The autumn wind on the grassland is more violent than elsewhere.

At this time of the year, it is generally the season when herdsmen drive their cattle and sheep to change fields, from the summer pastures at high places, across the mountains, across the rivers, through a long journey, to endure hunger, overcome hardships, and go to the winter pastures with abundant water and grass in the lower places, this process is often extremely tragic and tragic.

Thousands of cattle and sheep, shepherds who help the old and the young, along with countless dangers, fights, and fights between each other in order to survive, step on the vast loess, and walk to the other side that represents happiness and well-being, countless people will die on the road, and the people on the grassland call this road "the road of heaven".

The Ayxa people are a small Mongolian tribe near Shangjing Province in the ancient Jin Kingdom.

The tribe has 8,000 people, including about 2,000 strong men, which is a very small and weak tribe in the grassland.

The patriarch Chagan is a man in his forties, shrewd, capable, powerful and powerful, and he has led the whole clan to struggle for survival in the changing grassland for 20 years.

Because Chagan's grandfather, the previous patriarch of the Aksa tribe had some contradictions with the Mongolian Golden Family, the Aksa tribe, like many small tribes that were suppressed, did not integrate into the powerful core of the Great Mongolia, and still survived in the pastures left by their ancestors, fending for themselves.

It is for this reason that Chagan has a very unsatisfactory life, and has been very marginalized by the Great Mongolian State, and the number of cattle and sheep in the tribe is far from that of the big tribes, and the life is very depressed.

Even so, Cha Gan was very satisfied, he knew deeply that as far as the Axa tribe was concerned, they were not even grass in the big tribe, and the weak and the strong ate the strong on the grassland, and the small tribe lived very hard, either becoming a vassal of the big tribe, or simply being eaten by the big tribe, and if they were not satisfied, they might be exterminated.

Therefore, the pastures of the Axa tribe gradually moved south many years ago, basically close to the Great Wall, in order to avoid the threat of the large tribes that occupy the excellent pastures.

And the proximity to the territory of the Han people also has many advantages, at least it is very convenient to exchange cattle, sheep and horses for salt and iron and other living materials, and the Han people are immediately limited in strength and will not take the initiative to provoke the Mongols, so Chagan has lived a relatively stable life over the years.

Now, he is leading his entire clan to the west from Shangjing Road to the winter pastures with a large herd of livestock, which represents wealth and livelihood.

"Qinggeltai, you take ten people, spread to the south, spread as far away as possible, keep your eyes bright, if there is anything abnormal, report it immediately!" I don't know why, Chagan's eyelids have been jumping for the past two days, which makes him uneasy, and early in the morning, he repeatedly ordered the most elite knights in the clan to go out to investigate.

"Patriarch, these are all members of the twelfth team, and there has never been so many people out in previous years, is there something wrong?" An old clansman followed him, looking at him and asking worriedly.

Cha Gan took a deep breath and shook his head: "I don't know why, it's just that I have heart palpitations, and I always feel like something is going to happen." ”

The old Cheng clan's beard was white, and after hearing the sound and looking around, he said with a smile: "The wind and waves are calm everywhere, and the patriarch is too worried." ”

"I heard that there is a grassland fire in Yunnei Prefecture, and our route is very close to that side, is the patriarch worried that the fire will burn over?" Another clansman speculated.

The white-haired old man smiled again: "The heavy rain the day before yesterday was enough to extinguish any fire, even if that fire could burn Cloud City, it would not be possible to continue to burn under this rain. ”

He glanced at Cha Gan, who had a cloudy face, and said, "It's that the Han people who came out of the Great Wall from Guanzhong recently heard that they had slaughtered Yunzhong and drove the overlord of this area to Shangjing, I wonder if the patriarch is worried about this?" ”

Cha Gan was slightly stunned, and laughed loudly: "That's not enough, no matter how fierce the Han people are, it is impossible to pose a threat to us on the grassland, the Han people are strong with bows and crossbows, and they are good at guarding the city, but they are not good at running, and they are really not enough to compare with the people we grew up in the grassland." ”

He laughed heartily, with endless confidence, and caused the people around him to laugh too, full of joy, and felt that the patriarch was right.

Everyone continued to walk forward, and in the laughter, Cha Gan's haze dissipated little by little, and the scattered detective riders also returned one after another, and no abnormal phenomena were found, which made Cha Gan's heart more reassured.

He rode on his horse, secretly laughing at himself, feeling that the unprovoked worry came from nowhere, the burning of Cloud City had nothing to do with him, and the fire had obviously been extinguished by the heavy rain, so what threat could it be?

At noon, the tribe began to set up camp, and the women jumped out of the yurts on the huge ox carts, and neatly set up pots and stoves in the ground, boiling water for cooking, and the children played around the women, chattering to pass the boredom of the day, while the men sat in groups, talking loudly, looking forward to this winter's life.

Chagan sat with a group of tribal elders, drinking mare's milk wine and talking about things.

Everything is normal, everything is business as usual.

Until the person in charge of the lookout and the guard sounded the horn.

Chagan turned his head in surprise and looked at the trumpeter standing on a high watchtower, which was set on an ox cart two feet high, and the trumpeter climbed on it, and was in charge of guarding the camp of the brigade.

"Someone's back!" The trumpeter shouted at him, "It seems to be carrying an arrow!" ”

With an arrow means to be hit by an arrow.

Chagan jumped up like a leopard and ran in the direction of the horn's fingers.

A group of men followed him, swords and bows.

In the distance, where the grass and the sky are connected, a black dot is running in the distance, running very quickly, and the rider should be galloping at all costs.

Chagan squinted his eyes and saw that this was a knight of his own clan, and there were indeed a few arrows stuck in his shoulders, and the white feathers at the end of the heavy arrows fluttered in the strong wind.

"The warning horn sounded, all the men got on their horses, and all the women and children hid in the cars." Chagan took a deep breath and jumped onto his mount.

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"Who did that?" The white-haired old man was a little puzzled: "There are no big tribes around here." ”

"Who knows, maybe it's a horse thief who doesn't have long eyes." Chagan pulled out the bow from the saddle, clenched it in his hand, and pulled out a few arrows from the quiver behind him.

The whole of the Axa tribe moved and coping with this situation, which was familiar to those who grew up on the steppe, and the men took up arms and stepped on their horses, and the women took up their children and hid in the yurts.

With the sound of horses' hooves, the knight in the distance got closer and closer, and he recognized the patriarch Chagan, who was leading the troops in the procession, and rushed desperately with the last of his strength.

While rushing, the knight exerted all his strength and shouted hoarsely: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Thousands of cavalry attack! ”

When he rushed to a distance of about ten feet from Chagan, the knight used the last of his strength to shake his horse twice and fell headlong.

A couple of Mongols pounced, tried their breath, looked back and shook their heads.

They pulled out the shaft of the arrow from the knight's back and handed it to the chief.

Chagan read it and handed it to the people around him.

The white-haired old man took it, and after careful observation, he said categorically: "This is not an arrow on the grassland, the shaft of the arrow is not the wicker wood we commonly use, and the tail end is not an eagle feather or a harrier feather...... Arrows of the Han people! ”

Arrows of the Han Chinese?

Left and right were surprised, everyone didn't believe it, how could there be Han people here? Did the Han have the ability to shoot Mongol warriors on the steppe?

Cha Gan ignored the old man, just stretched out his hand, pointed to the front and said slowly: "Who killed our clansmen, we will know immediately." ”

In the direction of his finger, a large puff of smoke and dust rose from the sky.

The ground began to shake, and as the earthquake came, it gradually became more and more violent, and as time passed, the earth echoed like thunder.

The people of the Axa tribe silently lined up in battle formation, and more than 2,000 men lined up in two rows and buckled their bowstrings.

Everyone understands that no matter who comes, a killing is inevitable.

The law of the grassland, the winner lives and the loser dies, and no one can avoid it.

And under the smoke and dust raised by countless horses' hooves in the distance, the five thousand cavalry led by Wanyan Chenghei formed a wedge shock formation and surrounded the Axa Department.

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