Chapter 44: Visitors from the Frontier (1)

At this moment, the temperature had already dropped to around zero degrees Celsius. When heading out, Jiang Yuan deliberately changed into the new set of clothes that Xie Wangniang had made for him.

The thick cotton-padded coat, embroidered with simple auspicious cloud patterns, was not only soft and warm, but it also made his handsome face look even more striking.

Hao Yu was also wearing his new cotton-padded coat, but unlike Jiang Yuan, he had layered a grey long robe over it. Moreover, this wasn't the first time he was wearing this new cotton coat made by Xie Wangniang.

The two of them got up at the crack of dawn and, keeping a low profile, slipped out of the village before the villagers headed out. As for Xie Wangniang, following Jiang Yuan's instructions, she secured the courtyard gate and continued to do needlework at home with Xiaoyang.

Xiaoyang learned things very quickly. Whether it was cooking, making pickled Chinese cabbage, curing salted vegetables, sun-drying vegetables and fish, or gathering medicinal herbs, processing them, mending, and embroidering, the little girl learned everything remarkably well.

Of course, limited by her age and the amount of time she had been learning, she was still in the introductory stage of all these skills.

Xie Wangniang sat in front of the embroidery frame, her embroidery movements as smooth and flowing as clouds and water, both swift and beautiful.

Xiaoyang appeared much clumsier compared to her. Holding a small embroidery hoop, she carefully and slowly pushed the needle through and pulled the thread, determined not to mess up the pattern on the embroidery fabric as she had a few times before.

To ensure there was enough light for their embroidery even without lighting a lamp, the two of them kept the main room door open despite the bitter cold. Because of this, even though Jiang Yuan had helped them light the brazier beforehand, they still needed to take sips of hot water from time to time, and every so often, stand up to jump around and walk a bit.

Xie Wangniang was quite accustomed to this. Back in the Xie family, whenever winter arrived, she would rely on the brazier, the heated brick bed, hot water, and thick clothes to keep warm while continuing step-by-step with the tasks she was supposed to do.

As for Xiaoyang, the little girl used to have it much harder than now. Before she was sold by her own parents, she didn't even have a decent cotton-padded coat.

A brazier was almost never lit in her home, the brick bed never held much warmth, and hot water was never boiled on purpose; only at mealtime could they drink some thin gruel consisting mostly of water and a little rice.

Compared to the past, Xiaoyang felt that her current life was simply like that of an immortal.

Of course, she would undoubtedly be even happier if her parents didn't always try to avoid Xie Wangniang to talk to her, and didn't constantly utter such unseemly words every time.

The little girl sighed silently in her heart, while her hands never stopped moving.

Enduring the cold, the two of them embroidered diligently all morning. As noon approached, Xie Wangniang rolled up her sleeves and led Xiaoyang toward the kitchen.

***

At noon today, she planned to make red bean cakes—multigrain wrappers made from sorghum flour, bean flour, and white flour, wrapped with a sweet filling of mashed red beans boiled and kneaded into a paste, then pan-fried in an oily skillet until both sides turned golden brown. In addition, she used another large iron pot to make a large pot of salted fish and eggplant casserole.

Salt was very expensive in ancient times, and the salted fish pickled by Xie Wangniang wasn't overly salty; its texture and flavor were just slightly more unique than fresh fish.

Once the dishes were ready, Xie Wangniang only ladled out a large bowl of the salted fish and eggplant casserole for herself and Xiaoyang each. The rest, she intended to keep for the evening to eat together with Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan.

The red bean cakes were the same; she and Xiaoyang only ate one red bean cake each, while the remaining twenty-plus cakes were all kept warm by Xie Wangniang in the pot.

***

In the county town, at the courier station, Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan once again met Chang Yao, the Heir of the Prince of Dingbei, who had concealed his identity to transport grain and fodder.

Chang Yao was a third-rank assistant general guarding the Zijing Pass. Before the Yuan clan, who founded the Great Wei Dynasty, raised an army in rebellion, the Chang family had already taken deep root in the northern frontier, trading the lives of hundreds of men across five generations in exchange for nearly sixty years of relative peace in the north.

During the late period of the previous dynasty, corrupt officials and grasping magistrates ran rampant in the imperial court, causing the military provisions the Chang family could obtain to decrease year by year. When the chaos broke out, the Chang family could no longer even get those pathetically meager provisions.

Left with no alternative, the Chang family had to dispatch men to figure out ways to procure all necessary military supplies themselves.

Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu had accidentally made his acquaintance three years ago when Chang Yao ran to Tang County to procure military supplies.

At that time, Chang Yao and a group of his companions had already purchased a sufficient quantity of military rations and cotton-padded coats, but armor and military weaponry were not so easily acquired.

Halfway to meeting with the seller, Chang Yao was ambushed and surrounded by Tartars disguised as ordinary commoners.

Hao Yu, who had also once served on the northern frontier defense, heard the men surrounding Chang Yao shouting in the Tartar language and immediately brought Jiang Yuan quietly closer to the battle circle.

Discovering that the Tartars only held a slight numerical advantage, Hao Yu immediately decided to intervene.

Fearing that something might happen to Jiang Yuan, he only allowed him to use a bow and arrow to shoot down Tartars from the outer perimeter.

Acting like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, the two of them launched a surprise attack with concealed arrows while the Tartars were fully focused on dealing with Chang Yao and the others, instantly eliminating the two Tartar archers on the outer perimeter who were momentarily unoccupied.

Having neutralized the Tartars who posed a ranged threat to them and Chang Yao's group, the two then began launching an offensive against the Tartars surrounding Chang Yao.

Jiang Yuan was exceptionally skilled with a bow and arrow. Although one of Hao Yu's hands was somewhat impaired and he could not use a bow to fight the enemy, over the past decade or so he had trained himself in formidable hidden weapon techniques. Cooperating seamlessly with each other, they forced the Tartars to temporarily split up their men to deal with them.

Since one of them was young and the other had an old injury, naturally neither of them was foolish enough to charge forward and go head-to-head with the tall and sturdy Tartars.

Relying on their familiarity with the terrain, they ran the charging Tartars in circles while seizing every opportunity to harvest Tartar lives.

Hao Yu, taking advantage of his familiarity with the terrain and his fast running speed, even had the nerve to loot the corpses, collecting the arrow quivers from the two Tartar archers for Jiang Yuan to use.

Working in tacit cooperation, the two jointly slew over a dozen Tartars who had managed to sneak over here simply to obstruct Chang Yao's procurement of military provisions.

Chang Yao's group, who had originally expected to suffer mutual destruction with the enemy, cleverly coordinated with them from the inside and outside, quickly slashing through the encirclement.

After wiping out all the Tartars who had sneaked in, Chang Yao first expressed his gratitude to Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu, and then invited them to join the frontier army.

Hao Yu refused without even thinking; he bore an old injury and wished for nothing more than to spend the rest of his life in peace. As for Jiang Yuan, firstly, he was still young, and secondly, Hao Yu was still hoping that one day Jiang Yuan's parents would come to take him back and properly make up for the debt they owed him.

Swords and arrows have no eyes on the battlefield, and Hao Yu certainly didn't feel at ease sending Jiang Yuan to Zijing Pass.

Chang Yao felt regretful, but he did not force them.

Although it was inconvenient to reveal his true identity to them right away, Chang Yao made up his mind to maintain relations with Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu in the capacity of friends and juniors.

Because he cherished their talent, over the past three years, he had also seized every opportunity to teach Jiang Yuan quite a few things.

Of course, this was also related to the wholehearted assistance Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan had rendered to them.