Tianbao eight years, February 27, the day is nearly noon.

In the river in early spring, the ice and snow melt and everything recovers.

The Suye River in the north of the city absorbs the glacial snow water from the upper reaches and the murmuring water of the tributaries, and the water gradually rises. The red willow and poplar trees on both sides of the river seem to feel the call of spring and begin to spit out tender new shoots.

Suluk, a slave in his thirties, riding on a mount and holding a long lassoe pole in his right hand, drove more than twenty horses on the north bank of Suye Water.

Suluk's left arm was empty, but he was a skilled rider who could skillfully control the mount under his crotch with just his legs.

"Drive!" Suluk waved his harness pole and guided the horses towards the Suye River. On the other side of the herd, the young slave Bakut held a long pole in his left hand and restrained the horses.

Suluk and Bakut's cheeks were branded with the name of the owner of Shatuo. In this way, no matter where they fled, they could not hide their slave status.

The terrain near the Suye River was familiar to Suluk, who had served as a personal guard of the Turgish Khanate. With his eyes closed, he could also ride from Shattered Leaf City to Ashbulai City on the border between the Turgish Khanate and the Stone Kingdom.

Captain Suluk was captured as a prisoner of war by the Shatuo and the Zodiac when he led his troops to the west during the Battle of Broken Leaves last September. His left arm, on the other hand, was lost a few years ago.

At that time, Suluk was just an ordinary attached guard, and he was known for his spear and spear throwing.

While following the centurion to the area of Kulan City to spy on the stone **, they encountered a large group of samurai riding tall horses, wearing black armor and wielding slender scimitars.

The combat effectiveness of those samurai was very strong, and the centurion who attached the detachment used all his strength, and only returned to Shattered Leaf City with only half of his brothers.

If it weren't for Suluk's left arm blocking a knife at the critical moment, the centurion would probably have to confess to Kulan City.

After returning to Shattered Leaf City, Suluk, who had lost his left arm, could no longer serve as an attached guard. Under the operation of the centurion, he was appointed commander of the Centurion of the hussar unit and transferred out of the attached army.

It was more than half a year later that Suruk, while drinking with the centurion, learned that the black-armored warriors who ambushed them in Kulan City were not the Sogdian army of the Stone Kingdom at all, but the Great Eclipse cavalry from the Khorasan region.

It had been a long time since the Turgish Khanate had fought a major war with the Great Eclipse Empire to the west. Suluk only listened to his father talk about the glorious past of following Sulu Khan and defeating the Great Food Army at the Wuhu River. However, in Suluk's memory, the Great Food Army mentioned by his father always liked to wear white armor.

Suluk couldn't figure out why there were large cannibal cavalry moving around Kulan City, but it wasn't something that his little ten-captain needed to consider.

After losing his left arm, Suluk devoted his main energy to training his younger brother Al Bar. He hopes that his younger brother can grow up as soon as possible, join the attached family guard, and take on the responsibility of supporting the family.

However, before Suluk's wish could be realized, the Tang army led the Battle of Broken Leaves to besiege the Turgish Khanate.

When the Khan decided to break through with his army, Suluk, who was disabled, was selected by Burke, who was leading the army, along with thousands of people who were either injured or old and frail, to break through to the west.

Suruk, who was familiar with the terrain, understood that they were a decoy used by the khan to confuse the Don army. The direction of the army's breakthrough will inevitably not be to the west of the Pingchuan.

Although he understood that breaking through to the west would kill him, Suluk had no complaints in his heart. He only hoped that his younger brother Al Barr would be able to follow the Khan and successfully break through.

By the time he stormed into the empty tents of the Shatuo people, Suluk had already understood that the Tang army had clearly seen through the Khan's plan.

He was so anxious that he couldn't help but worry about his brother, but Suluk didn't have any good way to save him except to fight westward.

The feathered arrows of the Shatuo and the Raks rained down, killing and wounding most of Suluk's decoy troops.

Suluk, with his excellent riding skills honed in the Attached Army, did not know whether he was lucky or unlucky, and he escaped the catastrophe.

After the end of the Battle of Broken Leaves, Suluk, who knew nothing about the entire battle, became a prisoner of war and a slave of the Shatuo people.

After becoming a slave, Suluk met his brother's friend Bakut in the camp of the Shatuos.

When he learned of his brother's death in battle from Bakut, Suluk's heart was cut like a knife.

"This damn war! Why wasn't it me who died! Al Bar is still so young!! Suluk roared at the distant sunset, eager to smash everything that had taken time to pieces. The remnant sun is like blood, and the heavens and the earth are like furnaces, but they don't pay attention to his ant-like cries and anger.

The only thing that comforted Suluk was that, as Bakut saw with his own eyes, Al Bar ended up dying with his childhood sweetheart, Timia.

Suluk knew that his brother had grown up with Timia and had a deep affection. The two can walk hand in hand to the end, and it is also the last bit of warmth in the misfortune.

Although the younger brother lost his life, he was always with the person he loved the most. Suluk, on the other hand, had to use his mutilated body and bear the blood feud of the country's ruin and family to continue to struggle in a cruel world.

"Life or death, it's too heavy!" Suluk swings his right hand and drives away the mischievous foals who try to leave the group. At this moment, he suddenly felt that in the hands of the gods high above, he was also wielding a long lasso, driving all the creatures between heaven and earth towards their predetermined destiny.

After herding the horses on the north bank of the Suye River, where the horses drank or gnibbled on the tender grass by the river, Suluk turned over and dismounted, threw the leash on the grass, skillfully tethered his mount to the tree with one hand, and then reclined against the trunk and closed his eyes for a nap.

"Brother Suluk, have you heard the news circulating on the grassland recently?" At some point, Bakut approached Suluk's side and said in a low voice.

"What's the news?" Suluk's eyes widened and he asked in surprise.

After becoming a slave to the Shatuos, Suluk was depressed and no longer focused on anything other than working like a cow and a horse. He even secretly hoped that he would be able to die of exhaustion and get out of this painful world as soon as possible.

Bakut looked around nervously before whispering, "Someone on the south bank said that the secret service has returned, and they are recruiting troops and horses to recapture Broken Leaf City!" ”

"Special Service?" Suluk stood up and asked eagerly, "Kudulu Special Service?!" ”

"Be quiet, Brother Suluk!" Bakut hurriedly looked around, as if he was afraid that the wind would spread Suluk's words to the ears of others.

Seeing that there was no movement around him except for the joyful neighing of the horses, Bakut lowered his voice and said, "Of course it's the Kudulu Special Service!" The khan had only one son and one daughter, and the whole of the khanate knew it. ”

"Didn't you say that the county lord of Aitenggana was captured by the Tang army, and the Kudulu special service was also missing? Now a spy suddenly comes out, isn't someone pretending? Suluk calmed down from the initial shock and excitement and asked cautiously.

"Fake?" The young Bakut had apparently not thought it that way, scratching his head and muttering, "Won't it?" Why pretend to be a secret service? ”

A wry smile appeared on Suluk's weather-beaten face: "Bakut, you are still young and do not know the dangers of the human heart. Do you think that so many of our Turgish people are enslaved by the Qarluq and Shatuo tribes, and they are not worried that we will join forces to resist? Rather than sit back and wait for us to join forces to make trouble, the Qarluqs or Shatuos could have pretended that the Kudulu agents had returned, ready to lead us in a rebellion. When many people heard the news of the return of the special services, they must have tried impatiently to echo the special services, regardless of distinguishing the true from the fake. In this way, they can know who has the seeds of rebellion lurking in their hearts, who is likely to be the leader of the trouble, and then catch these people in the net. ”

Suluk's depiction of a gloomy outlook sent chills down Bakut's heart. At the age of nineteen, he is strong in blood, but he has little experience in the world. When he heard the news of the return of the Kudulu service, a flame of hope really lit up in his heart.

At this moment, after Suluk's sober analysis, Bakut realized that the news might have been released by the damned Shatuo and Qarluqs.

However, Bakut was still not reconciled. He especially hoped that the Khudulu Special Service would be able to lead a large army to drive out the Shatuo and Qarluqs from the Suye River valley and rebuild the Turgish Khanate; He especially hoped that the golden wolf banner of the Turgi Shi people would once again flutter in the sky of Broken Leaf City, overshadowing the red wolf banner of the Shatuo people and the black wolf flag of the Qarlu people.

Therefore, although Bakut felt that Suluk's analysis was very reasonable, he couldn't help but say: "What if it is really the Kudulu special service that has returned?" What should we do? ”

Regarding Bakut's question, Suluk did not answer in a hurry, but frowned and asked: "Bakut, tell me all the news you heard about the return of the secret service, and let me think about it carefully." ”

Suluk's request made Bakut's eyes light up, and he hurriedly returned: "Brother Suluk, I don't know much, but I heard that the Kudulu special service seems to be calling on all the Turkishes to go to Kulan City to meet, saying that there will be someone there to meet us. ”

"Kulan City?" Suluk's thick eyebrows twisted into a ball, and his left shoulder began to ache faintly, as if a force was racing through his body, trying to drive the long-gone left arm.

"Who is hiding behind the scenes to support the Kutulu special service?" Suluk muttered to himself. Those black-armored knights who haunted Kulan City made him deeply question that the matter of "the return of the special service" was not simple.

"Brother Suluk, is it really the Kudulu special service that has returned?" Eager Bakut, sifted through Suluk's doubts the information he cared about the most.

Looking at Bakut, who was desperate for his answer like his younger brother, Suluk's heart churned. He had a vague sense of something from "Rendezvous at Kulan City", but he was still not sure what was hidden behind the scenes.

While Suluk was pondering how not to dampen Bakut's enthusiasm and prevent him from doing stupid things, the sound of falling water suddenly came from the south bank of the Suye River.