Before winter, the first snow had fallen in the northern country, hiding the yellow plains, and although the snow was white, the grassland was more alive than before the snow. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoFrom time to time, herds of animals migrate southward on the snow, which has been the case in previous years, but this year it is especially abundant, and it is not uncommon to see the footprints and feces of various animals on the snow.

The capital of the Northern Li Kingdom was originally in Wangting City, which was close to the Crystal Kingdom, but after failing to move south, it had to move more than 2,000 li to the north. The new capital city is called the "North Royal Court", and the original capital city, the Royal Court City, is naturally called the "South Royal Court". Although the Southern Royal Court is located in a rich and throat place, the main force of the Northern Li Kingdom has been lost, and the main army of the Crystal Kingdom is stationed not far from the south of the Royal Court City (in fact, it has long retreated to the Great Wall), which will make the Southern Royal Court a front-line battlefield at any time. Moving the capital to the desolate and cold Northern Court was really a helpless move for the Northern Court.

Moving the capital north was a disaster for Torre, who had just turned fifteen, a desolate and cold place—backed by deep mountains and barren forests, bordered by uninhabited grassland wastelands, and farther and farther away from the village of Xijia in the Crystal Country, which he longed for; But as the second prince, he could only follow his father and his elder brother, the crown prince Tuo'an, and move north according to the rules left by his ancestors. Nan Wangting left his sister and sister to garrison.

Twenty years ago, his father, Tory, took advantage of the turmoil in the Crystal Kingdom to invade the south, but eight years later, he was unexpectedly defeated by the Lion King, a private army of the Crystal Kingdom, and had to retreat to the country. With the suppression of the rebellion in the south of the Crystal Kingdom, the Crystal Kingdom began to attack the north, although it did not attack the Northern Li Kingdom, but still made his father worried, and then made the decision to move the capital. Although many ministers believed that it was more effective for the Son of Heaven to defend the city, no one could change his father's decision. And now, nearly seven years have passed since the construction of the North Royal Court, and the main city has still not been completed - the area of the main city is twice the size of the South Royal Court! Everyone (including my father's palace) still lived in tents. After all, the national strength is limited, but to build such a huge project, the financial resources are poor, so the project has been started and stopped, and it has been delayed until now.

But with the arrival of several witch doctors, the form is gradually being reversed......

"Ice-sealing? …… Have you heard of it before? Tuo Lie, who was lying by the stove and was baking potatoes, asked Du Chang, an old national teacher who was nearly seventy years old lying on a bench next to him, but the response was a burst of snoring.

"Yes, old fellow, I'm asleep again!" Torret muttered and stood up, placing the gray cashmere cloak over Duchang's body. He added some firewood to the stove, approached the stove, and booed and ate the fragrant baked potatoes.

"It's nice to run into this ravine and eat baked potatoes!" Torret thought to himself contentedly. It turned out that the royal court had already ordered: The cold winter is long, and no civilians are allowed to slaughter cattle and sheep casually, and they must be slaughtered with the approval of local officials, and violators will be beheaded immediately! So potatoes and pine nuts replaced mutton, but the shortage of food and clothing forced many herders to venture into the deep forests of Binghu Mountain. So, Torlie ordered a large number of herders to open a road from the forest of Ice Tiger Mountain, all the way to the inaccessible Ice Wolf Mountain, where they found the huge permanent frozen cave of Ice Wolf Mountain.

The new capital city is backed by Binghu Mountain, and opposite is the Dongcha River, a tributary of the Beili River. There are many dead trees and pine trees on both sides of the river and on the mountains, but there is no shortage of firewood and grass. But the winters here are cold and long, and a large number of sheep and livestock freeze to death every winter. As the second prince in charge of civil affairs in the royal court, Torret not only took the lead in eating potatoes, but even his tent became a "sheepfold" - the tent would soon be filled with at least thirty sheep! So he lived in a tent with the old national teacher Duchang; And his elder brother Tuo'an, the future heir of the Beili Kingdom, is naturally in charge of the military, but only in charge of the militia. The real financial and military power is still in the hands of their father, because the father's trust is not the two brothers anymore, but the five witch doctors who came out of nowhere, headed by Daxian.

After eating the potatoes and washing his hands, Torret walked to the window on the left side of the tent, where he set up his study—a bookshelf, a set of carved sandalwood tables and chairs. The pen, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table are neatly placed on the right, in the middle of the table is a parchment map, and on the left is a huge pale yellow crystal from the Crystal Country, the size of a goose egg, placed on a horn holder. In fact, apart from the crystal and parchment map, the other items, including the mahogany bookshelves and books, came from the Crystal Country, which my father plundered from the south.

He gently held the crystal, the faint yellow color made him feel warm and calm—this crystal was a gift from him on the eve of leaving Xijia Village a year ago. Three years ago, the national teacher Duchang was seriously ill, and even those witch doctors were helpless, and later, under the guidance of the leader of the five witch doctors, he learned that there was a witch from the Far West who could cure all diseases in the Xijia Village of the Southern Crystal Country. So Tuo Lie, as the son of a merchant in the Northern Li Kingdom, assumed the alias Xue Xing, and escorted his "father" Duchang with more than a dozen imperial guards and Duoxian dressed as a buddy, and came to Xijia Village in the name of seeking medical advice and doing business, and lived there for three years. Although the people of Beili have learned the language of the Crystal Country since childhood, Torre's Crystal Chinese language is not pure, and after three years, he is no different from the locals.

When she first arrived in Xijia Village, Xiyue was not yet ten years old, she was an innocent little girl, her brother Xifeng was only in his early seventeens or eighteen, and Tuolie was only twelve years old, and they lived together like brothers and sisters. After more than three years of treatment by the witch named Si Ran, the national teacher's health has improved greatly, but because of this, Tuolie has no reason to continue to stay in Xijia Village.

After three years of living together, Torree, Yuyue and Xifeng already have a brother-sister friendship, but the time of separation soon came. Before parting, Yuzuki gave Torret the crystal and a parchment map, and hoped that Torret would go to a place on the map to see it, because this place was in the hinterland of the Northern Kingdom, and only Torret could go there; And Torrei sent a sunset moon and a dagger that he had carried on his body since he was a child.

Of course, as for the anomalous behavior of Tahyun, the leader of the witch doctors who secretly followed Torree, who seemed to have an innate hostility and dislike towards the shrine maidens and everyone in the Yuke Village, Torrei didn't want to think about it anymore.

"His Royal Highness the Prince, the Crown Prince is here!" The sentry at the door shouted softly but clearly to Torre.

Torret retracted his thoughts, quickly stood up, put the crystal back on the stand, and walked towards the door of the tent. Sure enough, it was my brother's thin, deep-set and pale face that reached into his tent.

Torrey quickly and gently took Tuo'an's hand and walked to the fire, but the national teacher still let out a slight snoring sound.

The fire was blazing, and the faint smoke of the stove dispersed leisurely towards the skylight above the tent almost in a straight line, but it was bent by the breeze when it came out of the skylight. It was already noon, and the sun was shining through the skylight and shining on the carpet inside the tent, which was much brighter.

Prince Tuo'an is different from Tuo Lie's tall and dignified appearance, he is short and strong, with a large and round head, a broad face, prominent cheekbones, and almond eyes, which is simply a copy of the king. Torrey could see that Torn had noticeably darkened and thinned. Wearing a noble white bearskin hat, a white velvet jacket, navy blue breeches, riding boots, a white sheepskin snow cloak, and a silver bow and quiver, he was clearly prepared to hunt. He bent down to look at the national teacher's face and gently straightened the cloak of Tuolie that was draped over the national teacher.

"Fortunately, with Brother Wang's care, the national teacher is in good health, Brother Wang has worked hard for you!" To'an gently patted Torre's shoulder with his right hand as a sign of gratitude.

Both brothers grew up under the teaching of the national teacher, and both have a father-son relationship with the national teacher.

"Is it His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" , the national teacher suddenly opened his eyes and said, his words were full of excitement and concern, "...... Come, sit beside me, let me ...... Look at you! ”

Tuo Lie hurriedly leaned forward to help Duchang Guoshi and made him sit on the armrest of the bench. The old national teacher sat up straight, and Prince Tuo'an immediately sat at the other end of the bench, ready to listen to the old national teacher's teachings.

The national teacher's withered hands trembled slightly and tightly grasped Tuo'an's hand, but his eyes were half-blind, and Tuo'an had to put his face close to the national teacher's face to let him see more clearly.

"Hey, I've lost weight!" The national teacher said distressedly.

"National teacher, don't worry, just recuperate with peace of mind. I'm fine! Prince Tuo'an immediately comforted.

"King Tory hasn't been seen in a long time!" The national teacher always thinks about the king.

"The last time I was seen was three months ago, and my father was already obsessed with the world of witchcraft and medicine, and he spent all day in the makeshift palace with those witch doctors...... Hey......" said the prince with a long sigh.

"The king can't go on like this, it doesn't matter if he fails to go south, we can still make a comeback, but the way he is now, this is self-defeating!" Although the national teacher is not in good health, his heart is like a mirror, "I have to go and give some advice!" ”

"It's useless, he won't meet anyone unless ......" The prince thought of something and looked at Torre.

"Unless what?" The old national teacher asked eagerly. Torrei also looked at the prince curiously.

"Unless there are other well-known wizards and witch doctors who ask to see you...... For example, the wizard of the Crystal Country's Xijia Village. ”

Duchang Guoshi immediately understood the prince's thoughts: because only Tuo Lie really knew Xijia Village, and as a friend of Xijia Village, he could invite people to Xijia Village.

When Torret heard this, he understood his brother's thoughts, and only he could get close to his father, who had abandoned himself, and was more familiar with the leader of the witch doctor, Tahyun.

"I'll see you!" Torrei pondered for a moment and said, "It's time to meet that Tahyun again, I feel that this guy is hiding some shady secrets behind him!" ”

"In this case, I will go with Torre, and by the way, I will tell you what I have seen and heard in Xijia Village, especially the affairs of Xilong and the witch maiden, so that the king and the witch doctors can see us!" Speaking of this, Du Chang Guoshi's face was filled with joy at the thought of this good idea, and his gray beard trembled a little with excitement.

"Yes, that's all, but don't tell me directly, I'll talk about this matter in a few days, first inquire about the origin and purpose of these witch doctors, especially what happened to my father, don't rush things!" Although the crown prince was only seventeen, two years older than Torre, he showed rare maturity.

Tuo'an loves horseback hunting and martial arts, but he has a headache when he sees books, except for military books, of course; Influenced by the national teacher, he loved to study, study medicine, and do business (the national teacher Duchang was in charge of the kingdom's finances for a long time). Both of them were trained by the national teacher, and the national teacher also paid great attention to the education of the situation. And Tuo Liqin, chess, calligraphy and painting, medicine and business have high attainments. The national teacher saw that both of them were already talented people, and the joy in his heart had already washed away his illness by seven points.

The three of them discussed for a long time around the fire, reminiscing about the past from time to time, and sometimes bursting with laughter. It's been a long time since I've had such a happy day for Torre. Ever since the national teacher fell ill, he felt that there was always a boulder pressing on his heart, which made him feel depressed. "The last time I was so happy, it should have been when I was in Xijia Village!" Sitting by the fire, Torlie suddenly recalled the days when he accompanied the national teacher to recuperate in the Crystal Country, and felt the silver bell-like laughter of the setting moon echo in his ears again......

Prince To'an's original plan to go hunting was changed to the next day, and Torrey agreed to go. This time they decided to go to Ice Tiger Mountain to have a look.

In the evening, it snowed heavily, and Tolie got up early in the morning to find that the sky had stopped, and the wind had stopped, which was a rare good weather. He looked at the stove, which was already out, but thought that at last he did not have to eat potatoes - yesterday after the prince left the tent and returned to the dormitory, he sent someone to bring ten catties of mutton, a catty of pine nuts, and a jar of salt, which was already in short supply, and he was sincerely grateful to his brother.

"I can improve my life in the morning!" Torret exclaimed excitedly. The prince and the militia under his command have the privilege of eating mutton, after all, the 30,000 militia led by the prince have actually become the backbone of maintaining the security and order of the new capital, of course, those muttons are either sick to death or frozen to death, and the fresh mutton is basically sent to the father's palace and the Praetorian Guard. The regular army of the kingdom - that is, the infantry and cavalry who were defeated by the lion king - they were killed and wounded, and after returning to the kingdom of Beili, there were only more than 40,000 left, of which 20,000 cavalry with the strongest combat effectiveness became the king's janissaries, mainly to protect the king's palace and the mysterious ice cave of Ice Wolf Mountain, and 20,000 infantry were stationed in the southern royal court, led by his sister Tuo Xi'er. His youngest ten-year-old sister Tuomeng, under the pretext of being afraid of the cold, stayed by her sister's side. Although the Northern Liberty Kingdom has always claimed that there are still 200,000 troops, it is just to scare the Northern Liberty Kingdom in the south. And my father, after the queen's death seven years ago, has been huddled in his palace and mingled with the witch doctors, and hardly shows up.

Torret was calling his newly awakened servant, a nimble monkey-like young man, to fetch some firewood from the tent when he heard a dog barking outside the tent. Torrie knew it was his brother who came. He looked back and saw that the national teacher was still asleep, and instructed the servants to make more mutton and take care of the national teacher, put on his cashmere fur and cloak, took a longbow and a quiver with twenty-four arrows, and went out of the tent, and stuck a thunder fog dagger into his waist—this thunder fog dagger was actually a pair of the one given to Yuyue.

"Brother Wang! Haven't you eaten yet? My brother's voice was very loud.

"The servant is doing it! I'm not going to eat it, do I bring wine? "After all, it's a brother, but Torlie is not polite.

Tolie's eyes couldn't open the sunlight reflected in the snow, and it took him a while to get used to it. He saw four two-seater sleds and ten long-seater sleds lined up at the door of the tent, and in front of each sled sat a dog trainer in a large coarse cotton coat and a dogskin hat to drive the sleigh. The first four two-seater sleds are equipped with eight tall, ferocious snow wolf dogs, and the back seat is much higher than the front seat, which is obviously specially designed for the convenience of the owner for hunting and archery. The third and fourth sleds were already mounted on each of the two soldiers in mercenary uniforms, probably the prince's personal bodyguards, both of whom were tall, seventeen or eighteen years old, and heroic, one carrying a long bow and the other slightly fat, with a pair of huge plate axes crossed behind their waists; Torrey noticed that they both looked alike. The second sleigh was empty, apparently for Torre, and the prince was excitedly sitting on the first sleigh and greeted him. The remaining ten were ordinary three-seater sleds, pulled by ordinary domestic dogs, and sitting on them were all elderly ordinary militiamen recruited by Tuo'an from among the herdsmen, all armed with various weapons, including long swords, broadswords, red tassel guns, etc., and some of them were armed with bows and arrows, probably good hunters.

How familiar this scene is! Torret remembered the days when he was seven or eight years old and had snowball fights with his brother and sister on the sled, and his mother's beautiful face smiling as she watched them play wildly—the happy days had gone since the war with the South and the death of his mother.

Seeing Torret come out of the tent, the prince jumped off the sleigh. The two hugged each other tightly.

"Brother! I'm not the prince today, and you don't have to worry about the herdsmen's sheep! Hehe! How about our brothers have a good time, people can't always succumb like this! Mind his state affairs! ......" The elder brother said again in a pleading tone as if he was afraid that his younger brother would change his mind.

Torret looked slowly behind his tent, a tent area for the herders under his jurisdiction, between which stood sparsely frozen black pines, standing tall like sentinels. The herdsmen had just gotten up, and the smoke was rising, revealing a sense of tranquility and peace. The adults were busy preparing breakfast, preparing to take advantage of today's rare sunny weather to try their luck in Binghu Mountain, hoping to find some firewood and grass, and maybe catch a hare, pheasant and other game, and improve the life of eating potatoes. Tuolie decided to also go to Binghu Mountain for a visit, and immediately agreed to the prince's request.

"Look, brother" Prince Tuo'an pointed to the mercenaries on the back two sleds, and said to Tuo Lie, "The two of them are brothers, named Meng Sa and Meng Ying, the fatter one is called Meng Sa, and the other one looks serious and serious, doesn't talk much, and is always in a state of contemplation, it is Meng Sa, both of them are excellent in archery!" I wonder if our brothers are their opponents? It dawned on him how the two of them looked so similar, and they turned out to be brothers.

In fact, these two mercenaries were Shi Cheng and Shi Jie, the two sons of the Lion King. Shi Cheng and Shi Jie took the alias of Meng Sa and Meng Ying respectively, participated in the prince's mercenaries and mixed with the prince's side.

Summoning mercenaries was the method that the prince came up with, because the Northern Kingdom was scarce in number, food was scarce, and the troops were insufficient. With the continuous expansion of the frozen coffin business in Beiliguo, it began to have abundant financial resources to purchase grain and other goods; But food is in short supply in all countries, not to mention the fact that the Crystal State intends to block the sale of grain to the North Liberian country. The southern nations had ample manpower, and the rival of the kingdom of Beili, in particular, the lion king's practice of recruiting soldiers at great expense, gave the prince a great hint. As a result, the practice of recruiting mercenaries with a lot of money became the prince's best choice to solve the shortage of troops.

Before leaving, Torlie explained again, and asked his servants to take care of the national teacher. Then he got on his own sleigh with the prince and rushed towards the direction of Ice Tiger Mountain. The ground was already covered with a thick layer of snow, and although there was no wind, it felt bitterly cold on the lightning-fast sled. The sled team slid like a long dragon on the snow, and soon reached the foot of Ice Tiger Mountain.

Binghu Mountain is a mountain system, consisting of four mountains: Hutou Mountain, Huer Mountain, Hubei Mountain, and Huwei Mountain. There is a canyon between Hutou Mountain and Huer Mountain, and it was Tuolie who organized a large number of people from Beili to open a road in the middle of the canyon, which leads to another more desolate and taller mountain system - Ice Wolf Mountain.

The sledding team soon reached the woods at the bottom of the Tiger Ear Mountain, which was already covered in snow and a white fog band hung in the air. The tall and dense coniferous forests of the mountains were also bent by the thick snow, and from time to time a cloud of snow bounced off the branches. The sleigh had to slow down in the forest, and the sunlight through the trees left dappled shadows on the snow. They soon reached the entrance to the canyon between Hutou Mountain and Huer Mountain. From a distance, they saw a team of sledders pulling coffins rushing into the canyon, and to their surprise, there was not a single figure on the sleds except for the coffin!

The sled team slowly stopped, and Torret immediately noticed that there were many broken sentry pines around him, as if they had been broken by some great force, and that there was a mess left in the snow, especially the huge footprints that surprised and horrified everyone.

A cold wind blew, giving the surrounding pine forest an eerie vibe, and a few broken pines shook their short, thin arms, revealing a terrible message, as if accusing of something.

No bodies were found around the scene, but there were clear signs of a fight at the messy scene. The wind was strong at the entrance to the canyon, but the marks on the snow were still clear, indicating that the fight had not been long.

Tho'an and Torret looked at each other for a moment, then nodded to each other again.

"Everyone's on alert!" Prince Tuo'an ordered.

Everyone on the sleigh quickly mounted their bows and arrows, and the fourteen sleds quickly turned around, ready to flee from this bone-chilling place.

"Uhhh

A shrill roar came from deep in the forest.

"It's a shaman snow giant!" Torret suddenly shouted loudly: "Hurry up and leave, or it's too late!" ”

Hearing the command to run, the snow wolf dogs, who had long been blinded by the terrifying roar, finally woke up and ran away!

It turned out that during his time in Xijia Village, Torrei had read a lot of books about mysterious witchcraft. These books were all lent by Xiyue to relieve his boredom and pass the time of boredom. Among them, there is a book dedicated to shamanic witchcraft and the birthplace of shamanic witchcraft, the Divine Decree Mountain, which records the summoning of snow giants by shamans to become magical beasts. In particular, the special roar of the snow giant, which is described in great detail in the book, made a deep impression on Torre.

Luckily, the sleigh had already turned around and they could leave as soon as possible.

The snow wolf dogs ran desperately, and the fourteen sleds ran like arrows from the string, galloping on the snow.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, there was a loud bang behind them, and everyone couldn't help but look back.

Just as they had left, a huge rock giant suddenly emerged from the ground; On the opposite side of the rock giant, at the edge of the forest, stood an equally huge white snow giant. They are facing off against each other, and a big war is on the verge of breaking out!

The sleigh slowly stopped, and Torrey stood on the sleigh to take a fixed look, and saw that both the rock giant and the snow giant had familiar red silk threads, exactly the same as the red silk threads on the willow trees in Xijia Village! There are also some blue threads mixed with red silk threads, of course, these silk threads are silky, which makes Tuolie curious, is there someone from Xijia Village?

To be on the safe side, all the sleds were temporarily hidden next to a large rock on the side of the road; All the people, including Tuo'an, Tuo Lie, Meng Sa, Meng Ying and others, hid on the rocks, holding their breath and forgetting the danger......