"Sour scholar, here, put this inside your robes, it will help you feel much better," Zhou Fugui said, placing a waterskin made of animal hide into Li Qing's embrace. He then draped his own fur coat over the scholar.
Zhou Fugui and nearly two hundred other Yan army soldiers made camp at the foot of the snow mountain, intending to cross it early the next morning.
As night fell, the weather grew even colder, a piercing chill that the biting wind seemed to carry straight to the bone.
Zhou Fugui and the other physically strong individuals fared better, able to bear the extreme cold to some extent. However, Li Qing, the frail scholar, could not withstand it.
Since leaving Xue Lin City, their journey had been a relentless cycle of battles, escapes, marches, and hunger. The soldiers were already exhausted, and with the heavy snowfall, those like Li Qing, who were physically weaker, could no longer endure it.
After leaving Xue Lin City, the few days they spent captured by Lin Yue seemed to have been the most comfortable...
Li Qing was both cold and hungry, still shaken from the swamp. Wrapped in Zhou Fugui's fur coat, he shivered uncontrollably, his face pale and lips tinged with blue. However, with the waterskin warmed by his chest, he felt considerably better.
"Sour scholar, quickly eat something," Zhou Fugui said, sitting beside Li Qing and offering him a piece of horse meat.
Li Qing shook his head silently.
Li Qing was not a pampered individual, but this tough, dry, sour, and undercooked horse meat was difficult to swallow.
"Eat it now, or face military law," Zhou Fugui said, feigning anger. "If you don't eat, how will you cross the snow mountain tomorrow?"
Helpless, Li Qing accepted the horse meat, licked it, and tore off a small piece with his teeth, managing to eat a little.
"That's the spirit," Zhou Fugui said, slightly relieved. He took another piece of horse meat and began to chew it with gusto, savoring every bite, much to Li Qing's bewilderment.
"Fugui..." Li Qing couldn't devour the horse meat in large chunks like Zhou Fugui; he could only tear off tiny pieces. Holding the meat, he called out to Zhou Fugui.
"Hmm? What is it?" Zhou Fugui asked after swallowing a piece of horse meat that had gotten stuck in his throat.
"How many horses are left?" Li Qing asked.
"Why do you ask?" Zhou Fugui shot Li Qing a glance and replied, "Not many, perhaps around a hundred or so."
What were horses? Horses were the legs of cavalry, their comrades, their lives, their everything. Without horses, cavalry were nothing. Zhou Fugui understood this all too well.
But what could he do at this point? They could only slaughter horses for food, their hearts bleeding, or they would freeze and starve to death in this Netherworld Valley.
When they had to slaughter horses for food, Zhou Fugui and the others felt their hearts ache.
Two hundred cavalry had two hundred warhorses. Most of them were lost in the swamp, and some were eaten by Zhou Fugui and his men. Only a little over a hundred warhorses remained, while some men had been lost.
They might lose more men and horses crossing the snow mountain.
"Alas, so nearly half the men have no horses to ride," Li Qing sighed upon hearing this. "Fugui, in such a wild land, without horses, we can barely move. It's a grim prospect."
Zhou Fugui nodded silently.
"Fugui, will we die?"
They sat in silence, the cold wind howling. After a long pause, Li Qing, wrapping his fur coat tighter, looked at Zhou Fugui and asked.
"No!" Zhou Fugui replied resolutely. "We didn't die in Xuzhou, nor in Guangling Commandery, nor at Niuzhu Cliff, nor in Luyi, nor in Youzhou. Would we die here? I firmly believe that there is always a way out!"
Zhou Fugui believed that even if they were to die, as Li Qing suggested, his divine teacher, Huo Qubing, would come to their rescue. Otherwise, he would not have passed on his spear and military arts to him.
"Fugui..." Li Qing pointed to the distance and sighed. "You don't need to comfort me. The immediate priority is to stabilize the morale. You should try to comfort them first."
The Yan soldiers were huddled around the campfire, trying to stay warm.
...
"What in the hell is this cursed place?" Xu Mancang grumbled, gnawing on a piece of horse meat.
"It's good that we have meat to eat. Why bother about the place?" Xue Wentai said, also chewing on horse meat. "It's a pity there's no wine. With wine and meat, I'd be happy anywhere," he added with a laugh.
"You certainly seem to be enjoying yourself," Pan Jian Gui said sarcastically. "This is Netherworld Valley, a valley from which there is no return."
"Old Ghost, what nonsense are you talking about? Isn't Fugui leading us out of Netherworld Valley?" Wei Xiazi said angrily. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
"Out? Humph! Can we get out?" Bai Ma Wu of the Di tribe snorted. "If you had listened to me earlier, we wouldn't be in this situation."
Bai Ma Wu had advised Zhou Fugui to return to Xue Lin City, but he hadn't taken the advice.
"Brother Bai Ma Wu is right," Hu Gu Jin of the Qiang tribe said, his voice filled with anger, heartache, and regret. "In the end, we've killed and eaten our horses, and yet we're still wandering in this death valley. If you keep wandering, what will you eat?"
Hu Gu Jin was a herdsman. After joining the Yan army, he became a cavalryman. The killing and eating of his horse pained him far more than it did Zhou Fugui and Xu Mancang.
"Yes, we should have listened to Brother Bai Ma Wu earlier," Tang Simo of the Turks agreed. "We were too eager for merit, but we shouldn't have risked the lives of our brothers."
"Risked whose lives?" Several Rong Di tribesmen, full of grievances, directed their anger at Zhou Fugui. Xu Mancang roared, "Who are you bastards calling Di? Did my brother treat you badly? My brother has been so good to you, and you're so ungrateful. Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?"
"Black Carbon Head, who are you calling a Di bastard?" Bai Ma Wu also became enraged. "Leading us into this valley where neither heaven nor earth answers, is that good? It's incredibly good, hahahaha."
"Dog Di, you scoundrel, you faithless dog, who will be dragged out by the tongue in the underworld after death. Try cursing me again!" Xu Mancang roared.
"Black Carbon thief, Han dog, you cheap donkey who only knows how to pull a millstone, try cursing me again!" Bai Ma Wu, his face flushed with anger from Xu Mancang's insults, jumped up and shouted at him.
This was the state of the army's morale. When things were going smoothly, everyone was happy, and morale was stable. But once they faced adversity, all sorts of conflicts surfaced, and morale became unstable.
Even before they began crossing the snow mountain, the Yan soldiers had started to quarrel, and a conflict was about to break out.
"Bai Ma Wu, you're in charge of the rear guard, and Mancang, you chaotic fool, shut your beaks!" As the hot-tempered Xu Mancang raised his fists, ready to fight Bai Ma Wu, Suo Dacheng grabbed both of them by one arm and roared.
Suo Dacheng and Xu Mancang were from the same hometown and were like brothers. Therefore, when Suo Dacheng grabbed him, Xu Mancang did not struggle. He merely glared at Bai Ma Wu with wide, angry eyes. Bai Ma Wu, however, struggled desperately but was held fast by Suo Dacheng, unable to move.
"Bai Ma Wu, you're in charge of the rear guard!" Suo Dacheng released Bai Ma Wu, who was struggling and red-faced, and reprimanded him. "Who dares disobey the Grand Commander's orders? Commander Zhou is also acting on orders; how can you blame him? Furthermore, in this time of crisis, in this desperate situation, we brothers should unite, not blame and accuse each other."
"And you, Mancang, your foul mouth needs a lock," Suo Dacheng then lectured Xu Mancang.
Suo Dacheng was Zhou Fugui's deputy. He was skilled in martial arts and steady in demeanor. He usually spoke little, but when he did, he got straight to the point.
Xu Mancang could be reasoned with, as it was his brother speaking. But Bai Ma Wu wanted to retort but was somewhat fearful of the skilled and robust Suo Dacheng.
The foreign tribesmen were still murmuring amongst themselves, privately plotting to leave on their own. Some were even drawing their weapons, intent on fighting Xu Mancang and the others.
Zhou Fugui's contingent consisted mostly of foreign tribesmen, but many of the officers were Han Chinese. The foreign tribesmen were already dissatisfied.
"Dacheng is right!" Just then, Zhou Fugui and Li Qing walked over together. Zhou Fugui spoke loudly in agreement.
"General Zhou!"
Whether Han Chinese or foreign tribesmen, they all fell silent upon seeing Zhou Fugui, turning to look at him with unease, especially the foreign tribesmen.
Regardless, Zhou Fugui was the leader of this group, an emissary of the border Grand Commander Hu Yan Sheng. Therefore, everyone had to obey his orders, at least openly.
The foreign tribesmen were afraid that Zhou Fugui would retaliate, hence their unease.
"Sit down, everyone, sit down," Zhou Fugui nodded, squeezed into the crowd, and beckoned everyone.
Zhou Fugui then sat by the campfire, picked up a pot of melted snow water, and said with a smile, "Brothers have worked hard. Today, I, Zhou, should have offered wine to toast you all. But in this godforsaken place, where can I find wine? Therefore, I can only use water as a substitute for wine to toast you all, to thank you for not abandoning me."
Zhou Fugui’s face was filled with a warm smile, and his words were humorous and even a little coarse, but they slightly reassured the foreign tribesmen. They all crowded around the campfire and sat down, eating horse meat and drinking melted snow, quietly listening to Zhou Fugui speak.
"I've been thinking about something," Zhou Fugui continued. "Why did we come to this place?"
"Isn't it the Grand Commander's order? Orders must be obeyed. Zhou Erlang, what do you mean?" Xue Wentai asked.
"It is an order..." Zhou Fugui nodded. "Before we left, Grand Commander Hu Yan told me that when one is in the field, orders can be disobeyed. This means that once we are outside Xue Lin City, especially here, there are no longer any orders to bind us. I can make decisions on any matter at my discretion."
"In that case, can we go back?" Bai Ma Wu asked.
Zhou Fugui smiled and nodded.
Go back? They all wanted to go back now, but how? How could they safely leave this death valley?