Chapter 148

As soon as Xie Chengze got the sheep, he took them for a tour of the ice rink.

He even deliberately had one slaughtered on the spot and made into rich, fragrant mutton soup, just to torment everyone with temptation.

Hehe. He was so wicked~

Both the former bandits and the soldiers stared at those plump, meaty grassland sheep until their eyes were red. They wished they could jump straight to match day, beat the other side, and eat their fill of mutton.

But they couldn’t jump through time. All they could do was practice skating at the rink, lest they fall flat on their faces the moment the match began, never mind winning it.

The soldiers soon selected twenty players. Skating took strength, too. To play a best-of-three match with each round lasting about an hour, they would need substitutes to get through the whole thing. Substitutions were allowed under the rules, not a violation.

To them, individual goal totals weren’t important. Getting mutton for the entire army came first.

The standing troops, by contrast, wanted it all. They hadn’t come from the same bandit stronghold, so once their own interests were involved, their true natures showed. Every one of them wanted to play and win a prize.

They fought bitterly over places on the team. The soldiers had been practicing for two days while they were still pushing, shoving, and cursing one another, disparaging the chosen players’ skills and demanding to take their places.

Then match day arrived.

Former bandits and soldiers crowded around the rink. They had been granted half a day off to watch. Even the Prefect and County Magistrate had been invited to sit in the spectators’ stand with Xie Chengze, Shen Yuan, Xie Shoujun, and the others to witness the contest between the two forces.

In the biting wind, both sides stood on the ice in full armor, numbers painted in sheep’s blood on the backs of their gleaming armor.

The former bandits were the blue team. With strips of cloth tied around their heads and fluttering wildly in the cold wind, they waved their hockey sticks and whistled defiantly at their opponents. Facing them were the soldiers of the red team, standing in a disciplined row. Gripping their sticks in both hands, ready for action, they stared steadily at the center of the rink.

At the center, one player from each side stood facing the other. On the ice lay a small, round puck made from a disk of wood, painted black so it could easily be spotted during play.

Both teams were like torrents poised to break loose. At Zhu Xiaobiao’s command, they tensed and crouched like black panthers. The blue team’s captain struck the puck first and shot toward the red team’s goal like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The red soldiers immediately moved to intercept him. The blue team was no pushover either, advancing to block them. But their coordination was clearly poorer, and the red players soon left them behind.

Surrounded by three red soldiers, the blue captain could only change the puck’s direction and seek another opening. The red captain seized the chance to sweep his stick across and steal it. Desperate, the blue captain shouted for his teammates to block the red captain and take the puck back the same way. But the red captain made a sharp turning stop and deftly slid the puck between a blue player’s legs, passing it to a teammate racing up the flank.

That teammate received the puck. Seeing the blue players charging toward him, he immediately sent it to another teammate farther away. The third player received it and, quick as lightning, struck it toward a fourth teammate who had already taken position still farther off. That player sent the puck into the undefended goal.

The watching soldiers erupted in cheers for the red team, while the former bandits jeered and cursed the blue team’s lousy playing.

Zhu Xiaobiao immediately struck the bronze gong. “One point for red number eight!”

“Fuck!”

In their eagerness to rack up individual goals, none of the blue players had been willing to serve as goalkeeper. The blue captain cursed under his breath, then shouted, “Liu Quan! Guard the goal!”

“Why should I guard it?” Liu Quan protested. “We agreed we’d all do it!”

“Do you want mutton or not?!” the blue captain snapped. “I’ll give you half the gold disc afterward. Happy now?”

Only then did Liu Quan skate toward the goal, muttering. The game continued. This time the red side took the puck and began moving it across the ice toward the blue goal. Having learned from the last play, the blue captain had his teammates spread out, intending to steal the puck using the red team’s method.

Instead, the red players hemmed him in again. He wanted to strike the puck away, but two sticks kept moving beside him, crowding him. Hot-tempered and furious, he lost his head and shoved one of the red players down, then struck the puck away. “Stop fucking shoving! You’re in the damned way!”

The soldier fell onto the ice. Zhu Xiaobiao immediately struck the gong repeatedly. “Foul by blue number one! Off the ice! Stop play and bring on a substitute!”

“What?” The captain was stunned and shouted that he hadn’t committed a foul. But the rules were firm. Two people flew in from outside the rink and dragged him off.

Without their captain, blue squad one suddenly lost its guiding force. In training, each squad had practiced alone, or at most played against one other squad. They had never practiced working with players from the other squads.

The other squads were also afraid helping would drain their stamina and hurt their own teams, so none would send a player.

In the end, blue squad one had to play with five people. A player short, they unsurprisingly lost the round.

Having learned from the previous round, blue squad two was much more restrained. Qianjin Stronghold‘s Second Chief played in this round as well. His height and build rivaled a Xiongnu’s, making even the soldiers a little nervous. What’s more, Xie Chengze had secretly given him extra coaching. He tore through the red team and won the second round.

At that, many former bandits excitedly shouted, “Number two!” That was the Second Chief’s number. On the ice, there were no names, only numbers, and a player’s number represented their honor in ice hockey.

With the score tied one to one, the atmosphere reached a peak of tension. Everyone stared fixedly at the rink, privately wondering who would ultimately win.

The second-round victory had also boosted the former bandits’ morale, giving them hope. The prizes for the highest individual goal totals were clearly going to the Second Chief and one player from squad two. If the others wanted a reward now, their only chance was to win the match and get all the mutton they could eat.

Blue squad three finally reached an agreement. They would stop chasing individual goals and choose to win the match.

Bandits they might be, but they understood tactics. Besides, they had an “expert” advising them in secret. Apart from the Second Chief, the first two squads weren’t very good at ice hockey. The first squad in particular had poor skills and internal quarrels, which was why they had been sent out for the opening round.

The third squad was the former bandits’ elite team.