Out of Luoyi, all the way to the north, soon arrived at the Yellow River. Crossing the Yellow River, it is Jizhou, there are two great vassal states of Jin and Weiguo, and further north it enters the grassland and desert, which belongs to the sphere of influence of the Beirong people and the ghost people.

The people there seldom farmed, and most of them lived by grazing, roaming the steppes all day long, like some cattle and sheep, and also like some horses, but to be precise, they were more like packs of wolves.

Those who herd sheep and horses on the grassland are all sturdy, and they have been on horseback since they learned to walk, and then they will spend their long lives on horseback. Therefore, everyone on the grassland inevitably grows into looped legs, and when they walk, they limp and seem to be a little stunted.

In addition, most of the people of the steppe tribe look a little simple, with unkempt hair, dirty sheepskin robes, and an unusually rough complexion that looks exposed to the wind and sun all day, making them look clumsy and honest, and they look like they are slaughtered and manipulated by others, and harmless to humans and animals.

But whoever really thinks that way is doomed to bad luck.

They are shepherds, not sheep.

In the evening, the grassland is peaceful, and it is time for cattle, sheep and horses to enter the circle.

Unlike in the Central Plains, where livestock can be kept on several adobe walls, the enclosures here are made of ropes strung with crude wooden stakes to form a huge circle, and the tents where people live are around the enclosure, forming a living area similar to a village.

The summer afterglow shines on the grass, glowing with a golden glow, as if the knee-high grass is made of gold.

Naren Toya stood at the door of the tent and looked out, her clean forehead shining in the setting sun, with an astonishing beauty that was enough to inferiorize the sunset.

She was waiting for her man, Ullihan, a generous and gentle young man, one of the most handsome men in the tribe.

In the tent, lamb is stewed in a dilapidated clay pot, mixed with the fragrance of grass, which smells especially mellow. A few pieces of sheepskin were put together into a nice piece of felt, on which was placed half a stump, and a copper kettle and two thick bowls were placed.

In the copper kettle is the goat's milk that has been heated, which is neither ice nor hot, quenching thirst and fatigue, and it is Wulihan's favorite thing.

Naren Toya waited a little anxiously, at this time in the past, Ulhan and the men of the tribe should have returned. But today, for some reason, the goat's milk has been warmed twice, and they haven't come back.

The world is very chaotic, there are wars everywhere, and it is terrible to hear that the people of those farming tribes in the south have waged war after war, and many people have died, and even those half-sized children who have not grown their teeth have become soldiers, which is terrible.

The grassland is also not peaceful, recently several tribes of cattle and sheep have been robbed, I heard that people have died.

After looking around for a long time, Naren Toya felt that her neck was a little sore and her eyes were a little astringent. She blinked, and saw two men, two men, walking in the distance.

Although they were wearing the sheepskin robes of the steppe people, Naren Toya could see through it at a glance, and these two people were definitely not steppe people.

Because, the middle-aged man still looks a little loop-legged, as if he had lived on horseback, while the young man has no loop-legs at all, and when he walks, he jumps on his two legs, like an uneducated mule colt.

The two men looked at the dozen tents from afar, seemed to pause slightly, and then walked over happily.

What made Naren Toya a little puzzled was that there was something wrong with the two men who entered the grassland and did not ride horses.

Naren Toya glanced into the distance again, and did not see her man Ulhan and them returning, and then turned to look at the two men, and for no reason she was a little nervous.

Their tribe was already very weak, less than a hundred people in all, the men had not yet returned, and the tents were all old men, women and children, and they were powerless to resist if they were robbed.

Among the men of those powerful tribes were many brutes, who robbed not only cattle, sheep and horses, but also women. According to the unwritten rules of the steppe, whoever snatches the woman belongs to whomever it takes, and the women are not allowed to resist too violently, otherwise, they have the right and the excuse to kill the entire tribe.

Narentoya turned and went into the tent, fumbled for a moment in a roll of sheepskin, and drew a knife, which Ullihan had bought for seven horses for her self-defense.

Naren Toya hid the knife in her sheepskin robe, clinging to the flesh on her waist, and the cool knife made her shiver twice, making her want to pee.

The two men walked fast without riding horses, and in a short time they were in front of the tent of Narentoya's house. In the other tents, the old men, the women, and the children were frightened, and hid in the tents, not daring to come out, and quietly peeped in this direction.

"Young master, let's spend the night in this tribe. Go back and talk to them about getting a few good horses. The middle-aged man stomped his feet, removed the grass leaves from his leopard skin boots, and said with a smile.

"Well, I have to change a few good horses, this is a day and night rush, and ordinary horses can't carry it at all." The young man said with a smile, revealing a mouthful of neat white teeth.

"This tribe is not big, the cattle, sheep and horses have not yet returned to the circle, it should be that the men have gone out to graze." The middle-aged man said.

"It's okay, anyway, it's just a nightstay, just go back and leave some salt for others." The young man said.

These two men, one is Guo Yang, and the other is naturally Anu. They left the Southern Yan Kingdom and traveled all the way north, and they had been walking for many days.

Naren Toya listened to the two men outside the tent muttering non-stop, but she couldn't understand a word, which made her even more nervous, and she couldn't help but want to hold the knife.

At this moment, an old man came out of another tent, he secretly observed in the tent for a while, and finally came out helplessly. The young people of the tribe had gone to herd, and although he was old, he was still a man.

"Hello uncle, our horse is tired and can't continue walking, it's getting late, and I want to spend the night here with you." When Anu saw the old man, he pressed one hand to his chest and bent down to give a salute, which was the basic etiquette common to the grassland tribes to show respect.

The old man was stunned for a moment, not understanding Anu's words, but since this man was giving a greeting from the prairie, his hanging heart was a little relaxed, so he also gave a salute.

The language barrier is a big obstacle.

Although Anu also comes from a nomadic tribe, it is thousands of miles away from this place, and the language and customs are completely different. Fortunately, there seems to be a mysterious tacit understanding between all the nomadic tribesmen, and the actions and etiquette of expressing goodwill are basically the same, which saves a lot of trouble.

The old man opened his mouth to say something again, Guo Yang and Anu didn't understand, but they could roughly understand that the old man was asking them where they came from and where they were going.

Anu turned around and pointed to the guide, and then to the north, meaning that we had come from the south and were going to the north.

The old man seemed to understand a little, smiled innocently, and invited them to his tent.

Naren Toya was a little woman, and she was so beautiful that the old man did not dare to let these two outsiders enter her tent casually. People are separated from each other, who knows whether these two sanctimonious southerners are good people or out-and-out bad cowards? The most common thing in the steppe is the wolf in sheep's clothing.

Guo Yang and Anu hurriedly gave the old man a salute and followed him into another tent.

Narentoya's hanging heart was slightly lowered, but she did not let her guard down, and still let the knife hide under the sheepskin robe, clinging to her flesh.

Walking into the old man's tent, Guo Yang and Anu couldn't help but secretly shake their heads and sigh, this tent is too broken, not to mention the wind leaking everywhere, not even a decent bronze vessel, a clay jar with missing ears is a stewed meat guy, resting on three stones, smoky, gurgling, emitting a strong smell of mutton.

The old man led the two of them to sit down on a few tattered sheepskins, and carefully brought two bowls of goat's milk, smiling humbly and respectfully on the old man's dark face.

Guo Yang and Anu hurriedly got up, knelt down and bowed to express their gratitude, and then took the goat's milk.

The bowl is a stoneware black bowl, decorated with an ochre-colored rim, although it is a little damaged, but it is actually a luxury for these barren small tribes in the depths of the grassland.

A bowl of sweet and fishy goat's milk poured into their stomachs, Guo Yang and Anu both exhaled comfortably, and the fatigue of their bodies was suddenly relieved by half.

"Uncle, what's the name of your tribe?" Anu asked as much as possible in the language of the steppe people, matching the movements of the nomadic tribesmen.

"Tengger." The old man seemed to understand what Anu meant.

"Tengger?" Guo Yang and Anu glanced at each other, a little puzzled.

Anu once told Guo Yang that in this large grassland spanning tens of thousands of miles, the Tengger tribe should be one of the oldest and most powerful tribes. Tengger means "sky" in the language system of the steppe people, indicating that their ancestors came from the sky, and their hearts are as deep and wide as the sky.

"Are you really from the Tengger tribe?" Anu asked again with a gesture.

"It's Tengger." The old man didn't say much, but he answered in the affirmative.

When Guo Yang and Anu heard this, they nodded slightly, but they didn't want to ask anything more.

The old man found a swarthy wooden plate, fished some mutton from the clay jar, served it to the two of them, and let them eat it with a simple smile.

Anu invited the old man to eat with him, but the old man waved his hand again and again, pointed to the outside of the tent and muttered a few words. Guo Yang and Anu guessed that the old man meant to let them eat first, and he would not eat until the clansmen returned.

The horse was tired, and it was not an easy task to walk on the grassland, and Guo Yang and Anu were already hungry, so they were no longer polite.

While the old man was not paying attention, Anu took out a jar of wine and three wine lords from the storage bag. Smashed the sealing mud and poured it full of three lords, and suddenly, the tent was filled with a strong smell of wine, mixed with the smell of mutton, which was intoxicating.

The old man was startled, turned around suddenly, looked at Guo Yang and Anu in amazement, and gradually moved his gaze to the wine jar and the wine lord.

Anu took a handful of wine, knelt on the torn sheepskin, and invited the old man to drink with him.

The old man looked solemn, walked over slowly, knelt down opposite Anu, and solemnly took the wine, his face could not hide the excitement.

"Wine!" The old man took the wine, stared at it for a long time, and gently smelled the rich aroma of wine, with an intoxicated expression.