laid out the following military strategy to the fourteen people present.

……

A moment later, Zhao Huaian, wearing a simple leather armor, appeared in front of Tongshan Pass with Lao Mo and six barbarians.

Like Zhao Huaian, everyone else was dressed in rags. Of course, except for Zhao Huaian who needed to disguise himself, everyone else was actually playing themselves.

A group of barbarians began to shout and provoke in front of the camp, and one of them even showed his penis in front of the camp.

Perhaps it was because they had been oppressed by the Tibetans for a long time, so once these people broke through that layer of fear, their behavior became more bold and explicit, and they didn't need to act out their success and arrogance at all.

Originally, Zhao Huaian was worried that these people would have a negative impact on the Tibetans, but now it seems that he was worrying too much.

Soon, the Tibetan soldiers in the camp rushed out. Zhao Huaian roared and led the barbarians out.

But the Tibetan soldiers stopped chasing them outside the market. When they were about to go back, they saw those barbarians, pigs and dogs, provoking them again.

The Tibetans, unable to bear it any longer, cursed and chased Zhao Huaian and others into the mountains.

……

These barbarians can really run.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian looked at those barbarians running past him like monkeys, and there was only this thought in his mind.

Seeing that the old Mexican beside him was already out of breath, Zhao Huaian picked him up and ran while shouting:

"Tell them to give the Tibetans behind them a walk for a while."

Aqi Mo was bouncing on Zhao Huaian's shoulder, his eyes a little moist. After hearing this, he mustered up his courage and passed the message to the barbarians.

When the barbarians heard this, they screamed and cried out in joy!
The pleasure of jumping back and forth on the edge of death made them feel the beating of life for the first time!
Just like that, Zhao Huaian led the crowd in shouting, and the Tibetans behind him cursed as they ran deeper and deeper into the water.

……

After going around another hill, Zhao Huaian suddenly heard screams behind him. Turning his head, he found that Xian Yu Yue and his men had already come down in armor to kill him.

So he put Lao Mo on the ground, told him and the barbarians to stay where they were and not move, then he drew his sword and turned around to kill them.

Looking at Zhao Huaian who was only wearing leather armor and rushing towards the battlefield alone, Aqi Mo suddenly shouted loudly to the group of barbarians, and then he also brought six barbarians to kill them.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian had no time to look behind, because they found that the Tibetans were quite powerful.

There were twenty Tibetans who chased out of the camp, including six armored warriors and the rest were wearing cowhide armor.

But Xianyu Yue and his men only had two ox horn bows, so they shot at the armored soldiers among the Tibetans as soon as they ambushed them.

Xianyu Yue's archery skills were the most accurate. He shot two arrows in a breath and killed two people. However, the other archer Song Yuan's archery skills were not as good. He only injured one armored soldier.

Just as the two were about to fire the second round, the Tibetans had already reacted.

Because they did not bring long shields, the remaining three iron-armored soldiers pulled their injured companions and hid in the crowd, shouting at the other leather-armored soldiers to charge towards the hillside.

When Zhao Huaian turned around and fought back, he saw Xianyu Yue and his men resisting the Tibetan soldiers' climbing from a high position. Six Tibetan warriors were standing on the meadow to give orders, four of whom were wearing armor.

Zhao Huaian looked at his leather armor, then at the fierce battle in front of him, gritted his teeth and rushed forward.

……

The Tibetan general on the meadow was directing his warriors to charge, but when he saw only one enemy rushing towards him, he took it lightly and ordered the three guards beside him to kill him.

Afterwards, he ignored that side and dodged the enemy's cold arrows while cursing the climbing Tibetan warriors.

But the slope where the enemy was ambushing was quite steep, and several of them were holding branches and poking down while shouting.

These branches didn't have much killing power, but because there were branches on the branches, they would form a ball with a poke, causing the Tibetan soldiers to be pushed back several times. At this time, the Tibetan general was quite annoyed, thinking that he should have brought shields and crossbows earlier.

Just as the Tubo general continued to give orders, he suddenly heard a scream in his ears and subconsciously turned his head to look.

He saw his bodyguard covering his throat with his hands, retreating in fear, and only bumping into the Tubo general's head before falling down in pain.

He raised his head and took a deep breath. There were six people left by his side, three of whom were armored. One of them was shot in the eye and died soon.

Then he sent out three guards, one was an elite iron-armored Gui, and two were leather-armored Gui. Now all three were lying not far away.

The last remaining Tiejiagui was lying at his feet, spitting blood.

The one who caused all this was the leather-armored warrior who had just rushed over. At this moment, he was covered in blood, gasping for breath, and looking at himself.

His head turned cold and his brain was filled with blood, but the next second, the blood rushed to the soles of his feet and he turned around and ran.

He abandoned his subordinates without hesitation.

But the next moment, a sharp pain came from his thigh. He looked down and saw a sharp spear piercing his thigh, nailing him firmly to the ground.

The Tubo general wailed in pain, and then he saw a group of people rushing out from behind the leather-armored warrior. Those people were dressed in rags and looked wretched. They were exactly the lowly people he hated the most.

These lowly creatures who were not even qualified to make bone tools, now dared to slaughter their own subordinates under the leadership of that leather-armored warrior.

How dare they? How dare they?
This low-ranking military officer in the Tubo army closed his eyes in pain as he listened to the wailing and screaming of his subordinates. He could not accept what he saw.

But soon, the annoying wailing finally ended.

……

Leaning on the slope, Zhao Huaian shouted to Zhao Liu on the battlefield:

"Sixth Brother, don't hide it. If I find out, I'll beat you to death."

Zhao Liu was secretly putting a silver plate into his pocket when he suddenly heard Zhao Da's shout. He curled his lips and was about to call him a coward.

But thinking of Zhao Da's performance on the battlefield just now, he put the silver plate back into the cloth bag, which was full of spoils from the battlefield.

At this time, Zhao Huaian felt sore all over, especially the wound on his thigh, which was so painful due to the stimulation of sweat.

The ambush was successful. Except for the general who had his head nailed to the ground by himself, all other Tibetan soldiers were killed on the slopes and meadows.

But no matter how tired I am, I have made a lot of money this time.

Most of the equipment and property of these twenty Tubo soldiers must be his. After all, he killed six of them by himself and seriously injured the opposing general. The equipment and property of these people must belong to him.

Then came his three disciples, who were not bad either, having killed four in total. Sun Tai was the most outstanding, having killed two, while Yang Mao and Zhao Hu each killed one.

As their master, their share is also counted on my side.

Then there were the barbarians who joined the war later. These people were hired by themselves with silver ingots, so their share was also theirs.

Although they didn't kill many, the seven of them together only killed two, but even a small amount is still meat, so it was pure profit.

However, the Mexicans are nice people and can help if needed.

Let’s not talk about the sixth one who was left in the end. He was a real loser. He didn’t kill anyone in the whole battle, but he didn’t hurt anyone either.

So with this calculation, he could obtain a total of the spoils of three iron-armored Tibetan warriors and the spoils of nine leather-armored warriors.

However, Xianyu Yue and the other three were worthy of being the elite of the Tang Dynasty. With so many people on his side, they only killed twelve in total, but the three of them killed eight, including three armored warriors.

It seems that when I go to Chengdu next time, I have to get along well with these generals.

Seeing several disciples and barbarians piling up the Tibetans' armor, staffs and weapons in one place, Zhao Huaian could no longer suppress the corners of his mouth:

Our life, Old Zhao, is finally going to get better.

……

While Zhao Huaian was immersed in the joy of the harvest, Xian Yu Yue and the other two also sat together to rest. However, unlike Zhao Huaian who was looking at the pile of spoils, the three were secretly looking at Zhao Huaian.

Ren Tong broke the silence, he exclaimed in amazement:

"Your Excellency is truly remarkable. Wearing only leather armor, he managed to defeat two Tibetan armored warriors. His agility and swordsmanship are truly extraordinary."

Song Yuan's peach blossom eyes also flashed with admiration, and he said to Xian Yuyue:

"My lord, just now on the battlefield, I saw your benefactor display his swordsmanship, which was very different from ours. I heard that his technique originated from an old man in the mountains, and this may be true. A man like your benefactor is definitely not someone who will always be under someone else's wing and remain unknown. My lord, I hope you will make friends with him and never again..."

Song Yuan said nothing more, but Xian Yuyue understood.

Looking at Zhao Huaian in the sunset, Xian Yuyue nodded, then stood up and walked over.

(End of this chapter)