The emperors of the Han Dynasty in Middle-earth have always had a tradition of hunting in autumn and winter.

On the one hand, in order to achieve the effect of the monarch and the ministers having fun, on the other hand, it is also to enhance the martial spirit of the princes and grandsons.

This custom has now spread to the Khotanese kingdom in the Western Regions, where the royal hunting grounds are in the shrubby, gravelly desert area outside the Tsammo Monastery.

The hunting ground is connected to the Kunlun Mountains and the Green Ridge Highlands to the south and west, and to the north is bounded by the Khotan River and Qingfengze and the Huanglong Hanhai.

Therefore, the field of vision is wide enough that even a running hare standing ten miles away from the height cannot escape the eyes of the hunter.

The hunting ground is also large enough for hundreds of horses to gallop across without feeling crowded.

Grandpa sometimes envies the vast and sparsely populated countries of the Western Regions, unlike Longxi Guanzhong in his hometown, or Jingchu in the Central Plains.

If there is land over there, you can grow grains and mulberry hemp, and where you can harvest grains and mulberry hemp, there will be flowing water people.

But this prosperity can sometimes be a source of trouble, especially when in the company of one or more evil neighbors.

The Hu people in the north would often ride their horses south, and they took a fancy to the money, food, and manpower of the Han land.

It's still a royal city like Khotan, a land of projectiles, surrounded by yellow sand.

If you want money, you have no money, you have no food, you have no food, and the only beautiful jade that is abundant is also hungry and cold in the troubled times.

The world is already full of wolves and wars, but this is also the reason why this place can be in a safe corner.

For this hunting event in the spring suburbs, the king of Khotan ingeniously asked the animal trainers of the Wangcheng Animal Garden to carry out more than a dozen domesticated snow leopards and place them a stone's throw away from the starting point of the arena.

At the same time, the 100 largest businesses in Wangcheng also sponsored 30 camels as a reward for the top three in the competition.

Since it is the only event officially organized during the entire Dharma Festival, it is much higher than other non-governmental events.

On the day of the tournament, all trading entertainment was temporarily suspended.

The sand dunes and highlands on the periphery of the arena were densely packed with people of all kinds watching the battle, standing or sitting, and some simply rode on horseback.

People want to see the sassy demeanor of the knights of various tribes and cheer for the heroes of their tribes and kingdoms.

The king, the ministers, their harem families, the monks of the temples of the kingdom, and the envoys and dignitaries of the surrounding kingdoms were already seated on the viewing platform.

The viewing platform is made of thick poplar wood and huge stones, and it looks very tall and magnificent.

On both sides of the royal viewing platform, there are many stands built by local merchants and big merchants, so that the families and daughters of each family can climb up and watch after the game starts.

The grandstand of Murong Qiu's house is one of them.

This year is not as good as in the past, and Murong Villa sent two guys to participate in the competition.

So he was more active than ever, and took his wife, two daughters, and other ladies in Chang'an Fang to the stands early, and set up drinks and snacks.

I heard that the racer had his own buddies, and Murong Qionglin and Murong Yaobi, who had never been interested in this kind of game, were also interested.

They were curious about what their two racers looked like and where they came from.

And they didn't realize that for the arrival of this day, their Abba Murong Qiu had already taken great pains.

With a whole screeching trombone, the time for the racers to enter finally arrived.

It is customary for the racers to gather at the viewing platform to salute the king and the dignitaries before heading to their respective stations and waiting for the moment when the arrow is ready.

Knights from Wusun, Guishan, Shule, and Ronglu were dragged in by the soldiers, and they were all heroic and victorious.

"Abba, which one is our rider? Show it to your daughter! The little girl Yaobi took her father's arm and said coquettishly.

"Don't worry, they're about to play! Look, they're coming! ”

Master Murong Qiu stood up from his chair and pointed to the audience in surprise and shouted to his wife and daughters.

Today's Grandpa and Lu Yu are in the last two of all the contestants, so they are the latest to appear.

I saw two people in black corset short robes, their heads tied with red silk, and their bodies carrying mulberry bows and arrows, which looked unusually brave and vigorous, and they had the posture of Huo Quai, the hussar general who took the Huns directly.

"Abba, they're from Middle-earth!" Murong Qionglin put her hands on the pergola and shouted happily.

"Yes! The origins of these two little brothers are both Jincheng County, Longdong, and our hometown Wuwei County is separated by a mountain! The ancestor of one of them is still a family friend of my Murong family! Hehe! ”

"Master, these two offspring are so handsome! When did they come to my house to do their work? How come I don't know at all? ”

Murong Shi, who has been worried about the marriage of the two daughters recently, was also very happy when he saw the two Han family men in front of him, and he kept complaining about the husband beside him.

"They, they're the two pieces of jade I picked up last year. Since it is a rare treasure, how can it be easily revealed? Hahaha! ”

Master Murong Qiu laughed and sat down first, and then motioned to the surrounding people: "Sit down!" The tournament is about to begin, see how they do it! ”

Everyone sat down, and the eyes of the two sisters, Murong Qionglin and Yaobi, were always focused on Grandpa and Lu Yu.

How could they meet but not know each other, Murong Qionglin was a little strange why Abba didn't introduce these two Han brothers to meet them earlier.

A thousand paces away in the meadow, the trainers had opened the fence where the snow leopard was kept.

The trapped beast in the cage suddenly rushed towards the direction of the Kunlun Mountains that they were familiar with, like a sharp sword out of its sheath, led by an adult snow leopard.

Snow leopards are known for their speed, and if the riders don't shoot them before they cross the ridge, the spirits of the snowy mountains will have wings and it will be difficult for them to catch up with them.

With the wave of the banner of the herald on the sidelines, the already frantic racers rushed out in an instant, and the back of the horse team rolled up a cloud of dust.

As Master Murong Qiu expected, the equestrian skills of these knights in the Western Regions were not inferior to those of Grandpa and Lu Yu.

Seeing that he was wrapped in the middle of the horse team and couldn't show it at all, Grandpa suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

He looked around, and there was a tall sand dune not far away, and the knights in front of him were all running around the dune, and the whistling of arrows was heard in all directions, and the racers began to move.

"Lu Yu! Fast! Let's go to that sand platform! Grandpa shouted, turning the horse's head with a twist on the reins, and headed straight for the sand platform in front of him, and in a blink of an eye, he had reached the top of the dune.

Although Lu Yu didn't understand what his grandfather's intentions were, he didn't hesitate to follow and rush up.

Looking from the sand platform, the situation ahead is clear at a glance.

The galloping snow leopards had already arrived at the foot of the mountain beam in three ways, and the few shooters closest to these prey had already harvested.

A few prey that had not been shot at the point, and the bushes lying along the way let out a howl of despair.

Without further ado, Grandpa and Lu Yu hurriedly bent their bows and arrows, and one by one the feather arrows roared away with the "boom" of the bowstring.

The position of the sand platform is really good, and the condescending position not only increases the accuracy of shooting, but also extends the range of feather arrows.

So the first few arrows of the two of them, almost all of them hit the target.

But such an opportunity was fleeting, and in the blink of an eye, the leopards had reached halfway up the mountain beam, and the dive shot just now had now turned into an upward shot, and it was beyond the range of the feathered arrows.

The two hurriedly urged their horses downhill and approached the mountain beam, trying to further expand the victory.

By the time they reached the foot of the mountain beam, the escaped leopards had already crossed the ridge and disappeared into the depths of the vast mountains, where they could no longer catch up.

The racers who were chasing ahead descended the mountain one after another, and began to collect their results with their respective feather and arrow logos.

Lu Yu deserves the title of "Marksman", coupled with the reasonable command of his grandfather, the final result of their group was to shoot a total of five snow leopards.

Everyone handed over the prey of each team to the referee, and the final result of the game was quickly announced.

A royal housekeeper dressed in a white robe and wearing a sauce-colored lambskin pointed hood, with a fat belly, stepped down from the stands in a pretended solemnity.

He bowed deeply in the direction of the throne of the king, then took the parchment from the magistrate's hand, and read out the rankings of the contest and the distribution of the prizes in a hoarse Tocharian dialect.

The first "Chang'an Fang" contestant will be rewarded with 15 camels.

The second was the noble Kurrouzi brothers from the Wusun Kingdom, and the reward was ten camels.

The third place went to Ackerman, the warrior of Shule, and his minions, and rewarded the five-headed camel.

It's been almost a year since I came to Khotan, and the local native grandfather and Lu Yu have been able to understand some of it.

When he heard that "Chang'an Fang" ranked first and won the first place, grandpa and Lu Yu hugged happily.

The family members of Lord Murong Qiu in the stands, as well as the guys from Chang'an Fang and Murong Villa, also let out thunderous cheers.

Next, all the winning racers knelt down and bowed to the king to thank him.

At this time, the horse-riding procession that took the king back to the palace was already lined up at the exit behind the viewing platform.

The king, queen, concubine, and many princes and princesses, escorted by the guards, left the viewing table in an orderly manner and returned to the palace in a carriage.

Subsequently, the chariots and horses of envoys and VIPs of various countries, princes and ministers, and senior monks of various monasteries were also in place one after another.

After all the gods and goddesses representing the official left, the grand spring suburban hunting event finally came to an end.