Returning with a full load

The encounter finally came to an end as the soldiers captured the last prisoner.

While Gao Yuan was still reveling in the joy of his S+ rank evaluation, the system popped up.

"The battle has ended; the temporary buff has expired."

"Host: Gao Yuan. Character Attributes: Feminine Appearance, Ruthless and Merciless. Comprehensive Evaluation: B."

Strength B, Agility B-, Endurance B, Horsemanship C-, Intelligence B+, Leadership C+, Internal Affairs D, Charisma A+;

Martial Arts: saber technique B, Spearmanship C;

Skill: Leaders Aura (F);

First Life Mentor: First Life Mentor, Spearmanship training effect bonus 50%."

An unprecedented sense of loss, emptiness, and fatigue washed over Gao Yuan, nearly causing him to collapse to the ground.

Fortunately, he gritted his teeth and held on; otherwise, he would have lost a great deal of face.

"Bang Jie, hurry and clean up the battlefield. Take the prisoners and retreat as quickly as possible."

Since Nam Khao Pan Phao's status was so special, Khon Kham could not sit idly by while he was taken away.

Looking at those hundreds of heavy carriages, Gao Yuan knew he had reaped enough this time.

If he didn't leave now, it wouldn't be fun if Khon Kham snapped and decided to fight him to the death out of desperation.

The supplies were mostly on the carriages, so there was no need to organize them; they only needed to strip the armor off the corpses.

As for the prisoners, aside from young men and women and infants in swaddling clothes, Gao Yuan didn't bother taking the rest. He just let them go back to deliver the news.

The emptied carriages were used to transport the wounded and the remains of the fallen.

By nightfall, the battlefield had been cleared, and Gao Yuan could be said to be returning with a full load.

Hundreds of Lan Xang people, stripped of their clothes, stood shivering and huddled together in the darkness of the night.

Only after confirming that Gao Yuan had gone far away did they start walking toward Vientiane City in the dark.

Thankfully it was in the tropics and during the summer; otherwise, these elderly and young people probably wouldn't have survived the night.

Three days later, this group was found by the army sent by Khon Kham to search for them, finally ending their days of sleeping in the wild.

Upon hearing that her clan had been robbed and her younger brother captured, the always elegant Nanjiao Pipa fainted from anxiety.

Khon Kham wanted to send troops to the rescue, but he met with strong opposition from everyone.

They had already lost hundreds of elites just going out of the city to pick people up; if they went to rescue them now, was the loss not great enough already?

In Lan Xang, although the King was the supreme ruler, most of the power was in the hands of these nobles.

The King, to put it bluntly, was like a chairman elected by a board of directors and could not make arbitrary decisions.

And so, Khon Kham could only watch helplessly as Gao Yuan slipped away in a grand manner.

On the twentieth day of the seventh month in the twelfth year of the Taichu era of Great Qian, as Gao Yuan and Xia Luqi returned to Luang Namtha, this mission ended successfully.

Although the First Division had lost over a hundred men, the harvest could be described as massive.

Thirteen sets of iron armor, four hundred and sixty-seven sets of leather armor, and over four thousand five hundred people plundered, including over a thousand young women and over a hundred infants.

Additionally, there were over ten thousand dan of grain, over eight hundred oxen, over a hundred catties of gold seized from the Nanjiao Clan's convoy, and over a hundred boxes of various jewelry.

Gao Yuan didn't touch a single one of the dozens of young and beautiful women; he rewarded them all to the grassroots officers.

Over ten thousand laborers and more than a thousand pack horses were grandly transporting the spoils toward Dehong along the mountain paths.

The plundered population was dealt with: the men were sold as slaves to mines, landlords, and such places.

Aside from the women who were used as part of the compensation according to previous standards, the rest were distributed as rewards to the soldiers of the First Division.

As for Nam Khao Pan Phao, Gao Yuan instructed Huo Jun:

"Take good care of this fellow for me. Make sure he doesn't escape and, more importantly, don't let him die."

"In short, keep a clear record of whatever he eats or drinks. I'll find his nephew later for a full reimbursement."

Huo Jun naturally carried out Gao Yuan's supreme instructions with full effort.

Thus, Nam Khao Pan Phao suddenly discovered that his life was quite good; not only did he not have to stay in a cell, but he also had wine and meat.

Aside from having no women and no freedom, his life was quite comfortable.

A clerk brought people to deliver wine and food to him, and as he walked out of the courtyard gate, he pulled out an account book.

"Half a catty of wine, half a catty of meat, one catty of rice. Cost: ten strings of cash. Delivery service fee: two strings of cash. Total: twelve strings of cash exactly."

One had to say, Gao Yuan's group was quite 'kind'; they clearly could have just robbed him, yet they insisted on giving him wine and meat.

In this way, with three meals a day at a minimum of twelve strings per meal, this Lan Xang Uncle of the State was being fed until he was plump and fair.

After seeing off the 'Plague God' Gao Yuan, Khon Kham finally breathed a sigh of relief, turning all the fury in his heart toward Wen Huan and the Tonkin army.

Perhaps stimulated by Gao Yuan, he recalled Gao Yuan's previous tactics:

Establish a solid defensive line in Gammon with a small number of elites to block Wen Huan's offensive.

Withdraw the main force, and after a few days of rest, secretly move to the border of Xiangkhouang and Thanh Hoa to cut off the Tonkin army's supply lines and retreat path.

Subsequently, the Lan Xang army gradually tightened the encirclement, encroaching upon and compressing the Tonkin army's living space step by step.

Ultimately, fifteen thousand Tonkin troops were suppressed in a small county town in Xiangkhouang.

After being besieged for over a month and exhausting their provisions, all fifteen thousand plus people became prisoners.

Having dealt with the Tonkin people, Khon Kham then turned his attention to fully encircling and suppressing Wen Huan in Gammon.

However, Wen Huan was no pushover; he gathered a large amount of grain and led his army to retreat into the city of Gammon.

At the same time, he established a sturdy camp outside the city, forming a mutually supportive defense with the city walls.

The battle looked like it was about to become a war of attrition and a seesaw struggle, leaving Khon Kham with a massive headache.

What worried him most was Gao Yuan; having someone come to his territory to pillage every now and then was something no one could stomach.

In less than a short year, Lan Xang had already had tens of thousands of people plundered by Gao Yuan, not to mention the wealth stolen from the Nanjiao Clan.

The most disgusting part was that his uncle and hundreds of direct descendants were now in Gao Yuan's hands, which would surely mean another huge ransom later.

Yet he couldn't choose not to ransom them; otherwise, not only would the Queen Mother not let him off, but the Nanjiao Clan would also inevitably become estranged from him.

So as soon as the war situation stabilized, Khon Kham sent someone to Luang Namtha to discuss the ransom for Nam Khao Pan Phao and those hundreds of prisoners.

Gao Yuan naturally had no reason to oppose Khon Kham's proposal; after all, these prisoners certainly couldn't be absorbed into his own army and could at most be used as labor.

After telling Huo Jun the direction of the negotiations, Gao Yuan did not linger in Luang Namtha; the autumn harvest was approaching.

According to Zhao Xiyao's wishes, she wanted to hold a larger-scale harvest celebration this year and needed him, the hero, to return and preside over it.

The negotiations lasted for three full rounds over a period of more than a month, which also caused the stack of account books for the prisoners' food expenses to grow thicker and thicker.

Once it was confirmed that those prisoners were to be sent back, Gao Yuan had Huo Jun record all of their food expenses as well.

Looking at the food bill in his hand, Khon Kham nearly spat blood; his uncle was simply too good at eating.

Although he was a hundred times unwilling in his heart, seeing the eyes of the Queen Mother and the Nanjiao nobles, he could only grit his teeth and agree.

At the same time, he made up his mind that he must, absolutely must, find a way to reclaim Luang Namtha.

With this fortress in someone else's hands, the initiative in the war was firmly held by Gao Yuan, and this feeling was truly unbearable.

On the twentieth day of the ninth month in the twelfth year of the Taichu era of Great Qian, the two sides completed the prisoner exchange ceremony ten li outside Luang Namtha.

Khon Kham paid the huge price of five hundred young women, twenty thousand dan of grain, five thousand catties of pig iron, and fifty catties of gold to bring back Nam Khao Pan Phao—who had gained over ten catties—and more than seven hundred soldiers.