At the foot of Jinwei Mountain, the Xiongnu Da Dan Yu sadly looked at the vast and majestic earth, the withered grass on the grassland stretched to the end of the world, boundless, and occasionally one or two trees stood alone in the distance, making the vast land more desolate and majestic.

The weather is getting colder and colder, and the cold snap in the north not only makes people grit their teeth and tighten the neckline of their clothes, but also makes the waist-deep grass fall to the ground, and it looks like a wave rushing forward from a distance, glowing with white light. Once upon a time, the Xiongnu king's tent was lively, but now it is a dead silence, except for the countless vultures in the sky, the animals have been difficult to find, and as far as the eye can see, there is nothing else except the withered grass that has not yet burned and the dead bodies of herdsmen all over the ground, which adds a bit of tragic atmosphere to the heaven and earth.

This winter was a disaster winter for the Northern Huns!

Da Shan wanted to cry without tears at this time. The news has just come back that this light cavalry of the Han army is haunted like a ghost, killing people and setting fires everywhere on the grassland. By the end of December, more than half of the tribes to which Wang Ting belonged had lost their livestock and had their pastures destroyed, and he was now at a loss for what to do.

Think of that demon god-like Han general, who is ruthless and ruthless, and will always strike a fatal blow at your weakest point like a poisonous snake. At this moment, it still makes every Hun here's shudder, the name "Li Tong" is like a spell, deep in the heart of Da Dan who escaped by luck, and he can't forget it for a lifetime. The winter in the prairie is too long, the wind is as tight as a day, and the cold is also cold day by day, and Da Danyu knows that it will be a long winter.

Li Tong's Xuanjia cavalry was still hunting. Evading the pursuit of the Xiongnu army, he crossed the Ganwei River again, and arrived at the foot of Jinwei Mountain before the arrival of a greater cold snap. In the beginning, he regarded human heads as his trophies, and after cutting off thousands of left ears as proof of his exploits, he gave up this senseless act, and no one can remember how many people he and his men had killed together. The human bones of Baihuahua can be seen everywhere in the wilderness, and Li Tong's raids have caused the wounds of the grassland to continue to bleed.

The current Huns call him the Demon King, he is active in any corner of the grassland, and his Xuanjia riding is everywhere. For two whole months, Li Tong conscientiously repeated this killing again and again, as if his only duty in this life was to let the grassland continue to bleed, so that the grassland herdsmen should also be afraid when grazing, and let every dead sheep floating in the river become the herdsmen's great enemy.

This cold winter, hunger will be the only enemy of the steppe herders, but it is also the most terrible enemy. Including Mobode, every warrior who was still alive on the Xuanjia Cavalry threw himself to the ground with the five bodies that his leader admired. The young lieutenant Li Tong seemed to be born a good hunter, but he was more ruthless than a hunter, and the entire steppe was his hunting ground, and the tactics of moving east and west, south and north made the Huns unable to defend against it.

When the Huns gathered a large army to clear out, Li Tong and they had fled hundreds of miles away, and when the Huns stopped to rest, Li Tong suddenly appeared again, biting hard, never tireless. The herdsmen scattered in all corners of the grassland became the best prey for the merciless killing of the Xuanjia Cavalry.

In a sheltered mountain, Li Tong lay lazily on the ground covered with thick thatch, and the tall and dense grass made the wind less here. He bit a stalk of grass and said with a smile, "Why, the brothers are tired, aren't they?" ”

"That's true!" Mobold nodded and admitted, "But if the captain decides to stay with the whole army, you brothers won't frown. It's just that the weather is getting colder and colder, and although we have the best cold equipment, there are more and more frostbitten brothers, and non-combat attrition will affect combat effectiveness. ”

Li Tong sat up. I looked at my men who were hiding in the grass. Although they were all chatting and listening to the movement here. They all turned their heads in unison and listened. Although they had thickened wool masks and sheepskin gloves on their faces, their faces and hands were blackened with cold, rotten, and even dripping with yellow water. After three months of fighting, everyone, including himself, was baptized by the harshest wind and frost on the desert, and Li Tong saw the softest thing flashing under the resolute expression of each of them—everyone was homesick!

"We've been here for nearly three months, and it's been half a year since we left Hami City. Even the war horses have been changed countless times, and it's time to go home! Li Tong sighed a little tiredly, "The brothers have worked hard, even the tigers have a time to nap and rest." When our army returns to the division, the captain of this school will ask the court for merit. ”

"Whew...... Whew......"

The 600 soldiers who survived couldn't help but cheer. When the Xuanjia rode from the north of Hami to attack the grassland, there were far more than these people, but the war is cruel, and when you become a hunter, you may also become the prey of your opponent. Thousands of miles to war, any situation may be encountered. In the battle after battle, there will always be people who will stay here forever and sleep with the grassland. At this moment, they want to go home.

To be honest, it was not all smooth sailing at the beginning, and after Li Tong encountered some setbacks at the beginning and suffered some inexperience, everyone became more and more mature. With increasingly skillful tactics and tacit cooperation, the more unfortunate the more the robe died, the fewer and fewer robes were killed, and now these more than 600 soldiers are all elites, and he and his men have tempered themselves and his men into the most difficult wolves on the grassland. Seeing that the wolves under his command were also homesick, Li Tong himself felt even more tired.

"Captain, when will our army return to the division?" The new scout battalion soldier Alongmu leaned over, with a face full of chilblains, and asked, "I miss the fire kang in Wolf Valley, I really want to eat another bowl of hot Hami ramen!" ”

"Hehe, I'll leave in two days. The weather is getting colder and colder, and now when the whole grassland is covered with ice and snow, the footprints are difficult to hide, the march is difficult, and the Huns are frightened, and now most of them are gathered together. The harvest of our army is getting more and more difficult, so it is better to return to the division now. Li Tong smiled and patted Alongmu on the shoulder, jumped up and said, "However, we can't just go back, we still need to light a fire for the Huns." ”

The sergeant of the Xuanjia cavalry lit the torch, rode out on his horse, and threw the torch on the grass with the wind. The waist-deep withered grass is the easiest thing to burn, and the north wind at this time is blowing like a while, the wind helps the fire, the fire helps the wind, and the little spark of the stars becomes the momentum of the prairie fire in the blink of an eye, and the thousands of tongues of fire actually fly like flying to the south and extend, without stopping for a moment.

Leaving the grass on the plain,

One year old and one withered.

Wildfires can't be burned,

The spring breeze blows and grows.

Li Tong looked at the fire on the grassland, silently reciting this poem that only existed in the Tang Dynasty, and his heart was full of emotion. He knew that the prairie would still be full of grass next spring, but he still felt that it was worth it. This was obviously not the first time they had done this kind of arson in the whole autumn, and all the places on the grassland that had been burned by wildfires on the bare surface were all places that Li and his Xuanjia had ridden. Six hundred men jumped on their horses, and with endless dust and full harvest, they once again went deep into the vast Gobi Desert......

——————

During the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions ranged from the later Xinjiang and the mountains and rivers connected to it to the west of the Green Mountains (present-day Pamir Plateau) to the area around Lake Balkhash in Central Asia.

There are deserts, snow-capped mountains, and oases, sometimes with long winds, flying sand and rocks, and sometimes thousands of miles of silence. The shepherd's smoke rose from the clouds, the camel bell rang, and the land was again desolate when it was opened. The news that Xuanjia rode in Jinwei Mountain and destroyed the grassland has spread throughout the Western Regions, causing the same hatred and hatred of the Xiongnu tribes.

At the sound of an order, the entire Northern Xiongnu began to act, and their scouts attacked everywhere, blocking the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, looking for this lone Han army that had dealt a heavy blow to the Huns. But they were doomed to be disappointed, and when the Huns reorganized themselves and gritted their teeth to seek revenge, the Han army suddenly disappeared like a cloud in the vast Gobi, as if it had never appeared.

In order to preserve their strength, Li Tong led the Xuanjia cavalry not to go back to Hami by the same route, but to go the opposite way, they crossed the desert Gobi, crossed the frozen and snowy green mountains, and went through hardships and hardships to come to Dawan (now the Fergana Basin). It is a wealthy country in Central Asia, with a population of hundreds of thousands, more than 70 cities and towns, and is rich in sweat and blood. The Dawan Kingdom was still nominally a subject state of the Han Dynasty, but in fact it had submitted to the Xiongnu and became a vassal of the Shache State. Especially after Wang Mang's rebellion, Dawan never sent envoys to pay tribute to the Han Dynasty.

The eastern part of the Fergana Basin is more than 1,000 meters high and gently slopes westward, reaching 315 meters above sea level in Kujahn, bordered by bare low hills. Streams running down from the hills irrigate a continuous fertile oasis, and in the center of the basin is the Yazyavan steppe, dotted with salty flats and dunes. It has a continental climate, with not too cold winters, hot summers, and very little precipitation, especially in the western part of the basin. The main river is the Syr River, which flows along the northern margin of the basin. A great place to spend the winter.

After thousands of miles of battle, the veterans of the Xuanjia Cavalry Division are tired and in urgent need of rest. Li Tong has been to Uzbekistan many times by car in his previous life, so he is familiar with this place. After crossing the Green Ridge, he followed the map and relied on his memory to find the location of the desert oasis Yinma Lake. Although time has passed, they are happy to find this small oasis in this desert, which is inaccessible, hidden between valleys, and rich in water and grass, which is really a good place to rest.

Everyone got off the horse one after another, surrounded Li Tong to the shore of the Drinking Horse Lake, the green mountains in the distance stretched, at the foot of the mountain, the desert blue sky, the water was clear and shaming, the water birds rose and fell in the sea of reeds, the peanut trees, the poplar forest yellow leaves were dyed, and the long wind made people have the urge to howl like a song.

After this period of battle, the generals really admired Li Tong's martial arts and strategy, and what was even more amazing was that this young lieutenant not only had excellent medical skills, providing a guarantee for everyone's life, but also seemed to be a living map, always able to find the best shelter for everyone in the vast desert, with that sextant navigation, Xuanjia Riding since the expedition, never got lost.

After everyone sighed at the lake and mountains in front of them, the soldiers very consciously set up camp and buried the pot to cook without the orders of the officers. It didn't take long for the steaming meal to be served. After a long march, climbing ice and snow for so long, and eating a hot meal, everyone hummed comfortably, as if they had come to heaven.

While everyone was enjoying this rare leisure, a rumbling sound sounded in the distant valley, like the thunder of the heavenly drums, shaking the ground and trembling. Everyone followed the prestige, and a herd of wild horses rushed out of the valley on the other side of the lake and marsh, and there were hundreds of them, and from a distance, they saw the mane of the opposite bank flying, neighing like a dragon, and the horse's hooves raised the yellow sand in the sky, covering the sky and the sun.

"Pegasus!" As a people on horseback, the former Hun Mobod was very fond of horses. When I saw hundreds of wild horses galloping towards me, I couldn't help but scream.

Li Tong also exclaimed: "Silence! Don't alarm them! I have long heard that there are heavenly horses in the desert of the Western Regions, running like flying, it is rare to see it, and it turns out that the rumors are true. Hurry up, hurry up! Squat down, don't scare them away. Li Tong waved his hand back, and everyone held their breath and lowered their bodies, hiding in the reeds, and secretly looked at the opposite side.

Li Tong judged that this group of wild horses went to the lake and marsh to drink, and it is said that the Pegasus are alert by nature, and once there is a disturbance, they will immediately flee away. The horses were getting closer and closer, and a red Pegasus ran at the forefront, with a forehead nine feet high, sharp and sharp, ears like bamboo sticks, and a mane flying like a burning purple flame. Li Tong's eyes widened, staring at the leading Pegasus, his fists clenched, and there seemed to be a flame rising in his eyes.

Mo Bode noticed that Li Tong's expression was different, and asked, "Family master, do you want to catch it?" Li Tong didn't speak, his fists clenched tighter, and his eyes became more fiery.

"Not good, not good." Mo Bode shook his head and said: "When it comes to the world's famous horses, the first is to push Dawan's sweaty horse, which travels thousands of miles a day, and it is difficult for birds to fly. If the head of the family likes it, we will grab a handful when we get to Dawan Kingdom, and you can choose when the time comes. But forget about this horse, it is a divine horse in the sky, not something you can covet. Besides, wild horses are wild and untamable, and they are not suitable for combat! ”

Li Tong smiled slightly and said jokingly: "How do you know if you don't try?" ”

Mobode's eyes widened, he couldn't close for a long time, and hesitated for a while before he stammered: "Home...... Head of the house, you ...... You're not kidding, are you? It's too dangerous! ”

Li Tong put away his smile and said seriously: "I like that head horse." Want to try it! ”

"This ...... This ......"

"This" for a long time, Mo Bode simply shut his mouth, and after a few years of getting along, he found that Li Tong was very special, and he always had some inexplicable insistence. Once he made a decision, he couldn't pull back the nine cows.

The horses ran to the lake and stopped, the red Pegasi neighed with their heads held high, and the horses shrugged their ears and scattered in an orderly manner and rushed into the lake to drink. The red wild horse was not in a hurry to drink, but held its head high and rushed up to the dunes, its eyes like brass bells, and watched around vigilantly. When the horses had drunk enough water, they walked down the dunes without hurrying, and gracefully entered the lake, and walked inward until the water was knee-high, and then stopped until it reached its knees, neighed, and slowly put its head into the water.

Li Tong praised softly: "The king of the heavenly horses, it is really extraordinary!" ”

Mobod rolled his eyes, he had lived in the steppe since he was a child, what kind of good horse had not been seen? It would be an insult to his intelligence not to see that this horse was extraordinary. He also recognized that the herd of horses on the opposite side was the real sweat and blood BMW.

Almost everyone in Li Tong's Xuanjia rode was very interested in this group of horses, and for several days, Li Tong personally took Mo Bode to hide in the reeds to spy on the horses, and gradually found out the laws of their activities. Led by the red kings, the wild horses run out of the valley every day, follow a fixed route to the lake and marsh to drink, and then spread out on the lake and meadow to graze. Leaving at the time of the unitary, the location of the red Pegasus drinking water every day is almost exactly the same.

Seeing that Li Tong was hiding in the reeds and peeking like this almost every day, Mo Bode didn't say anything, and finally couldn't help but ask, "Family master, are you going to watch it all the time?" If the divine horse is so easy to catch, why did those Dawan people go to great lengths to release the five-colored mare down the mountain? Give it up! It's just too hard. ”

Li Tong didn't say anything, he knew what Mobode said. It is said that there are divine horses in the high mountains in the territory of Dawan country, its line is like flying, and the sense of smell is sensitive, if you find that there is a peculiar smell around, you will immediately run away, you can't catch it at all. In order to get a good horse, the Dawan people put the five-colored mare at the foot of the mountain, let the god horse get along with the mare, and then bring back the pregnant mare, and the offspring born is called "Tianmazi", that is, the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not hesitate to send troops to the Dawan country twice to get the sweat and blood horse. Li Tong doesn't have a five-colored mare at the moment, and he can't stay here for a long time, and the Dawan people's approach is not suitable for him.

Seeing that Li Tong was still unwilling to give up, Mo Bode suddenly smiled mysteriously: "Family master, do you know how the profiteering chief who sacrificed his horse to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty caught Tianma?" ”

Li Tong nodded, this happened in Dunhuang County in the Western Han Dynasty, and it has become a legend talked about by the locals. He had been in Dunhuang for a few months, how could he not know? It is said that the chief was also a prisoner exiled to Tuntian in Dunhuang, and he found a herd of wild horses, one of which was like a dragon, often drinking in a puddle. The guy was clever enough to make a dummy out of clay and stand at the water's edge with the bridle and reins in his hand. Over time, the herd lost its vigilance against the dummy. When the time comes, the profiteering chief will take the place of the dummy, holding the bridle and the reins of the horse, and stand by the water's edge. When the Pegasus came to drink, he caught it unprepared.

Thinking of this story, Li Tong smiled, still didn't speak, he can't make dummies, although this method is good, it doesn't work for him, and he doesn't have that much time.

A new day is coming. Li Tong tied a rope woven from cowhide to his body. This cowhide rope is slender and flexible, twisted into a rope and extremely strong, and this expedition brought a lot. As usual, the horses rushed out of the valley on time and headed for the lake and marsh. The mist on the surface of the lake has not completely dissipated, and the reeds and wild lotuses loom in a fairyland. Li Tong sharpened a reed pipe with a knife, put it in his mouth, and swam into the water like a fish.

When Mo Bode saw Li Tong go into the water, he was shocked and said, "Hey, family master, what are you going to do?" You're going to freeze! ”

Li Tong made a silent gesture, his body dived down, the whole person did not enter the water, the spring cold is steep, the lake water is cold and biting, Li Tong seems to be not afraid of the cold at all, he took a deep breath, and dived into the water, leaving only an inch long half of the reed pipe on the surface of the lake slowly moved to the opposite shore. Mobard's eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his hands, lest he could not help but scream.

The reeds faded away and disappeared into the mist. Mobode was very scared, the lake was so wide and the water was deep, Li Tong had not shown up, he wouldn't drown, right? Li Tongping felt that he had been swimming underwater, and over the years, he found that his body had been undergoing subtle changes, this body was not only getting stronger and stronger, but also had an excellent memory, and what was even more rare was that he inadvertently found that he was as cold-resistant as Lao Maozi, and it was difficult to be frostbitten. In the past few days, he has secretly tried to enter the water several times behind his back, and he is sure that he will not mistake the direction and position.

In his previous life, Li Tong has been familiar with water since he was a child, and he is a "white strip in the waves" like a fake, and this body has also inherited this ability, such a small lake is nothing to him at all. Dive to the place where Tianma usually drinks water, Li Tong pulled out a reed pipe standing in the water. This reed pipe was inserted a few days ago. Wild horses are alert, and the slightest hint can alarm them. It observed it very carefully, and Pegasus had become accustomed to the sudden reed for a few days, except for some initial surprise, and this was what he wanted.

Li Tong lay quietly at the bottom of the water, with some aquatic plants wrapped around his body, and from the surface of the water, there was a large mass of green algae swaying with the waves.

Time passed little by little, and finally waited until the herd of wild horses came to the lake and drank water as usual. Mobod held up the binoculars and saw the red wild horse jumping into the lake and slowly walking in, Mobod hid in the reeds on the opposite bank, his face was red, his heart was like a drum, and he couldn't even breathe at the moment. Almost exactly as the red mustang stood where it often drank, and the reed pipe was less than two feet to the right of its body, and it looked up and neighed, and then lowered its head and plunged into the water, ignoring the reed pipe.

Thorny, a white and bright column of water rose into the sky, and the horses were shocked. It was too late, but it was too soon, and a vigorous figure broke through the water and landed steadily on the back of the wild horse. His legs were clamped around the horse's belly like iron cast, his arms were wrapped around the horse's neck, and he skillfully put the cowhide rope on it and tied a knot. The red wild horse was furious, its neck was raised high, and it rushed to the shore of the lake as soon as it jumped up, and it neighed like thunder, and its front hooves soared into the air, and people stood up.

Li Tong tightened the horse's neck, his legs clamped the horse's belly again, and the whole person stuck to the horse's back like a dog skin plaster. The wild horse jumped up and down, did not throw off Li Tong, and was even more furious, neighing again, the front hooves had not yet fallen, the horse's hips were violently lifted upward, and the hind hooves rose into the air, and two clouds of sand and mist flew up on the spot, and the sound was terrifying.

The herd was terrified, scattered, and fled into the valley in unison.

The wild horse stood and kicked but couldn't help Li Tong, the horse's head was raised high, the sound was like a dragon's groan, and the four hooves were scattered, like a red lightning shot into the depths of the desert. The speed of this wild horse was extremely fast, and it galloped with all its strength as if it were soaring through the clouds. Li Tong only felt that the wind was whistling in his ears, and he couldn't see anything clearly in front of him except for the endless yellow.

He didn't want to be led into the desert by this wild horse, so he hugged the horse's neck with his arms and competed, and the power was so great that the wild horse suddenly gasped. The wild horse became more and more frenzied, struggling desperately to continue to maintain its incredible speed, but as it rushed down a sandy mountain, its front hooves suddenly collapsed and fell out of the air, smashing the dune into a large hole. Li Tong was immediately thrown out by the huge impact, and he also fell dizzy.

As soon as he turned over and saw the mustang falling not far away, he spit out the sand from his mouth, got up and jumped over, crushing the Pegasus to the ground. The right arm clamps the horse's neck and tightens it. The left elbow pressed against the horse's throat and pressed hard. The wild horse's eyes were blood-red, he roared and roared, and he opened his mouth to bite, but he was strangled by Li Tong's neck and couldn't reach it at all.

Gradually, the two nostrils of the wild horse swelled, blowing sand and dust, but there was more air out, less air intake, and little effort, and the iron hooves that kicked wildly slowly became weak. Seeing that the wild horse was about to suffocate to death, Li Tong let go of the oppression, quickly put on the bridle, the wild horse struggled to stand up again, it shook several feet long mane, the horse's head neighed like a dragon to the sky, desperately struggling and jumping, but it couldn't break free from the bridle.

It kicked and kicked, opening its mouth to bite at this abominable human. But it was an unceremonious counterattack from Li Tong, who would put it back to the ground and put his arms around the horse's neck, almost suffocating the wild horse each time. After a few rounds of fighting, the mustang became frightened, its voice turned from high to low, and its fury and reluctance gradually disappeared, replaced by tame and surrender.

When it was completely quiet, Li Tong walked over, and the wild horse licked Li Tong's hand, looked up at him for a long time, and gradually lowered his arrogant head. Li Tong took out the water bag and fed Tianma water. There was not much water, and he himself could resist drinking it, but the horse had been running for so long and sweating so much, that he could not refrain from drinking.

Taking advantage of the rest, Li Tong carefully looked at the wild horse, and saw that it was tall and mighty, with a mane like a dragon, a mane draped, a long tail hanging to the ground, and its body was like a fire coal, without a single miscellaneous hair. The eyes are golden, bright and bright, like the clear water of a lake, and every muscle exudes explosive power.

Patting Ma's forehead, Li Tong was very satisfied, although he was very tired, he felt that the hard work was really worth it! Hearing the sound of horses' hooves and Mobod's call from far and near, Li Tong stopped hesitating, turned over and mounted the wild horse, and motioned for it to return to the land of lakes and marshes.

The wild horses neighed with their heads up, and the sound of horses echoed in the empty desert for a long time......

(To be continued)