Twenty-one sheep heads were piled beside the shepherdess, even stacked in a pyramid shape. The sheepskins were also placed beside her in a large stack. Light gradually appeared in her eyes. Blinking not once, she gazed at Yun Ye. Seeing two auxiliary soldiers carrying over several sacks, she immediately scrambled up and opened the sacks to look. Each sack was filled with golden wheat grains. She tightly hugged the sacks and wouldn’t let go, looking pitifully at Yun Ye like a poor lamb.

Yun Ye pointed at the roasting mutton, then at the sacks in her arms. He extended one finger from each hand and brought them together, indicating one sheep for one sack of grain—this was a gesture commonly used when Han people traded with barbarians.

The shepherdess jumped up happily while hugging the sacks, touching this sack and looking at that sack. She opened each one to look, even grabbed wheat grains with her dirty hands and threw a few into her mouth. Her appearance couldn’t be worse. Suddenly, she seemed to remember something. Sweat flowed down, and before long, her entire head was steaming. She spun around in place, as if forgetting something important.

The shepherdess irritably kicked the sheep head pyramid. Seeing the sheep heads rolling all over the ground, she became happy again. She picked up a sheep head and came before Yun Ye. The strong mutton smell from her whole body nearly made Yun Ye pass out.

She placed one sheep head properly at Yun Ye’s feet, then pointed at the grain sacks.

After pondering for a long time, Yun Ye finally understood. Damn it, the shepherdess couldn’t count. She couldn’t figure out twenty-one sacks and needed to trade one sheep head for one sack of grain to be clear. This reminded him of a famous comedy sketch from later generations about the fool selling salted duck eggs shouting: “Fifty cents for two, one yuan won’t sell.” It had the same wonderful effect as the shepherdess before him.

Unable to count yet shrewdly afraid of being cheated—helpless under those pitiful large eyes, Yun Ye admitted defeat. He could only pick up one sack and place it in front of the sheep head. The shepherdess took another sheep head, and Yun Ye picked up another sack of grain…

When the world’s most boring transaction was completed, dinner was finally ready. The shepherdess unhesitatingly drooled at the aroma of the food, staring intensely at the auxiliary soldiers’ large bowls. The guest was hungry. Old Zhuang filled a large bowl of rice and handed it to the shepherdess. She wasn’t polite at all and didn’t use chopsticks—she just shoveled it into her mouth with her hands. Though it burned her, causing grimaces, she didn’t slow down. Soon, a large bowl of rice went into her stomach. She still looked at Yun Ye’s rice bowl. Yun Ye hadn’t even finished one-third. He really didn’t have the courage to eat under such wolf-like gazes, so he could only hand his bowl to the shepherdess…

After eating and drinking her fill, the barbarian maiden generously entrusted the grain to Yun Ye’s care, then shouldered two sacks of grain herself, picked up her wooden fork, and walked into the boundless darkness.

Gou Zi was pitiful. So heartbroken he couldn’t even eat his favorite locust rice. In his view, more terrifying than having a woman sit on his head with her bottom was having a barbarian woman sit on his head with her bottom. His spirit was crushed. All the grand ambitions he had when leaving the village were completely destroyed under a barbarian maiden’s bottom.

Old Zhuang followed the barbarian maiden and returned. There was only an extremely small shack there, half buried underground. He carefully inspected the surroundings—indeed, only the shepherdess’s family was there, simply four people: two old barbarians and two young barbarians. They had no horses and no other cattle or sheep. Outside, he only heard the barbarian maiden chattering away, seeming very excited.

Without Old Zhuang needing to speak, four barbarians walked over from there. Same ragged leather jackets, feet bound with cowhide that passed for shoes. This was an utterly destitute herding family. They didn’t even have the most basic horses. No wonder the shepherdess fought the fully-armed Yun family guards over twenty-one sheep heads. Without those sheep, their whole family couldn’t survive three days.

The old herdsman seemed unable to speak, only stroking his chest in salute to Yun Ye. The little boy behind was also extremely thin and weak. Seeing the grain piled there, his eyes shone. The whole family dragged a slider woven from tree branches, somewhat like a sled, placed the grain on it, and arduously dragged it back.

Watching their whole family walk away, Yun Ye sat down. If he were a true military man, when encountering the barbarian maiden, he should have decisively killed her. He believed no one in the team would object—they never had any good feelings toward barbarians. If there was anyone in all of Great Tang who had no grievances whatsoever with barbarians, it could only be Yun Ye. In later generations, he had many herder friends. They were forthright, innocent, and valued loyalty and righteousness. After a bowl of milk wine honoring heaven and earth, Yun Ye was often the first to drink. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Although Old Zhuang repeatedly suggested it, Yun Ye stubbornly didn’t adopt his suggestion. Whether right or wrong, heaven only knew.

Today was the sixth day of entering the grasslands, which meant according to plan, Chai Shao’s great army should have already broken through Xiangcheng. Once Xiangcheng was broken, the Dingxiang Route would be largely settled. Xie Li could only flee toward Yin Mountains, where Li Ji’s great army would be waiting for him.

Standing on the high slope gazing toward Xiangcheng’s direction—no human figures. Yun Ye was very worried about Cheng Chumo’s safety, but Old Zhuang absolutely refused to let the convoy advance even one more step. The convoy hid in the mountain hollow. Three waves of scouts had been sent out, but not one wave had returned. This made Yun Ye somewhat anxious. He asked Old Zhuang: “Could something have happened? Why hasn’t anyone returned yet?”

“My Lord, don’t worry. They’ve only been gone two hours. It’s still early for them to return. You should go to the tent and sleep for a while, rest your spirit. You didn’t sleep all last night.”

“How can I sleep? Cheng Chumo’s life or death is unknown. My heart is burning with anxiety. If something happened, how would I explain to the Cheng family?”

The two were conversing when suddenly Old Zhuang pushed Yun Ye down from the hillock and immediately lay flat on the ground himself. Yun Ye was puzzled when suddenly he felt the ground beneath his feet jumping. A rumbling sound like muffled thunder came from the horizon.

“What happened?” Yun Ye loudly asked Old Zhuang.

“My Lord, hide well. A large group of cavalry is coming—at least over ten thousand men. This isn’t the Commander’s army. The Commander doesn’t have this many cavalry.” After hearing Old Zhuang’s words, Yun Ye’s forehead went numb. Could it be that Cheng Chumo and the others had encountered an ambush?

Lying on the hillock looking into the distance, he saw a rolling wall of snow sweeping over from the horizon. Several black dots in front were running desperately—needless to say, those were Yun family guards. Yun Ye’s heart rose to his throat, only hoping his own guards could run faster to dodge those crazed cavalry.

No, wait—his own guards weren’t fleeing for their lives but seemed more like cheering. The fellow at the very front wore full black armor—wasn’t that Cheng Chumo? Distant cheering sounds came. The Cheng family’s loud voice actually drowned out the sound of horse hooves. That broken-gong voice sounded like supreme heavenly music to Yun Ye. His heart, which had risen to his throat, finally fell back into his belly. Safe was good!

Next time, he absolutely wouldn’t take on this kind of babysitting job—this wasn’t work for humans. Being a seemingly adult babysitter had exhausted Yun Ye’s mind. Moreover, this fellow simply wouldn’t listen to good advice. As soon as he left Chang’an, he was like an unbridled wild horse with the same temperament.

The auxiliary soldiers had long since set up their formation behind the slope. As soon as enemy troops arrived, they would launch an attack. Gongshu Jia had erected a huge bow on the slope with three thick bowstrings, each as thick as a finger. With the help of two auxiliary soldiers, he was using a winch to string the giant bow. From the creaking sounds, Yun Ye judged the power of this giant bow was absolutely not to be underestimated.

Three siege bolts were placed in the slide rails. The foot-long bolt tips reflected dark cold light—these were true killing instruments. Within six hundred meters, nothing could withstand them. Their powerful kinetic energy could even lift a warhorse into the air. As for people under such instruments, they were no different from paper figures. This was the famous bed crossbow. Who would have thought the Gongshu family still had such killing instruments? Fortunately, from the very beginning, relations with the Gongshu family had been good and interactive. If they had been angered and such things were aimed at his back, just thinking about it made Yun Ye break out in cold sweat.

This wasn’t all. Gongshu Jia lay on the ground, desperately kicking the bow arms of a small crossbow with his feet while leaning his body backward. After a teeth-grinding creaking sound, the bowstring finally caught on the trigger. A three-chi-long iron arrow was installed by Gongshu Jia. Holding the crossbow level, he aimed it outside the small hill. Yun Ye believed if enemies appeared now, what awaited them would be an extremely tragic fate.

Cheng Chumo’s warhorse stopped before Yun Ye, dripping with sweat, its large nostrils panting heavily, foam at the horse’s mouth. He jumped down from the horse and, hugging Yun Ye, swung him in a large circle before putting him down.

“Ye Zi, I didn’t expect you would come. Why isn’t it Xue Wanche?” Still that careless manner.

“There was a change in the situation. General Xue couldn’t leave Shuofang City, so I had to bring supplies for you. How did it go? Was Xiangcheng taken down?” Yun Ye very much wanted to know the battle situation, especially the description given by someone like Cheng Chumo who had firsthand information.

“Ha, ha, ha! So satisfying! Ye Zi, you don’t know—we arrived at Xiangcheng the day before yesterday. After resting one night, before dawn, the Commander ordered an immediate attack on the city, saying we’d catch them off guard. Who knew that at such a critical time, that fellow Xie Li was actually still sleeping! A city wall less than one zhang high—it couldn’t even hold out for one hour before we broke through. The Commander ordered us to set fires in Xiangcheng to make the barbarians more chaotic. If that fellow Xie Li could have organized troops at that time, he might have had the qualification to fight us in the city. Who knew he actually took advantage of the chaos to flee? The Commander had us thoroughly search the city for two days, completely turning Xiangcheng into a pile of ruins. The barbarians in the city who didn’t escape all became ghosts under our blades.” Cheng Chumo gestured as he spoke, talking with hands dancing and feet stamping.

“Most laughable was when we had plundered Xiangcheng clean and were preparing to retreat, there was actually another Great Tang army force coming to raid Xiangcheng! Just the numbers were a bit small—only about two hundred men. Their leader was called something like Su Dingfang. Seeing us, his eyeballs nearly fell out. The Commander said Xiangcheng was his to handle. Shuofang army never disappoints friendly forces—we even left them five hundred warhorses before leading us back to Shuofang. Look at the horse herd behind me—a full thirteen thousand warhorses, all spoils of war!”

Looking at the elated Cheng Chumo, he mentioned warhorses, mentioned spoils, but didn’t mention prisoners. Presumably they had long since died under Chai Shao’s horizontal swords.

This was Great Tang’s victory, and also Xiangcheng’s calamity…