The morning of the grassland was already very cold, the autumn wind was blowing, blowing the water vapor to the south of the empire, and the grass around the salt lake had begun to wilt and yellow, but somewhere by the lake, it was full of laughter, it was Xu Zhen's team harvesting the refined salt!

When the piles of snow-white salt crystals like broken diamonds reflected a seductive light under the morning light, everyone cheered, and their eyes were full of reverence when they looked at Xu Zhen!

The people of Saale, who live in the savannah, have never seen such crystal clear salt after living for so long, and even many of them do not know that this is the real salt!

They want to live for a long time and boil all this salt lake into salt, and with this refined salt alone, they still need to worry about their livelihood? Still need to shed blood for a meadow?

However, Yinzong and Wu Lie know very well that they don't have enough strength, but they have huge wealth, not a blessing, but a disaster.

They love wealth, but they value their lives more than anyone else, and it is precisely because they understand the importance of life that in order to continue more life, the custom of drilling tents is still spread on the grassland.

So they chose to take these salts, leave the salt lake, and continue to the edge of the grassland, with these salts, they can contact more tribes, strengthen their strength, and fight against the Murong tribe together, only by overthrowing the enslavement of the Murong tribe, they can get real freedom, and then they will have the capital to sit on the salt lake.

Everyone hurriedly began to pack up the tent and put the salt bags on the horseback, but no one noticed that a dirty and weak prisoner was lying on the ground with his eyes blank, it was Murong Xiao.

The wounds on his body had healed, but he was tortured and emaciated, his eyes were full of terror, and his sharpness was completely gone, like a ghost wandering on the edge of the world, and the more prosperous and lively the surroundings, the more it set off his withering and downfall.

Along the way, he became so honest that he couldn't be more honest, he answered all questions, let others scold and humiliate and beat, who would have thought that he was once a descendant of the Murong royal family who was freshly dressed and angry, and killed people at every turn, and Murong Xiao, the cavalry captain of the Murong Department?

His hands and feet were not bound or restrained in any way, but he carefully followed the ox cart carrying the baggage, not daring to flee, and even consciously following it if he walked more slowly.

The old herdsman who drove the ox cart looked strong, but if he met Murong Xiao at the beginning, it would be just a knife thing, but now, Murong Xiao couldn't even look up at the old herdsman.

Xu Zhen was in no mood to pay attention to Murong Xiao, because he knew that this enemy had been completely defeated from the bottom of his heart and no longer posed a threat, and the only value left was to rely on his experience to deduce where Murong was likely to be stationed.

But after three days, they had bypassed the salt lake, crossed the edge of the grassland, and came to the depths of Tuyuhun covered with loess and gravel, but they did not find a small tribe along the way!

This is a very suspicious thing.

The Salle tribe is the closest tribe to Liangzhou, if it is because of the southward migration in the near winter, those tribes should migrate to the southeast, Xu Zhen and the others are coming all the way, there is no reason not to meet them.

Seeing that he was getting deeper and deeper into the arid desert area, Xu Zhen retreated in his heart, and it didn't matter if he couldn't unite with other tribes, but he had been forced by Duan Zan and Hou Poyu to make a military order, and he couldn't find the exact location of the Murong Ministry, so how could he go back?

He is very sure in his heart that as long as it is winter, he will launch a full-scale war against Tuyuhun, because the Tang Dynasty is strong, and he is not afraid of insufficient reserves.

In this way, Xu Zhen had to continue to lead the team forward, and even divided the Rouran cavalry and Salle's men and horses into several units, and marched in a netting style around them, each team of men and horses was separated by two miles, watching each other from afar, and moved forward for another half a day.

This result was too disappointing, and the brothers' mood was very low, and their resentment grew, and their tempers followed, and there would be disputes from time to time on the way, even to the point of being rough for a little thing.

Zhang Jiunian was also worried, discussing with Xu Zhen whether he should continue to move forward, or whether there was a way to cheer up the army, but before they could find a countermeasure, they were interrupted by the riots ahead!

It was a loess slope, and there was a small poplar forest withered by the autumn wind, with yellow leaves and twisted trunk branches, lying on its stomach under the dirt slope, inconspicuous.

In front of the poplar forest, dozens of Saale warriors clenched their scimitars in their hands, surrounding the two fighting in the center, and erupted in roars and curses from time to time.

Xu Zhen just wanted to step forward to stop it, but was stopped by Zhang Jiunian, who signaled with his eyes, Xu Zhen suddenly realized, this is a good time to change the atmosphere of the team and shock people's hearts.

So, Xu Zhen and Zhang Jiunian were silent, and came to the back of the crowd quietly, sitting on horseback, looking over the surging heads, but Xu Zhen saw a scene that he didn't want to see.

In the heart of the crowd, Caesar crossed her blades in front of her chest, and lowered her body like a dormant leopard, she faced a tall Salale warrior, whose arm was dripping blood, looking extremely embarrassed, and there were already four or five Salale people lying on the ground, covering their wounds one by one.

Not far from the two fighting, a poplar tree with a curved horn was on the ground, and Xu Zhen suddenly understood.

Populus euphratica is a kind of tree in arid areas, it can be said that it is full of treasures, it is said that it is said that it is born without dying for a thousand years, dead without falling for a thousand years, and immortal for a thousand years, and the wood is extremely tough, and it is a good wood for making bows and crossbows.

Both the Sale people and the Rouran people have a strong thirst for bows and crossbows, and Xu Zhen's brigade is equipped with the Yuanrong repeater sent by Li Deqian privately, which is full of domineering, for the poor Salale people, this is definitely a naked * naked show off, and most of the recent quarrels have been born because of this.

Therefore, the appearance of these poplars made the Saale people like a treasure mountain, after all, they were in the depths of the Kubel steppe, and they usually did not have much opportunity to find good poplar trees.

I think it was Caesar and some of the people present who fought for the poplar tree, but these men really underestimated Caesar, and after being injured several people in a row, they actually had a wheel battle regardless of their demeanor!

Xu Zhen saw that seven or eight Salale people had been injured, and then saw that Kaisa really moved his killing intent, and hurriedly shouted: "Stop it for me!" ”

When Caesar heard Xu Zhen's words, his mind suddenly sobered up and stopped the offensive, but the Sale man was overjoyed because Caesar showed a flaw, and waved his knife to wipe it horizontally, Caesar felt the crisis behind him, and hurriedly waved his knife backhand to block, but he didn't expect Sale to have a lot of manpower, and the blade still left a hole in her arm after all!

At this moment, Caesar was completely angry, his waist was twisted, his steps stepped forward in a row, and his figure became erratic.

However, Caesar snorted angrily and stabbed the Salale in the chest, and when the latter blocked with a horizontal sword, he kicked the Salale in the crotch!

The Salay fell to the ground in pain, and Caesar was angry, and the two blades were about to stab the Sal people in the throat! But at such a critical moment, the light and shadow in front of her eyes changed, and Xu Zhen had already pressed the knife in front of the Salale people!

Caesar was shocked and hurriedly retracted the knife, but Xu Zhen's face was pale, and he gave Caesar a slap with a wave of his hand!

"Smack!"

Her cheeks suddenly turned red, Xu Zhen didn't deliberately stay hard, but really made a ruthless move! Caesar looked incredulous at first, and then his chest was filled with resentment, but Xu Zhen still said angrily.

"Enough trouble!"

"You are all siblings, why do you want to kill each other! Just for a piece of wood, is it worth it! ”

Xu Zhen was still taking the opportunity to unite people's hearts, and her words were uplifting and moving, but Caesar was extremely cold, she bit her lower lip, buried her head deeply, silently pulled out the poplar tree, and walked out of the crowd.

After experiencing this incident, everyone became honest, because they knew very well how close Caesar and Xu Zhen were, Xu Zhen didn't ask whether things were right or wrong, and blamed Caesar, which was regarded as giving the people of Sale an explanation, plus Xu Zhen's reputation as the son of Ahura was still there, and the matter was brought over like this.

However, Caesar never approached Xu Zhen again, and even if he appeared, he just lived away without saying a word, sometimes he didn't spit out half a word all day, and after resting, he used a short blade to chisel and carve the poplar wood, and he didn't even treat the wound on his arm.

Xu Zhen looked a little distressed, he didn't think about taking care of the face of the big man, but in order to stabilize the hearts of the people of Sale, he could only pretend to ignore it.

However, his efforts were also exchanged for the efforts of everyone, and everyone actively searched and found signs of a large army staying! Zhang Jiunian roughly estimated the stove pit on the ground, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, because there were about 30,000 people and horses in this large camp!

Xu Zhen's face became solemn, so many military horses, the traces left were also very obvious, the team pursued all the way, and found that this army was actually marching in the direction of Qilian Mountain!

"Not good! Their main force wants to sneak attack Ganzhou! Zhang Jiunian quickly came to a terrifying conclusion, no wonder the tribes along the way were nowhere to be found, it turned out that Tuyuhun had already recruited large and small tribes, and planned early, wanting to raid Li Jing's camp in Ganzhou!

As long as Ganzhou falls, the battle situation will become very difficult!

No wonder the Murong Department would invade everywhere outside Liangzhou Pass, and it turned out that they had been covering up people's eyes and ears for the main force to steal through Qilian Mountain to cover up!

Xu Zhen thought for a moment and immediately made a decision, he would lead his brothers to continue the pursuit, hoping to grasp the whereabouts and real-time intelligence of Tuyuhun's main force, and the matter of going back to deliver the letter was handed over to Zhang Jiunian.

Time does not wait for people, Zhang Jiunian no longer shirks, immediately ordered thirty or fifty people, and the wind galloped back.

Judging by the remnants of the camp, this army has been leaving for a long time, and although it is blocked by Qilian Mountain, if it is not discovered in time, it is bound to catch Ganzhou off guard!

Thinking of this, Xu Zhen immediately made a decision, let the brothers let go of their speed, pursued this army at full speed, and ran for most of the day, and only then stopped to rest.

The road was bumpy, the people were sleepy and the horses were tired, and after everyone hastily ate their stomachs, they closed their eyes and recuperated, but at this time, the left side of the hillside shouted to kill the heavens, and a wild cavalry team came with murderous spirit!