Chapter 250: Guess
Editor: Atlas Studios
The atmosphere at the border suddenly became strange as West Xia and the Jin Kingdom went into war. West Xia accused the Jin Kingdom of violating the treaty and snatching their horses, and demanded they return them.
However, the Jin Kingdom retorted that West Xia had ambushed their guardhouse. As for the theft of the horses, they denied it entirely.
Because West Xia had lost something important, and that thing was related to the Jin Kingdom, they were especially guilty. They suspected that the Jin Kingdom had received intelligence and specially came to snatch the defensive map back.
The Third Prince of West Xia, who was tasked to bring the defensive map back, could only send people to investigate secretly while arguing with the Jin Kingdom. He firmly believed that the person who stole the horses that night was from the Jin Kingdom, or rather, their goal was not the horses at all, but the defensive map in the saddle.
Trying to mislead him by wearing the Great Zhou’s military uniform? The Third Prince, Li Ningling, sneered at the thought of that. Having just taken down Hanzhong Prefecture, Great Zhou was doing its best to hold on to the city. What reason did they have to provoke his country?
However, the Jin Kingdom suspected Great Zhou. Although the people who came to attack the guardhouse that day were wearing West Xia’s military uniform and using West Xia’s arrows, the soldiers who chased after them saw that some of the retreating people were wearing the Jin Kingdom’s military uniform.
However, they had never been able to find out who this group of soldiers was. The purpose of this inexplicable battle was clearly to make the Jin Kingdom and West Xia fight, so they felt that this was a trick of the Great Zhou.
However, just as this topic was raised, before they could discuss it in depth, they were angered by West Xia’s endless requests for the return of the stolen military horses. Moreover, it turned out the few captured West Xia spies were actually there to find those horses.
It was just a hundred horses or so. When did West Xia become so petty?
The Jin Kingdom wanted to investigate aggressively, but West Xia became even more careful. On the Hanzhong Prefecture’s side, after seeing his brother, Qi Xiuyuan did not investigate the authenticity of the defensive map first. Instead, he ordered the Hanzhong Prefecture to appear relaxed on the outside and tighten up defenses on the inside.
The defense outside did not change, but the soldiers of the 4th Division were secretly sent to Hanzhong Prefecture to observe the situation closely. Once there was a change, they would defend Hanzhong Prefecture.
Qi Haoran thought that his brother would punish him, but Qi Xiuyuan only told him to consider things more carefully in the future and left him alone.
Qi Haoran scratched his head and asked his brother, “Big Brother, do you think this map is real or fake?”
“We’ll know if it’s true or not.” Qi Xiuyuan said, “But now is not the time to fight. We have to strengthen our troops first. When the time comes, we’ll use Jingzhao Prefecture as an experiment.”
Qi Xiuyuan put away the map and brought his brother to his bedroom. He knocked open a hidden brick under the bed and revealed a small space. Then, he placed the box containing the map inside and said to him after coming out, “This is where I hide the confidential stuff. Other than this map, there’s only one commander’s seal. You have to remember it.”
Qi Haoran nodded.
At this moment, Fan Zijin, who had sent the horses to the horse farm, jumped up when he saw the horses living in the stable. He shouted angrily, “Qi Haoran, how dare you not tell me!”
Yanmo and the horse trainer were 30 feet away from Fan Zijin.
In the end, it was Yanmo who shrunk his head and went forward. “Young Master, Fourth Young Master might have forgotten because he was too busy. How do you think we should settle the horses we bought?”
“Settle them? Return them all! I don’t want them anymore.” Fan Zijin was so angry that he spun on the spot. “To think he bought the horses and didn’t tell me.” Fan Zijin paused and turned his head to ask, “Where did he get the money?”
Yanmo shook his head in a daze. “Could it be from Young Master Xiuyuan?”
“Impossible. It’s impossible for me not to know if Eldest Cousin gave him money.” Fan Zijin looked at the horses suspiciously and said, “Don’t tell me these are stolen?”
The horse trainer did not know the origins of these horses. He only knew how to raise horses. Therefore, when he saw Fan Zijin’s gaze, he immediately waved his hand and said, “Young Master Fan, I have no idea. I only know that these horses were sent over by Little General with the scout camp and his personal guards.”
“Who else?” Fan Zijin asked suspiciously when he thought of Mu Yangling, who had appeared in Hanzhong Prefecture a few days ago.
“Oh, there’s also Miss Mu.”
Fan Zijin lowered his head and fell into deep thought. Since the two of them were not rich, it was impossible for them to buy horses so quickly. A while ago, Haoran had pestered him to lend him money to buy the horses. Now, so many horses had appeared out of the blue…
Although he didn’t want to think about it, Fan Zijin still remembered the news about West Xia and the Jin Kingdom in the past few days. In just a few days, West Xia and the Jin Kingdom had fought a few battles at the border. Although the scale was small, Fan Zijin still heard that it was because of a batch of missing horses in West Xia.
Fan Zijin suppressed his temper and said, “Forget it. Send someone—no, never mind. Go get the soldiers from the 5th Division stationed in Hanzhong Prefecture to start building the horse shed. The weather is about to turn cold. If one of the 200 horses that I spent a lot of money to buy dies, I’ll get Qi Haoran to compensate!” Fan Zijin gritted his teeth at the end of his sentence.
Yanmo didn’t dare to say that these horses were originally for the Fourth Young Master anyway, so he could only agree. He turned around and ran off to give instructions.
When Qi Haoran returned to Hanzhong Prefecture from Xingzhou Prefecture and ran excitedly to the horse farm to see his horses, he saw the sulky Fan Zijin sitting at the door as a supervisor.
Qi Haoran ran over excitedly and boasted, “Zijin, I was just about to tell you that I have horses now.”
“Mm,” Fan Zijin replied indifferently. He raised his eyebrows and said, “I know. Wasn’t it me who sent them to you?”
Qi Haoran was stunned. Just as he was about to say that he had stolen these horses, Fan Zijin pulled him into the house. Only then did Fan Zijin snort. “Do you wish for more people to find out? It’s already very difficult for the Great Zhou to deal with the Jin Kingdom now, and now you even went to provoke West Xia.”
“Anyway, nothing we can do about it since you’ve already stolen the horses.” Fan Zijin said, “But this matter can’t be spread.”
Qi Haoran shouted, “It’s not as if I’m announcing it to everyone. I’m only telling you.” After saying that, he sighed and said, “That’s why I didn’t dare to tell anyone that there are horses in the horse farm now. Even the fodder has to be bought with Big Brother’s help. Otherwise, if I buy the fodder myself, everyone will know that there are horses in my horse farm.”
Fan Zijin snorted and said, “From now on, you can openly tell others that there are horses in your horse farm, but there are only 200 of them. You can slowly increase the number later.”
Qi Haoran widened his eyes. “Where did the horses come from?”
“I bought them.” At the thought of this, Fan Zijin got angry. “I originally wanted to give them to you as a birthday gift, but I’ve changed my mind now. I’m lending them to you.”
Qi Haoran chuckled and went forward to put his hand on his shoulder. “I know. It’s a gift for me. Thank you. Brother, let’s go and check out the horses you bought.”
The foals that Fan Zijin bought were much smaller than the foals that Qi Haoran had stolen. After all, he had bought them for Qi Haoran to raise, but the foals stolen by Qi Haoran were ones that West Xia was about to use.
However, Qi Haoran was still overjoyed to see so many horses.
Fan Zijin said, “Don’t rejoice too early. I think it will start to turn cold in a few days. You have to hurry up and build a horse shed. These foals can’t stand the cold.”
Qi Haoran cherished these foals more than him. He patted his chest and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely take good care of them.”