"That day, Young Eunuch Zhang put a knife in front of each of us, two catties of fried noodles in oil, let us choose for ourselves!" At the 60-year-old birthday banquet, Lu Dechuan, the head of the Tang Yue clan and the general of Zuo Wuwei, held a glass of wine and whispered to the old brothers around him.

The old brothers were gray-haired, but their eyes were red like children, and each of them had a proud smile on their faces at the same time. They were all the people who chose to sneak with Zhang that day, whether they were full of pride at that time, or they kept trembling in their hearts.

After decades of bloody rain, the brothers who made the same choice with them in Frozen City that day are still alive less than 30% of the original ones, but they will never regret it!

Although forty years have passed, each of them recalls the scene at that time vividly.

After the execution of the evil Zhuang Tou and the clansmen, the "high official", who was as young as them but had already become a secretary and a young eunuch, stood beside the corpse of the head of the Turk Shi Zhuang and ordered the brothers to take out a portion of the rations and thousands of horizontal knives and put them in front of the "slaves" who had been forcibly assembled.

"The head of the Tuqi Shi Zhuangtou will give each of you two taels a day, and I will give each of you two taels, and I will give you enough for ten days at a time. If you are willing to continue to be slaves to the Turgish, you should choose fried noodles with oil and eat them in the same amount, which will be enough until you come back. Zhang Qian's voice was not high, but it pierced the hearts of Lu Dechuan and the others like a needle.

If given a choice, which of them would want to be a slave?! Being locked up in the Frozen City is worse than death every day, because they were abandoned by the Tang Dynasty, not their own choice!

After Zhou Yiyi suffered defeat, he fled all the way to Khotan, leaving them and their families all to Suoge! But Suo Ge is a demon king who kills people without blinking, and immediately kills the Broken Leaf Man and sheds a river of blood.

Lu Dechuan's father is a scholar, and in addition to him, there is a younger brother and a younger sister in the family. However, his family put together all their possessions, and they were only assessed as worth two by Suo Ge's minions. Two hangs of money are only enough for one person to continue to live. Then, Lu Dechuan was locked in the back room by his father. When he cried and slammed the door open, he was the only one left alive in the family.

Wang Debao was his neighbor, and his family was spared because of the huge rice shop in his home. However, in the first month of the frozen city, his merchant father was hacked to death by the elders' clansmen because he was too slow to work. His mother and sister soon died of hunger and cold.

Taerhu is a child of the Loulan and Han people, and does not meet the criteria for joining the Suo Ge ethnic group......

Gai Ze's mother is a Turkish, and his father is a Han merchant, and the family property is not enough for six hangs......

……

In the first three months of the frozen city, Lu Dechuan and the others were looking forward to the Tang Dynasty coming back and saving them from the sea of suffering. However, the royal division led by Zhou Yiyi retreated from Khotan to Boxian. The king of Shule City is five hundred miles southwest of Frozen City. But the chief of Jinshan Dao has never sent a single soldier to the north!

After waiting for a month and a month, someone died in waiting, and someone despaired in waiting.

When they had turned into a walking corpse, the "Wang Shi" suddenly came and broke the cage of the frozen city! Wang Shi only had 3,000 people, but he tried to leave with more than 6,000 of them, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled!

Once caught up by the soldiers and horses of the Tuqi Shi, Wang Shi will definitely flee by himself like last time, and throw them to Suo Ge again! This time, they couldn't even get two pieces of money!

On that day, many people's eyes fell on rations, and Lu Dechuan was no exception. has been hungry for more than half a year, even if he chooses the horizontal knife, he has no strength to use it, it is better to eat another full meal before he dies. He had already made up his mind that he would not eat only two bowls of gruel a day as he used to. As soon as you get the food, you eat it at once, and then go out into the wilderness and die yourself.

In this way, he will not be abandoned by the Tang Dynasty again, and he will not be used as a slave by the Turgish people again. In this way, he is at least a full ghost, and he may be born in Chang'an or Luoyang in the next life!

However, Zhang Shaojian's next words instantly ignited the last blood in his heart. Lu Dechuan remembers every word, and he will never forget it in this life!

"If you don't want to be slaves, pick up the sword. I won't run away with you, I'll take you to Shattered Leaf City and get back what belongs to you! Zhang Qian's voice at that time was still not high. But like a spark, it jumped into the hearts of many people.

Some sparks rolled and then went out. Some sparks have turned into raging fires. Lu Dechuan remembered that Wang Debao, the young owner of the rice shop, was the first to jump up and run to the horizontal knife. It was followed by Lost Secret, Nordan, Tarhu and him, and then more people walked over one after another.

After Zhang Qian said that, he returned to the Chinese army, deliberately not looking, or didn't have time to see, how many "slaves" would choose horizontal knives instead of fried noodles! However, Lu Dechuan clearly saw that at least more than 2,000 people had made the same choice as himself.

On the first day they picked up their knives, they were gathered together and organized into eight regiments. Everyone had a full meal for the day.

The day after they picked up the knife, they set off with Zhang Qian to attack Broken Leaf. Since then, no one has looked back.

From the frozen city to the broken leaves, there are nearly four hundred miles of road, and there are two cities stuck in the middle, He Hunt and Ye Zhi. Lu Dechuan believed that he would die under one of the cities, so his legs and stomach were trembling all the time. However, he hoped that his living companions would persist in killing in Broken Leaf City, and tell his parents, younger brother, and sister for him that he had returned with Wang Shi, and that he had come to repay their blood debts for them. This kind of death, than committing suicide after he has eaten a full meal, will make him feel a hundred times more at ease!

However, Young Eunuch Zhang did not take them with him and traveled around Atami.

After leaving the frozen city, more than 1,500 tall horses with the strongest bodies and thorny iron palms on their hooves were driven to Atami. Behind each horse was a huge plank, under which were two strips of hardwood wrapped in iron sheets.

The captain of Lu Dechuan's team called this thing a sled. When the war horse began to accelerate steadily on the ice, the veteran sent from above to be the leader of the gang jumped up with the group. Immediately, Lu Dechuan was surprised to find that Atami could be crossed in winter!

Strictly speaking, it is a diagonal piercing!

More than 6,000 brethren rode in sleighs with their baggage, and more than 5,000 horses followed in empty saddles. The army set out from Frozen City, stopped for twenty miles, and arrived on the other side of Atami that night. Along the way, the horses pulling the sled ate ate eggs, cooked beans and cheese, while Lu Dechuan and others, like the veteran captain, ate fried noodles with snow and oil.

No one complains that people are treated worse than animals. First of all, the fried noodles are very tasty, with plenty of salt in them and a meaty flavor. Secondly, Zhang Shaojian announced during the break that the recruits also had 50 wen a day, and after they became regulars, it would be 100 wen a day. In the end, if the horse eats well, it can run faster, and everyone is more likely to kill the enemies in Shattered Leaf City by surprise!

The brothers camped in a sheltered place on the northern shore of Atami, and knowing that they might die in battle, they slept in a tent that night, listening to the cold wind howling outside, and Lu Dechuan still slept very peacefully.

The next day, the group continued to ride the sleigh and walked along the north shore of Atami, and at noon, under the noses of the defenders of Yezhi Castle, they arrived at the north bank of the Shiba River.

The Turks stationed in Yezhi City were alarmed, and roared and rode their horses towards the river of the Broken Leaf River. But because there were no special nails on the horse's shoes, they fell into rolling gourds one after another.

Lu Dechuan was smiling very happily at the time, wiping his tears while laughing. Clenching the horizontal knife in his hand, he continued to gallop on a sleigh, and killed Broken Leaf City before the warning scouts of Ye Zhicheng arrived at Broken Leaf.

At the head of the city with broken leaves, wolf smoke is billowing out. The turquoise cavalry stationed in the city, Shi Ye Hushu Dan, did not hesitate to kill with two thousand cavalry, trying to take advantage of the Tang army's firm foothold and kill everyone by surprise. Lu Dechuan instinctively grabbed the knife, and wanted to step forward and fight hard. However, the gang leader Zhang San grabbed him.

"Stand still, the rules of the young eunuch, the recruits just watch from behind, and then clean up the battlefield. Veterans go first! When Zhang San said these words, there was a tremor in his voice. However, it made Lu Dechuan and others a little more confident out of thin air.

Shaojian Zhang really wanted to take them back what belonged to him, but Shaojian Zhang did not deceive them, let alone use them as sacrifices to consume the enemy's physical strength! When fighting, it was Zhang Shaojian's personal soldiers and veterans who went first, and the recruits could only stand aside and wave their flags and shout!

After many months, Lu Dechuan learned that the veteran Zhang San had only joined the army in Gumo City, only six days earlier than him. However, in his eyes, the veteran Zhang San is his eternal brother.

Many of his skills were taught by the veteran Zhang San, including how to treat animals and how to shoot arrows. However, the first and most important skill that the veteran Zhang San taught him was to stand up straight and face the surging enemy army. Although, at that time, the thighs and arms of the veteran Zhang San were also trembling.

Two thousand Turkic cavalry, rushing straight over, like a flash flood. At that time, Lu Dechuan remembered that the land under his feet was trampled up and down by the horse's hooves. There was a moment when he lost all his courage and wanted to turn around and run away. However, the words of the veteran Zhang San exploded in the ears of him and his companions beside him.

"Don't run, whoever dares to run, Lao Tzu will shoot him first. We're going to win, I promise, I've seen with my own eyes how the young eunuch killed the Turgish! The first half of the veteran Zhang San's sentence was full of coercion. The second half of the sentence is full of confidence.

Lu Dechuan didn't run, and he didn't have time to run away again, because in the blink of an eye, a row of meteors suddenly fell above the head of the Tuqi Shi cavalry.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ……

The meteor exploded when it hit the ground, and the smoke swayed up with the snow. The wreckage of men and horses splattered in all directions. The formation of the Turgish people immediately went haywire. The frightened horses went on a rampage, knocking the Trolls on horseback to the ground like sacks. Known for their bravery and skillful warfare, the Turgish warriors were either so frightened by the explosion that they were so busy controlling their horses that they had no idea where they were.

Rows of crossbow arrows were fired, "plucking" the Turgish warriors from their saddles like wild fruits. There were not many crossbows in the Don army, but the rate of fire was extremely fast. Lu Dechuan saw with his own eyes that after a row of Tang troops finished firing crossbow arrows, he immediately squatted down and re-opened the crossbow string with the crank. And the crossbowmen of the Tang Army in the second row standing behind them aimed at the target in front of them and pulled the mechanism.

The second row of Tang crossbowmen quickly crouched, and then the third row. When the third row of crossbowmen has fired. The first row of crossbowmen had just finished reloading when a second wave of whizzing bolts was fired.

When the three rounds of crossbow arrows were fired, within fifty steps of the Tang army's formation, there was no longer a living Turgish. And the catapult in the hands of the Tang army has also completed reloading. Several veterans in the color of the team's formal uniforms pulled the mechanism, and the arm of the catapult was quickly raised, and the iron lump that ignited the twist was thrown more than 80 steps away.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" ……

The iron bump fell into the team of the Turgis with sparks, and immediately after, another series of muffled thunder exploded. More than two dozen war horses, along with their owners on their backs, were engulfed in black smoke. More horses fled in all directions with a scream, throwing the Trolley warrior off his back, trampling on it and breaking his tendons.

Under the violent blow, the formation of the Turgish warriors completely collapsed, and the living people, whether on horseback or already on the ground, all turned around and ran towards the city gate as long as they could walk.

Neither fire meteors nor explosions are powers that the Turgish warriors can understand. And in their subconscious, the power that they can't understand belongs to ghosts and gods. Fighting against the Tang army coming from afar in the ice and snow, they will not have the slightest fear. However, to provoke ghosts and gods, they have no guts.

What's more, fire meteors and explosions are not something they can resist if they have the guts. Even if they themselves could force themselves to face the broken corpses of their companions. Their war horses could not resist the sound of the earth cracking in the sky. The Turgish warriors who have lost their horses have their skills reduced by at least half. And the crossbow arrows in Tang Jun's hands were as fast as hail.

The narrow city gate simply can't accommodate so many people and horses squeezing in at the same time. Soon, the gates of the city were blocked by the Turgis themselves. After escaping back to the city first, he immediately ordered the city gate to be closed, but the cronies who were ordered to close the gate were directly hacked to death by the angry warriors in the city gate hole.

The weather was so cold that it almost dripped into ice, and the Turgish warriors had not brought any dry food with them in their haste to fight. If they could not withdraw to the city, even if they did not die under the sword of the Tang army, after escaping into the wilderness, they would have to freeze to death or starve to death.

When people are desperate, their behavior becomes unreasonable. Obviously, the city gate was closed, so that the city wall could resist the attack of the Tang army, and the east gate of Broken Leaf City was unable to close for a long time.

Annoyed and angry, Ye Hushu Dan, worried that the Tang army would seize the fighter, decisively ordered the archers to release arrows at the city gate, and after several rounds of arrow rain in a row, there was finally no one in the city gate cave to do anything with him anymore. However, the corpses piled up high completely cut off the possibility of closing the city gate in time.

The Tang army outside the city will not give Shu Dan time to clean up the corpse. After discovering that the Turgish warriors had collapsed, Zhang Qian immediately adjusted his tactics and ordered 2,000 brothers to protect more than a dozen fire dragon carts and catapults to advance towards the city gate. In the enemy tower above the city gate, there were immediately cavalry archers who released arrows to stop them, but the front plate of the carriage erected high by the fire dragon car made the bow and arrow fruitless!

"Bang-" "Bang-" The bed crossbow placed on the horse's face was also hastily fired. The huge crossbow arrows roared in, and although they did not hit any targets, they caused great pressure on the Tang army behind the fire dragon cart and catapult.

Zhang Qian immediately waved the command flag on a command vehicle, and immediately, the war drums sounded from the rear of the Tang Army, covering all the noise on the battlefield. The herald with the flag on his back rode out and conveyed the latest military order to the ears of the two captains. Guo Jing and Ren Qi each led a team of crossbows and arrows mixed with bows and arrows, and quickly approached the horse's face. Twenty or so wheelbarrows spread out their carriages and formed two moving shields in front of them.

The Trolls at the head of the city were condescending and desperately firing arrows. The arrows clanged against the iron-clad carriage board. The crossbowmen of the Tang Army, on the other hand, just followed the wheelbarrow and continued to move forward without making any return fire.

"Bang-" A bed crossbow struck in the air, carving a huge hole in the iron-clad plank in front of the attacking team on the left. A gap appeared in the shield wall, and the two wheelbarrows fell to the ground, and the Turks at the head of the city took the opportunity to rain down arrows.

Lu Dechuan saw that there were Tang army bows and crossbowmen who fell with arrows and blood flowed all over the ground. Next to the broken wheelbarrow, there was also more than one corpse. His heart was pounding to his throat, his hands and feet were cold, and his breathing was almost stagnant. He expected the crossbowmen behind the shield cart to scatter and retreat, but in the next moment, the remaining wheelbarrows were in one place again, and the shield wall closed again and continued to move forward. The crossbowmen of the Tang Army also continued to move forward, stepping on the blood of their companions and braving a crazy rain of arrows.

"Bang-" Another huge crossbow arrow whistled and smashed a cloud of white smoke next to the shield wall on the right. Lu Dechuan instinctively turned his head to the right side of the battlefield. It was found that the crossbow arrows did not hit the target, but among the Tang army crossbowmen on the right side of the battlefield, some people were also hit by the feather arrows shot from the city, and their arms and thighs were blinding red.

The armor on Tang Jun's body is very strong, but in order to ensure the flexibility of archery movements, their arms and thighs are not covered by armor! The observed results made Lu Dechuan's heart ache faintly. He found that he cared so much about the safety of the veterans, even though he and the veterans had not yet had time to get to know each other.

Faintly, he felt as if he had become one of those crossbowmen, excited by their excitement and terrified of their fears. The enemy army was condescending, constantly firing bed crossbows and bows and arrows. The veterans continued to move forward under the rain of arrows, without making any sound from their mouths, but their steps were firm and steady.

Finally, two teams of crossbowmen came to the city walls. The captain who took the lead raised his arms in the air, and then swung downward. Dozens of bright crossbow arrows swept diagonally upwards across the horse's face, overturning more than a dozen of the turked warriors who were busy loading bed crossbows on the horse's face. (Note: Horse face, the defense of the ancient city wall.) It is a platform that protrudes forward, which can prevent shooting blind spots, and place defensive weapons. ）

The archers shoot on their backs, and their feathered arrows rise into the air before falling like hail on the top of the horse's face. More Turgish warriors were shot dead next to the bed crossbows, bleeding profusely. On the city wall next to the horse's face, the Turks and archers greeted the Tang army with their feathered arrows as if they were crazy. Most of the feather arrows were blocked by the shield wall and the iron vests on the Tang army, and a small number of them made contributions, but they could not slow down the Tang army's offensive in the slightest.

The Tang army, which had solved the threat of bed crossbows, quickly changed direction and used crossbows and horn bows to "greet" the Turks and archers at the head of the city. The two sides come and go, and they don't give in to each other. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the two small teams of Tang troops quickly pushed four simple catapults within thirty steps of the city wall.

"Whoosh whoosh—" Four iron bumps dragged Mars and landed on top of the broad horse's face. Explosions erupted, smoke billowed, and the mighty bed crossbow was torn apart. The Turkish archers at the head of the city were furious and immediately beckoned to the catapult, and the feathered arrows smashed on the body and helmets of the Tang army near the catapult, clanging.

The crossbowmen of the Tang army, once again, returned color to the head of the city, suppressing the bows and arrows of the Tuqi Shi people. The Tang army's fire dragon cart finally arrived near the city gate, aiming at the Turks who were pushing the corpses out, spewing out several bright yellow flames.

The cave of the city gate was quickly filled with flames, and the Turks inside screamed and rolled in the flames, and the smell of burnt flesh spread far and wide along the cold wind.

The city gate is temporarily unavailable for anyone to walk. On the command vehicle, Zhang Qian waved the command flag and ordered the whole army to attack. More feathered arrows were fired at the enemy, overpowering the Thirish archers at the head of the city. The catapult reorients itself and throws the lumps one after the other behind the battlement.

Explosions erupted one after another, and the Turks on the head of the city were blown up. The feather arrows shot at the Tang army suddenly became sparse. The flames at the gates of the city were blown away by the cold wind, revealing the steaming doorways.

The war drums resounded through the world again, and Luo Huaizu instigated his mount, risking being burned to death by the heat, and rushed into the city first.

More than a hundred cavalrymen in iron vests followed him. Immediately, there were a hundred foot soldiers with iron armor wrapped in their bodies. The shouts of killing shook the sky, and Lu Dechuan couldn't see the battle situation in the city, but he was still so nervous that he couldn't breathe. After a while, his eyes began to turn black, his body was weak, and he was sweating profusely in his sideburns and back.

A big strong hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder. Immediately after, the voice of the gang leader Zhang San also sounded in his ears. "All of them, keep up with the handsome banner and get ready to enter the city!"

"Knock knock, knock knock, knock knock......" The sound of war drums rolled between heaven and earth, knocking people's blood boiling.

Lu Dechuan opened his eyes and saw that a scarlet banner was slowly pushing towards the Broken Leaf City Gate. Zhang Changshi didn't know when, he had already jumped off the command car, rode a tall horse, and followed closely behind Shuai Qi.

The veterans of the Tang Army in front of the handsome banner poured in from the city gate like a torrent. On the city wall, there are also the figures of the Tang Dynasty athletes flashing, driving sheep, driving the Tuqi warriors to hide in Tibet. There was a turquoise warrior who knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, but was pulled aside by the Tang Dynasty athlete with his foot. After the Tuqi warriors surrendered, they picked up their weapons and tried to sneak attack, but the Tang Jian'er who followed them swept down the city with a knife.

The recruit Lu Dechuan was the last group to enter the city, and then followed the team, pushing from the east gate to the west gate. Along the way, he played no role other than helping to carry the wounded twice. The horizontal knife in his hand was not stained with a drop of blood, and the snow-bright blade was clean from beginning to end.

His enemy who destroyed the door didn't know which Tang Jian'er died under the knife. Elder Tuqishi, who had exploited him for more than half a year, was led by the Tang army like a sheep to the open space at the entrance of the yamen, and after a public trial, he was beheaded for public display. His old house was returned to him again, and the apricot trees in the yard did not know the mood of their master, and shook their branches in the cold wind, as if to welcome his return.

Lu Dechuan cut off his hair, divided it into four strands, and buried it under the apricot tree. Representing his father, mother, younger brother and sister, respectively.

He carved their names on the trunk of the tree, then locked the courtyard door and went to the barracks to report.

In that battle, Lu Dechuan did not kill an enemy with his own hands. But as Zhang Qian expected, he took back what belonged to him. Including, to be human with dignity.

There was a secret that he didn't tell anyone. But many people are clear in their hearts.

He was actually born in the spring. However, he regarded the day he picked up the horizontal knife as his birthday.

That day, for him, for many of his companions, was a rebirth!