After being led up by Granny Lu, Xu Zhi lay down on the warm kang (heated brick bed). Before she could fall asleep, Granny Lu woke her up and made her eat a bowl of hot noodles. After eating, she lay back down and actually fell asleep.

When she woke up again, the room was brightly lit. For a moment, Xu Zhi didn't know where she was. It was like a dream. It took her a while to come to her senses. She found that there was no one in the room. She got up, dressed, and went out of the room. She stood at the door with her arms around the door frame and found that there was no one in the yard either.

Xu Zhi's heart immediately panicked. She called out "Mother" a few times, but no one answered. She called out a few more times, and then she heard someone calling from the front yard: "Ninth Miss, is Ninth Miss awake? Don't be afraid, Granny is coming right away."

It was Granny Lu. Xu Zhi saw Granny Lu rushing over from the front yard in a hurry. Xu Zhi quickly stepped forward, hugged Granny Lu's waist, her eyes filled with tears, her lips pouting, and she complained in a coquettish tone, "Granny, where have you been? I didn't see you when I woke up, and I was really scared."

Granny Lu said with a smile, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. I'm in the front yard. The eldest young master has returned, and he brought a lot of things with him. We're all watching the excitement in the front yard."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhi exclaimed with delight, "Brother's back! Granny, may I come over and see him?"

Xu Zhi is already seven years old. She has to ask her nanny about many things. She will only do what the nanny says she can do, and if the nanny says she can't do something, she will refrain from doing it even if she really wants to. Xu Di feels sorry for his younger sister and wants to tell her not to worry about these things and to do what she wants first. However, he also thinks that Xu Zhi is a native of this area and will continue to live here in the future. There are some rules that must be followed. Since that's the case, he might as well teach her these rules from a young age so that she won't be laughed at later because of her bad manners.

Granny Lu said, "Of course you can, why not? Come on, Granny Lu will take you there."

Xu Zhi followed Granny Lu to the front yard, where she saw many curved knives used by people from the grasslands, ornaments they wore, and even some other odds and ends laid out on the ground.

Seeing Xu Zhi approach, Xu Di quickly came over, took Xu Zhi's hand, and said, "Little Jiu, were you scared last night? But it's okay, your brother has already avenged you. Those people who came to bully us are all gone. Your brother and his men have kept them here. Look, these are all spoils of war."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhi looked at Xu Di with great admiration and said, "Brother, you're so amazing! How did you manage to keep them all here?"

The courtyard was full of his own family members. Xu Di said, "They went to the manor first yesterday, but luckily we were prepared and they didn't catch us off guard. We used the tripwires we had prepared to trip the group of more than ten horsemen. After that, things were easier. Several uncles from the manor helped us tie them all up. Several people from Zhangjiazhuang were injured, but fortunately, they were not seriously hurt. Then we rode their horses here and happened to run into Brother Wei and his men who had come to reinforce us after hearing the news. We intercepted them."

Xu Di spoke lightly, but everyone could imagine the danger he was facing. The people of the grasslands were strong, fierce, skilled in riding and archery, and had strong individual combat capabilities. Five of the men Xu Di led were wounded, and they had already been bandaged and were lying in the front yard.

Xu Zhi looked at Xu Di with concern and asked, "Brother, are you alright?"

Xu Di said, "No, look, I'm not injured. I'm perfectly fine. We've really struck it rich this time. We've kept all those warhorses. I'll think about it carefully later and see if we can get those warhorses to have foals. Xiao Jiu, when they have foals, I'll keep a good one for you."

Xu Di, who was already racing ahead on the path of planting, began to think that raising livestock was also a pretty good thing. Why not open a horse farm here? It's close to the grassland, and there's a place to graze the horses. Besides, the wheat straw and corn stalks harvested from the farmland are good fodder. The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, so Xu Di started to think about opening a horse farm.

Xu Rao and Zhang Zhaoci returned home together. As soon as they entered the house, they saw such a large scene in the front yard. Although the county town was very quiet last night, there were sneak attacks outside the city, even outside the city gates, especially the north and south gates. Fortunately, they had made sufficient preparations to deal with it, so the city gates were not breached. Even so, the soldiers defending the city suffered casualties.

Wei Lang just came over and mentioned that this raid was well-prepared, unlike those who burn, kill, loot, and run away. The groups of people who came were very disciplined, and the warhorses they rode and the weapons they used were of excellent quality. Ordinary grassland tribes do not have such good equipment.

After cleaning up the battlefield and holding a debriefing meeting, Xu Rao and Zhang Zhaoci finally returned home.

Zhang Zhaoci was still wearing the same men's clothes she had worn the night before, now covered in bloodstains, some even on her face. Xu Rao looked haggard and was covered in dirt, it was unclear where the dirt had gotten from.

When Xu Zhi saw her parents return, she ran over, threw herself into Zhang Zhaoci's arms, pouted, and said, "Mom, I missed you so much."

Zhang Zhaoci patted Xu Zhi's head and said, "It's all in the past, it's all in the past, it won't happen again."

Xu Rao looked at his clothes, sighed, and said, "Little Jiu, can you hug Daddy too?"

Xu Zhi was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but her eyes were still red. She went over and hugged Xu Rao's waist. Xu Rao sighed with satisfaction and said, "It's finally over. Daddy has seen our Xiao Jiu again. Okay, Daddy and Mommy will go wash up first."

This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!