Chapter Four: The Cavalry Saber and the Lance

He passed beyond the five front rooms and made his way to the back courtyard.

It was the same kind of yard, enclosed by a fence, only much smaller than the front one.

The most eye-catching thing was the thatched shed standing in the middle, where a number of farming tools, slag, coke, finished iron goods, and raw ore were piled together.

Outside the shed stood a furnace built of earth bricks, and the fire within had already gone cold.

The old man was crouched in front of it, tidying up the slag.

Clearly, this was a small blacksmith’s workshop, and the place where the old man most liked to spend his time.

“Grandpa, Grandma says it’s time for dinner,” Li Xiao said as he approached.

“Got it. I’ll come after I finish cleaning up,” the old man replied, lifting his head to glance at him with a slight nod.

The old man was the chief of Hexi Fort, though now that he was old, he had handed most matters over to Li Xiao’s father and preferred to stay home making iron.

The farm tools used on the fields of Hexi Fort, as well as the weapons carried by the young and strong when they went into battle, were basically all made by the old man and his few old companions.

He was a man of few words, with no especially distinctive features. In his younger days he had been a tall and powerfully built fellow, but with age he had shrunk into a thin, ordinary old man.

Of course, the most striking thing about him was the scar on his face.

It ran from the left side of his forehead diagonally all the way to his right cheek, nearly splitting his entire face in two. It was truly frightening.

Fortunately, Li Xiao and his brothers had grown up looking at that face, so they never found it strange.

Only later did he learn that the old man had been wounded by a desperate counterattack from a Naiman hundred-man captain during a battle against the Naiman people.

In that fight alone, the old man had personally killed no fewer than ten Naiman warriors.

In his youth, the old man had indeed been something fierce.

“Grandpa, is my blade finished?” Li Xiao asked, looking at the old man, his tone tinged with excitement.

Because it was not the busy season, and the able-bodied men of Hexi Fort had long since gone off to war, there was no need for weapons at the moment.

Yet Grandma had clearly said just now that the old man had been clanging away at iron all day.

So there was no doubt about it: the old man had been forging a blade for him.

“Yes, it’s done,” the old man said.

“It’s on the table. Go take a look and see if it suits you.”

As always, his tone was calm.

He had always been like this, rarely smiling. When dealing with Li Xiao and the other grandchildren, he was a little gentler; although he did not smile much, he was not overly stern.

Li Xiao’s father and second uncle had it much worse. Even though they were both burly men in their thirties and forties, one glare from the old man would leave their legs trembling.

Li Xiao hurried over to the table. Among the many sickles, axes, maces, and other weapons laid out there, he immediately recognized his own blade.

Its appearance was not ornate, but beneath the sunset glow of crimson clouds, its edge gave off a sharp, unmistakable glint.

It was a peerless good blade.

Li Xiao could not wait to take it into his hands, and he could clearly feel the lingering warmth of the forge still on the steel.

Fresh from the fire.

He lightly flicked the blade with a finger, and at once heard a clear, ringing note.

Li Xiao smiled in satisfaction and liked the blade very much.

With this in hand, he could finally feel a measure of safety in this unfamiliar and dangerous world.

“I’ve been smithing for more than forty years, and I’ve forged countless blades and swords,” the old man said.

“But this is the first time I’ve forged such an unusual blade.”

After clearing away the slag, the old man slowly stood up and walked over to Li Xiao.

His gaze fell upon the blade in Li Xiao’s hand, and he shook his head silently.

Because the shape of the blade was somewhat unusual, and since this was the first time the old man had ever forged one like it, he had spent quite a bit of effort on it.

In this era, the two main kinds of battle blades in use were straight swords and curved sabers.

The standard straight sword was naturally the Tang-style horizontal blade of the Central Plains, also the most widely used blade in the army.

Its blade was long, with a hilt meant for two hands. It could cleave and thrust, possessed great killing power, and was especially suited to infantry combat.

As for the curved saber, it was represented by the broad-bladed short sabers used by certain nomadic peoples of Central Asia, with a pronounced curve in the blade.

The blade was short and suited to one-handed use.

When a warhorse charged, the curve near the tip could easily slash through an enemy’s flesh.

But the blade Li Xiao had asked to have forged was different from both.

It seemed to combine the strengths of the straight sword and the curved saber.

It retained the length of the straight blade, making close combat easier, while discarding the straight edge and instead giving the blade a certain curve.

In this way it absorbed the advantages of the saber, allowing it to cut swiftly through an enemy’s body and avoid being caught on bone.

He had also added a hand guard at the hilt.

The benefit of this was not only to protect the back of the hand in battle, but more importantly to prevent blood from running down the hilt or the blade from being flung away if his grip weakened.

In short, Li Xiao was extremely pleased with this blade.

The old man’s craftsmanship was beyond question. Li Xiao had merely described his requirements once, and the old man had truly made it exactly as he wanted.

“Grandpa, though this blade looks a little strange, it’s extremely lethal. In mounted close combat, the enemy might not even get a second chance to strike.”

Li Xiao wiped the blade with a wet cloth and was already planning to make a proper scabbard for it out of wood tomorrow.

Like a child who had just received a new toy, he liked it to death and wanted to sleep hugging it.

“Just one real battle, and you’ll understand how formidable it is.”

“And this is a battle blade I designed specifically for cavalry. There is nothing else like it in the world.”

“We should give it a name. The Li Family Blade? Hexi Blade? Or should we just use my name and call it the Great Dragon Blade?” Li Xiao said enthusiastically.

In truth, the design of the blade had been copied from later generations by him.

Because this was precisely the type of cavalry saber commonly used by cavalry units in later times.

The blade was heavy, narrow, and long, with a pronounced curve and a sharp point, ideal for wrist-driven strikes; a deep groove ran along the blade spine half an inch from the back edge, meant to let blood drain downward.

In his previous life, Li Xiao had been an officer in a frontier cavalry unit. Besides his spear, the weapon he always carried at hand was this kind of cavalry blade.

So when he decided to forge a weapon for himself, the first thing that came to mind was this cavalry saber.

It had been tested over hundreds of years, refined through trial and error by countless nations in later ages, and finally shaped into the form best suited for cavalry warfare.

It survived through the First World War, the Second World War, and even in cavalry units of the new era, this same kind of blade was still being used.

Its enduring history proved its excellence and its suitability for the cavalry battlefield.

What reason did Li Xiao have not to use it?

Holding the blade in his hand, as if the skills from his former life had been copied into this body, Li Xiao deftly spun a blade flower.

The edge sliced through the air with a whistling sound.

Li Xiao believed it could just as easily sever an enemy’s head.

“Call it whatever you like. But if you use it against cavalry, the enemy may not give you many chances to draw it,” the old man said in a deep voice.

Because of the scar on his face, the old man was always sparing with words and not fond of smiling. After all, when he did smile, he did indeed look rather frightening.

But with so many years of combat experience behind him, even a few words from his mouth could always strike at the heart of the matter.

“In battles between cavalry, ranged attacks are more common. When charging, they’ll have lances and spears. There aren’t many chances to use a battle blade for close-quarters killing.”

“When it comes to that point, one side is bound to have reached the end of its strength, and the situation becomes far more perilous. A single careless blade stroke or arrow may cost you your life.”

“So no matter how good a blade is, it is still only an external thing. Do not become too attached to it,” the old man said quietly.

He was also warning Li Xiao not to become overconfident, thinking that once he had a treasured blade he could look down on all the heroes under heaven.

With that kind of mindset, death was not far away.

After hearing this, Li Xiao gradually restrained the smile on his face and became solemn and careful instead.

He said softly, “Grandpa, I understand. I’ll be careful from now on.”

It must be admitted that since coming into this world, Li Xiao had indeed carried a certain sense of superiority in the depths of his heart.

He knew more than they did and understood the general course of events. He seemed like the son of destiny, the one moving the pieces on the board.

But in truth, Li Xiao was still only flesh and blood. A fatal wound would still kill him.

So after the old man’s warning, Li Xiao suppressed his arrogance and repeatedly reminded himself to be cautious.

Honing his martial skills, riding, and archery—these were the proper ways to increase his methods of killing the enemy and saving his own life on the battlefield.

It was not enough to practice only archery and blade work; he also had to train in spear technique.

When cavalry charged into battle, the first weapons used were long spears or lances, piercing through the enemy’s body with long weapons.

In real slaughter, life and death could turn on that brief instant.

Only when the battle became deadlocked and the sides could no longer be distinguished did the battle blade become truly useful.

“What a pity that horse lance was taken away by that cheap father of mine. Looks like I’ll have to practice with spears and lances instead,” Li Xiao thought to himself.

At the very least, the Li family patriarch had once been a military commander in the Western Liao army. Being able to lead his followers to establish Hexi Fort in Jinzhou proved that the Li family patriarch had considerable standing.

Later, after much effort and expense, they finally acquired a horse lance as a family heirloom.

It was just that the lance had not yet been passed into Li Xiao’s hands.

...

Seeing Li Xiao’s calm expression, the old man gave a slight nod, brushed the dirt from his hands, and said to him, “Come, let’s go back for dinner.”

After waiting so long, the old woman was probably growing impatient.

Li Xiao also nodded silently, carrying the cavalry blade as he followed the old man toward the front courtyard.

But before they had even left the back yard, the old man suddenly stopped.

“Oh, right. The iron you brought back is very good.”

“Can you get more?”

Li Xiao was reflecting on himself and almost ran into the old man’s back.

When he came to himself, Li Xiao immediately smiled. He had been waiting for the old man to ask that very question.

At once he said with a grin, “Yes, of course!”

“However much you want, Grandpa, we can get it.”