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"This dance is not for anyone else!" The coppersmith drank wildly, and his face was full of youth and frivolity. Every time he drank with the young man to the point of being dazzled, he remembered the promise of the day and passed on some moves and formulas to Li Xu with a lance. The next day, when Li Xu took what he had learned on the first day and asked for advice, he forgot it again. The next time he was drunk, Li Xu took advantage of the alcohol to ask questions, and he changed the lance to a hammer and taught Li Xu a strong man to lead the army into battle, the strongest killing method. After teaching the hammer, he instructed Li Xu how to crack the hammer trick and take advantage of the wrestler. As for whether these tricks will be effective on the battlefield in the future, the coppersmith spread his hands and said frankly: "This is what I figured out when I was striking iron, and I don't know if it is good or not!" ”

When encountering such a "dark master", Li Xu had no choice. I had to concentrate my mind and strive to make a breakthrough in knife skills. The more you practice, the more uncomfortable the scimitar in your hand becomes, and some moves can obviously exert more power, but because the length and weight of the scimitar affect the effect of swinging. At this time, he had already had a first glimpse of the knife technique, and knew that all this was due to the mismatch between his arm strength, arm length, and scimitar weight. wanted to ask the coppersmith to help tailor a scimitar out, and the master and apprentice were busy for a long time, but they had to give up halfway because the quality of the finished product was too poor.

"The reason why the knife is bent is to ensure that the length of the blade is maximized at the same length of the blade. In this way, the power of the cavalry in the horse chopping and pumping can be brought into play. Most of the people who were slashed by a scimitar were not hacked to death, but had a wound that was too long and bleeding to death! Faced with a large number of unsuccessful knife blanks, the coppersmith summed it up.

"This length and width is the limit of the scimitar on the prairie, and if you want to break through, the center of gravity, weight, balance and strength have to be reconsidered. With my craft, I don't think I can do it with ordinary fine iron. It should be possible to find star iron, but you can't make up so many star iron in three and five years! After another failed attempt, the coppersmith said with some frustration.

In terms of collecting materials for knife fighting, Li Xu is not as pessimistic as a coppersmith. After the news that he wanted to fight a scimitar was known to several friends, the archer Ah Silan, Dur, who had only one arm left, and the wild girls Tao Kuotuosi, E Ru and others all agreed to help. The five-month winter on the grasslands is coming to an end, and the snow on the ground is already melting. After the ice and snow are gone, even if everyone walks all over the grassland, they have to make up a scimitar for Li Xu.

"The snow melts right away!" One evening in the felt tent, Xu Dayan had a leisure moment for the first time in several months, sipping milk tea like a man, and said to Li Xu.

"Hmm!" Li Xu's mind was still immersed in the few sword techniques he had newly comprehended during the day, and he didn't come back to his senses for a while, and responded vaguely.

"Tomorrow you don't go to help the coppersmith make iron, slow down your strength. Early the day after tomorrow, let's lead the army and set off! Xu Dayan took another sip of tea, closed his eyes, and whispered as if he was intoxicated by the taste.

"Go?" Li Xu paused for a moment, "Go up!" ”

"Xi Bu?!" Without waiting for Xu Dayan to answer, Li Xu asked again.

"Hmm!" Xu Dayan closed his eyes and made a dream-like sound.

The snow had begun to melt, and in the middle of the night, the sound of ice cubes outside the felt tent falling to the ground was staggered. On the muddy ground, Ganluo, who had unconsciously grown into the size of a family dog, let out a loud howl at the full moon in the sky. "Whew--"

"Huh--" The wild wolves nearby harmonized with each other, and in an instant, the entire grassland was awakened from sleep by the howl of wolves.

"Alas!" Looking at the snow outside, which began to melt day by day, the big Ejin Livier of the Suotou Xi Department sighed uncontrollably. Spring is coming again, but this spring is a spring of death, last winter when his own tribe went to attack Su Sibu, but was killed by the other party and lost. Of the 5,000 tribe's strongest shepherds, only about 2,000 returned, and all of them were terrified.

"Su Si is blessed by the silver wolf!" That's what every redeemed elder said. As if not mentioning the monster with its silver-gray fur was not enough to hide their shame of being captured by the enemy. But the more this happens, the less courageous the shepherds are to resist the enemy. One winter passed, and more than 800 shepherds were working as cattle and horses in each other's hands. The people of the tribe were very dissatisfied with the unfair behavior of the elders who only ransomed their own sons and nephews, and refused to redeem the sons and husbands of ordinary people, and often gathered at the gate of the central tent to protest. But Liver's solution to their plight was not a solution, and the tribe had been devastated when it was expelled by the Turks last fall. The winter fiasco deprived them of the only stock of cattle and sheep. The lion of Su Sibu opened his mouth, a herdsman asked for ten sheep or two horses to ransom him, where did Suo Touxi get so many cows, sheep and horses?

"Philip Fu, didn't Su Si allow us to pay in batches? There seem to be hundreds of horses in the treasury. The elder Wu Yile, who was the first to be released, reminded thoughtlessly. The old guy was frightened by the enemy, and he insisted on a truce with Suotou Xi after knowing that after paying the ransom, most of the people of Suotou Xi would not survive the next winter.

"Give them the horses, in case they call, what will we give to our warriors?" He asked loudly, looking like a defeated rooster. No one understood his difficulties, and the herdsmen laughed at him for being too timid to live and die with his brothers. The elders thought he was stubborn, and he was reluctant to accept the last few hundred horses in the treasury. But who is willing to think about him, if he dies in battle that day, Suotou Xi will be gone, and the elders who are detached from the appearance and gods will definitely take advantage of the civil strife to divide up Suotou Xi's department. If he redeems the people with his horses today, the warriors will have to meet them on foot when the enemy comes. Is it possible to win against someone else's cavalry with the same number of infantry in a wide steppe?

In desperation, he had no choice but to send Wu Yile, a coward, to ask the enemy for mercy again and again. This old guy has been humiliated by the people many times, and he has already developed an iron face. He didn't expect the vicious people to relent, he only hoped that the old guy Wuyile would delay the enemy's attack, and it would only take one spring. The Ashina family, the Turkic people far away on the banks of the Egen River, had already received the news, and for the sake of the Suotou Xi tribe for many years of deference and courtesy, they promised to send someone to mediate the matter after Xuehua. As the co-leader of each tribe, he ordered the Zhufei coalition army to put down their butcher's knives and leave a way for the Suotou Xi tribe to live.

Uyile went for five days, and returned in the morning of the sixth day with a pale face. He only brought back one sentence, "Susisir said he was going to take the compensation himself!" Then he fainted.

Frightened, he quickly ordered the horn to be sounded, the wolf smoke was lit, and all the people who were grazing outside were ordered to return to the camp to prepare for battle. But except for a few elders' families, most of the clansmen did not obey his orders. The grass along the river has sprouted, and if the animals are fattened in the spring, they will reproduce in the summer. By the end of the following fall, the more affluent shepherds would be able to redeem their sons and husbands on their own. Lord Ejin only cares about running for his life, the elders only care about redeeming their children and nephews, and everyone has to think of a way for themselves. It's fair, don't complain about anyone's cruelty.

He blew the trumpet over and over again, and lit the wolf smoke over and over again. He even personally ran all over the grasslands within a radius of 100 miles with Daxu, which represented the dignity of Aijin. He swore to the immortal heaven again and again, knelt on the ground and prayed again and again, promising the shepherds that as long as the tribe survived this crisis, he would empty the public treasury and ransom the captured herdsmen.

At noon on the third day, he finally gathered 4,000 shepherds who could mount and fight. More than a thousand of them were old men and children, and their strength was not enough to draw a full horned bow. Inside the camp, there are also more than 5,000 women, who can also rush forward to block swords and arrows for their people at critical moments

The scouts sent out also sent back information one after another, and the Zhuqi coalition army marched slowly, almost with sheep and herdsmen, and marched while grazing. The speed of advance does not exceed fifty miles every day, and the walk is half a day and half a day.

He let out a sigh of relief. If marching at this pace, it would take three more days for the enemy to approach their camp. He also has the opportunity to use his family affection to call back more shepherds and raise more bows and arrows and horses.

In the evening, the scouts sent in reports of the exact opposite. The more than 3,000 people of the Zhuqi coalition army suddenly increased their speed, marching more than 100 miles that day, and according to the current way, they only needed half a day to break into Suotouxi's camp.

He panicked again and quickly ordered all the fighters to take precautions. Last time, the enemy took advantage of their negligence at night to tie the felt under the horses' hooves and rob the camp. This time, the same tragedy cannot be allowed to happen again in any way.

The crowd stayed up all night, but the next morning they received another piece of information. The allied forces of Zhufei stopped at Taladianzi, about fifty miles away from the tribe, yesterday and did not advance all night. He was so tired that he really couldn't figure out what the people led by Susisir were going to do. If you want to fight to the death with Suo Touxi, quickly cover up and make quick contact is the most effective tactic. Isn't this stop-and-go method of marching prepared by the adversary?

Puzzled, he had no choice but to order the shepherds to settle in and rest first. As soon as the order was laid, the alarm horn sounded again in the grassland. A group of exhausted scouts hurriedly arrived, and the coalition forces of the Misty Force pulled out their camp again and rushed over as fast as they could.

"Blow the horn, blow the horn!" He commanded loudly, and he heard panic in his own voice. This was something that had never happened to him in his life, and even if he encountered wolves on the grassland alone, he was not frightened to this extent. Of course, that happened when he was sixteen years old, and now he is approaching fifty years old.

The shepherds, who had just fallen down, screamed and got up again, everyone was exhausted, everyone hoped that the war would happen sooner. It's too torturous to fight like this, whether it's dead or alive, it's better to give a knife.

The evil people stopped again three miles away from the Suotou Xibu camp. Nearly a thousand scrawny slaves with cowhide cords on their feet were escorted out of the back of the horse caravan. Carrying a stake, under the whip of the fierce overseer of the mist, he began to build a camp for his old enemy.

The samurai dismounted, ignoring the distant cries and hateful glances, and spent their time drinking and resting. They then sent a message from the captives demanding that the Suotou Xi people either pay the entire war reparations at once, or leave the shores of the Crescent Lake, or the horses of the warriors would level the camp.