Chapter 382 It turns out that winter is so cold
Xiao Beiheng fled from Xuehe Village, fearing the Xirong army would pursue him, so he galloped for a while. Only when the sun rose high in the sky and the earth was covered in white, and he lost track of the direction, did he slow down his horse.
Su Mo leaned on his chest and saw that his hands holding the reins were frozen, so she pulled her cloak over to cover them.
However, Xiao Beiheng did not pay attention to Su Mo's actions. His heart was filled with frustration and fear, and he had no time to feel Su Mo's affection.
He turned back to look back and saw several groups of cavalry chasing him from afar. He was a little panicked for a moment, but when he realized that it was Lin Kui leading the Dingbei Army chasing him, he stopped and waited.
After all the people were gathered, Xiao Beiheng nodded and found that only more than 2,000 cavalrymen had caught up, and the rest were obviously in danger.
He was no longer as panicked as he had been when he fled Leshan City. His mind was much clearer. He said to Lin Kui, "If you can follow the hoof prints to catch up with me, then Qiang Lin can definitely do it too. Let's not stay here."
Lin Kui looked back at the chaotic horse hoof prints on the way there and said, "Your Majesty is right, but we can't go any further west. That would put us further away from the Anzhou reinforcements."
Xiao Beiheng was worried about his small number of soldiers and was afraid that Qiang Lin would come after them again. He said, "No, this place is still a little close to Xuehe Village. Let's go a little further."
The group walked west for a while, and the sun disappeared into the dark clouds again. Fine snowflakes fell from the sky, gradually covering the horseshoe prints.
Lin Kui looked at the position of the sun, caught up with Xiao Beiheng and said, "Your Majesty, it's already past noon, it's snowing, and the soldiers haven't eaten yet. Should we find a place to rest?"
Seeing the horse's hoof prints covered by the snow, Xiao Beiheng's nervousness subsided a little. He pointed to a forest ahead and said, "Okay, let's go rest in the forest."
Although the soldiers loyally followed Xiao Beiheng, they hadn't eaten since morning and had to trek through the snow and wind, which was extremely difficult. Upon hearing Xiao Beiheng's order, they all rushed into the woods and found a spacious place. Some went to chop wood and build a fire, while others used branches to build a simple tent for Xiao Beiheng to keep out the snow. The rest of them gathered around the fire to keep warm in the open air.
The heating problem was temporarily solved, but there was no food. Lin Kui took it upon himself to have the soldiers slaughter a few old and weak war horses, put snow in the iron helmets to melt it, and then cut the horse meat into pieces and boiled it.
Xiao Beiheng sat cross-legged at the entrance of the tent, staring blankly at the soldiers busying around in front of him.
He had never experienced such a life before. In the past, he was always surrounded by people and carriages. If he wanted something, he only had to raise his head and the clever servants would bring it to him.
Now he sat in a simple tent made of branches. He couldn't even straighten his back. If he straightened his back, the branches would hit his head. The ground was too cold to sit on, so he could only fold up a few cloaks and use them as a cushion.
After living for so many years, he only now realized how cold winter can be.
He was clearly the emperor, so why did he end up like this?
He was lost in thought when Su Mo came over with a branch on which were several pieces of steaming horse meat. She came in front of him, squatted down, handed him the branch, and said with a smile:
"Your Majesty, this is the meat I cooked myself. Please enjoy your meal."
Xiao Beiheng took the branch, opened his mouth and tore off a piece of meat. It was tough and hard to chew, and it also had a strange smell of hair. It was as disgusting as it could be.
He looked at the fire in the distance and realized that the meat was cooked in the sergeant's helmet. His face changed. Seeing Su Mo looking at him with a smile, he became even more furious. He spat out the meat and threw the branch away.
Su Mo got up and ran after him to pick up the branch, brushed off the snow on the meat, put it back in the pot, and took another bunch of hot meat over. She said in a gentle voice: "Bei Heng, eat something, otherwise how will you have the energy to fight when the enemy soldiers come after you?"
Xiao Beiheng wanted to get angry. The food in Xuehe Village wasn't good before, but it was human food after all. Now this horse meat was simply unpalatable.
The soldiers were all around him, and considering his status, he finally suppressed his anger and shook his head, saying, "I'm not hungry."
Su Mo knew that he just couldn't stand the taste of the meat, so she took a bite of it herself, frowning and chewing hard.
She was also from a prominent family and had never eaten such coarse food since she was a child. She almost wanted to vomit, but finally forced herself to swallow it down and said to Xiao Beiheng with a smile: "Beiheng, look, I've eaten it all, you should have a piece too."
Xiao Beiheng glanced at her and said, "You're lying. Such a disgusting thing...you must have vomited it secretly."
Su Mo smiled and opened her mouth and said, "I ate it in front of you. Look, I really swallowed it."
Before Xiao Beiheng could speak, Su Mo's expression suddenly changed. She protected her clothes on her chest with her hands, lowered her head and dry-heaved twice. Then, she vomited out all the minced meat that she had just forced herself to swallow.
"Who told you to show off?" Xiao Beiheng snatched the branch from Su Mo's hand and patted her on the back. "Don't eat yet. Drink some hot water to warm yourself up. Horse meat is not fatty and needs to be cooked for a long time before it can be chewed."
Su Mo blushed and said, "I want you to eat something quickly..."
Xiao Beiheng raised his hand to stop her from continuing, listened attentively, then picked up the precious carved bow and quiver and stood up.
Su Mo thought that the Western Rong soldiers were coming. She stood up nervously and looked around, saying, "Bei Heng, should we call everyone to alert?"
Xiao Beiheng didn't answer, but suddenly drew his bow and shot an arrow. Su Mo followed the arrow's path and saw something fall from a tree in the distance. Lin Kui stood up and ran over to investigate. In the blink of an eye, he emerged from the bushes holding a dead pheasant and shouted, "Your Majesty, a divine arrow."
There was a pheasant's nest in the woods. The crowds and noise scared the pheasants out and they flew out to the branches and cackled. Xiao Beiheng heard them and shot them down with an arrow.
Su Mo was overjoyed and asked the soldiers to pluck the pheasant, drain its feathers, bleed it and cut it into pieces. She personally used melted snow to boil the chicken, and after it was cooked, she served it to Xiao Beiheng.
Xiao Beiheng ate two pieces of chicken. Although it had no salt or seasoning, it still tasted delicious. He called Su Mo and said, "Momo, come and have dinner with me." Su Mo happily agreed and sat down next to him.
The two of them sat around the fire and ate a whole pheasant.
Su Mo was not hungry and felt warm. Seeing that Xiao Beiheng's expression had also eased, she couldn't help but feel happy and said, "Sister-in-law said that she and Big Brother had eaten pheasant before when they were down and out..."
She had just said one sentence when she noticed Xiao Beiheng's face darken. Knowing that she shouldn't say that, she quickly stopped talking.
Both of them stared at the bonfire in front of them silently, speechless for a moment.
After a while, Su Mo spoke first, saying, "Your Majesty... victory and defeat are common in war. As long as we meet up with my father later, we can make a comeback."
"Do you want me to win?" Xiao Beiheng asked.
Su Mo was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "I'm your wife, how could I not want you to win? But... do we have to fight to the death with Big Brother? Can't we reconcile with him?"
Xiao Beiheng sneered, "Impossible. He sent Qiang Lin to hunt me down, clearly intending to kill me."
"Brother is not that kind of person..."
"What do you know? He didn't come after me personally because he was afraid of ruining his reputation." Xiao Beiheng said, "I once pushed him into a desperate situation. He wants me dead more than anyone else."
The sound of horses neighing could be heard from far away outside the woods. The soldiers who were eating and drinking stood up and looked outside the woods. Xiao Beiheng also stood up alertly.
A soldier who was in charge of monitoring outside the woods ran into the woods and shouted, "Your Majesty, Xi..." Before he could finish the rest of the words, an arrow flew from afar and shot the man to the ground.
The soldiers on the open ground were in chaos. They threw away the horse meat they had only eaten a few bites of, and hurriedly picked up their weapons and saddled their horses.
Xiao Beiheng caught sight of the Qiang flag that flickered in and out of view in the forest and shouted angrily, "Qiang Lin, you haunting creature."
He had previously captured Qiang Lin, but now the situation was reversed: he became the prey and Qiang Lin the hunter. He couldn't even eat a meal in peace.
This huge gap made him furious and filled with determination. He mounted his black horse and rushed towards the oncoming army, determined to kill Qiang Lin.
Qiang Lin rushed into the woods first, and Xiao Beiheng rode his horse to meet him.
"Xiao Beiheng!"
"Qianglin!"
The two recognized each other from afar, like enemies meeting each other with envy. Xiao Beiheng's precious carved bow had a longer range than ordinary bows. He first drew his bow and shot an arrow towards the Qiang forest. However, the arrow was caught by a tree in the dense forest.
Taking advantage of the moment when Xiao Beiheng drew his arrow, Qiang Lin led his horse to rush to the side, avoiding the obstruction of many tree trunks, and created a gap to shoot an arrow.
Xiao Beiheng thought Qiang Lin was shooting at him and quickly dodged the arrow, but he didn't expect it to be aimed at Wu Zhui. Although Wu Zhui was a majestic horse, it didn't know how to dodge an arrow. In a flash, the arrow had already penetrated Wu Zhui's left leg.
Wuzhui let out a long neigh, knelt down on its front hooves, and threw Xiao Beiheng off the saddle.
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