The Liangshan soldiers began to interrogate the Jurchens, and soon the Jurchens let out a miserable scream, and the faces of Han Shizhong and Yang Xiong did not change at all. Pinshu.com

In later generations, torture had long since been banned. And in this day and age, torture was a common thing. Not to mention the enemy, even if the government interrogates ordinary people, they generally have to be tortured.

"The two generals, they say, came to the Mongolian steppe on the orders of the Emperor of the Jin State, Wanyan Aguta. In order to read the holy decree of Yan Aguta, let the Mongol tribes be loyal to the Dajin Kingdom, and pay tribute to the Dajin Kingdom every year. Tong Wei came to Han Shizhong and Yang Xiong's side and said.

"Oh, that's the case, are the Jurchens going to touch the Mongolian steppe?" Yang Xiong said in surprise.

"The strength of the Jurchens is getting stronger and stronger, and it is certain that they will be involved in the Mongolian steppe instead of the Liao." Han Shizhong said.

The Mongolian steppe used to be the territory of the Liao people, of course, the Liao people did not implement direct notification here, but let the Mongolian tribes pay them vassals and pay tribute every year. Now it seems that the policy to be adopted by the Jin people is similar to that of the Liao people.

"Apart from them, has the Jurchen army come to the grassland?" Han Shizhong said.

"Not really." Tong Wei said.

"Kill them all, and let's move on." Han Shizhong said.

Soon the screams were heard again, and none of the Jurchens survived.

Han Shizhong and the others first put away the Jurchens' horses, and then put away the Jurchens' weapons, food, and water. In the vast grassland, these are all things that are necessary for survival. In the end, they also searched for the holy decree from the bodies of these Jurchens. The holy decree of the Jurchens was written in Khitan script, and none of the people could understand it, so they could only put it away at the moment and prepare to go back and hand it over to Wu Dong for seeing.

In addition, Han Shizhong also pulled out the arrows they shot one by one, and now they are on the grassland, there is no supply, these arrows must be spared. If you encounter danger and don't have a bow and arrow, your combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

"Duan Jingzhu said that he is in the Mongolian Beggars Department, I don't know where that Beggar Department is, how can we find him?" Yang Xiong said.

"When we meet the Mongols, we will know where the beggars are." Han Shizhong said.

The army marched on the steppe, and it was already May, and the weather was starting to get hot. Especially on this grassland, the temperature difference between day and night is very large, and it is very hot at noon, and everyone is sweating.

"We didn't have much food, so we thought we would soon meet the Mongols and exchange the brick tea we brought for some food! Who knew that I didn't meet a single Mongol after walking for half a day, and the number of Mongols was so small? Yang Xiong said.

"The number of Mongols is not very small, there must be hundreds of thousands. Take a walk and we'll come across. Han Shizhong said.

In fact, the number of Mongols in this era has reached more than one million. Later, Genghis Khan unified the Mongolian steppe, during which there were many wars, many Mongols died, and the population at that time was about 1.5 million. There may be more now than then.

With such a large population, it is naturally a great force. Unfortunately, the Mongols were not united enough and were divided into numerous tribes, many of which had feuds with each other and fought each other. Unless a heroic figure like Genghis Khan can emerge to unify the Mongol tribes, this may threaten the security of the Liao or Jin kingdoms. The current Mongolia is just a plate of scattered sand.

There are a large number of horses in the Mongolian steppe, and when Genghis Khan conquered the four directions, he had 200,000 iron horsemen, and almost everyone had four or five horses, and they took turns to change horses. The number of horses is greater than the number of people, and it can be regarded as the place with the largest number of horses in Asia in this era.

"General Han, it seems that a herd of beasts has just passed by here." Tong Wei said suddenly.

"Oh, really? It would be nice if there were wild beasts, we just need food. Han Shizhong was overjoyed.

"I'll go ahead and take a look, and you can catch up." Tong Wei said.

Tong Wei walked forward, and his brother Tong Meng walked forward from the other way. Their brother was a good hunter, but it was the first time he had hunted in the mountains and in the grasslands. Both of them were a little eager to try, constantly discerning the footprints and smells of the herd, and judging the direction in which they might be heading.

After walking for about half an hour, a large herd of antelopes suddenly appeared in front of them, and it seemed that there were thousands of them.

There were so many antelopes, which made everyone extremely happy, and Han Shizhong said: "Let's go kill the sheep!" Eat roasted whole lamb tonight! ”

These antelopes belonged to the Saiga of Mongolia, and in later generations these were endangered animals, with only sporadic distribution in the westernmost part of the Mongolian steppe. And in this day and age, such antelope herds abound.

"Don't use bows and arrows, our bows and arrows still need to kill the enemy!" Han Shizhong reminded everyone as he rushed forward.

Before, they got more than 300 horses from the hands of the Jurchens, and at this moment, Han Shizhong led more than 300 cavalry forward, and those antelopes had already run forward, and everyone hurriedly chased after them.

It's a pity that the speed of the antelope is too fast, and Han Shizhong even had to dismount and perform peerless light skills, killing more than ten antelopes alone.

In the end, hundreds of antelopes were killed, and the rest fled.

However, these hundreds of antelopes are enough for everyone to eat for two or three days, and then they should be able to meet the Mongols and exchange them for food.

It was getting dark, and everyone found a relatively high place to camp and rest. Some soldiers went looking for dead grass, branches, and other things, but after searching for a long time, they could hardly find them. In the end, Tong Wei and Tong Meng found a lot of cow dung and used it as fuel, so they lit a fire and roasted the antelope, and then everyone feasted.

"The Mongolian steppe is a really good place, if only you could meet so many antelopes every day, it would be great." Han Shizhong said with a smile while nibbling on the mutton.

"General Han, a herd of antelopes as large as this should be relatively rare on the grassland. However, there should be a lot of other prey, and we will definitely not die of hunger on the grassland. Tong Wei said with a smile.

Everyone laughed, and at this time, Yang Xiong suddenly said: "There is cow dung here, do you say there is a shepherd in front of you?" ”

Tong Wei said: "This is not necessarily, the people on the grassland are all moving around, and these cow dung have already dried up, it looks like a long time ago." ”

Han Shizhong and Yang Xiong both showed disappointed expressions, and at this time, a soldier suddenly shouted, "Generals, come and see!" ”

Han Shizhong, Yang Xiong and others strode to the soldier, followed the soldier's fingers, and saw a faint fire in the distance, looming If you don't look carefully, you can barely see clearly.

"It's firelight, there must be someone over there!" Yang Xiong was overjoyed.

"I'll lead the cavalry to take a look! Yang Xiong, you stay here first. Han Shizhong said.

At that moment, Han Shizhong led 300 cavalry towards that side, and Yang Xiong stayed here, looking forward to it and anxious in his heart.

******

The distance of the firelight was extremely far, and Han Shizhong and the others rode horses for nearly half an hour before they came to the firelight.

At this moment, they could already see four or five white yurts in front of them, and the people in the yurts must have heard the sound of horses' hooves, and they had all run out at this moment, looking at Han Shizhong and his party vigilantly. Those shepherds all picked up their bows and arrows and aimed them at Han Shizhong and the others. However, their bows, arrows, and arrows are made of animal bones, and their lethality is very average.

"Tell them we're horse sellers." Han Shizhong said.

At that moment, Tong Wei said it in Mongolian, and when he heard that it was a horse seller, the Mongolians were obviously relieved and put down their bows and arrows.

"Come on, give them some brick tea." Han Shizhong said.

So immediately a soldier ran over and sent more than ten bricks of tea. When they got these brick teas, the faces of those Mongolians showed a look of surprise.

In the grassland, brick tea is an incomparably valuable thing. The herdsmen of the steppe eat mainly meat and cheese, and if there is no tea to neutralize it, they are prone to illness. The herdsmen on the grassland have a proverb, called "it is better to have no food for three days than without tea for a day", since the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains people and the nomads on the grassland have carried out a "tea and horse exchange", exchanging tea for horses on the grassland. In the Song Dynasty, there was also a tradition of tea and horse exchanges, and in order to balance the Khitans and the Tanguts, the Song people often stopped the tea trade as a threat.

The Mongols had great difficulty obtaining tea, and they generally exchanged horses for tea with the Khitans, and the Khitans got the tea from the Song people. In this way, the tea leaves are almost as good as gold. In the Mongolian steppe now, only the nobles of those big tribes can drink tea every day, and it is not a simple matter for ordinary herdsmen to want to drink their beloved milk tea.

Holding more than ten pieces of brick tea in their hands, the hands of these Mongolians were trembling.

"Distinguished guest, please come soon!" One of the leading Mongols had already shouted loudly.

Soon Han Shizhong, Tong Wei and several leaders were invited to the yurt, and the Mongols warmly entertained them.

"My name is Amur, I don't know your guest's name? Where did it come from? The Mongol leader asked.

"This is our leader, General Han, we are from the Great Song Dynasty, and we are Song people." Tong Wei replied to the Mongols while translating.

"It turned out to be a Song person, welcome welcome. But if you want to sell horses, we can't provide you. "Amur Dao.

They are only a few yurts, and they belong to the smallest tribe in the steppe. There were only a dozen of their horses in total, and it was impossible to provide them to Han Shizhong and the others.

"Do you know where the beggars are?" Tong Wei asked.

"Beggar?" The Mongols all showed surprised eyes, and Amr said, "We are the beggars!" ”

"Huh?" Tong Wei was stunned for a moment, and said, "Are there only a few of you in the beggar department?" ”

"How is that possible? There are more than 100,000 people in the Qiyan Department...... We are only the smallest tribe of the Beggars. "Amur Dao.

At the moment, Amur explained that the Qiyan Department was a tribal alliance, and there were many Mongolian tribes in it, the big ones numbered tens of thousands, and the small ones were only a few dozen. The Qiyan tribe is located in the east of the grassland, and the tribes in the vast area here are considered members of the Qiyan tribe.

Tong Wei listened and told Han Shizhong and the others. Han Shizhong frowned secretly, thinking to himself that the beggar department was so big, how could he find Duan Jingzhu?

After a while, Han Shizhong said, "Where is the largest tribe in your Qiyan Tribe?" ”

Tong Wei translated his words, and Amr said: "The largest tribe, that is the tribe of the Great Khan, you can find them along the river all the way to the west." ”

The Great Khan was the head of a Mongol tribe or tribal alliance, and the "Great Khan" referred to by Amr was the head of the entire Qiyan tribe.

"Duan Jingzhu may be at the Great Khan of the Qiyan Ministry, tomorrow we will continue to the west!" Han Shizhong said.

******

That night, Han Shizhong ignored Amur's retention, but still led the cavalry back to Yang Xiong. After knowing the news of the beggar department, Yang Xiong's face also showed a smile.

The next day, before dawn, Liangshan's army had already begun to move forward. They found the river that Amr had spoken of, and found that it was a small river that was almost drying up. Either way, they were finally able to replenish the water.

We walked all the way forward and walked in the grassland for three days, and in the afternoon of this day, we suddenly encountered dozens of herdsmen, who were driving cattle and sheep and grazing in the grass.

Seeing Han Shizhong and the others, all the shepherds became nervous. There are too few people dressed like the Liangshan army on the grassland, and they are generally the army of the Khitans. Seeing them, the shepherds thought that the Khitans were coming again.

"Is this the Ministry of Beggars? Is the Great Khan here? Tong Wei asked loudly.

"This is the Beggar Ministry, the Great Khan is here, who are you?" The shepherds also drank and asked.

"May I ask a Song man named Duan Jingzhu, is he here with you?" Tong Wei laughed.

"Huh? Are you Mr. Duan's people? The shepherd asked hurriedly.

"Haha, Duan Jingzhu is really here! That's great! Tong Wei didn't have time to answer these shepherds, and hurriedly told Han Shizhong and others what the shepherds said.

Everyone was excited, after trekking all the way for so long, they finally came to their destination, and they were about to see Duan Jingzhu!

"I don't know how many horses Duan Jingzhu has prepared for us? Can it meet Liangshan's current needs? Han Shizhong said secretly.

To see the first release without ads, please go to Pinshu.com

Please share