During the New Year's season, Youzhou, Nanjing Road, Liaoguo, has a lively atmosphere. The Khitan people are rich and leisurely, and there are all kinds of food boxes in their homes at any time, which are full of cheese and dried fruits, and the diligent maidservants are ready to change the full wine jugs for the guests. The most important thing is the New Year's greetings between the Khitan people. Men and women wear the traditional clothes of the eight Khitan tribes, such as Diera, Yimu, Pin, Ut, Wukui, Tulubu, Nira, and Tuju, and congratulate each other according to their surnames and blood relations.

The feast is accompanied by singing and dancing, the women sing in unison, the men wear animal skins and pretend to be wild beasts, and some hold swords and forks to dress up as hunters, which is to reproduce the heroic warriors of the Khitan ancestors who hunted in the mountains and forests. Children are the greatest fun, one is to play on the ice, the other is to visit the temple fair of the Han people, if you see the beloved things, you can take them directly at the stall and leave. In addition to eating meat in large pieces and drinking wine in large bowls, the Chinese New Year is also very particular, from the beginning of the new year, you can't sweep the floor, you can't pull water, you can't use knives and scissors, you can't steam and fry, you can't cut your hair, you can't say unlucky words, you can't break all kinds of things. If the slaves and maids in the house committed a crime, they would be whipped at the least, beaten half to death, or even cut off their hands and tongues.

In recent days, there has been a hint of uneasiness in Youzhou. When the Khitan nobles got together, they were all talking about the imperial court's requisition of tribal troops to crusade against the Jurchen tribes, hoping that the Yelu Dashi left behind in Nanjing would be able to withstand the pressure of the imperial court. Emperor Yelu Yanxi's close confidant and important minister, the privy envoy Xiao Fengxian led the army to crusade against the Jurchen tribe, and lost again, and more than 5,000 Khitan children who fought on the expedition died in battle. The DPRK was preparing to dispatch the elite of the Nanjing Dao tribal army to the north, but the eight nobles were saying that one general was incapable of exhausting the three armies, and Xiao Fengxian was just a favored minister, and this time going north was similar to sending him to death. If you want to let the children of the tribe go to the battlefield, you must first remove and replace Xiao Feng.

"My lord, everyone is almost there." Xiao Lili said. Yelu Dashi has been contacting the Khitan nobles all these years, not only to abolish Yelu Yanxi, the faint monarch, but also to sweep away the Khitan corrupted atmosphere by the Southern Dynasty, get rid of the disadvantages of the royal family and nobles holding power, and restore the ancestral system of the eight aristocratic deliberations, so that the young heroes can stand out, turn the world into the pasture of the Khitans, and let ordinary people get more cattle, sheep and slaves. The Khitan heroes who followed him were all heroes who were useless, hated the mediocrity of the imperial court, and agreed with Yelu Dashi's proposition.

Yelu Dashi raised his head, put down the brush in his hand, got up and said with a smile: "Then let's go." "Straighten out the half-written manuscript paper and follow Xiao Lili to the backyard. The study room left behind in Nanjing originally left some decorations such as piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and Yelu Dashi did not use them, either thrown away or given away, leaving only the necessary books and pen and ink, which was much simpler than before.

The sky is like a dome, in the middle of the wide felt carpet spread on the empty grass, there are things such as cheese, milk tea, preserved meat, etc., Xiao Chala'a, Yelu Yanshan, Yelu Tiege and other Khitan heroes more than 100 people, either standing in the courtyard, or sitting on the ground, chatting while drinking, very lively. Seeing Yelu Dashi slowly approaching, everyone's eyes were focused on him.

Yelu Dashi looked left and right, the pavilions and verandahs in the courtyard were empty, the slaves and maids had all retreated, and all the people present were close and confidant. He smiled slightly: "I've kept everyone waiting." "One by one, they held hands and saluted. Many Khitan nobles are accustomed to bowing in the Southern Dynasty, and Yelu Dashi tries his best to advocate that the Han style is weak, and if you want to revive the prestige of the Khitan people, you must restore the simple and fierce atmosphere, so the people of his faction are all according to the old customs of the Khitan people.

"If the faint king really wants to recruit me and others to go to that wretched command," Xiao Cha Laa asked, he looked left and right, all of them were the henchmen and heroes summoned by Yelu Dashi, and said in a deep voice without scruples, "Do you want to do it now?" ”

"It's too early," Yelu Dashi picked up a glass of milk wine, counted nine cold days, and drank it to warm his stomach, only such cold and strong wine can stimulate the blood and savagery of Khitan boys, and a trace of fierceness flashed in his eyes, "Wait for him to lose a few more battles." He looked at the young nobles around him who seemed to be a little unwilling, and said, "Yelu Yanxi is stubborn and self-serving, if Xiao Fengxian can't hold on, he will definitely take the lead in his own army, if he loses again, his prestige will be lost, and he will be sure of the incident." ”

"But, won't this make the Jurchen barbarians more powerful?" Xiao Cha Laa wondered.

"So what?" Yelu Dashi said coldly, "As long as we get rid of the faint monarch and rebuild the old system of my Khitan Eight Divisions, the clansmen will no longer be superstitious and confused in the afterlife, and restore the bloody nature and fierce spirit of our people, and the Khitan will be able to sweep all the races in the world." Even if the Jurchen clan grows tenfold, it will only be for us to sharpen our knives. If we continue to allow the faint monarch to do anything wrong, the clansmen will become more and more degenerate and weak, even if it is not for the Jurchen tribes, there will be other barbarians who will destroy my Khitan. A little more or a little less bleeding is nothing. He paused and said in a deep voice, "The Khitan people are at a critical juncture of life and death. He threw the wine bowl on the ground, pulled out the scimitar at his waist and shouted: "Revive the Khitan!" ”

"Revive the Khitan!" The Khitan leaders also drew their scimitars together, and roared longitudinally, and the slaves and maids outside the courtyard heard the shouts of these Khitan nobles from a distance, as if the wolves echoed, all of them were pale, and their eyes were full of fear.

After a long howl, Yelu Dashi asked, "How is the matter of contacting the nobles of the eight tribes?" ”

Khitan men can ride and shoot, if they join the army, they can get hundreds of thousands of horses, but unfortunately most of them are in the tribes and cannot work together. In particular, the imperial court relied more and more on the southern system, excluding the eight nobles from decision-making, resulting in the separation of all tribes from the imperial court, and the tribal cavalry was unwilling to serve the country. After hundreds of years of suppression, the Eight Divisions themselves fell apart, becoming a tribe led by hundreds of large and small leaders. So Yelu Dashi sent his henchmen to contact the leaders of the eight Khitans all the time, as long as they can send more than 1,000 cavalry, whether they are sent alone or in partnership, they will have his place in the meeting of the eight ministries. He had great ambitions, not only to replace Yelu Yanxi, but also to lead the Khitan people to sweep the world and become the khan who ruled all the tribes of the world.

Yelu Yanshan said: "Everyone is dissatisfied with Yelu Yanxi, the faint king, but they are still suspicious of the reopening of the meeting of the eight ministries. ”

"After the matter is completed, I, Yelu Dashi, am willing to make a bloody alliance with the leaders of the eight tribes, and after that, the major affairs of the Khitan tribe, even the prime minister, the privy envoy of the north and south courts, and other official positions, will not be used as they please, and will be decided by the deliberations of the eight ministries," Yelu Dashi sighed, "Today's affairs are not for the wealth of one person, but for the future of my Khitan people." ”

All the Khitan nobles were silent, everyone had a heart, if Yelu Dashi was not really thinking about the Khitan people, everyone would feel the same way, and there would not be so many people who followed him to be born and die. In the cold winter, the north wind blows like a knife, and the blood in the bones of these Khitan people is like strong wine, burning hot.

At this time, the Chengying Battalion also reached the westernmost part of the Xia Kingdom, hanging alone in the Haixi Port on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Haixi Port and Zhenxi Fort are one. The port was not large, but was built on a peninsula deep into the bay, and for a hundred years, the Xia Kingdom had dug a deep moat into the narrowest part of the peninsula. Although the fort is not large, it is extremely strong. The princes of Dashi often said: "If you can capture Zhenxi Fort, it is better to capture Lumei City." ”

To the north of Zhenxi Fort is the south side of the Taihe Mountains, where the barbarians of various tribes live, and to the south of Zhenxi Fort is the Roma Turkic forces. The Fury Army stationed in Zhenxi Fort only maintained a short passage from the west coast of the West Sea to Zhenxi Fort. However, the location of Haixi Port and Zhenxi Fort was extremely important, where the goods of the Xia Kingdom could be sold directly to merchants from the Western countries, without having to go through the exploitation of the Turks and the Great Eclipse. This Haixi port was the end of the eastern trade route controlled by the Xia Kingdom, and merchants from the Lumei Kingdom and the Great Food Kingdom relied on Jiaozi to extract goods from the warehouses of the Haixi Port and transport them to countless barbarian countries in the west and south.

"After this sea area, it is the country of Lumei." Zhao Xingde stood on the high city wall of Zhenxi Fort, overlooking the boundless sea water, remembering that the Yiren were alone in Dunhuang, leaning on each other, and couldn't help but feel sad, and said in his heart, "After completing this military trip, I should have more time to accompany Ruoxue." ”