The Northern Barbarians suffered heavy losses this time.

The city gates were not breached, and they were opened the next day. People coming and going were mostly locals. If it weren't for the bloodstains still being cleaned up inside and outside the city gates, no one would have imagined that such a terrifying battle had taken place the night before.

Xu Di remained busy with his agricultural business, but he also devoted his energy to his studies. He made time to read the books required for the imperial examinations. Xu Di had already passed the preliminary examination and the next step was to take the county-level examination, but he would have to go to the capital to take it. Xu Di didn't want to leave Hexi right now. He felt that he had more important things to do. He could put the county-level examination aside for now and take it when things were going well here. Xu Di knew very well that if he wanted to go higher, he had to stand in front of more people. Xu Di's plan for his future was to steadily pass the imperial examinations, then take the examination for the junior official, spend a few years in the Hanlin Academy, and then find a job after leaving the academy.

Xu Di was very confident in himself. He was a studious person with many years of experience in studying and taking exams, so he was quite confident that he could get good results.

Besides learning etiquette from Granny Lu, Xu Zhi now devotes more energy to cooking. Xu Zhi isn't someone who values ​​enjoyment; her past experiences of hunger have made her very devout about food. No matter what kind of food it is, Xu Zhi enjoys it. So, when she was learning cooking from Sister He and learning to make various soups and snacks under Granny Lu's guidance, Xu Zhi studied very seriously, and the things she made were quite delicious. Granny Lu even told Zhang Zhaoci behind her back, "Our Ninth Miss isn't very proficient in anything else, but she studies cooking very seriously and has quite a talent for it."

Granny Lu was actually a little unhappy. Although Xu Rao was a son of a concubine from the Marquis's family, he was a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) in two examinations. With the background of the Marquis's family, Xu Zhi's future husband's family would not be of low status, and she might even become a member of the royal family. Granny Lu wanted to cultivate Xu Zhi in this direction. However, after so long, Granny Lu felt that Xu Zhi's expectations of herself were too low. Granny Lu thought that Xu Zhi was probably slow to learn anything and was not a smart person. Who knew that she would show such talent when learning cooking?

In families of standing, it's enough for the wife to have a few signature dishes; there's really no need for her to learn a whole host of culinary skills.

The more Xu Zhi learned, the happier she felt being in the kitchen. Watching the ingredients transform into delicious food in her hands gave her a great sense of accomplishment. The more she learned, the more interested she became in cooking, and the more interested she became, the more she wanted to learn.

Xu Zhi wished she could stay in the kitchen all day. Now, Granny Lu had limited Xu Zhi's time in the kitchen, earnestly advising her to focus her energy on learning manners and other talents. Perhaps she really had no interest. Xu Zhi's manners were passable, but as for other things, such as playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, and tea, they were really just so-so.

For Hexi, this small border town, war is actually a very common thing. There are several wars every year. Many military households live in this area. They farm in peacetime and become soldiers who go to the battlefield to fight the enemy in wartime. The women here are also stronger than the women in the Central Plains. They even go to the city walls to fight against the invading enemy.

These are all things that Xu Zhi heard He Saozi say while she was cooking in the kitchen with her.

Sister He was born and raised in this Hexi County. She had experienced many wars, big and small. Several times, the Northern Di people broke through the city gates from the rear, burning, killing, and looting in this small county town, and then rode away like the wind. The people of Hexi slowly picked up the pieces and gradually recovered. No matter what happened, no matter what they went through, life always had to move forward, didn't it? It was because of this that the people here became resilient. They had no choice but to be resilient. In such a large county town, which family hadn't lost a few people because of the Northern Di? Which family hadn't had their things stolen by the Northern Di?

Xu Zhi loved listening to Sister He tell the history of this small county. When Sister He talked about those cruel wars, her voice was completely flat, as if she were talking about something quite ordinary. Every time Xu Zhi heard this, she felt a pang of sadness, but she was still willing to listen. Xu Zhi felt that hearing more about the past would remind people of the suffering they had endured and make them more aware of their present lives. Hexi County was now a prosperous place, but behind this prosperity, many people had to make great efforts and even sacrifices.

Granny Lu often listened to Sister He talk about those things. Granny Lu thought it would be good for Xu Zhi to hear them. Although the child was young, there were many things she should know. Even if she didn't understand or comprehend the reasons behind them, she still needed to know about these things that had happened.

After Xu Di locked himself in the backyard and busied himself for a few days, he went to the manor. The stones and branches that had been used to block the Northern Di people on the road had been cleared away. Some bloodstains could still be seen nearby, left from the battle that night. Ma Ming later told him that the Northern Di people were all riding horses. When they arrived, several of them were tripped by the tripwires in front, and then the stones and branches behind forced those who had crossed the tripwires to dismount. Once they were off their horses, they lost their advantage and were surrounded and annihilated by the soldiers.

Many of the garrison at Yanmen Pass were wounded, but thankfully no one died. This was Ma Ming's greatest joy. Those wounded could recover with proper care and survive. Once healed, they could fight side-by-side again. They were comrades, having faced life and death together; no one wanted to see their comrades sacrifice themselves in the war before their eyes, even though they were prepared to die. Xu Di returned from his stay at the manor after a few days. He reported that the people at the manor were fine, but in Zhangjia Village, several people had died and several others were injured, some slightly, some seriously. The atmosphere in the village was somber, and everyone was depressed. Xu Di had brought some medicine with him. The village head, who had only suffered minor injuries, wanted to treat Xu Di well. He feared that without Xu Di's presence that night, many more people in the village would have been injured or even killed.

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