At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 343 Young Warrior

Compared with Cao Cao's laughter, Xiahou Dun heard Xun Yu's words and said hesitantly: "Can Zhou Ziyi release Miaocai and thousands of captives just by marriage?"

Not to mention Xia Houyuan, one of the few generals under Cao Cao's command, just the thousands of soldiers captured by Cao Cao's army in the Battle of Yangping Pass are a force that cannot be ignored.

You know, in history, when Cao Cao started his career, he only had thousands of soldiers and horses.

Liu Bei wasted many years, and until he became the Mu of Xuzhou, he only had more than a thousand people under his command.

The little overlord Sun Ce also relied on more than a thousand people borrowed from Yuan Shu to build his foundation in Jiangdong.

Thousands of soldiers and horses, not to mention in this time and space, even in China with a population of more than one billion in future generations, are a force that cannot be ignored.

According to Xiahou Dun's idea, since Zhou Qi captured these soldiers, they only need to be reformed for a period of time before they can be surrendered. It may not be easy for Zhou Qi to put them back.

Cao Cao gently stroked his beard and said: "An ordinary person might be greedy for those thousands of soldiers and horses. But with Zhou Ziyi's mind and vision, he should know which is more important."

Zhou Qi wanted to draw Cao Cao into his camp by marrying the Xiahou family.

Even if Cao Cao is unwilling to send troops to attack Yuan Shao, as long as the news of the marriage between the two parties spreads, it will inevitably make Yuan Shao wary and reduce the pressure on Chu.

Cao Cao knew Zhou Qi's thoughts very well, but he could not tell them.

However, who was Cao Cao, and how could he be willing to be used by Zhou Qi?

Although the marriage between the two parties was also beneficial to the Cao and Xiahou families, Cao Cao still felt that it was not enough, so he planned to ask Zhou Qi to release Xiahou Yuan and thousands of captured soldiers.

As long as those captured soldiers return to Guanzhong, Cao Cao's losses in this southern expedition to Hanzhong can be minimized.

Not only could he get thousands of soldiers and horses again, but he could also save the huge cost of appeasing the families of the captured soldiers and soldiers.

Xiahou Dun knew that Cao Cao had excellent vision. When he heard what the other party said, he did not continue to question it, but asked: "Since this is a marriage, who do you want to send to Xiangyang?"

"Someone is willing to go!"

After Xiahou Dun finished speaking, he heard a voice.

Everyone looked around and saw that the person speaking was actually Xia Houheng, the eldest son of Xia Houyuan. Then they all focused on Cao Cao, wanting to see how the other party would choose.

Cao Cao pondered for a moment, then nodded and said: "Since this is a marriage between two families, as the eldest son of a talented person, it would be best for Boping to go to Xiangyang."

"If Zhou Zi agrees with the conditions proposed by the orphan, Miaocai will have full authority to manage the marriage."

After Xia Houheng heard this, he bowed deeply to Cao Cao, then returned home to pack his things and say goodbye to his brothers and sisters.

"Where is third brother?"

Xia Houheng looked around at the crowd and saw several younger brothers and sisters gathered together, but only his third brother Xia Houcheng was missing. He could not help but frown slightly and asked sharply.

For this elder brother, the Xiahou brothers also respected him very much. The second brother Xiahou Ba said: "Acheng has always liked hunting. After learning that his father was unfortunately defeated and captured, he became even more upset and vowed to practice martial arts diligently. In the future, Go into battle and kill the enemy, kill all the Chu thieves, and avenge your father!"

"Since then, Ah Cheng has not returned home every day, and we don't know where he has gone."

Xia Houheng's face turned serious when he heard this, and he shouted sternly: "The two armies are fighting, and each has his own master. Unfortunately, my father was defeated and captured. I can't blame others."

"Not only did His Highness the King of Chu not humiliate my father, but he treated him very kindly. We must remember this kindness. How can we repay kindness with enmity?"

"not to mention……"

Having said this, Xia Houheng turned his attention to his cousin Xia Houmin, and his tone became softer, saying: "His Royal Highness King Chu's eldest son Zhou Ji is not yet married. I learned that Min sister is being raised at home by his father. He has already arrived. At the age of marriage, I want to marry my Xiahou family, Qin and Jin!"

After saying this, everyone was shocked.

Xia Houyuan's children are all very human, and they can hear a lot of information from Xia Houheng's brief words.

Who is Zhou Ji?

That was the crown prince of the Chu Kingdom, and if nothing else happened, he would also be the future helmsman of the Chu Kingdom.

If Zhou Ji marries his cousin Xiahou Min, then he and the Xiahou family will become related by marriage. Xiahou Min will at least be the princess of Chu in the future, and it is not impossible to become the queen of Chu.

Originally, Xiahou Yuan was captured, and the entire Xiahou family was in a state of gloom, but the sudden news turned a bad thing into a good thing.

With Xiahou Ba's intelligence, he was naturally able to see through the entanglements of interests and said hurriedly: "Brother, don't worry, I will lead people to find the third brother."

The suburbs of Chang'an.

Although this place is very close to Chang'an, this place is sparsely populated and there are many ferocious beasts in the mountains and forests. It is often heard of tigers descending from the mountains to hurt people.

Xiahou, who is only 16 years old, said that he came with bows, arrows and spears after learning that there was a tiger in the forest that could hurt people.

Behind him, there were more than a dozen children in their teens, all of whom followed Xiahou's lead.

Although Xia Houcheng was only sixteen years old, he inherited Xia Houyuan's martial arts talent, and even exceeded it.

Because of his natural supernatural power, Xiahou said he has been known as the "little bully" since he was a child.

Xia Houyuan also liked this third son very much. He thought that he might have the courage to overlord when he grew up, so he specially asked him to read "The Biography of Xiang Yu" and the Book of War.

Unexpectedly, Xia Houcheng was quite arrogant and said to Xia Houyuan: "Talent is born, how can you learn from others?"

Xia Houyuan had no choice but to let it go.

Although Xia Houcheng was unwilling to read "The Biography of Xiang Yu", he had a special liking for military books. Since learning military books, he often gathered his friends to play games about military battle formations. If children disobeyed military orders, Xia Houchen would show no mercy. He whipped him so that no other children dared to disobey him.

This time Xiahou claimed that he was brave and brought all the children to look for the tiger, hoping to hunt it and become famous.

The children began to hear what Xia Houchen said, and they thought he was bragging. In order not to be looked down upon, they all followed Xia Houchen in a noisy manner.

However, when they came to the outskirts of the city where tigers often roamed, a look of fear finally appeared on their faces.

Xia Hou said he couldn't help laughing when he saw this, and said: "You all looked brave before, but now you have just arrived at the outskirts of the city and the tiger has not yet appeared, and you are all scared like this."

"If you are afraid, just leave and go hunt the tigers yourself!"

All the children were laughed at by Xia Houcheng, and their faces all turned red. Then they all scratched their necks and shouted: "Isn't it just a tiger? What are so many of us afraid of?"

"Roar!"

As soon as the children's fairy tales finished, they heard a thunderous roar of a tiger, which made all the children turn pale with fright.

"Ah Sheng, there really is a tiger, let's go!"

The other children also tried to persuade him, their eyes full of fear.

However, Xia Houcheng's face darkened and he shouted: "You can just go away if you are afraid. If someone stays behind, he can still hunt the tiger!"

Seeing that Xia Houcheng could not be persuaded, and they did not dare to stay here anymore, everyone immediately dispersed, leaving Xiahoucheng standing alone on horseback.

Xia Houcheng watched everyone leave with a look of disdain in his eyes.

He took off a five-stone strong bow from his horse, and unexpectedly advanced instead of retreating, actively chasing the tiger in the direction of the roar.

A five-stone strong bow is equivalent to seventy-five kilograms in later generations.

Some people can barely lift a weight of 75 kilograms, but they can never draw a strong bow of 75 kilograms.

You know, if you want to fully draw a 75-kilogram strong bow, your arms must be much stronger than 75 kilograms, and you must wear special ring fingers. Otherwise, the fingers may have been cut off before the bow string is drawn. Xia Hou said that when he was only sixteen years old, he dared to take out a five-stone bow to hunt tigers, which shows his arrogance.

"Tap Tap!"

The sound of horse hooves sounded in the empty suburbs of the city, getting closer and closer to the place where the tiger roared just now.

"Roar!"

At this moment, a huge and colorful tiger suddenly jumped out from the grass. After roaring, it stared at Xia Houcheng who was riding forward.

"Lulu!"

Hearing the roar of the tiger at close range, even though Xiahou said that the horse under his crotch was one of the best horses in a hundred, he was so frightened that he stopped running and stood up with both hooves and half of his body.

"You are here, what are you afraid of?"

Xiahou said that his riding skills were superb, and he did not fall off his horse. Instead, he gently stroked the mane on the horse's neck and whispered in its ear.

The war horse seemed to understand Xia Houcheng's words and gradually became quiet.

The tiger saw a man and a horse in front of him. Instead of running away, he dared to approach him. He immediately felt that his majesty was being challenged.

However, when it saw Xia Houcheng bowing and setting an arrow, out of feline vigilance and because it had just eaten, it turned and left.

Cats are like this. Whenever they feel a hint of danger, they will become very cautious.

Xiahou said that as soon as he took out the arrows and even before he drew his strong bow, he saw the tiger fleeing on target. He immediately became furious and kicked the horse's belly lightly to signal the horse to catch up.

The war horse was originally a little afraid of the tiger, but when he saw that the opponent was running away, he immediately became determined and chased forward with the force of the tiger pretending to be a tiger.

"Tap Tap!"

The tiger felt a little bit of a crisis, and he wasn't hungry, so he didn't want to pay attention to the man.

What he didn't expect was that when he took the initiative to withdraw, the other party dared to pursue him. This move immediately aroused the ferocity in the tiger's bones.

"Roar!"

It roared angrily, turned around and rushed towards Xia Houcheng, intending to bite the ignorant human to death.

"Well done!"

Xia Hou said he was not surprised but happy when he saw the tiger turn around.

Although when it comes to endurance, a tiger may not be as good as a war horse, but when it comes to explosive power, a war horse is even slightly inferior.

Moreover, as the tiger is the king of the jungle, if he burrows into the woods, Xia Houcheng can only look at the forest and sigh.

"Shut up!"

Xia Hou said that he pulled the reins and the horse stopped slowly.

Just when the war horse began to slow down, Xia Hou said that he had already bent his bow and nocked an arrow, and drew the five-stone bow.

Perhaps the tiger was used to running amok and hadn't realized the seriousness of the matter. He looked at a man riding a horse in the distance. After looking at the distance, he immediately swooped over.

If Xiahou was attacked by a tiger, he would be injured even if he died.

Seeing the tiger charging towards him with its fishy wind, the war horse was already a little uneasy, pawing at the ground with its hooves, ready to turn around and run away at any moment.

"Chirp!"

However, the moment the tiger leaped up, Xia Houcheng loosened his bowstring, and the arrow shot towards the tiger like a shooting star.

"puff!"

The arrows shot by the five-stone bow are so terrifying that I can't even imagine them.

Xiahou said that his archery skills were very good. An arrow shot directly into the tiger's eye socket and then penetrated the tiger's head.

"boom!"

The tiger's huge body fell to the ground with a crash, and slid on the ground for several meters due to inertia, and finally stopped at a position less than five steps away from Xia Houchun.

The tiger fell heavily to the ground, hastening its death even more. Blood kept coming out of its eyes, and soon the ground was dyed red.

Even so, with the tiger's tenacious vitality, it still did not die instantly. Instead, its body convulsed for a long time before it completely lost its vitality.

Upon seeing this, Xiahou said he hung the five-stone bow on his horse again, then he dismounted with a fine iron spear and walked straight towards the tiger.

Two steps away from the tiger, Xia Houcheng took out his spear and poked the tiger a few times. When he saw that the tiger was not pretending to be dead, a bright smile appeared on his face.

However, Xia Houcheng would have some difficulties next.

With the size of this tiger, it was impossible for him and his horse to drag it into the city.

If those dozen friends don’t leave, they can also make stretchers to carry them away.

Now, Xia Houcheng could only sit beside the tiger's corpse, waiting for his friends to bring people to find him.

But after Xia Houcheng's friends fled in panic, they saw that Xia Houcheng had not followed for a long time, and they couldn't help but worry about their safety, but they did not dare to turn back to rescue them.

After discussion, they finally decided to go to Chang'an for help.

Almost all of the friends who could play with Xia Houcheng were the children of military generals. After entering the city, they soon met Xia Houcheng who was looking for Xia Houcheng.

Xiahou Ba knew that these people were the third brother's friends, so he immediately stopped them and asked, "Do you know where the third brother of a certain family is?"

The children looked at each other in shock when they heard this, but they didn't dare to tell the truth.

Seeing this, Xiahou Ba couldn't help but feel his heart sink, and then shouted sharply: "Where is the third brother of a certain family? Come here quickly!"

When the children saw that Xiahou Ba was angry, they no longer dared to hide it, so they told the details of the matter in detail.

When Xiahou Ba learned that his third brother actually went hunting tigers alone, he suddenly felt dizzy and almost fainted.

Although he knew that his third brother was brave, tigers, as the king of beasts, were not easy to deal with. Even professional hunters would not dare to hunt tigers easily.

No matter how brave Xia Houcheng is, how can he be the opponent of the tiger alone?

Xiahou Ba did not dare to neglect and hurried to his uncle Xiahou Dun for help.

When Xiahou Dun learned that his nephew Xia Houcheng dared to go hunting tigers alone, he couldn't help but became furious and cursed: "What a boy who doesn't know the heights of the world. He doesn't even dare to hunt tigers alone. Who gave him the courage?"

Despite the scolding, Xiahou Dun did not dare to neglect. He hurriedly mobilized two hundred cavalry and rushed towards the outskirts of the city.

　Don't think I am exaggerating. There is a true record of Xiahou saying that he killed a tiger with one arrow at the age of sixteen.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)