Chapter Ninety-Two: The Escort’s Battle of Self-Defense, Conclusion

The air was thick with nauseating blood. Dozens of innocent horses lay scattered on the ground, their great bodies collapsed in pools of crimson. From time to time they snorted softly, and now and then a weak whinny escaped them. Some even seemed to struggle to inspect their own wounds, twisting their heads as far as they could, only to tear at the injuries along their flanks and thrash their limbs in agony. Yet even then they still stared with stubborn eyes. After a final bout of struggle, they could do no more than lie exhausted in the blood. Those wide, unwilling eyes slowly lost their luster beneath the sunlight, then gradually closed.

Several carriages had been shattered into a litter of parts by the cavalry assault. The surviving drivers dragged their bodies, barely recovered from disaster, and trembled as they tried to piece them back together. But the damage was too severe. After a while, they could only slump down in dejection. Only two older drivers remained unwilling to give up, still muttering under their breaths, casting occasional glances at the corpses around them as though cursing the cavalry that had just gone by.

A total of sixty-four men and sixty-four warhorses had been involved. After the battle, only thirty-six horses survived, and not a single cavalryman was left alive. Even after the fighting ended, in order to prevent word from leaking out, Ding Li and the others mercilessly silenced the riders who had not quite died yet.

Bodies covered the ground. The losses for Miao's Escort Agency were heavy as well. Aside from Zhang Mazi and Li Huzi, who had already died earlier, eleven more men were killed on the spot. Their total dead was barely more than half of the agency's full escort party on this trip.

The people from Huo Family Ridge fared somewhat better, especially the ten expert horse archers. Because they had been killing enemies from the outer perimeter, none of them even suffered a minor injury. Of the six men who had followed Huo Lang, three were dead and three wounded, one of them seriously. This was mainly because of Huo Lang's earlier misjudgment in command, which had caused heavy losses during the first arrow volley.

Next, Ding Li and the others faced two problems. The first was how to deal with so many bodies. Not the enemy dead, of course, but the thirteen slain escorts. Unlike the men from Huo Family Ridge, these escorts had homes in the local area; they were not lone drifters with no one to answer to. Huo Lang immediately took the remaining brothers into a nearby grove, dug a large pit, and buried the fallen comrades on the spot.

But Miao Cuihua could not treat her own men that way. Those escorts all had families here. At the very least, their relatives needed an explanation. The living must be shown the living, and the dead the dead. After Miao Cuihua, Li Shan, and the two escort chiefs nicknamed Scar Wei discussed the matter, and since the cargo no longer needed to be escorted, they decided to take the bodies of their fallen brothers back to Fuxu Town and make arrangements for the funerals as soon as possible.

Then they suddenly remembered that Ding Li was still traveling with the escort party. After a great deal of fuss and by the time the evening sun had already risen above the mountain peak, Miao Cuihua decisively slapped the matter closed. They would find a place nearby to camp for the night, then part ways with Ding Li at dawn.

This decision somewhat moved Ding Li. The fighting just now had reopened his old injuries, and having a few more people around to look after him was no bad thing. Besides, Scar Wei in the escort party was half a doctor, and they had medical supplies in abundance. Even if Ding Li rode on alone at this hour, by the time he reached Guangzhou Prefecture it would certainly be dark, the city gates would already be closed, and he would still have to sleep outdoors for the night.

Huo Lang, the second-in-command of Huo Family Ridge, had no interest in staying with them out in the wilderness. Though the cargo from several carriages had been combined, which would add nearly half again as much time to the journey, he still cited the mountain stronghold's chief as anxiously awaiting news. After checking the goods, he took the carriages and set off with his men, taking the surviving drivers with him as well. He said that only after the cargo had been safely returned to the stronghold would he hand out the golden leaves Ding Li had promised as payment.

Before leaving, Huo Lang did something that shocked Ding Li and the others even more. He generously left behind a chest full of gold and silver as thanks. Although his own men had suffered grievous casualties, he understood all the more clearly that without Ding Li and the others, he not only would have failed to carry off these valuables, he himself would have fallen into the middle-aged steward's trap as well.

After Ding Li and the others finished dressing their wounds, they dragged the corpses from the battlefield into a nearby grove and cut branches to conceal them. Then the more than ten people left standing mounted their horses with weary bodies, and followed the stream for nearly half an hour. Only after the smell of blood in their noses and mouths gradually faded did they finally stop and rest where they were.

"Escort Chief Li, you make the arrangements," Miao Cuihua said after dismounting. She turned to Li Shan, the chief escort, clearly not skilled at setting up a camp stove in the wilderness. Though she managed a large escort agency, she probably did not often personally deliver shipments, much less travel such long distances that required frequent nights under the open sky.

"Don't worry, boss. You and Brother Ah Li just rest," Li Shan said heartily, as if he had already stepped out of the shadow cast by the deaths of his escorts. Or perhaps his smile was meant for Ding Li's sake. Then he called loudly to Scar Wei, who had not yet dismounted. "Hey! Scar! How's your leg? Still usable? We need to get some food!"

"Hmph! It's only a scratch!" Scar Wei drew himself up proudly in the saddle and shot Li Shan a sidelong glance. Naturally he understood what the other man meant. He then waved at the two escorts who had just dismounted and were sitting on the ground wanting to rest. "Come with me. The river is downstream not far ahead. Let's catch a few fish, and see if we can hunt something wild for a change of taste!"

"Exactly, exactly! We even searched a bit of good liquor off those thieves' wagon just now!" Li Shan quickly raised a hand to stop Scar Wei from moving his mount. Smiling, he told him, "The brothers are all worn out today. Best if we get some wild game to go with the wine and calm our nerves. Then we'll sleep more comfortably tonight!"

"Got it. Hurry and build the stove!" Scar Wei seemed a little impatient. Without turning back, he tossed out the words, nudged his stirrups, and urged his horse away.

Ding Li was no stranger to what Scar Wei meant by building the stove. Dig a few holes in a clear patch of ground, pile on the dry branches brought back by the escorts, set up a sturdy frame around them with thicker sticks, then hang an iron pot washed clean in the stream from the middle. Light the fire, and pot after pot of sweet stream water would soon be boiling.

"Ah Li, thank you so much," Miao Cuihua said as well. She had not been idle at all. She showed none of the airs of a woman who ran an escort agency. In fact, the fire pit before them had been built by her own hands. Then she sat there staring blankly at the leaping flames and softly thanked Ding Li beside her.

"It's all over now, Sister Miao. No need to be so polite. You've thanked me more than ten times already along the road," Ding Li said with a faint shake of his head. There was the same bitter smile at the corner of his mouth as there was on Miao Cuihua's, and his gaze remained fixed on the crackling campfire before him.

"Ah... thirteen brothers. Thirteen of them, just gone like that..." Miao Cuihua turned her head slightly to look at the bodies laid out on the carriages nearby. Tears glimmered in her eyes, and her voice began to break without her meaning to. Then, seeming to realize how unseemly she looked, she hurriedly sniffed, wiped the corners of her eyes, and turned back to Ding Li with an embarrassed glance. In a low voice she explained, "Actually... actually, this is the first time I've ever faced something like this. Before, even if a brother got into trouble, it was always Escort Chief Li and Scar Wei who came back to tell me. All I could do each time was compensate their families as best I could and try to handle their funerals properly. But... but today, after seeing it with my own eyes, I... I can no longer even imagine how I'll face their families tomorrow..."

As she spoke, Miao Cuihua's tears fell again of their own accord. Ding Li beside her was suddenly at a loss. He was no stranger to hardship, but life and death had long since become familiar to him. After a moment's hesitation, he could only nod helplessly, not knowing what he could say to comfort her.

Miao Cuihua bowed her head and sobbed for a long while before raising it again. Her expression was terribly complicated, though the tears were gone from her eyes. In the firelight, only the faint traces of tears remained visible on her face. Ding Li still did not know what he could say or do to comfort her, and could only sigh inwardly.

Before long, the water in the iron pot had come to a boil. Li Shan quickly called the others over to drink some hot water and recover their strength. Then he brought out the spoils from several leather waterskins. But after seeing the sorrow that flickered like a shadow behind the campfire in Miao Cuihua's face, Li Shan, who was usually straightforward and hearty, froze for a moment. He then turned to glance at the brothers "sleeping" on the carriages, and his expression instantly grew solemn as well. Tossing the leather waterskins aside, he walked over and sat down beside Miao Cuihua.

"Boss, don't grieve too much. The brothers earn their living from this line of work. They long ago put life and death aside. What happened today isn't your fault either. After all, after all..." As he spoke, Li Shan's voice grew quieter. Especially when he saw the tears welling again in Miao Cuihua's eyes, he became so anxious that his face flushed red. Only then did he realize that his words had stirred up her feelings again. After all, this escort run had not been carried out according to proper rules, and the reason it had come to this situation could not be separated from Miao Cuihua's momentary greed.

"Chief Escort Li, how are your injuries?" Seeing this, Ding Li understood that Li Shan had not meant to say such things, and his heart moved. He hurriedly opened his mouth to help him out, deliberately changing the subject while looking at the bandages on the man's body.

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing. Just minor injuries. I'm used to them. It's no big deal!" At first Li Shan was a little dazed, but when he saw Ding Li constantly blinking at him, he immediately understood the other's good intentions. After shaking his head and answering in his usual rough style, he tried to steer the conversation elsewhere as well. But after thinking it over, he could not come up with anything to say. Then he suddenly noticed the wounds Scar Wei had bandaged on Ding Li just now, and no longer cared whether he might be crossing a line. He blurted out, "Brother Ah Li! I remember you weren't injured, so why was Scar Wei bandaging you up just now, and why were there so many wounds?"

"Oh? Those... uh..." Ding Li was also startled. In the fighting just now, he really had not been injured at all. Not even the scrape from leaping down from horseback had torn his clothes. The new clothes he had changed into that morning were only a little dirty, with no rips at all. Yet they were covered in blood, some from the enemies, some from old wounds that had reopened and stained them. Moreover, when Scar Wei treated Ding Li's injuries, everyone had seen it clearly: at least five wounds had been bandaged, and they were the kind that had gone quite deep.

At this question, even Miao Cuihua turned her gaze over, staring blankly at Ding Li, afraid of missing even a single word of his answer.

Ding Li had originally intended to make the excuse that no one had noticed him being injured in the chaos, but with his clothes still perfectly intact from head to toe, he ruled that lie out in his heart before it even left his lips. Not to mention that the two people beside him were not fools.

"To be honest with you both, these injuries were left over from before," Ding Li said after a moment's thought, deciding it was no longer worth inventing excuses. After all, he had fought alongside them and shared life and death with them, and if he kept hiding the truth now, then when it eventually came out he himself would find it hard to justify. Having made up his mind, he no longer concealed anything and poured out the truth at once. "Sister Miao and Chief Escort Li are both people of the martial world. You should have heard of the Nanhai Gang, shouldn't you?"

After the two of them nodded as if it were only natural, Ding Li continued in all seriousness, "I am Ding Li of the Nanhai Gang."