Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 279 Part-time job
Gan Quan—the nephew of the fire-warmer, Tulukota of the Teldun tribe—was unaware that the Tartai tribe had been completely annihilated.

Gan Quan was completely unaware that the vast majority of the nearly one thousand horses belonging to the Tartai tribe had been abducted by the cunning two-legged people using rutting mare, Qingshui, and Maimiao.

Compared to the Tartai tribe, which was hit hard, the Ganquan tribe's invasion of Xia Tiefeng County was effortless, because there was no defense at all upstream of the Dajiao River.

But Gan Quan also has his own troubles—he can't find anyone.

Following the stream that flows into the Big Horn River upstream, Ganquan quickly found the first village. Continuing down the road, they found the first town.

But everywhere was deathly still; all the houses were abandoned, all the valuables had been taken away, there was no barking of dogs, no sign of human habitation, and the empty villages and towns were eerily quiet.

The Red Feather Feathers of the Ganquan tribe were all young people in their early twenties who had never seen such a scene before and were at a loss for what to do.

"Bald Tail, you serve my grandfather." Gan Quan summoned the old slave: "You tell me, what should we do?"

[Note: Gan Quan's grandfather was the father of the fire-warmer.]
“The Paratites can’t migrate like the other tribes,” the old slave [Bald Tail] said, clutching his rosary and his eyelids drooping. “They just hid.”

"Where are you hiding?!" The young red-feathered [Blue Horse]'s triangular eyes flashed with a fierce light.

The old slave Bald Tail did not answer directly, but looked at the chief Gan Quan's boots: "We can look for moist, loose, and darker soil inside and outside the village."

"why?"

"Farmers cannot take all their grain and valuables with them, so they should bury them nearby."

The leader ordered his men to search the area, and they quickly found some clues in the courtyard, under the cowshed, and between the field ridges.

Without shovels, the Teldun people dug with their hands and planks, uncovering all the poorly hidden cellars.

The cellars were mostly filled with grain, but also with farm tools, ironware, bottles, cloth, and other items that farmers didn't have time to take with them.

The people of Ganquan tribe beamed with joy and were overjoyed.

The group of Teldun people first kneaded dough and baked naan, enjoying a delicious meal. Then they rubbed their hands together, ready to get to work, looking like they were about to dig three feet into the ground.

Everyone was overjoyed, but Gan Quan was increasingly dissatisfied.

Seeing his followers arguing and even fighting over a roll of cloth, a porcelain plate, and a kitchen knife, Gan Quan's anger burned ever brighter.

For the impoverished Teltun people, getting a nail or a straw mat for free was good, and even things the Parat people were too lazy to bury were good.

But Gan Quan wanted more than that.

"Wow! Look what this is!" Stone Arrow shouted as he ran to Gan Quan, carefully holding something in his hands. "I've never seen this treasure before! It looks like a stone, but it's also like water! Transparent!"

The object held by the stone arrow was about a foot square, crystal clear, with a smooth and delicate surface like porcelain. It looked like crystal, but not quite.

"What is this?" Qingma asked in surprise, cautiously reaching out to touch it. "Where did this come from?"

“There’s a huge tent to the south, which I took from the wall of the house.”

“This is glass.” The old slave, Bald Tail, lowered his eyelids, his eyes as dull and lifeless as a dry well: “Two-legged people call it [Common Language] glass.”

The old slave Bald Tail's pronunciation of the common language was a bit awkward, probably because he hadn't spoken it for many years.

"Glass?" Stone Arrow exclaimed. "Shouldn't glass be colorful?"

“I have never seen such transparent and smooth glass before,” the old slave with the bald tail said hoarsely. “It must be a very precious thing, something that can be offered to the Khan who warms himself by the fire.”

"Very precious?!" Shi Jian beamed. "There's an entire wall of it in that big tent! I'll go and tear it all down right now."

"Great!" Qingma said happily, "I'll go too."

Gan Quan, his face ashen, snatched the glass plate from Shi Jian and smashed it hard on the ground.

The glass slab shattered into pieces upon hitting the stone.

Shi Jian's expression changed from shock to sadness. He knelt on the ground, picked up a shard of glass, and asked Gan Quan, "What are you doing?"

"This is something two-legged people used to build walls!" Gan Quan shoved the stone arrow aside, his scarred face contorted in a ferocious grimace. He roared, "You guys are still treating it like a treasure!"

Stone Arrow and Green Horse were stunned by Gan Quan's actions and froze on the spot.

The blue horse's triangular eyes drooped as it kindly advised, "It's easier for us to plunder so much grain and wealth than to lasso a horse. Isn't that wonderful?"

"What's so good about it?" Gan Quan glared fiercely at Qing Ma: "What the two-legged people left behind are things they didn't care to take! They took the fattest meat and left behind a pile of rotten bones, which you treat as treasures and suck on!"

"Why do you say that?" Shi Jian countered. "Aren't grain and dirty money good?"

[Note: Iron could be used as currency in the wasteland, hence the Hards called it black money.]
"Don't you want slaves? Don't you want women? Don't you want gold and silver?" Gan Quan roared in fury, "Are you satisfied with this little bit of wealth? After offering the looted goods to Nayan and the fire-warmers, how much will we have left?"

Qingma and Shijian gradually understood Ganquan's meaning, and the two fell silent.

The old slave, Bald Tail, remained calm. He bowed with his hand on his chest and asked Gan Quan, "Kota, isn't the loot enough yet?"

"Not enough!" Gan Quan roared, "Far from enough!"

What does Kota want?

"Slaves! Gold and silver! More wealth!"

"And then what?" The old slave, Bald Tail, raised his head and looked into Gan Quan's eyes.

Feeling uneasy under his gaze, Gan Quan snapped, "You old slave! What are you trying to do?"

“Then let’s burn the village down.” The old slave, Bald Tail, bowed his head. “Divide the tribe into two groups. The smaller group should hide, while the larger group should set fire to the village and then pretend to retreat. Wait for the two-legged people to come back and put out the fire, and then follow them. Just like hunting, you can find the prey’s hiding place by following the animal’s trail.”

Upon hearing this, Qingma and Shijian's eyes lit up.

After thinking for a moment, Gan Quan decided to follow the old slave Tuwei's method.

The hundred or so followers were divided into two wings.

The left wing, consisting of more than seventy riders led by Qingma and Shijian, set fire to the area and left in a grand manner, carrying most of the horses and spoils of war.

The right wing, consisting of more than thirty riders personally led by Gan Quan, hid in the mountain valleys near the village, leaving only a few sentries on the hillside to signal with horns.

The Palatine villages were mainly built with grass and wood, so once a fire started, it burned very quickly. Before long, the entire village was engulfed in flames.

Black smoke billowed straight into the sky, visible from over ten kilometers away.

Gan Quan, like a hunter setting a trap, patiently waited.

waiting……

Wait...

They waited until the farmhouse was burned to the ground, the fire dwindled and eventually died out on its own, but they still didn't hear the sentry's horn.

Gan Quan managed to hold back, but Qing Ma and Shi Jian couldn't stand it anymore. They sent their riders to ask what was going on, only to be scolded by Gan Quan.

After venting his anger on the messenger, Gan Quan found the old slave Bald Tail: "You came up with this idea, so tell me, what should we do?"

The old slave, Bald Tail, shook his head: "The leader of the two-legged people in this village has a very strong will."

"Unwavering will?" Gan Quan gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "Then burn the forest! I refuse to believe we can't force him out!"

The old slave, Bald Tail, twirled his prayer beads: "Setting fire to the forest is also an option."

Gan Quan, on the other hand, hesitated: "Are you sure this method can force the two-legged man out?"

"Uncertain, that's Kota's approach."

"Then what do you think we should do?"

The old slave, Bald Tail, struggled to open his dim eyes and asked, "Does Kota want a living slave or a dead slave?"

Gan Quan's eyes widened: "What do you mean?"

"Fire is the power of the gods, which mortals cannot control. If you set fire to the forest, you might be burned alive before you can even escape."

"What should I do?"

The old slave, Bald Tail, calmly said, “There are other villages here. This village can endure it, but the next village may not. Kota can burn them down one by one.”

Gan Quan thought it over and over, but still couldn't make up his mind.

“Setting fire to the forest is fine, but has Kota considered that the young birds and beasts, the fledglings, will also be burned to death? No matter the reason, if you start a fire, your soul will wander in the wasteland for a hundred years before it will be accepted by all the spirits again.”

Gan Quan was very unwilling: "So I came to this village once and didn't capture anything?"

"Didn't Kota get a lot of things?"

"What kind of capture is a piece of junk?" Gan Quan roared in anger.

The old slave, Bald Tail, lowered his head: "Then please continue to wait here, Kota. It is freezing cold today, and the two-legged people are not as resilient as the sons of the tribes. We need to light fires for warmth and cook food in the morning and evening. Kota, set up sentry posts on high ground, and go to wherever you see smoke rising."

"What if it still doesn't work?"

“Then let’s burn down the next village.” The old slave, Bald Tail, said calmly, “Kota is a hunter, and a hunter, as long as he is patient, will always have his chance.”

So Gan Quan continued to wait, from noon until dusk.

The Ganquan tribe, initially brimming with energy from their raids, gradually became increasingly yawning. Ganquan himself was equally exhausted.

Just as Gan Quan was arranging for his men to take turns resting, a sentry from the hilltop came running over, tumbling and crawling: "Kota! Smoke! There's smoke!"

Gan Quan suddenly roused himself and dashed up the hillside.

In the afterglow of the setting sun—though barely noticeable—several wisps of purple smoke could be seen rising from the distant treetops.

Gan Quan observed for a while and determined that it was smoke from a fire, not the night fog.

A few men were left behind to record the events and indicate the direction, while the right wing of the Ganquan tribe galloped out of the mountain pass and headed towards the direction of the smoke.

As soon as I stepped onto the scorched earth of the village, I heard the sound of bugles coming from nearby.

A sentry sped over: "Kota, someone's sneaking around trying to get close to the village!"

"where?"

"There!" the sentry pointed to the boundary between the farmland and the forest.

Gan Quan laughed menacingly at the old slave with the bald tail: "Two-legged people have a strong will? They couldn't resist coming out!"

The old slave, Bald Tail, pressed his hand to his chest in a gesture of respect, bowing his head deeply.

Gan Quan looked down and saw that the smoke was in the northwest, while the figure was in the southwest; the smoke was far away, and the figure was close.

“Let’s go to the nearest one first,” suggested the old slave with bald tail. “There’s no rush for the far ones.”

"Alright, let's go to the nearest one. Kill the men! Leave the women!" Gan Quan grinned and turned his horse around: "I'll reward each of you with a female slave!"

More than thirty riders turned around and galloped southwest. Their hooves trampled the wheat fields, uprooting some newly sprouted seedlings.

At the boundary between forest and farmland, a woman carrying a bucket in each hand is walking along the ridges of the fields toward the village.

The sound of hooves rang out, and the barbarian cavalry of the Hed came galloping in. Startled, the woman dropped her wooden bucket and turned to flee into the forest. The Hed pursued her relentlessly, and the woman could no longer care about her composure. She clutched her headscarf and ran for her life. Her long skirt billowed in the wind, revealing two fair, bare legs.

The Ganquan tribe members on horseback couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Don't kill her! Don't shoot!" Gan Quan shouted with a sinister grin. "Let's play with her! Let her lead you and me to the main camp!"

Like a wildcat toying with a mouse, the Ganquan tribe members made strange noises to scare the woman while slowing down their horses.

The vegetation was sparse at the edge of the woodland, and the woman could not hide herself at all. She fled deeper into the forest, her clothes torn to shreds, exposing more of her skin.

The Teldenans grew even more excited and shouted even louder.

The woman's strength gradually depleted, and she ran slower and slower.

Gan Quan laughed wildly, drew a whistling arrow, stood up on the stirrups, and released the arrow.

The arrow flew towards the woman's back with a whistling sound. Due to the limited accuracy of mounted archery, the arrow only landed behind the woman, but it frightened the poor woman so much that she fell to the ground.

The woman got up and continued to flee, running even faster than before.

The Teldonites laughed loudly, but the old slave Bald Tail remained silent and slowed his horse.

Most of these Teldun people were also slaves, suffering constant humiliation and oppression. But in the process of abusing their power against the weaker beings, all their resentment seemed to be released.

"Scatter!" Gan Quan shouted. "Don't let her get away, surround her from both sides!"

The Ganquan tribe members behind them sped up to the left and right, and the thirty-odd Teldun people slowly spread out in a fan shape.

Ahead, a woman whose clothes were already torn to shreds lost her footing and fell again, landing among a patch of withered leaves.

Gan Quan, unable to contain his excitement, spurred his warhorse to give chase.

"Anyway, Old Baldy can speak the language of two-legged people," Gan Quan thought. "Let's arrest her first, then interrogate her..."

When Gan Quan was at his most excited, he suddenly felt dizzy and flew up as if riding the clouds.

The rest of the Teldun saw their leader's horse's knees bend at an unnatural angle, the horse neighing and collapsing, while their leader was thrown from the saddle and tumbled through the air as he flew forward.

Then they saw a figure leap out from the dead leaves, carrying a large club, and cruelly hammering their leader on the head.

The skull broke first, then the wooden stick broke.

Thus, the direct descendant of the Teldun tribe, the cousin of the Fire-Bakers, and the ambitious Heller Ash "Oasis" met his end.

As if on command, dozens of figures appeared like ghosts, as if they had sprung from the ground—in fact, they really did sprung from the ground.

The ghostly figures each carried a pointed wooden club, stabbing and smashing anyone on horseback they encountered. In an instant, several people had fallen from their horses.

"An ambush!" the Telden man shouted in terror. "Run!"

The Tertons stabbed the bridles and whipped the horses, urging them to break through the encirclement.

Before they had run ten meters, the two Teldons in front suffered the same fate as those in Sweet Springs—there were other tripwires in the woods, and heaven knows where that woman led them!
"We can't escape! Kill!" A Teldun man drew his scimitar and began hacking wildly.

Another Telden man took down his horn, hoping to call for help.

"call out."

With a sharp whistling sound, the Telden man who was trying to blow his horn screamed in agony as his left hand and left cheek were pinned together by a javelin.

In the midst of the excruciating pain, the horn also slipped from his grasp.

The one who threw the javelin was a dignified middle-aged man. He calmly drew another javelin: "[Common language] Be careful, the barbarians are going all out! Lasso their horses!"

The heavy footsteps grew closer, and a pale-faced young man led a group of men carrying various farm tools out of the bushes.

The young man saluted the middle-aged man: "Major! We've arrived."

“We don’t need you here.” The middle-aged man pointed in the direction the Teldun people came from: “Go around the battlefield from the east. If any barbarian soldiers come after us, intercept them.”

"Yes!" The young man raised his hand in salute.

“Mr. Epel,” the middle-aged man returned the greeting solemnly, still unable to shake off his unease, “Be careful.”

Eppel nodded, raised the spiked mallet as a flag, and led the militiamen into the woods.

……

Meanwhile, northwest of the village, deeper in the forest, Lieutenant Asco was galloping wildly on horseback.

He sped along the valley, rushing into a hidden camp.

"Who started the fire!" Ascolima roared.

Seeing that the newcomers were not barbarians, the people in the camp gradually gathered around.

The secluded camp was almost the size of a small town, but it contained only women, the elderly, and children; there wasn't a single able-bodied man in it.

"Sir," an old woman said, walking shakily towards him, "it is me."

Facing an old woman, Asco had nowhere to vent his anger. He roared, "Major Ronald's orders are strict: no one is allowed to light a fire without permission! Did you listen to that with one ear and let it slip with the other? Put out the fire! Now!"

The crowd fell silent.

A peasant woman in her forties complained sarcastically, “I also lit a fire. It’s so cold! The children are all getting sick from the cold. Without a fire, we can’t even get a hot meal. You can endure it, but we can’t!”

One person takes the lead, and others follow suit with complaints.

The women and children were placed here separately. A dozen or so of them were crammed into a tent, forbidden from lighting a fire, leaving, or even speaking loudly. They were already full of resentment.

"Fools!" Asco roared in anger, "You're lighting a fire here, and smoke is billowing out! It can be seen from five kilometers away! This camp has been exposed! If we hadn't drawn the barbarians away, they would have already attacked! Because of your fire, your husbands and sons are fighting for their lives!"

Asco heard someone scream, and then he was surrounded by women.

The women and children chattered amongst themselves, asking about the news:

Is my son safe?

"Where's my dad?"

"How are things going with the men?"

Why is smoke coming from the village?

Asco was getting dizzy from the noise, and he yelled, "Stop arguing!"

Nobody paid him any attention.

Asco made a snap decision, lightly nudged his horse's flank, squeezed through the crowd, and hurriedly left after saying, "Pack your gear and wait for orders to change camps."

……

On the other side of the forest, the battle did not linger for long.

The bows, arrows, fast horses, and scimitars that the Teldun relied on for battle were ineffective in the forest; the melee relied on numbers and unwavering spirit.

The more than thirty light cavalrymen who had rushed forward were quickly wiped out, and the more than seventy cavalrymen who followed were repelled by the militia.

"Take away all the horses that can still walk! Take away the surviving Hed people too! Leave the corpses behind." Major Ronald, leaning on his javelin, directed the Wolf Town militia to clean up the battlefield.

"What should we do with the horse carcass?" someone asked.

"Take all the meat you can, and leave the rest here," Major Ronald urged. "Hurry up! We need to get going!"

Lieutenant Adam, his clothes torn to shreds, untied his headscarf and rolled his skirt up to his waist, exposing his two thighs.

He grabbed an axe and, cursing, butchered the horse carcass: "Bastards! When the barbarians don't come, we're left to weave baskets! But when they do come, we have to fight for them! They're the ones who know how to order people around!"

With each word Adam spoke, he chopped with his axe, venting all his resentment on the horse's carcass.

The Tertons, who were just trembling with excitement, would have mixed feelings if they saw that the "barefoot woman" was actually a foul-mouthed Paratist.

Fortunately, they didn't need to look, because almost all of them were dead.

Epel walked past Adam and whispered a reprimand: "Stop talking nonsense."

Three former garrison officers led more than 200 Wolf Town militiamen to quickly clean up the battlefield.

Dozens of Teldun men were stripped naked and lay on the ground; their robes, boots, scimitars, and bows and arrows were all reused.

"Should I cut off my ear?" Epel asked Ronald.

Ronald chuckled and shook his head: "Nobody's going to give us credit."

“Cut it off! Why don’t you cut it off?” Adam said angrily. “Isn’t it fair that one ear is worth one hundred work hours?”

Ignoring Adam, Epper continued, "Where are the wounded being sent?"

“Send them to the women and children’s camp.”

Upon hearing the term "women and children's camp," a militiaman tentatively asked, "Sir, when can we be reunited with our wives and children?"

The other militiamen also perked up their ears.

“The barbarian Herd hasn’t left Iron Peak County for a single day.” Ronald explained to everyone with a friendly tone, “So we can’t join forces for a single day. Don’t worry, as long as the men’s camp isn’t wiped out, the women’s and children’s camp is safe, and your wives, children, and parents are safe too.”

The militiamen all looked somewhat disappointed.

Adam, leaning on his axe, couldn't stand it any longer and shouted angrily: "If I let you reunite with your wives and children, how the hell would you be able to concentrate on fighting? Aren't you all busy taking care of your children and sleeping with your wives? You're all comfortable, but when the barbarians come, are you all just washing your necks and waiting to die?"
This is war! This is deadly! Did they think this was a picnic? If these barbarians don't leave, anyone who dares to sneak into the women and children's camp will be hanged in front of their wife and kids! Anyone who doesn't believe me, just try it!

The militiamen of Wolf Town fell silent.

"Sir!" someone shouted from afar, "There's a survivor here! He speaks our language!"

Major Ronald perked up and strode over.

An elderly Hart man sat under a tree, holding a rosary in his hand, resting with his eyes closed. His face was deeply lined with wrinkles, indicating that he was quite old.

The battle hadn't affected him because he hadn't even entered the encirclement; he dismounted far away.

Major Ronald looked the old man up and down: "You speak Common Tongue?"

"Do you call it Common Language?" The old Hedman slowly opened his eyes and said stiffly, "When I was young, I called it Imperial Language."

"Wow, you're quite the talker," Lieutenant Adam exclaimed in amazement. "Where did you learn that?"

"No need to learn, I will naturally be able to speak."

"what is it call?"

“The Hed people call me ‘the horse without a tail,’ which means bald. The Paratites call me…” The old Hed man smiled knowingly, “Father Saul.”

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(End of this chapter)