In the sixth year of Yuanfeng, it has reached the tip of the tail, and in the second half of the lunar month, on the shore of Qinghai Lake in the ice and snow, a group of people trekked against the cold wind that cut their faces like knives.

"There are still five Guiyi Qiang Hou seals left, which means that we have to go to five tribes, and it seems that we will not be able to return to Lingju County before the New Year."

Shi Dong Tongguo, the captain of Huqiang, had five small gold seals in his arms, which were granted by the imperial court, and once accepted, it meant that he became a foreign vassal of the Han Dynasty and was included in the tributary system.

When Dong Tongguo heard that many years ago, when the rules of the vassal barbarians were formulated, some people thought that the Guiyi Marquis could not be compared with the real princes, and that it was enough to use a copper seal, but it was rejected - the barbarians all like gold.

However, the seal system given to Guiyi Hou in different regions is different: the seal for the Xiongnu Wuhuan descendant is Ma Niu, the seal of Guo Xiaobang in the Western Regions is a camel button, the seal of Dongyi Junchang is a snake button, and the seal for Diqiang and Southwest Yi is a sheep button, and the seal script is Yinwen: "Han Guiyi Qiang Marquis".

Dong Tongguo braved the severe cold of the wax moon this time, carried more than a dozen sheep button gold seals, and went deep into Xiqiang, just to complete the strategy of Xi'an Hou "the enemy is trapped in me".

They first went south to Caohan County, found the herdsmen of Hankaiqiang outside the territory of the Han Dynasty, and walked for several days in the rugged and mountainous Yellow River valley before arriving at the Hankaiqiang base camp in Hequ, where they met the leader of Hankaiqiang, Han Midang, and his younger brother Diaoku.

Han Kaiqiang's territory is outside Jincheng, and the Han people do not have much contradiction, but there is a feud with Xian Lingqiang, although recently Xian Ling tried to resolve the feud and form an alliance, but Han Kaiqiang saw that the Han envoy was still very welcome, got gifts such as gold silk tea cakes, and accepted the big seal of "Guiyi Qiang King".

Han Kaiqiang Dahao had dealt with the Han people, knew the strength of the Han, respectfully held the gold seal in his hand, and asked Dong Tongguo:

"Are the first Lingqiang's Jufei and Yang Yu also crowned kings?"

Dong Tongguo told him: "The Han Dynasty rewards the tribes loyal to Baosai, and punishes those who bully their neighbors. ”

The leader of Han Kaiqiang was very happy, Xian Lingqiang's aggressiveness did worry him, but the former captain of the Qiang Protector was cowardly, and Long Yeqiang, who had defected to the Han Dynasty, was destroyed and did not let out a fart.

However, the style of the newly appointed lieutenant Ren has been completely different, not only sheltering the Xiaoyue clan who was attacked by the first zero allies, but also finding the Ganmang of the Longye Division, and he served as Dong Tongguo's guide on this trip.

Han Kai feasted and entertained Dong Tongguo and others, secretly discussed the conditions proposed by Ren Hong, and asked his brother to send them to Beiheqiang on the shore of the sea of fresh water.

Beiheqiang's trip was a bit thrilling and twists and turns, but relying on Dong Tongguo's lips and tongue, he still successfully sent out the golden seal, but Beiheqiang's attitude of not communicating with Han and uniting with the Han was not as positive as Han Kaiqiang, and he thought that the golden seal given by Han was too small.

Their way back was on the plateau, the air was thin, and even Dong Tongguo was a little out of breath when he walked in Qiangzhong all year round. The slopes of the mountain were dotted with snow that had fallen a few days ago, and when I looked back, I could see a sea of fresh water that had been frozen, and the sky was filled with a faint mist, and the ice was actually blue.

According to the plan, they were going to go around the mountains north of Huangshui, touch the vicinity of Anyi County and Poqiang County, and lobby the five Xianling Qiang tribes to induce them to accept the seal of the Guiyi Qiang Marquis.

"Fortunately, there are these Qiang people leading the way, otherwise these mountain roads and trails will not be found on all maps."

Dong Tongguo raised his head, and Long Ye Ganmang led the way in the distance. This Qiang man who was ransomed as a free body by the Qiang Captain has always performed his duties silently, he knows which valley where the Qiang people will gather, and he knows which Xiaohao has conflicts with Yang Yu and Youfei, and he also hates these two people to the core.

So during the break, when Long Ye Ganmang was squatting lonely and playing the Qiang flute, Dong Tong would go over and give him a pot of roasted wine and roasted meat, even though this prey was also hunted by Long Ye Ganmang.

They will even talk to him about the past.

"Three years ago, you and your father came to Lingju County to meet the former Captain of the Guardian Qiang, and then gave gifts to everyone in the Captain Guard's Mansion, and gave me a bear skin."

Dong Tongguo patted the bearskin fur on his body: "This is it." “

It was common for the officials of the Qiang Commander's Mansion to extort bribes from the Qiang people, and when he said this, Long Ye Ganmang also remembered.

It was early spring, and he and his father were walking on the way to meet the Han officials, Huangzhong was not as lonely and cold as it is now, and the sound of frogs sounding meant that the river was about to melt.

His father taught him how to shoot a black bear that had just come out of hibernation, skinned it on the spot, and at night camp, the tribesmen gathered together to bake the fire and drink milk wine in a bowl while listening to Shabi tell ancient tales about the sea of fresh water and the mountain of stones, and about the legends of their great ancestors.

Now my father has died in battle to defend the tribe, and the tribesmen have wandered around and become slaves of the Xianlingqiang and Han Chinese.

But in the face of Dong Tongguo's overtures, he only shook his head: "I don't remember." ”

Long Ye Ganmang knew very well that this was not the kindness of friends and old friends, but the attitude of hunters towards hounds. After serving the Han Chinese for more than a year, Long Ye Ganmang had learned to recognize these two attitudes as easily as he could distinguish between an antelope and a wild ass.

Whether it is the Marquis of Xi'an or his long history, under the eyes of hypocrisy, they are still high in their bones, and when you are useless to them, they will revert to arrogance.

But what he is doing now for the Han people will help him take revenge on Xian Lingqiang.

The only thing worth worrying about is that Xian Lingqiang will not dare to make trouble in the face of enemies on all sides.

The next journey was even more cold, and I felt that my lips and tongue were going to freeze when I opened my mouth, and I didn't say anything all the way, and the first few days of returning to the east were very smooth. They arrived at the four tribes and sent out the seals of the Marquis of Guiyi one by one, but did not ask for anything.

But at the last stop, the good fortune finally came to an end.

The still keen Long Ye Ganmang noticed that something was wrong, and it was not Xiaohao from other departments who greeted them on the other side that came from the opposite side, but the angry Xian Lingqiang!

He was the first to turn his horse's head and shouted to the crowd:

"Run!"

……

Dong Tongguo's horse couldn't walk, it was hit by two arrows in the buttocks, leaving a string of blood stains on the ground, and Dong Tongguo also suffered a flying stone on his back, which hurt so much.

Fang Cai was really dangerous, and they entered the trap of Xian Lingqiang, thanks to Long Ye Ganmang's sense that something was wrong.

Dong Tongguo followed, following Long Ye Ganmang to death, in Huangzhong, not knowing the path is no different from death. At this moment, looking back, his entourage was lost, but he finally got out, Xi'an Hou let the scepter he was holding be unharmed, and the last sheep button in his arms was also there.

There will always be accidents when going to envoys, Dong Tongguo has made preparations before coming, firstly, he does not believe that the Qiang people dare to kill him with a dignified 600 stones, although Xian Lingqiang has repeatedly tried to attack the county directly, and the war with the Han shows that they are also hesitating.

Second, if you can make meritorious contributions, the reward is indeed attractive, since Fu and Ren were crowned marquis in the Western Regions, there are more people who dare to take risks, Dong Tongguo does not want to be able to get the seal of the marquis of the turtle button, but if he can end his career in the position of a thousand stones, it is enough to leave a name in his hometown.

The first Lingqiang outside must still be searching for them, the most important thing is to escape, Xi'an Hou said, as long as you can successfully seal Hankai and Beihe as the king of Qiang, it will be considered a complete achievement.

"Long Ye Ganmang."

Dong Tongguo's mind turned quickly, knowing that he had lost his horse and was injured, he could only rely on this Qiang man, and he was also afraid that he would have bad intentions and abandon himself and run away alone. Then he walked over and handed the last gold seal of the sheep button in his arms to Long Ye Ganmang.

"This Guiyi Qiang Hou Seal, you take it first."

"Dong Changshi, what does this mean?" Long Ye Ganmang looked as usual.

Dong Tongguo said sincerely: "This time you have made a lot of meritorious service in Huangzhong, now you only need to escort me back to Lingju City, I will report to the prince, saying that you have made the first contribution, and when you restore the Longye Department in the future, you can also get the imperial court canonization and become a Guiyi Qiang Marquis!" ”

Long Ye Ganmang looked at the golden seal, a small sheep statue, polished gold, he was a slave in Jincheng for more than a year, and he didn't dig out a single grain of gold, but now he saw it, but he didn't have half a wave in his heart, but closed Dong Tongguo's hand and smiled at him:

"I don't want to do anything Qianghou, I just want to take revenge on Xian Lingqiang, Dong Changshi, your horse is broken, ride mine."

Saying that, Long Ye Ganmang got off the horse and wanted to help Dong Tongguo up.

"What a good dog." Dong Tongguo breathed a sigh of relief, this was his last thought before being shot into the back by the cold arrow cluster.

Dong Tongguo's body fell off the horse crookedly, and Long Ye Ganmang stepped forward, and found that he still had a breath, so he simply added another arrow, which was also shot in the back.

Then he picked up the bloody sheep button gold seal that fell in the snow, touched the words on it, and threw it next to Dong Tongguo's body.

"I just want to take revenge on Xian Lingqiang, if it wasn't enough for the Han people to start a war with Xian Ling, and now that a captain of the Qiang Protector has died, it will be enough!"

Half a day later, Long Ye Ganmang joined up with the scattered envoys, and when everyone asked him if he could see Dong Changshi, Long Ye Ganmang flatly denied it.

"Dong Changshi is chasing you."

Long Ye Ganmang shook his head.

"When I turned around, there was no one following."

……

"Who killed the Han envoy?"

At the same time, on the bank of Huangshui, after rushing to face Dong Tongguo's corpse, Yang Yu, the first Lingqiang tycoon, was not happy and angry.

"I said I wanted to be captured alive, how did you bring back a corpse!"

Zhu Xiaohao was silent, no one knew who did it, in Huangzhong, Dahao commanded Xiaohao not to move, Xiaohao shouted that it was common for the people not to move, although the order was ordered to capture alive, but it was common for the Qiang people to chase after and shoot a few arrows indiscriminately.

Although Xian Lingqiang intended to return to Huangshui, but the fiasco more than 40 years ago, the old people in the clan still remember, and Yang Yu, who participated in that war, has not forgotten it, so Xian Lingqiang has repeatedly tried Jincheng County, but has never taken the step of gathering crowds to make trouble and besieging the county.

However, his nephew, who was in the prime of life, was eager to try it and felt that this was a wonderful opportunity.

"The Han envoy went to Hankai and Beihe, and named his great man as the king of Qiang, but you and I are still the Marquis of Qiang, this is an insult, the Han people have won over the Xiaoyue clan, and now they have to unite the two departments to deal with Xian Ling."

"If it drags on any longer, when the Xiaoyue clan completely surrenders to Han, and when Hankai, Beihe and other tribes all turn their backs on us, we will be attacked on all sides before we zero. Now that a Han envoy has died, even if he doesn't do it first, the Han people's Qiang captain will send troops, and after fighting, he will immediately gather other heroes to resolve his revenge and establish an alliance, not to mention, we still have the Huns to help! ”

"Yes, the Han people hate people to kill their messengers the most, when the country of Qiuzi only killed a few officials, it was tragically destroyed, Dahao must not hesitate again, the Han people do not crown you as the king of Qiang, the big single is sealed!"

has been in Qiangzhong for two months, and the Xiongnu envoy who has repeatedly instigated the first zero rebellion against the Han came out of the shadows, but it was Ren Hong's old acquaintance, the former servant Du Wei Daigo Ada.

The scar of shame on Daigo Ada's face is still there, and the death of the Han envoy is also a great joy for him:

"As long as the first zero attack on Jincheng, Da Dan Yu and the right general will send troops together to cooperate with the wolf He south of Dunhuang to attack Hexi. Xian Ling only needs to drag the Han army in Hehuang for three months, and Da Dan Yu can set foot in Hexi, so that the land can be turned into Qianghu's pasture again! ”

……

PS: There is only one chapter today.