The light of the sword is like the moon reflecting on Kyushu

Chapter 2143 Dai's Three Wonders of Horse Administration

Venerable White Lotus said, "I have a feeling there are bodyguards here! Such a large manor without a single bodyguard, I bet the Dai family would never dare to do that!"

Feng Jiuxiao laughed and said, "Whether they have bodyguards or not, we're in charge here now!" His voice was soft, but it exuded an overwhelming aura of dominance!
Venerable Bailian could guess that the two strings of skull lanterns hanging on either side of the gate of the Dai family manor must have provoked Feng Jiuxiao's anger! Hanging skull lanterns at the gate was naturally a despicable trick used by the Dai family to intimidate the serfs!

The owners of those skulls are unknown—whose husbands, whose sons, whose fathers!

With a light leap, Feng Jiuxiao gracefully landed inside the wall.

The height of two zhang was almost meaningless to him.

The Venerable White Lotus also flew down from the tower as lightly as a falling leaf.

He stretched out his right hand, and fine snowflakes fell into his palm, bringing a chill: "It's actually started snowing."

Feng Jiuxiao said, "It's cold with the snow, so it seems everyone here has gone to huddle up to avoid the cold."

The snowflakes are very small, as fine as grains of rice.

Feng Jiuxiao and the other person jumped into the manor from the south gate.

The first thing that caught my eye was a mound of Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese statue)!
What is a Jingguan? In ancient times, people would gather the corpses of their enemies and seal them with earth to create a high mound to show off their martial prowess.

Jing means a high hill; Guan means a gate tower.

In ancient times, when people killed bandits and displayed their corpses in victory, they would build a mound of corpses to bury them. This practice existed at the sites of ancient battlefields.

The Jingguan here is made entirely of stacked skulls!

Feng Jiuxiao frowned, a murderous aura surging in his chest!
The Dai family actually built a Jingguan (a mound of stones) on their estate; it's absolutely insane!
The mound of skulls, approximately ten feet in length, width, and height, resembled a pyramid. A rough estimate suggests it would have required at least ten thousand skulls to form this size! This implies at least ten thousand lives! Were these skulls all prisoners of war from an enemy state? Certainly not! Most were likely serfs under the control of the Dai clan!
The mound of Jingguan is covered with rammed yellow earth, and in some places weeds have even grown!

Bai Lian said, "The Dai family is indeed ruthless! This mound of skulls would probably require the skulls of more than three thousand people to build to such a size! Three thousand lives! Three thousand wronged souls!!"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "Thirteen thousand!"

Bai Lian was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "The number of wronged souls in this Jingguan is far more than three thousand!!"

Venerable White Lotus was taken aback: "Did I actually underestimate? Then... how much do you guess, young master?"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "At least ten thousand!"

Venerable White Lotus asked, "So many? What is their purpose in building these mounds of skulls in their homes?"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "Of course, it's to deter those who have ulterior motives! The head of a powerful family usually uses a combination of kindness and force to maintain the family's authority! However, based on my observation and understanding, the rulers in Tibet don't know how to use kindness to influence others, or how to make others follow them wholeheartedly! They only know how to intimidate with violence and threaten with killing! Such a regime will collapse sooner or later! It has no popular support! By the way, how much do you know about the Dai family? Tell me about it!"

Venerable White Lotus laughed and said, "You'll only become more furious after hearing the story of the Dai family!"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "It's alright. I was prepared for their 'evil'. I just want to hear—just how hateful, how cruel, and how deserving of death they are!"

The more deserving these villains are of death, the less restraint he has in striking them!

Bai Lian said, "Speaking of their rise to power, it is actually a history of blood and tears of stable boys!"

"Oh?"

"Their first clan leader was named Dai Chizha. This man did something extremely perverse in order to make the clan prosper."

"what's up?"

"Offering my wife to feed the divine steed!"

"Huh? He sacrificed his own wife?"

"Yes! In order to breed the best warhorses, he actually dissected his wife who had just died in childbirth and fed all of her internal organs to a foal!"

Feng Jiuxiao asked solemnly, "And then?" Bai Lian replied, "This little colt grew up to become a warhorse with soul-devouring magic! From then on, he established a family motto—horse intestines are human intestines, and horse bones are gold mines!"

Feng Jiuxiao's expression was solemn. "Hmm." In a sense, the warhorse had become one with Dai Chizha's deceased wife in spirit. The horse was the man, and the man was the horse!

"Their pastures are on the shores of Qinghai Lake, where they built a special horse training ground, and... a special oil-making workshop! Oil from traitorous slaves!"

Feng Jiuxiao was taken aback: "Hmph! Just as I expected, he really has no humanity!"

Bai Lian said, "It is said that the ointment made by the ointment makers from traitorous slaves can make horses extremely excited and full of energy! This makes the Dai family's warhorses stand out and fetch a good price. The Dai family continued to grow and eventually monopolized the supply of warhorses in the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau! In addition, to prevent other horse traders from counterfeiting their Dai family's warhorses, all Dai family warhorses have the character 'Dai' branded on their rumps!"

"Traitorous slaves? Hmph, so-called traitorous slaves are nothing more than labels they arbitrarily slap on those stable boys when they want to kill someone!"

Which of these inhuman lords wasn't blinded by greed? Once they ran out of ingredients for the oil, they would naturally find ways to kill people to extract it!
"It is said that the Dai clan also set up an iron prison to hold so-called prisoners who had made mistakes. They used the prisoners' leg bones to make horse whistles, which were then refined with witchcraft to have evil power. When the whistle was sounded, the prisoner's limbs would twitch uncontrollably!"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "Just as I expected, they are similar to those Blood Braid Army soldiers, insatiable in their cruelty, they deserve to die!"

Using a leg bone to make a whistle and torturing a prisoner is pure sadism! When else should such a person be kept alive if not killed?

Bai Lian said, "The current head of the family is called Dai Tiezhong, who controls 70% of the warhorse breeding in Tibet!"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "Seventy percent? That's impressive!"

Venerable White Lotus said, "He invented the perverted method of raising horses called the 'pregnant slave lactation method,' which forces pregnant slaves to feed mares with human milk!"

"Hmph! That's definitely perverted!"

"His eldest daughter is named Dai Guling, and she is in charge of breeding military horses!" Although the words were spoken vaguely, Feng Jiuxiao immediately understood!
A powerful woman used her power to select handsome men to feed her horses, but in reality, she forced these men to be her lovers. If any man became unfit, she would immediately kill him and feed him to the horses! She was both lustful and cruel!
"Hmph! Even women are so inhumane. Is there really not a single innocent person among them? Venerable One, please continue."

"The second son is named Dai Sifeng. He created a unique technique for training wild horses and is quite talented. But he is also very perverse. He actually skinned a boy's back to make horse reins!" After saying this, he glanced at Feng Jiuxiao to see if Feng Jiuxiao's expression was full of anger, but Feng Jiuxiao seemed to have already transcended anger and could not be seen to have changed at all!
Venerable White Lotus continued, "It is said that the Dai family has three unique methods of horse breeding! The first method is the 'castrated slave breeding method,' in which the foals begin to bite their owners as soon as they grow up, specifically targeting the castrated slaves who raise them! Usually, they bite the throat, and nine out of ten slaves die!"

Feng Jiuxiao said coldly, "This guy named Dai Sifeng is just as bad as Liu Changfeng! What kind of beastly methods are in his head? Venerable One, please continue, I just couldn't help but grumble!"

Bai Lian nodded and said, "Yes, the second unique event is called 'Frozen Corpse Horse Racing'! Horse racing is popular among Tibetan nobles, and they also organize horse races in winter. However, the obstacles on the track in winter are different from the tree branches, deer antlers, and barricades used in summer; they are people!"

"Continue!" Feng Jiuxiao said expressionlessly, his tone flat.

"This third wonder is called 'The Secret of Human Saddle Making'! It is said that the saddle's frame was pieced together from the ribs of a traitor."

Feng Jiuxiao said, "Indeed, it's bloody everywhere."

Feng Jiuxiao said, "There must be innocent civilians who have been kidnapped in such a large manor. These people should be separated to avoid accidentally harming them later."

Venerable White Lotus asked, "How does Young Master intend to distinguish them?"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "If we have to distinguish them one by one, it would take forever! We need to think of a way to let them distinguish them themselves!"

Bai Lian's eyes suddenly lit up as she came up with an idea: "Young Master, why not create chaos? Honest people usually hide when chaos strikes, while accomplices will show themselves to investigate for their own benefit! Wouldn't that make it easier to distinguish them?"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "That's right, that's a good idea."

Bai Lian said, "To prevent any honest people from sneaking in among those who have shown themselves, we can conduct a second confirmation. For example, we can identify them by their appearance and clothing. There are obvious differences between nobles and serfs in their attire! To avoid being arbitrary, we can also observe their behavior to confirm their identities. Usually, serfs are humble and timid, while nobles are proud and arrogant, which is easy to distinguish!"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "Then let's create some chaos!"

He pointed to a magnificent and imposing building made of massive stones in front of him, which was probably the tallest and largest house in the entire manor. "Big Bird, fire!"

The bronze eagle suddenly flapped its wings and took flight, spraying wildly at the house!
Flames, like a fiery dragon, rushed down from the sky towards the stone house, and instantly the roof of the stone house began to burn!
At that moment, shouts of alarm came from inside the house: "Fire! Fire!"

"Huh? There's a fire?"

"Run!"

A furious shout suddenly rang out: "Stop right there! Put out the fire!"

Above: Jingguan (a type of mound of trees)