Xuan Liang and Wei Long left the palace and led eighty heavily armed cavalrymen to the downstream of the Wangshan garrison, more than 500 miles away, to the ferry port prepared in advance before dawn. After burying the pot and cooking, Xuan Liang made the last mobilization of eighty cavalry.

"Our trip is full of dangers, for the sake of the dragon clan, for the sake of the great emperor, we need everyone to work together and move forward bravely. The weapons we carry are the best weapons of the dragon clan, and these weapons are more precious than our lives. In the event of an unforeseen eventuality, we must reserve the last bit of strength and destroy them, especially the Imperial Crossbow, which must not be left to our enemies. ”

"For the dragons, for the great emperor."

Eighty cavalrymen chanted along with Xuan Liang and Wei Long.

After breakfast, Xuan Liang led people to cross the river on a raft, and then asked the soldiers guarding the ferry to row the raft back to the south bank to hide, and then still turned around and got on the horse, and galloped straight to the north.

Now that it is winter, Xuan Liang and Wei Long, the eighty-two horses, traveled all the way north, day and night, and went out for thousands of miles before they set up camp and rested a little.

"Brother Long, I'm afraid we have to continue to travel north for some distance before we can completely get away from the vision of the northern tribes, right?"

"During the safe period, let's go another five hundred miles north. Then head northwest and should soon enter the savannah. ”

"After entering the grassland, Brother Long took people to monitor the northern tribes, and I took people to see if I could subdue a batch of wild horses, and the emperor has always been worried about this."

"Okay, just do as you say."

After a night's rest, the next morning, the group continued to travel north against the cold north, and at ten o'clock in the evening, the sky suddenly snowflakes. Wei Long, who had been inquiring about news in the north, saw that there was an open field in front of him, and it was not convenient to hide, so he said to Xuan Liang:

"You can't camp here tonight, it's too open to see from a long distance, and you have to keep going."

Including Xuan Liang and Wei Long, more than half of the eighty-two people are from Mengyuehe and Longshan in the south, although they have been relocated to the Wangshan station for more than two years, they still can't adapt to the dry and cold weather in the north, especially riding horses in the wind and snow. Although everyone's frozen hands and feet were stiff, no one complained and gritted their teeth and persisted.

"Okay, keep going until you find a suitable place, and then set up camp."

It was another night of rapid marching, and eighty-two people had already been nearly two thousand miles away from the crossing of the great river, and at dawn they came to the foot of a mountain, chose a place where the north wind was, and pressed the camp. In order to prevent being discovered by the spies of the northern tribes, they did not dare to make a fire to cook, because in this deserted place, the smoke produced when the fire was lit would be very conspicuous. After nibbling on some of the dry food and jerky he carried, and resting for a while, Wei Long said to Xuan Liang:

"According to the distance and direction of our march, it should be about a thousand miles northeast of the northern tribe now. The northern tribes had been keeping an eye on the Wangshan garrison in the southwest, and the rest of the directions were not very closely monitored, so we rested during the day, and after nightfall, we set camp, and we could reach the edge of the prairie for about another day and night. ”

When Xuan Liang and Wei Long led eighty cavalry, brave the wind and snow day and night, Xiao Yiran at the Wangshan garrison often stood in the wind and snow, looking to the north. Xiao Yiran was so tired that day that he didn't see Xuan Liang and Wei Long when he woke up, and after a little thought, he knew the true intention of the two of them to be so brave at night. The two didn't want to let themselves send them, and they didn't want to see the sadness of their parting. Looking at the wind and snow falling in front of him, Xiao Yiran's heart also became heavy.

Due to the heavy wind and snow, the kindergarten did not have classes, Xiao Yue led Xiaolongnu and Xiao Xin, accompanied by Xiaoju and Xiaozhu, and followed Xiao Yiran all the time. Xiao Yiran also made an exception because of the wind and snow, and did not go to various departments to inspect.

"Mom, is Xuanliang's father on the expedition?"

Xiao Yue raised her head, flashed her big bright eyes, and asked Xiao Yiran.

"Yueyue, how do you know?"

"In the morning, I saw Aunt Xiaoju hand Brother Xiao Ming a wooden sword, saying that Xuanliang's father asked Aunt Xiaoju to transfer it to Brother Xiao Ming."

"Xuanliang's father just gave Xiao Ming's brother a wooden sword, how could Yueyue think that Xuanliang's father went on the expedition?"

"Gifts are only given when they leave."

"Oh, who did Yueyue listen to?"

"Wei Nan's father went to tell us a story that day."

"Oh, what's the story?"

"Wei Nan's father said that when people are leaving, they are easy to be sad, so they will give gifts to each other to send lovesickness."

Xiao Yiran didn't know how Wei Nan could tell such a story to the children, and Xiao Yiran didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing for Xiao Yue's sensitivity, so he reached out and touched Xiao Yue's head, and said softly:

"Yueyue is so smart, after listening to the story once, you can guess that Xuanliang's father is on the expedition."

That night, Wei Nan and Wei Yu happened to be sleeping, Xiao Yiran remembered Xiao Yue's words in the morning, and couldn't help but ask Wei Nan:

"Listen to Yueyue, you told your child a story about parting?"

"The story of parting? Oh, it should be to teach them to learn the poem 'Fireworks go down to Yangzhou in March' that they heard from the emperor, and I said a few more words by the way. ”

"Yueyue is very smart and sensitive, so I will have more snacks in the future."

"Yes, Emperor."

It may be that Xuan Liang and Wei Long, who are worried about the wind and snow, have lost their excitement in the past few days, and the guards also understand the emperor's mood. Wei Nan was originally a relatively quiet one, and he was almost comforting the emperor all night, letting Wei Yu work in the emperor's mud. It wasn't until Wei Yu and the emperor were released at the same time that Wei Nan held the emperor's jade body from behind, gently inserted Wei Jian into it, and snuggled up to each other like that. When Xiao Yiran slept and felt that Wei Nan's Weijian was still strong, he twisted his body and signaled that Wei Nan could attack, and at the same time spit out his fragrant tongue and lingered with Wei Yu.

Living in a tent in the snow and ice, you can only hide from the howling wind, and the cold still penetrates through the tent and only into the bedding. In the past few days, Xuan Liang and the others have hardly slept a solid night's sleep, it is too cold.

After another day and a night of marching, the group entered the vast prairie, found a low-lying place, pressed the camp, and then dared to pick up the dung of wild yaks and light a bonfire. These soldiers from the south, in order to keep warm, did not care about not getting used to the smell of wild yak dung burning. After roasting the dry food and dried meat on the fire, and heating a pot of snow water, I finally ate a hot meal and warmed my body.

Here, Xuan Liang and the others are no longer afraid that the smoke will be discovered by the northern tribes, listening to Wei Long, this place is more than 2,000 miles away from the northwest of the northern tribes, plus there are some scattered nomadic groups here, even if the northern tribes see the smoke, they will not suspect the soldiers in the Wangshan station.

After resting for two days, Wei Long led four cavalrymen and quietly sneaked to the garrison of the northern tribe. Xuan Liang originally wanted Wei Long to bring more people, but Wei Long said:

"There are many people and big targets, and they are easy to be discovered by the northern ethnic groups. Not only is it not easy to be spotted when there are few people, but it is also easy to run. ”

Xuan Liang had no choice but to listen to Wei Long's advice.

After Wei Long led the people away, Xuan Liang also began to look for a herd of wild horses on the grassland. Three days later, Xuan Liang led the remaining seventy-six cavalrymen and tightly bit a herd of wild horses. It's just that none of them had any experience in catching wild horses, and they followed them for four or five days without knowing how to start. The anxious Xuan Liang even used means such as blocking the horse rope, but still failed to catch a wild horse.

It wasn't until the eighth day that Xuan Liang and the others met seven members of the local nomadic tribe, who had also come to capture wild horses. Xuan Liang originally wanted to learn how to catch wild horses from them, but after seeing their skillful horse lassing skills, Xuan Liang changed his attention. Begin to consult with them, exchanging knives with them for wild horses.

Xuan Liang has his own plans, war knives and war swords, not just look at them and make them, the key technology lies in smelting copper ore and iron ore, even if these nomadic groups have war knives and war swords, they will definitely not be able to master the smelting technology. Due to the language barrier, after some comparisons, the conditions were finally discussed.

A war sword is exchanged for three wild horses, and a war knife is exchanged for five wild horses, and Xuan Liang doesn't know why they are more fond of war knives. Xuan Liang roughly calculated, if he took out half of the sword and exchanged it for wild horses, he would probably be able to exchange it for two hundred and forty or fifty wild horses. Although this number is nothing compared to the cavalry of the northern tribes, it is already very remarkable for the dragon clan. The entire dragon clan, the war horses currently owned, all combined, are less than two hundred and fifty.

With only the seven people in front of him, it was impossible to gather so many wild horses in any case. Because Xuan Liang didn't know when the northern tribes would launch an attack on the Wangshan station, he naturally hoped that the sooner he got the war horse, the better. So, let these seven people go to find other nomadic tribes, unite and catch wild horses for them. For every fifty wild horses gathered, Xuan Liang sent four cavalrymen to escort them back along the way they came.

When the second batch of fifty wild horses was sent away, it was already two months after Xuan Liang and their expedition, and the time had come to the end of the new year. Seeing that there was no news from Wei Long, who went to investigate the movements of the northern ethnic groups, Xuan Liang continued to cooperate with the nomads on the grassland to catch wild horses.

As Xuan Liang gradually mastered the art of catching wild horses, the speed of catching them greatly increased. Within a month, two more batches of a hundred horses were escorted back, and the first and second groups of cavalrymen escorting the wild horses also returned, and brought back a part of the swords to supplement the part they had exchanged for the wild horses.

"Lord Xuanliang, the emperor has a message to come."

"Say."

"Judging from the investigation by the intelligence department, it is very likely that the northern ethnic groups will launch an attack on the Wangshan garrison in the next few days, please prepare Xuanliang Weilong."

After listening to the soldier's report, Xuan Liang fell into deep thought.