DLERB -Chapter 124 This Is the Qin Army? The Ferghana Horse Peeps Itself in Fear!

Xianyang.

On the bustling main street, carts and horses filled the air with noise.

A luxuriously decorated carriage stood in the middle of the road. Its wheels were wrapped in bronze, and green gemstones were embedded along the carriage body.

Cough… cough cough!

A violent coughing fit came from inside the carriage, followed by a young man’s voice filled with disgust.

“What kind of place is this?”

“The air is full of soot and poverty!”

“The water they drink is something even our Ferghana horses wouldn’t touch!”

The coachman was a tall-nosed, deep-eyed foreigner. He arrogantly whipped his reins, driving away pedestrians blocking the way.

A cart loaded with firewood, driven by an elderly veteran who had lost an arm, struggled to squeeze past from the side.

Creak—

The cart accidentally scraped a faint white mark across the luxurious carriage.

“You’re courting death!”

The Da Yuan prince’s guard captain flashed a vicious look.

His whip shot out like a venomous snake.

Smack!

A crisp crack echoed.

A bloody gash split open across the veteran’s back.

“Agh!”

The old soldier groaned and fell from the cart.

The surrounding Qin civilians glared in anger, but seeing the curved sabers at the waists of the foreign guards, they did not dare speak.

“A bunch of lowly peasants dare block the prince’s way?”

The guard captain raised his whip again.

“Stop.”

A calm voice rang out.

A simple carriage bearing the insignia of the Chancellor’s residence had appeared behind them at some point.

The curtain lifted, and Li Si stepped down.

The guard captain froze when he saw Li Si’s official robes.

Inside the carriage, the Da Yuan prince also leaned out.

Seeing Li Si, he showed a hint of disdain.

“So it’s the Chancellor of Qin.”

“Your citizen dirtied my carriage. I was just teaching him a lesson—do you intend to interfere?”

Li Si ignored him.

He walked over and personally helped the old soldier up.

“Old man, how many military merits?”

The veteran looked at Li Si, trembling with emotion.

“R-reporting to the Chancellor… this humble one served in the Loufan army. I followed General Wang Jian in the campaign against Zhao, and achieved three enemy beheadings…”

Li Si nodded.

He turned to his attendants.

“Go to the treasury. Reward him one hundred gold pieces. Ensure he receives proper treatment.”

“Yes!”

Only then did Li Si turn to the Da Yuan prince.

He said nothing.

Just looked at him.

It was not anger, nor questioning.

It was… the gaze of looking at a dead man.

Cold. Indifferent. Pitying.

The Da Yuan prince felt a slight unease, but quickly dismissed it as weakness.

“Hmph.”

He withdrew.

“Consider yourself sensible.”

“It was just a lowly peasant. I won’t bother with you Qin people.”

Li Si also returned to his carriage.

The convoy slowly departed.

Inside, a subordinate asked in a low voice:

“Chancellor, are we just going to let them go?”

“These barbarians dared to commit violence in Xianyang!”

Li Si closed his eyes, as if asleep.

“No need.”

His voice was light.

“The locusts of autumn won’t be jumping for much longer.”

“His Majesty… is returning soon.”

At the inn, an official residence prepared for foreign envoys.

In the finest stable, a magnificent horse was being carefully fed the highest-quality fodder.

Its entire body was crimson red, as if blood flowed beneath its coat under the sunlight.

This was the pride of Da Yuan—the Ferghana horse.

The Da Yuan prince held a piece of silk, personally wiping the horse’s back, his face full of pride.

Around him stood envoys from smaller western states like Qiuci and Loulan.

“Your Highness, this is truly a divine steed!”

“I have never seen such a majestic warhorse!”

The Da Yuan prince laughed loudly.

He pointed toward a corner of the stable, where several Qin warhorses were eating coarse husks.

“Look.”

“That is the Qin Empire’s horse.”

“Short and thin—what’s the difference between that and a donkey?”

One envoy flattered:

“Indeed, the Qin only knows farming. How could they understand horse breeding?”

The prince tossed the silk to a servant and raised his voice.

“So I say, Qin is nothing to fear.”

“They rely on numbers and brute force. After defeating those useless states in the east, they think they rule the world?”

“I tell you, their army is just like their horses.”

“Stupid. Slow.”

“With one charge from our coalition, we can tear apart their so-called iron cavalry!”

The envoys all nodded in agreement, already discussing how they would jointly pressure the Qin Emperor at the upcoming court audience.

“Neigh—!”

At that moment.

The Ferghana horse suddenly let out a scream of extreme terror.

It reared up violently, its hooves scraping the ground madly.

Its eyes were bloodshot.

“What’s going on?!”

The Da Yuan prince was shocked and rushed forward to calm it.

“Steady, steady!”

But the horse refused to listen. It trembled violently as if it had sensed a natural predator.

“Hmph! It must be because Qin’s fodder is too poor and the water too dirty!”

After much effort, the prince finally managed to calm it down.

He cursed with a dark expression.

“When I meet the Qin Emperor, I will make him cut grass from the imperial gardens to feed my horse!”

The moment his voice fell—

Thud.

A dull sound came from deep underground.

Then—

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The earth began to tremble in a steady rhythm.

Tiles in the stable rattled, dust falling in showers.

“An earthquake?!”

one envoy cried in panic.

The Da Yuan prince steadied himself, but his face showed mockery.

“What earthquake?”

“Look at this shoddy building—it’s about to collapse.”

“The Qin Empire is nothing but an empty shell!”

Suddenly—

A long, piercing horn sounded from the direction of the city walls.

It was not ceremonial music.

It was the highest-level military alarm signal!

Then came countless soldiers shouting.

“What’s happening?!”

“What’s going on?!”

All the envoys rushed out of the stable, looking toward the city wall in shock.

The inn manager stumbled over, nearly falling.

“My lords! Quickly! Go to the observation tower!”

“The army! The army is returning to the capital!”

“The army?”

The Da Yuan prince became interested.

“Let’s go see what the Qin army looks like.”

He led the envoys to the highest tower of the inn.

Their view instantly widened.

On the horizon outside Xianyang City, a thin black line had appeared.

That line was slowly moving toward the city.

“Hahaha!”

The Da Yuan prince was the first to laugh.

“So this is the Qin army?”

“Moving like a crawling turtle!”

“At this speed, my cavalry could charge back and forth three times before they even reach me!”

The surrounding envoys echoed him.

“It seems the rumors were exaggerated.”

The prince was about to mock them further—

When suddenly.

A smell drifted in with the wind.

It was not dust.

It was a thick, nauseating scent of iron and rust.

Mixed with something else… like blood that had been left for days.

“Ugh…”

One pampered envoy immediately vomited on the spot.

“Neighhh—!”

From the stable below, the Ferghana horse let out another piercing scream.

This time, it was filled with despair.

Bang!

A loud crash.

The wooden bars of the stable were smashed apart.

The divine steed charged out—but its legs gave way the moment it reached the courtyard, collapsing onto the ground.

A puddle of liquid and filth spread beneath its belly.

It had been so terrified it urinated itself.

The smile on the Da Yuan prince’s face froze.

He turned sharply back toward the city outside.

That black line was no longer a line.

It was expanding at terrifying speed.

The dull thud-thud had become a deafening roar.

It was hoofbeats.

The sound of tens of thousands of warhorses striking the ground in perfect unison.

Black banners covered the sky.

Black armor formed a vast, endless mass.

Now he saw it clearly.

That was not an army.

It was a horde of demons crawling out of a mountain of corpses and blood.

Every cavalry soldier was surrounded by visible killing intent.

Their faces were expressionless—only cold, dead stillness.

“This… this is impossible…”

The Da Yuan prince’s lips turned pale.

His elite cavalry, which he had always been proud of, looked like children holding wooden sticks in comparison.

His gaze passed over the suffocating black cavalry formation… toward the rear.

And in that instant, his pupils shrank to needlepoints.

He saw it.

He saw the legendary “gray tail” stretching for ten li.

That was not a supply convoy.

It was a river.

A river made of people—an endless gray torrent stretching beyond sight.

Tens of thousands of ragged, shackled figures, chained together like livestock.

They staggered forward blankly, driven like cattle.

The Xiongnu.

Men, women, old, young—all of them.

A whole nation.

A complete nation—dragged back as spoils of war.

At the very front of that gray river.

A young man rode a black horse.

His once-luxurious robe had long been stained dark brown by dried blood.

His face was splattered with crimson specks.

In his hand was not a whip—

But a sword still dripping blood.

And his expression—

Empty.

Unchanging.

The Da Yuan prince swayed violently, nearly falling from the tower.

He did not know who that young man was.

But he understood.

And in his mind, the rumors of Xianyang echoed again and again.

“Extermination of nations.”

So… this was not a metaphor.