"King Ladan, we arrived yesterday and heard that the Qiang people attacked your tribe, not only robbing the cattle and horses, but also robbing a princess and princess?"

The banquet was half-hearted, and Li Shun suddenly asked Rashi A, who was accompanying the wine.

After listening to the translation, Rashida's face instantly became ugly, and he nodded with a distorted cheek and said: "Yes, half a month ago, the Qiang people's burning tribe attacked the king of Luha, not only robbed hundreds of cattle, sheep, horses and hundreds of people, but also kidnapped the wife and daughter of the king of Luha, the king of Luha was seriously injured and died in the battle, originally we were summoned by the king yesterday to discuss this matter, ready to attack the Qiang people, but I didn't expect the envoy to come suddenly......"

"This Qiang people's burning tribe is very powerful?" Li Shun asked curiously.

"It's not powerful, but they run faster than rabbits, and there are ravines everywhere near the Burning Dang tribe, we are not familiar with this kind of mountain battle, it is easy to be ambushed by them, in the past, the vicinity of the royal court was the territory of the Burning Dang people, and we have fought for hundreds of years, until the king appeared, gathered more than ten tribes after several battles to drive the Qiang people away and seize this treasure land with abundant water and grass......"

While drinking wine and eating meat, Rashi replied briefly about the grievances and grievances of the Yue clan and the Qiang people.

In fact, the Qiang people know much more about the Central Plains people than the Yueshi people, who used to live in the bitter cold land north of the Qilian Mountains and west of the Yellow River, basically similar to the Xiongnu, they are typical nomadic people, do not plow the fields and cultivate the land, and the Central Plains actually classify the Yueshi as the Hu people, and their living habits are similar to those of the Xiongnu, and they live in tents by water.

But the Qiang people are different, the origin of the Qiang people is earlier than the Hu people, it is the clan tribe development of the Yellow Emperor era, in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in the Jiangshui area of the gathering and hunting life, the Yellow Emperor tribe later migrated to the Guanzhong Plain, some of the Qiang tribes left behind also began to slowly develop from simple hunting life to farming, and then occupied a large area of the Western Regions and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Longxi County and Shu County under the Great Qin have Qiang tribes living together, and the living habits are similar to the border people in the northwest counties, farming, collecting and breeding cattle and sheep, The Qiang people are also proficient in farming, firing pottery, smelting metals, spinning and weaving and other productions.

Later studies have shown that the Qiang people are very closely related to the Tibetan and Han ethnic groups, and their genes are also very similar, so they can be regarded as one and the same origin.

It is precisely because of such close contact and relationship between the Qiang and the Central Plains that the Central Plains countries do not reject the Qiang people, and the two farming civilizations can get along amicably, but the nomads are a disaster for the farming civilization.

The Xiongnu and Donghu constantly harassed the Central Plains in the north and plundered the border counties of the Central Plains.

The Xiongnu across the Helan Mountain, the Yellow River and the Hetao area were not easy to attack the Central Plains, so they continued to cross the Qilian Mountains to the Hexi Corridor, a place with abundant water and grass, and slowly drove the Qiang people living here into the cold wasteland of Qinghai.

Therefore, the contradictions between the Qiang and the Yueshi have been irreconcilable since ancient times, and the two sides have been fighting constantly for this area of the Hexi Corridor.

And burn dang is a very large tribe of the Qiang people, after being driven away by the Yueshi people, they have been unwilling, almost every year to rob some small tribes of the Yue, and the Yueshi people have no way to fight back, they run away, go and come back, fully carry forward the spirit of guerrilla warfare, just like the battle between the Central Plains and the Xiongnu, resulting in the Yueshi people are very aggrieved.

While eating and drinking, Li Shun also roughly figured out the grievances between the Yue clan and the Qiang people, and then silently kept the news in his heart.

In the next two days, the tribal leaders who came to prepare to attack the Qiang people left one after another to return to their tribes, and also took away some exquisite porcelain, red wine, tea and silk sent by the Great Qin Emperor, and in the past two days, Li Shun and a group of envoys have also become more familiar with the Yue royal family, and they also continue to give gifts to some princesses and princesses and ministers.

On the fourth day, Li Shun proposed to the king of the Yue clan to go to the tribe near the royal court to have a look, the king of the Yue clan agreed without too much hesitation, sent the king of Zuoping and Wen Bupo as guides, and took Li Shun and several officials of the Great Qin to visit the nearby seven or eight Yueshi tribes accompanied by hundreds of Qiang soldiers and the forbidden army of the Great Qin. Basically, the items brought from Xianyang were almost distributed, and only some supplies and a cart of gifts for the Yue Clan King were left.

Although this car of gifts is said to be for the king of the Yue clan, Li Shun does not see the rabbit and does not scatter the eagle, so naturally it will not count until the Yue people hand over Mao Dun, and the king of the Yue clan also knows Li Shun's plan, and he still entertains him warmly every day and is not half dissatisfied.

On the evening of the ninth day, more than a dozen servants on fast horses galloped from the northwest and rushed directly into the royal court's residence, and then rushed to the front of the royal tent and jumped off the horse.

"King, Mao Dun killed the guards of the Mingsha tribe and fled without knowing where to go!"

"When Chang~~"

The glass in the hand of the Yue Clan King, who was eating meat and drinking with Li Shun and others, fell to the desk and shattered, and he stood up with a dark face and yelled: "How can this be? How long has it been on the run! ”

"King, according to the people of the Mingsha tribe, the night before we arrived at Mingsha Mountain, Mao Dun and his entourage suddenly attacked, killed more than ten guards of the Mingsha tribe, robbed the horses and dry food, and then fled overnight, and his subordinates have arranged for people to pursue them, but after a day and a night, the wind and sand have already covered the whereabouts of Mao Dun's escape, and I am afraid that it will not be able to catch up with ......"

Although the king of the Yue clan and the person who reported the news spoke the Yue's dialect, Li Shun also heard it clearly because of the interpreter by his side.

"My lord, what should I do? Flee from Maudun, I'm afraid we won't be able to complete this errand! An official whispered with an ugly face.

"It's okay, Maudun's escape is good news for us!" Li Shun shook his head slightly.

Several officials were stunned for a moment, and one of them said anxiously: "Why did your lord say this? ”

"This shows that the Hou Ye's guess was correct, the Yue clan was not united, the Yue Clan's people had just arrived, but Mao Dun fled in advance, obviously there were tribal leaders who were dissatisfied with the Yue Clan King to report to Mao Dun, so that my Great Qin had a chance to take advantage of it, if the Yue Clan was united, it would not be a good thing for my Great Qin......" Li Shun explained in a low voice.

"I see, I'll understand!" Several officials came back to their senses and nodded together.

"Don't discuss this matter, wait and see what happens!"

"Yes!"

Li Shun and several officials still sat in their seats with calm faces after discussing a few words in a low voice, while the Yue Clan King and the Yue Clan nobles and royal families who accompanied the banquet in the royal tent all had extremely ugly faces, and many of them secretly looked at Li Shun and the others, not knowing how the next thing should end.

"You step back first!" The king of the Yue clan waved his hand weakly, and the person who reported the news saluted and withdrew from the king's tent, and the king of the Yue clan slowly sat down, his old face was extremely gloomy.

This matter can't be covered up, even if Li Shun and other envoys are not in the big tent, tomorrow is the deadline for handing over people, and if you can't hand over Maoton, you will definitely not be able to delay, because Maodun has run away, the Western Regions are so vast and complex, large and small races have formed dozens or hundreds of countries, and there are many places that are inaccessible snow-capped mountains and deserts, and Maodun can't find it in a lifetime if you drill into a place casually.

The Great Qin mission brought its own interpreter, so Li Shun and the others must have heard the conversation clearly, so the king of the Yue clan looked at Li Shun after being silent for a long time and said: "The envoy may have heard clearly, Mao Dun killed the guards of my Mingsha tribe and stole the horses and dry food and fled overnight, I'm afraid we won't be able to hand over people!" ”

Li Shun was also silent for a long time and said: "Mao Dun is the prince of the Huns, since the king of the Yue clan promised to hand him over to us to take back, but now he has broken his promise, and it is not easy for me to explain to His Majesty the First Emperor when I go back!" ”

"What does the messenger mean?" Wen Bupo, who was sitting beside the Yue Clan King, spoke in a deep voice.

"Mao Dun must be caught and sent to Daqin, this is the only condition, but because Mao Dun escaped is not the original intention of the Yue King, so I will wait until I return to Xianyang to inform the emperor of this matter, and may be given a few months of grace for the Yue Clan, but in the end, the emperor can not make a decision on how to arrange this envoy, this time I came to the envoy, thanks to the hospitality of the Yue Clan King and a large number of gifts from the leaders of the tribes, I am also grateful, I can only try to help you delay, this envoy guesses that it will take up to half a year, if you still can't hand over Mao Dun, I'm afraid the emperor will have a thunderous wrath to come......"

"Half a year ......" King Yue's face trembled violently.

The meaning of Li Shun's words is obvious, give them half a year to find Mao Dun and send it to Daqin to ask for guilt, if they can't find it in half a year, it is estimated that it will be the time when Daqin's soldiers are pressing.

But if you want to find Maudun in half a year, it is tantamount to looking for millet in the sea of sand, and there is almost no hope.

"Brother Wang, the matter has come to this point, and we can only arrange manpower to find Mao Dun as soon as possible!" King Zuo Ping's face was also gloomy, and he was about to drip ink.

"Alas, this can only be done like this, this matter will be arranged by the king brother as soon as possible, this king is tired, please entertain the messenger, this king will go to rest first!"

The king of the Yue clan sighed and stood up slowly, but his body shook slightly, and he was quickly supported by the two maids behind him, and then slowly staggered to the back account, his body looked as if he had aged more than ten years at once, and he had reached the point of crumbling.

The dinner ended quickly, Li Shun and the others returned to the yurt to discuss the next matter, and at the same time, the entire royal court began to get busy, although it was already dusk when the sun set, but there were successive horn horns, and countless Yue warriors began to gather in the royal court.

"Master Li, what happened? Why did the Yueshi people suddenly start gathering? The captain of the forbidden army hurriedly walked in and asked with his fists clenched.

"Don't be nervous, Mao Dun suddenly killed the guards of the Yue's quicksand tribe and fled, the king of the Yue's clan is to convene his troops to discuss countermeasures, you guys will be strictly defensive tonight, don't have half a point of relaxation, tomorrow morning we will pack up and set off to return to Xianyang!"

"Huh~" The captain took the order out, and soon the three hundred Great Qin Forbidden Army also began to put on armor and inspect bows and arrows, and gathered all the chariots and horses to defend the envoy's camp impenetrable.