Chapter 423
"Father..." Lu Zhenghe's eldest son's eyes blazed with fury. He cut down the Qin family soldiers blocking him and tried to rush over, but Zhang Quan led soldiers to block him again.
The Chao soldiers surged over like madmen, as if trying to snatch food from a tiger's mouth and save Lu Zhenghe. But the Qin family soldiers had long wished to skin Lu Zhenghe alive and drink his blood. Now that they had finally wounded him, they naturally couldn't let the Chao soldiers rescue him. The Qin family soldiers also surrounded them.
Guaizai pulled out the long spear and stabbed again. "I stab, I stab, I stab stab stab."
When Jiang Zhanying heard the commotion and looked back, he saw Lu Zhenghe clutching his chest and falling.
He dodged sideways as Qin Hengyi's spear thrust toward him, then fell back behind the soldiers guarding him and stole another glance at Lu Zhenghe. Lu Zhenghe lay motionless on the ground. The kid stood beside him, completely unharmed.
He felt he had probably fought too fiercely with Qin Hengyi, his head heated to the point of confusion.
Look what he was seeing.
Lu Zhenghe had been taken down by a child.
How was that possible!
Earlier, it was precisely because Lu Zhenghe was a fierce general, known for his bravery and skill in battle, that he had gone all out to incite him to defect. But now...
He couldn't believe it at all. It was absurd, ridiculous.
However, now was not the time to be distracted.
The two armies fought for another shichen. The air was filled with flying dust and the stench of blood. Old General Qin's return greatly boosted the soldiers' confidence. They fought like they had no regard for their own lives. The Chao army had no choice but to retreat for the time being.
However, the Qin family soldiers didn't leave—Guaizai was still looking for his chicken.
But he couldn't find it. He didn't know if someone had picked it up or if it had been kicked somewhere in the chaos. Guaizai was dejected, running around the smoke-filled battlefield looking left and right for his chicken. He looked lonely and pitiful.
Old General Qin called him back and said with heartache, "When we get back, I'll kill another one for you, alright?"
Guaizai took off his underwear, his head drenched in sweat. The little hairs at his hairline had curled up, some stuck to his face, messy and tangled. He wiped his tears and sniffled. "That was boiled for me by Sister Tang. Guaizai didn't even get one bite. That grandpa is a bad guy. He kicked Guaizai's chicken. A big bad guy."
Old General Qin picked him up and wiped his sweat. "Mm! Right, he's a big bad guy."
"Grandpa, Guaizai got revenge for you." Guaizai brightened up again. "Guaizai stabbed him. He must be hurting too. Next time you see him, Grandpa, you don't have to be afraid he'll stab you again."
From the look on his little face, he probably didn't even realize he had stabbed the man to death.
Guaizai indeed didn't know, because Old General Qin had been stabbed in the chest too, but Old General Qin was fine. Guaizai had stabbed Lu Zhenghe three times, also in the chest.
Old General Qin didn't know what to say for a moment.
If he really saw Lu Zhenghe next time, he would probably be even more afraid.
---
On the way back to camp, the Qin family soldiers couldn't help but sneak glances at Guaizai.
They thought this little kid was really something else—he'd even stabbed their former Deputy General Lu. Sure, the man deserved to die a thousand times over, but everyone had assumed he'd either fall at the hands of Old General Qin or be cut down by Qin Hengyi. Instead, he'd died at the hands of a little kid.
If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, it would've been too absurd to believe. They wouldn't even dare imagine it.
Old General Qin had indeed been surprised at first, but then he remembered the kid's brute strength—one kick could send someone's teeth flying. So he figured Lu Zhenghe hadn't died unjustly. If an ordinary person took a kick from Guaizai, they probably wouldn't be able to get up at all. The fact that Lu Zhenghe didn't fall on the spot meant he was actually pretty tough.
Old General Qin's face crinkled with laughter. Now, looking at Guaizai, everything about the boy pleased him. Even his tramp-like bird's nest hair and the little curls sticking up on his forehead looked just right to him. Those little curls had curled their way right into his heart. How did this great-grandson of his turn out to be so exactly to his liking?
He looked at Guaizai and chuckled, and he hadn't stopped since. Qin Hengyi looked at him and felt like his father's chest was about to puff right up to the sky.
But it wasn't hard to understand. After all, Guaizai had taken down Lu Zhenghe the moment he stepped in. Now the Qin family army looked at Guaizai with pure admiration. Even he himself felt honored by association, let alone his father.
Guaizai had dark bruises in several places. Earlier, with thick clothes on, he still looked somewhat presentable. Now that he was stripped down, he was so small—really like a monkey.
Tang Daniang took medicinal wine and rubbed it on him. Guaizai grimaced in pain, tears welling up in his eyes, and while gnawing on a chicken leg, he said, "That grandpa is really tough. His hits hurt so much."
When he'd fought the big uncle from Beimang before, he hadn't gotten hurt at all. Now he'd been hit several times.
Qin Hengyi overheard and was speechless.
"Tough?"
No matter how tough he was, he still got stabbed to death by you.
Lu Zhenghe's way of dying was really quite pathetic.
Old General Qin patted his head with great satisfaction and asked if he was afraid of war.
Guaizai shook his head. "Fighting is bad. People die. But Father said if we don't resist, Da Xia will be destroyed and our people will be wiped out. To keep our people from being exterminated, we have to fight to the end. So Guaizai isn't afraid."
Old General Qin pinched his little cheek. "Then do you know why we fight?"
Guaizai felt he was being underestimated. "Yo! Asking that kind of question—how could Guaizai not know? Father told Guaizai. Guaizai knows. It's because the Chao Kingdom doesn't grow enough vegetables on their land, so they want to kill us all and steal our vegetable fields. The Chao Kingdom people are bad. They can't grow vegetables and won't think of a way themselves. Stealing other people's things is wrong. They're bad guys. Bad guys get beaten. Bad guys go to jail."
Old General Qin was momentarily at a loss for words. He felt there was some sense in that. His gaze darkened slightly as he looked quietly at Guaizai, then took his hand. "Your father taught you well."
Guaizai nodded, not embarrassed at all. "Grandpa, you don't get it. Guaizai is a good egg."
Old General Qin patted his little round belly and couldn't help but laugh.
---
Lu Zhenghe's body was brought back. Several men from the Lu family knelt beside his corpse, weeping bitterly.
Jiang Zhanying found it irritating and cursed them out. Cry, cry, cry — underestimating the enemy on the battlefield is a major taboo. Well, look what happened now. Dead.
But Lu Zhenghe's eldest son shook his head and said his father hadn't underestimated the enemy—the opponent was simply too strong.
That was boosting the enemy's morale and diminishing their own.
Jiang Zhanying was furious.
Lu Zhenghe's eldest son then told him about Guaizai.
Most Beimang people were brutes, but one had to admit—their fists were genuinely formidable.
When Guaizai was only six, he could already beat the Beimang people until they were howling on the ground. Now he was probably even more terrifying.
Old General Qin had often talked about Guaizai, saying he'd found a good seedling, but the kid didn't know a good thing when he saw it and wouldn't stay by his side to learn martial arts.
Lu Zhenghe had heard this so many times that he'd taken note. Even though the kid was small, Lu Zhenghe hadn't dared underestimate him.
Jiang Zhanying's face was dark as frost.
"Whose child is he?"
Lu Zhenghe's eldest son said, "He is the son of Fang Zichen, the top scholar of the thirty-sixth year of Wenjing."
Hearing this, Jiang Zhanying swept all the teacups off the table.
Brown tea water spilled across the floor. Lu Zhenghe's eldest son and several subordinates didn't dare speak.
How could he not be angry?
The son of a civil official who couldn't even truss a chicken — instead of staying home reciting the Three Character Classic and carrying on the family tradition, he'd run off to the border to kill enemies and had even taken out one of their senior generals. How could that not be terrifying?
At such a young age, he was already like this. He had to be eliminated early, or he would become a serious threat.
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