Chapter 44: Long Howl (IV)

In the main hall of the Mi County government office, Ashina Baxie was savouring a basin of dried meat with great relish. The meat was tender and smooth—truly a rare delicacy in this world. Ever since leading his troops to capture Mi County, Ashina Baxie had eaten a whole basin of such dried meat daily as nourishment.

If one were to ask what made this dried meat different from ordinary food and why it earned Ashina Baxie’s high praise, there was likely only one reason—it was made from human flesh!

Ashina Baxie’s fondness for human flesh was a well-known secret among the Yiluo River army. Whenever he led his elite cavalry to capture a city, this former Turkic prince would order that young men and women aged between sixteen and twenty-five be captured, their flesh scraped off with iron brushes, and then dried for his consumption. It was said that the flesh of people in this age group was the finest—tender yet not tough, making it a delicious treat. Through years of experimentation, Ashina Baxie had established this custom.

However, to his frustration, although there were many cities in the northern part of Henan Province, its inhabitants were mostly impoverished, with dark skin and thin frames—so little flesh could be obtained even after skinning them. The meat produced by such people was not tender or flavorful!

But things changed greatly after the capture of the Eastern Capital. Ashina Baxie was ordered to wipe out the cities around Luoyang, and he found that the flesh from the animals in these areas was much better in quality than that from the northern part of Henan Province, which filled him with joy.

The Yiluo River army already had a tradition of using human flesh as military rations. But since they had just captured the Luokou granaries, which contained ample grain to solve their immediate needs, they had temporarily halted the search for Tang civilians. Yet for Ashina Baxie, grain was just the staple food, while human flesh was an essential side dish—both were indispensable.

“Ah, ah!”

A scream echoed through the hall. Ashina Baxie put down the dried meat in his hand and looked down with interest. There, a naked young man was tied to a wooden frame, as two barbarian soldiers poured buckets of scalding hot water over him.

“Ah! Ah!”

Blisters quickly formed on the naked man’s body, which soon began to fester. A strong, foul smell spread as he lost control of his bowels.

“What a nuisance!”

Ashina Baxie frowned and waved his hand. “Drag him away and bury him!”

After being contaminated by such filth, this “flesh animal” could no longer be eaten. Could he really force himself, a member of the elite Yiluo River Tiger Unit, to eat dried meat tainted by impurities? After all, there were plenty of other people in this city—just find another to scrape their flesh.

Immediately, some bodyguards stepped forward to carry away the nearly dead, naked man. Before long, another man tied up like a zongzi was brought in.
“Pah!”
Ashina Baxie casually picked up a piece of dried meat and threw it into his mouth, then ordered with a smile.
“Ah! Ah!”
Another agonized scream—what wonderful sound!
Ashina nodded and instructed the bodyguards, “Scrape off the outer skin. I don’t want to eat something cooked.”
The bodyguards understood immediately and used a red-hot iron brush to scrape the man’s body.
“Ah, kill me! Please, kill me!”
One agonizing scream after another came, but the bodyguards seemed only more excited, working harder. In just half an hour, the bones of the Han man were clearly visible.
“Report! Report, General! General Ashina Baxie! Report!”
Just as Ashina Baxie was enjoying this wonderful moment, a messenger suddenly rushed into the office and knelt down to report.
“What’s the emergency? Why such haste?”
Ashina Baxie said irritably, “Could it be that you broke your spear while having fun with some Han woman and now come to complain to me?”
Knowing his general’s temper well, the messenger wasn’t annoyed and replied, “It’s the Tang invaders! There are many of them in the city, General!”
Upon hearing this, Ashina Baxie burst into laughter. “Tang invaders? Ha ha, Tang invaders?”
He held his stomach, trying hard to hold back his laughter, but still couldn’t stop giggling. “Tang invaders? Ha ha, I’m dying of laughter!”
“General, there are really many Tang invaders in the city—probably over two thousand!”
The bodyguards refused to give up and emphasized again.
Hearing this, Ashina Baxie thought the messenger might not be lying. Frowning, he asked, “Where did you find them? Where did they come from?”
The messenger shook his head. “The whole city is full of Tang soldiers. There are too many of them. They came from all directions. Perhaps… perhaps the Tang people have started a counterattack?”
“Nonsense! Right now, the Tang invaders are suppressed by His Majesty’s army in Guanzhong and dare not show their faces. How could they launch a counterattack? It’s probably some reckless county magistrate leading a group of peasants armed with hoes. Follow me—I want to see who’s so desperate as to come looking for death!”……
The twilight sky was filled with a very cold north wind.

Staring at the thousand-plus Hu cavalry not far at the end of the alley, Li Kuo said coldly, “I heard that An Lushan painstakingly trained these eight thousand Yeluohe soldiers back then, even going so far as to demonstrate personally. Now that An Lushan has rebelled, these eight thousand Yeluohe soldiers serve as a deadly weapon, almost like a magic tool for him to kill enemies. But there are only so many of them—each death reduces their numbers. I wonder if An Lushan will be so enraged after learning that I’ve killed over a thousand of his Yeluohe soldiers that he’ll faint from anger.”

Zhou Wucui held the reins with one hand and pointed the torch ahead with a smile, saying, “These are his trump cards. I guess An Lushan values them more than his own sons. Qilang, after tonight, you’ll likely become An Lushan’s number one enemy.”

“Anyway, there are already so many who want to kill me. One more doesn’t matter. If that’s the case, let’s fight to the death!” Li Kuo said self-mockingly, spreading his hands.

“You overconfident Hu dogs! Grandpa Pu will make you taste suffering today!” Pu Dachui swung his pair of iron hammers and said, “Commander, let me take the lead and deal with these Hu dogs!”

Li Kuo nodded coldly and said, “Remember—leave none alive.” …

“Go! Go!”

Pu Dachui whipped his horse hard and charged toward the enemy ranks a hundred steps away, followed by hundreds of veterans from the Tongwu Camp. The alley was too narrow for a large army to pass through at once, so he volunteered to be the vanguard to dampen the enemy’s fighting spirit.

“Brothers, kill them and avenge our fellow villagers who died tragically!” Pu Dachui raised his iron hammer with one arm and roared.

“Vengeance! Vengeance!”

“Kill all the Hu dogs! Kill them all!”

“Return our lands! Blood for blood! Return our lands!”

For a moment, the crowd was filled with fervor. The elite cavalry of Tongwu charged forward, shouting loudly, like a leopard about to tear apart the enemy forces before their eyes!

“For the Tang Dynasty!”

The sound of horse hooves on the bluestone path echoed as a sharp, arrow-like fire dragon rushed into the Yeluohe ranks like lightning.

Bang!

A loud crash came as the two cavalry forces collided—this was the most direct clash, the most brutal confrontation.

Two armies, two nations, two civilizations.

No one cared who you were; these were armies both desperate to win and survive.

It was either death for you or death for me!

As Pu Dachui charged into the ranks, he roared and swung his iron hammer at a nearby Xi warrior. The Hu soldier, unaware of the power of those hammers, didn’t dodge and instead swung his sword. Pu Dachui deftly deflected the curved sword and then swung directly at the Xi warrior’s chest.

“Crack!”

“Pfft!”

The sound of broken ribs and gushing blood came one after another. The mighty Xi warrior’s vision instantly went dark after that strike, his body going limp as he fell off his horse.
But Pu Da Chui did not stop. Swinging and striking left and right, he knocked out five or six Yeluohe warriors in just a short while. In his killing frenzy, his hammer-wielding fury was so fierce that no one could withstand him!
“Come on, which bastard wants to fight with me, old man? Come on!”
Pu Da Chui laughed wildly, put away his hammer, drew a broken-bladed sword, and charged forward.
“Swish!”
“Swish!”
“General, be careful!”
One of his guards rushed over and raised a wooden shield to protect Pu Da Chui’s waist, only for two arrows to slam into it.
“Damn it! They dare to ambush me!”
This act by the Yeluohe completely enraged Pu Da Chui. He snatched a giant bow from a nearby guard, took a deep breath, and drew the bow to full tension.
“Swish!”
A silver-gray arrow was shot out swiftly, piercing through rows of heads and aiming straight at Ashina Baxie!
Ashina Baxie was terrified. He quickly threw away his bow andcrossbow, dodged to the side, and hid under his horse. Even so, his forearm was scratched by the arrow, causing him to groan in pain.
“Damn it! Kill him! Kill him!”
Furious, Ashina Baxie, with the help of his guards, climbed back onto his horse. This bloodthirsty monster issued a death order against Pu Da Chui.
With this order, the Yeluohe were determined to attack Pu Da Chui at all costs, until they either took his head or perished themselves.
“Heh, now you see how powerful Grandpa Pu is!”
Pu Da Chui smirked coldly and prepared to charge forward to fight against the Yeluohe.
“General Pu, the commander only wants you to weaken the Yeluohe’s morale, not to charge in alone!”
One of the guards rushed out to stop Pu Da Chui, seeing that he intended to fight to the death.
“That bunch of barbarian soldiers are nothing but weaklings. I don’t know how those idiots from Hedong made them sound so amazing. Those so-called Yeluohe are just trash in my eyes. There’s no need for the commander to intervene; my old hammer alone is enough to crush them into pieces.”
“Charge ahead and kill them all!”
Pu Da Chui led the charge, sending a gust of cold wind on either side.