Mobord, who had been hit the head, remained unconscious and only woke up at daylight.

The sky this morning is very strange. When Mobald opened his eyes, he was greeted by a dragon-like cloud in the sky, bright red, light and dark, with golden and translucent edges. Rumbling drums could be heard among the clouds. Mobold took a deep breath, only to feel a sharp pain in his head and a feeling of nausea in his heart. Unbeknownst to him, it was the after-effects of a concussion.

Mobold found himself lying on his back on the sand, his hands and feet bound tightly with leather ropes, and he could only wriggle on the ground like a maggot. At this time, the sun was hanging, and the white light pierced his face. Beside him came the sound of the war horse's nose spitting, and he turned his head sideways, only to see the terrible young man sitting by a campfire roasting a skinned yellow sheep.

"Awake?" Li Tong's tone was relaxed.

Mobold struggled to sit up, his head drowsy, his thirst terrible, and the corners of his mouth chapped and bleeding. He said in a hoarse voice, "Give saliva." After speaking, he stared at the water bladder beside Li Tong.

Li Tong pulled out the sheepskin water bladder stopper, took a big sip of it, and plugged it again.

"Give me saliva, I'm too thirsty." Mobold said.

Li Tong patted his stomach and stood up, picked up Mobod's scimitar by the fire and threw it hard, and the blackened scimitar was stuck in the sand in front of Mobod. Li Tong walked over and squatted on the opposite side, looked at Mo Bode with his eyes, pointed to the west and asked, "How to go to Yiwulu?" Mobode was stunned for a moment, and said stubbornly in his heart: "Give saliva!" I'll show you the way. ”

"You're looking for death?" Li Tong kicked Mobod in the shoulder. The wound was touched, and Mobod gritted his teeth and said, "I'll show you the way, if you learn how to find the way, why should you leave me to do it?" ”

"Hard-mouthed."

Li Wen sneered and teased: "I'm still smart!" Do you think Master Ben can't find the way? There are so many yellow sheep here, you can find a water source by following the sheep, and there are bones all the way, you think I can't get out! also wants to blackmail Lao Tzu. As he spoke, he pulled out his scimitar from the ground.

"Don't kill me!" Mobod's face changed greatly, and he immediately knelt down and begged for mercy: "I don't want to lie to you, I can't tell you clearly, I will only lead the way." Please! Woo...... I don't want to die......"

Li Tong didn't pay attention to his pleas at all, and with a slash, Mobod trembled, and urine flowed down his crotch into the sand under his body. After a while, Mobod didn't feel any pain, and when he raised his head, he found that Li Tong had already split the rope that bound him, and returned to the campfire to continue roasting the yellow sheep. Knowing that the other party had once again let him go, Mobod, who had escaped, collapsed to the ground with relief.

After the two of them had eaten and drunk enough, Li Tong tied Mo Bode's hands again, let him lead the way in front, and led two war horses himself, and escorted him to the west in the long yellow sand. As the sun rises, the weather gets hotter and hotter. A gust of hot wind swept across the scorching ground, raising up a layer of smoke that enveloped the two men who were walking hungrily and thirstily. Li Tong held the reins and walked in front of the horse's left side, while Mobode walked in front of the horse's right with his hands tied behind his back. The two of them walked for two hours in one breath, walking more and more slowly, until Mobold could no longer walk.

"Water." He gasped, his face pale.

"There's not much water, you have to save some!" Li Tong took off the water bladder and poured it into two mouthfuls first, and then poured some water with Diao Dou and fed it to Mobode, and when he finished drinking, Li Tong gritted his teeth and fed some water to the two horses.

The two of them were dry and stopped talking, and continued their trek westward. Li Tong noticed that every time Mo Bode walked, he would stop and observe the position of the sand dune to correct the direction, Li Tong thought for a long time and didn't understand what the principle was, and it was inconvenient to ask, so he had to think about it in his heart. So peaceful, walking and stopping until the evening finally saw the light of day, the desert was pitch black, and the two of them stopped.

Li Tong took out the wooden bowl and poured some water, drank most of it himself, and handed the remaining half to the thirsty Mobode.

"Hun boy, I've walked seventy or eighty miles today."

"Sixty miles at most, more than three hundred miles left."

Mobold took the wooden bowl and sucked it slowly, reluctant to drink it all in one gulp. The night breeze was blowing, and the heat of the day had turned into a cold wind, and there was no material to make a fire around, so he stuck out his tongue and licked the last few drops of water in the bowl, and threw the bowl into the horse jacket. Hungry and thirsty horses let out a wheezing sound that would fall at any moment. Li Tong hesitated for a moment, poured two bowls of water from the little water bladder left to feed the horse, and then fed the horse some horse feed, and when he turned around and saw that Mo Bode was looking at him in a daze, Li Tong asked him, "Hey, what are you thinking about?" Are you thinking about how to kill me while I'm asleep? ”

"No, I can't beat you, so why bother asking for it." Mobold said dejectedly.

"It's okay, you can try it tonight." Li Tong yawned and teased.

On the sand dunes where the cold wind was howling, the two of them were curled up and lying in their clothes, and after a while, Li Tong seemed to have fallen asleep. The stars in the night sky are dim, and the wind in the four fields is silent.

Under the starry sky, Mobode listened to Li Tong's snoring getting louder and louder, but he tossed and turned, and couldn't sleep at all. At this moment, countless thoughts surged in Moboyd's heart, and he sat up and lay down from time to time, but he never dared to act on them. Eventually, he sighed deeply for his cowardice, and then curled up as well, and then put down his mind and fell asleep. In the dark, Li Tong suddenly opened his eyes, looked up at him, and showed a sly smile.

The next day, just after dawn, the two men continued on their way, the air was so hot that they were humming, and the two of them trudged with difficulty. It was quiet all around, only the footsteps of each other and the wheezing of the horses could be heard, the water was almost run out, and both horses were dying of thirst, and if they could not find water for the past two days, the two of them would be in great trouble. The two of them walked for three hours in one breath and entered a large area of white Gobi. Everywhere there are piles of gravel carved by the wind, which have been silent here for thousands of years, and they stand in strange shapes, forming a group of mounds that run northeast to southwest. The twilight is rising, the scorching wind is weakening, and it is unitary time.

"This is Bailong Beach." Mobold said.

The two of them looked at it, and the dead ground was vast, and the surface of these gray mounds in the remnant sun was full of salt and alkali, reflecting a little silver light. White sand piles haunt the waves of sand dunes, and the Gobi Hanhai is magnificent in the twilight. Mobod collapsed to the ground and said bitterly, "I can't walk. ”

The scorching sun was setting in the west, and the two of them sat on the sand to rest. The journey was about thirty miles, and it was about two hundred and seventy miles from the Iwulu Oasis. Li Tong carefully poured out a small half bowl of water, drank most of it himself, and handed the rest to Mobode. Mobod took the water and held it in his hand, took a small sip slowly, took it in his mouth for a while, and swallowed it slowly with his eyes closed.

The sky was darker, and the cold wind was blowing. The two horses suddenly stirred uneasily, and the dying horse, thirsty, raised its head sharply. Li Tong and Mo Bode looked back, and a wolf appeared under a white dragon pile not far away. It was a sturdy old wolf, with four white paws, a pair of four white eyes, a circle of dirty and hard hair at the corners of his mouth, and a row of dark spots on his lips. His tail was drooping, his neck was slowly agitating, and his throat was purring low, staring gloomily at the two of them. Li Tong threw the wooden bowl and jumped up, grabbing the reins of the horse.

A green light flashed in the old wolf's eyes, and in the deeper twilight, suddenly, it looked up to the sky and snorted. With a howl from the old wolf, more wolf heads popped up on the dunes. Li Tong stared blankly at the wolves, and the hairs on his back stood up. To be honest, he had never seen such a situation in his two lives, and his mind was blank and he didn't know how to deal with it.

Growing up on the steppes, the Huns were more experienced, and he seemed very composed, and he had already discovered to the north a white dragon pile with steep slopes on three sides, and a slope on one side, and a dead poplar under the white dragon pile. The poplar branches spread and pierced into the sky, and they may have died for thousands of years, but they still stand.

"Release me, give me the cutlass!" Mobod said in a deep voice.

Li Tong did not hesitate, untied the cowhide rope that bound him, untied the scimitar from the saddle, and threw it to Mobod. The west wind suddenly rose, and the sand was raging for thousands of miles. Mobod unbraided his hair and his long hair spread out in the wind.

"It's a pity that there are no arrows, this crossing is really a failure!" Li Tong patted the big bow on the horse's back with some regret and said to himself.

Li Tong stared at the other side viciously, and a nameless anger rose in his heart. He slowly drew his sword from his waist, his eyes fixed on the old wolf. At this time, he no longer thinks about it, and plans to fight hard. Xu felt Li Tong's killing intent, the green light in the old wolf's eyes was even worse, the sky was getting darker, and the wolves howled in unison.

"General, don't give up! The wolves like to wait until the evening to attack, and it won't be dark until midnight. We still have half an hour! Mo Bode threw the reins of the horse in his hand to Li Tong, pointed at the white dragon pile in the north with a scimitar, and said, "You take care of the horse, and I will cut the poplar." Li Tong's eyes lit up, and he gave a thumbs up and nodded.

The two of them led their horses backwards to the white dragon pile, and the wolves followed unhurriedly and gathered on a sandy slope not far away. There are several dead poplars under the white dragon pile, and these trees follow the underground water flow in the Gobi and do not die for thousands of years. If the water flow is diverted, the poplar will be immortal for thousands of years after it dies.

Mobold came to the side of the dead poplar and slashed down the branches with his sword. Several young male wolves watched from afar and let out a low growl. In a few moments, Mobod dragged over the thick dead branches, and the old wolf let out a short low roar, and the restless wolves quieted down, and the wolves gradually turned into black shadows in the vast twilight, and the wind passed through the sandy slopes, and the wolf fur fluttered in the golden outline outlined by the remnant sun.

"Well, that's the rejection of the horse when defending the city." Li Tongdao.

Mobode dragged a second poplar trunk and sneered: "This is still learned from you Han people, only your Han army often uses to resist horses in field battles to prevent surprise attacks." ”

The words were not speculative, and the two of them were not speech, so they just stepped up their defenses, and only used half a stick of incense to lay down five rows of poplar horses in turn, each row separated by two steps, blocking the only narrow road that could go uphill. Just after all this, the sky is almost gone, and the wolves down the slope are howling.

The two of them retreated to the top of the white dragon pile, and the top was four feet square, and Mobod knocked a thick branch into the soil and tied the horse's reins tightly to the stake. The dying of thirst had its head hung down, and there was no strength left in its body. Li Tong touched the two horses, and tore off two strips of cloth from the hem of his clothes to cover the eyes of the two horses.

At this moment, Mo Bode bowed to the ground, he raised his knife to the moon, the blade reversed a silver light, he waved the knife to break the wind, the blade groaned slightly, like thirst for blood, Li Tong only listened to him to the bright moon in the sky and began to pray loudly: "Kunlun God, please give me courage and strength......" After praying, he turned his head to Li Tong and said: "General Li, life and death are unpredictable today, you are a hero among the Han people, it is my honor to fight side by side with a hero like you." You and I occupy this high ground, and we will have a big battle tonight! If you and I are lucky enough not to die, the grievances will be eliminated from now on. Then he raised his right palm.

"Good man!" Li Tong was also full of pride and responded, "If you and I are lucky not to die today, in the future, you and I will write off all the grievances and become brothers with different surnames from now on, how about it?" ”

"Gladly!"

The two men struck each other three times with their right palms and made an oath. The two looked at each other and laughed together. Li Tong untied the water bladder on his back and poured a bowl full of water. He drank half of it, and handed the other half to Mobard. After a few gulps, Mobod let out a long breath and yelled down the slope, "Come on! Poe responded with a wolf howl, and the wolves gathered more and more. On the sand pile not far away, the little green light was all wolf eyes, and the green light began to move towards the white dragon pile.

"Bastard! It's a big wolf pack! Tonight is a tough battle. I'm afraid there are more than forty heads, you see! The head wolf is the old wolf. Mobod said, pointing to the opposite slope.

"There's nothing to say, fight! Tonight I die, you die, I live, you live. I'll go first, you watch the enemy formation for me! Li Tong's voice had a strong fighting intent.

"Good! Tonight we will compete to see who kills more. "Mobod is not to be outdone.

The wolves began to gather around the white dragon pile. Li Tong turned his neck and wrist, took the lead in holding his sword to the edge of the steep slope, and looked down at the wolves gathered below. The steep slope is so narrow that there is room for at most two wolves side by side. Li Tong stared at the old wolf, stretched out his fingers and flicked the blade of the sword, and saw a crisp sound. The old wolf on the opposite side let out a short roar, and a young male wolf took the lead in attacking.

The young male wolf sped up a narrow, steep slope and leaped before the poplar rejected the horse. The fifth row of poplar rejection horses was about ten steps long, and the male wolf avoided the root thorns on the trunk of the tree, and landed between the fourth and fifth rows of poplar rejection horses, and his strength was suddenly unloaded. The young male wolf was about to pounce again, Li Tong jumped up first, shouted violently, and slashed down with a sword across the last row of poplars. This Han sword is unusually sharp, the blade is over, and the wolf's head falls to the ground. The wolf's head fell to the ground and gnawed on the sand, and the wolf's body fell.

Li Tong stepped over the rejection horse, grabbed the fur on the back of the wolf's neck, dragged the wolf corpse and the wolf's head to the top of the white dragon pile, raised his sword and fell, disemboweled the wolf, and pulled out a wolf heart that was still beating. Under the cold moonlight, at this time, Li Tong's eyes emanating from the wind were like torches, and his battle armor was stained with blood. Mobode was surprised to see Li Tong cut off a piece of wolf heart, stared at the old wolf, and put it in his mouth and crunched it. The wolves down the slope were silent, and Fang Yuan was unbearable. The old wolf made a purring sound in his throat, raised his chin slightly, and the wolves moved in unison, with two ends in a row, and the fish went uphill.

"Be careful! If they want to attack, they must be given a head-on blow. ”

As he spoke, Mobold grabbed the wolf's head from the ground and threw it at the wolves down the slope, then stepped over the horse, raised his scimitar, and stood on his left. The wolf's head rolled downhill, and the two male wolves in front were timid, and the wolves stopped, and their momentum declined. The male wolf who took the lead couldn't help the smell of blood emitted from the wolf's head and bit it down. The wolves suddenly became a mess, fighting for a piece of flesh.

When the wolves tore at the wolf's head, the old wolf looked up at the top of the white dragon pile, but Li Tong and Mo Bode were gone. The old wolf bared his fangs, the hair on his back stood up, and he looked around vigilantly, and suddenly saw Li Tong and Mo Bode crossing a row of thorn piles with their waists bent, and had already raised their swords downhill and rushed towards the wolves. Before the old wolf could howl and warn, Li Tong and Mobode rushed to the wolves, wielding their swords and slashing.

The surprise attack of the two came too suddenly. The wolves who were fighting for food did not expect that the sword blade had arrived, and before they could avoid it, seven or eight wolves had been cut down to serious injuries. The wolves blew up their dens and fled one after another, and the two started to chase after them, sweeping the ground with a sword and a knife, and each cut off the hind legs of a fleeing male wolf. The old wolf was frightened and turned and fled to the sand slope, but the wolves saw the first wolf flee and broke up for a while. Li Tong took advantage of the victory to pursue, and neatly cut off three wolf heads and inserted them on the pickets in front of the battle. But instead of killing the injured she-wolves, let them wail there, and the two of them alternately covered and retreated to the top of the white dragon pile.

In the first round, the wolves were killed and four wounded, and the other wolves fled back to the opposite dune. The man and the wolf confronted each other, and there was silence for a while.

The fierce fight just now affected the wound on his chest, Li Tong covered his chest, and now every time he inhales, his chest hurts terribly. He simply sat on the ground, gasping for air. Mo Bode was carrying a wolf in his hand that was still convulsing and had not yet swallowed, and took out two small silver bowls from the horse bag on the back of his war horse, he raised the knife in his hand, cut off the wolf's head, and the wolf blood dripped down, Mo Bode took two bowls of wolf blood from the wolf's neck and handed one to Li Tong.

Li Tong passed the silver bowl filled with wolf blood, and Mo Bode pointed to the hill opposite him and said, "Han General, look! There are more and more wolves, and this is a wolf plague. We have to maintain our strength, save water to feed the horses, maybe at dawn, we will have to rely on the horses to break through? "Anyway, drink it all.

"Okay, it's yours."

Li Tong nodded, he also endured vomiting, drank a bowl full of wolf blood in one go, swung his sword to cut off a wolf leg, took a bowl of wolf blood, and gritted his teeth and drank it. Two bowls of wolf blood in his stomach, Li Tong felt that he had strength, but his mouth was bloody, and he was really a little disgusted in his heart. After thinking about it, Li Tong said to Mo Bode: "Call me Li Tong in the future, this is my name." ”

Mo Bode stroked his chest with his right hand, performed a prairie etiquette, and said: "The villain's name is Mo Bode, General Li, thank you for your grace of not killing that day, the grassland people have clear grievances, I owe you a life, if you escape, I will definitely repay you." ”

"Mobod, forget about it. I'm just an ordinary soldier in the Han army, not a general, if you want, call me Brother Li. ”

"What?" Mo Bode was taken aback and asked in disbelief, "You are not an officer, I think Brother Li's martial arts are strong, even if you put it among the Huns, you are one in a million warriors, is the emperor of the Han Dynasty blind?" Li Tong laughed when he heard this, and said, "You think too much!" The Han Empire has a population of tens of millions, how can the emperor know such a small person as me. To tell you the truth, a year ago I was a healer, and because I killed someone, I was exiled to Biansai as a soldier, but in fact I am still a prisoner. ”

"Ah", Mobod was already speechless in astonishment, his eyes lit up, and he was about to say something, when he suddenly remembered something, his expression darkened, and he swallowed back the words that came out of his mouth vividly: "I go to pile firewood, I must make a fire, otherwise it will be unstoppable." ”

The two of them hurriedly cut down some dead branches from the top row of poplars and piled them aside.

There were more and more wolves, and they were all gathered on the top of the opposite slope at this moment, and the green light in their eyes was even worse, and there was a long and short wail in the white moonlight. A she-wolf with her severed hind leg at the bottom of the dirt slope screamed and crawled around on the ground trembling, dragging out a bloody streak. It was a beautiful she-wolf, and the old wolf in the distance shrugged up, looking up at the moon and grieving the trombone.

"Brother Li, they're going to charge. Hurry up and ignite the fire! Mobodho stood up, waved his hand and threw the blood from the scimitar and shouted.

As soon as the words fell, I saw the old wolf on the top of the slope let out a whining howl, and a blue-headed male wolf led a dozen gray wolves to pounce on the white dragon pile. Li Tong immediately lit a fire among a pile of dead branches. These poplars have been dead for many years, and they have long since dried up in the scorching sun every day. The flames rose with the wind and burned in an instant. He picked up a thick, burning, dead branch and threw it at the wolves. The flames arced brightly in the darkness of the night, falling in front of the oncoming wolves.

The wolf was afraid of fire, and the big green wolf running in front was frightened and stopped, and the third charge that held back his strength was deflated again. The she-wolf, who had no hind legs, screamed and crawled in circles, whimpering weaker and weaker, and finally lay on the ground and stopped moving. Suddenly, the old wolf howled, and the wolves surrounded the dead wolves and wounded wolves on the ground, and suddenly rushed up, and the wails of some wounded wolves who had not yet died came one after another, and then there was only a sound of tearing flesh and tearing flesh and biting bones in the night.

Where had Li Tong seen such a scene, he only heard him grit his teeth and say in disgust: "How can there be such a ruthless beast in the world." Mobode looked at the wolves below and said: "Brother Li, you are a Han Chinese, you have never seen the cruelty of deserts and grasslands, if you live in the grassland, you will know that in order to survive, grassland people are like wolves, only so ruthless can live." ”

Li Tong was silent.

After the wolves ate the dead wolves and wounded wolves on the ground, the green light in their eyes was even worse, this time they did not rush over, but sat down and stared at Li Tong and the two, except for the leader who was a big green wolf, and the other dozens of wolves were all healthy gray wolves. The wolves purred in their throats, as if discussing something. And the old wolf sat alone on the top of the sand dunes opposite, like a general leading the troops into battle. It squinted at the top of the white dragon pile, and the two sides continued to confront each other.

Mobod picked up a poplar branch and threw it into the fire, and said with palpitations: "This is not like the Gobi grassland, there are few prey, and the wolves occupy a large area, and there are no other wolves nearby, so I am afraid that the wolves will gather more and more." If it is in the grassland, the wolf pack can even reach hundreds of heads and thousands, and smaller tribes have to hide. ”

Li Tong looked down the slope and saw that the wolves who had just eaten their companions were divided into several groups, and at the same time they picked up their tails and began to circle in place, and then pressed their tails under their buttocks in unison, supported by their front legs, and squatted on the ground, forming a semicircle around the steep slope. Seeing this strange scene, Li Tong asked curiously, "Old Mo, what are these guys doing?" ”

"The wolves are demonstrating, trying to figure out how to eat us." "The wolves are afraid of fire, they are bluffing, and they will not attack for the time being." Come, let's eat wolves. ”

Li Tong pursed his lips and withdrew his gaze. He dragged over the wolf's leg that he had just cut off, and used his sword to cut open the wolf's skin, cutting off a few pieces of fine meat. Mobod skewered the wolf's leg with poplar branches and roasted it on the fire, he slowly turned the skewer, the wolf oil dripped into the fire, and the wolves looked up and watched, all of them with neck hair standing up.

The remaining water in the two water bladders had been fed to the two war horses, and they had also been fed enough horse feed, their eyes were blindfolded to see this, and they were standing very quietly on the top of the white dragon pile motionless, but at this moment they suddenly raised their heads uneasily and neighed. In the cold night wind, there seemed to be a sound of digging earth under the cliffs to the north, and Mobold was suddenly alert, put down his work and ran to look out, and it was pitch black below, and there was no clue to be seen.

(To be continued)