In the second year of Jingde in the Song Dynasty and the twenty-third year of the Khitan unification, the turmoil in the eastern world stopped. In the past year, first the Song and Liao wars, and then many earth dragons turned over, horse bandits in the north, Tubo barbarians in the southwest plateau, and Murowei savages in the mountains and forests in the north, were disturbed everywhere.

At the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, there is a little peace, but the Dangxiang people who are flourishing in the east, the Qarluqs and Turks who are about to move in the west, and some Uyghurs formed by some small tribes, are all doing their own thing. Some of the small tribes scattered in the northern foothills of the Tien Shan Mountains are caught between the cracks, and they are really confused about what the future holds.

Luntai City (Luntai County, Urumqi) is located at the northern foot of the middle section of the Tianshan Mountains, which is an important node of the northern route of the nearby Silk Road. But after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the entire northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains lost order, first without the deterrence of the Tang Dynasty, the nomadic tribes in the border areas scattered the garrison here, and then the contradictions between the tribes broke out, and the chaotic war between each other almost destroyed the entire Luntai City.

In the two hundred years after the demise of the Tang Dynasty, you sang and I appeared, and the tribe that flourished for a while declined, and the herdsmen were oppressed to the point that they picked up knives, bows and arrows and became horse bandits.

Today, the old site of Luntai City still exists, but many buildings have been abandoned because of disrepair, and it is still a node of the trade route, while the merchants are resting, there are also some small merchants here, the purpose of which is needless to say - of course, with the surrounding nomadic tribes to exchange daily necessities for cattle, horses and sheep.

One day in June, it was a customary market day, and tribes from all over the world who knew about it sent people to buy it. Iron pots, fire sickles, tea, cloth, silverware and even silk were all necessities on the grasslands, and they were exchanged for cattle, horses, sheep, furs, snow lotus, bezoars, and ores. It is mostly bartered here, and the copper coins of the Song or Liao people are not very popular here.

A brick and stone building in the center of Luntai City, one of the best in the crowded market, is said to have been part of the mansion of the Tang Dynasty Jingsai Army, and has now been converted into a teahouse.

As soon as the teahouse appeared, it was liked by the nomadic tribesmen, because people who know a little know that people who eat meat all year round are not very good in their stomachs, so tea is almost the most important necessity in addition to iron tools on the grassland.

The shopkeeper of this teahouse, surnamed Zhang, is a Song man, and he is still in the eyes of herdsmen, so every market day, the tribal elders or leaders who come to participate like to sit here.

"Hey, Zhang Fatzi, I heard that the emperor of your Song people and the Khitan people have made peace?" The shouting guy was a yellow-skinned man with a strong beard, a messy bun of hair tied up in a bun on the top of his head, many of which were not even tied properly, hanging down at the back of his neck, and a somewhat dirty sheepskin coat, one of which had faded down to reveal a stout arm, which was covered with scars.

"Wang Camel, your news is not good, the peace negotiation is already last year's thing, and this year's Rongchang (1) has been opened." was directly called Zhang Fatzi, and the shopkeeper of the tea shop was not annoyed, but replied.

The guy called the king camel didn't care even more, he took a roast leg of lamb in his bare hand and took a bite, and said while chewing: "The emperor of your Song people is a sissy, and he doesn't have the backbone of the sour scholar surnamed Kou, and he is depressed. ”

Shopkeeper Zhang was a little speechless, he was born in the Song Dynasty, and it was really hard to say anything when he encountered this kind of criticism of his own emperor, "After all, the Great Song Dynasty is also the Han dynasty, and the emperor naturally has considerations that our people don't know......"

This far-fetched remark naturally attracted a boo from everyone in the tea shop.

"Wang Luo's words make sense, your emperor of the Song people really doesn't look like a warrior, he is the emperor to please the girls, right? Haha......" A caustic remark came from the pillars on the periphery of the teahouse, but the owner of the speaker was dressed as a party member with shaved hair on top of his head.

The shopkeeper Zhang was also not annoyed, but his words were unforgiving, "Yeli Lonely, the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty is so uncompetitive, why does Li Deming (2), the leader of your party, still accept the canonization of the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty?" ”

Ye Li, who had shaved his head and combed a bunch of braids, didn't care about the shopkeeper calling his general's name directly, and said with a mocking face: "Your Great Song Emperor only has a place as big as his palace in his eyes, don't you know that there is still a lot of land and pastures to the west of the Snow Mountain. ”

The few guys who spoke were local celebrities, Wang Camel is said to be the captain of the Jingsai Army, and now he is the leader of a thousand-person tribe, and the shopkeeper Zhang is a wealthy merchant from Bianjing, mainly engaged in tea and silk, and is a well-known local businessman, as for Yeli Lone, it is a side line of the Yeli family, and the Yeli family is needless to say, the mother of Li Deming, the big leader of the Dingyan Army, is the famous Empress Shuncheng Yixiao of Daxia in later generations, of course, it has not been canonized at this time, and Daxia has not yet existed, However, there is no dispute that the Yeli clan is the highest-ranking clan in the party.

After listening to Ye Li Lauyan's words, someone next to him interjected: "I heard that your Dingyan army has been moving frequently recently, and the Qarlu people in Kashgar in the southwest are also ready to move, don't you want to fight?" ”

The person who spoke was wearing a luxurious robe made of Shu brocade, dressed as a wealthy businessman, and there were three or four stout men wearing short brown straddles long knives standing next to him.

"This noble man is invited, what the actions of the Dingyan army are not something that I, the Yeli clan of the side lineage, can know, but it should not be a fight with the Qarluqs, when the grass sprouts, Qadir Khan also sent a messenger over......" Speaking of this, Yeli Lonely kept his mouth shut, he was straightforward and fast-talking, but he also knew that this kind of place was full of people and talked too much, so it was inevitable to turn back and be reprimanded by the elders of the clan.

Luntai City is now a place where the Liao, Song, Dingyanjun, and Qarlu Quartet all wanted to meddle here, but they all had some scruples, so they achieved the current appearance of such a free city.

Of course, there are some basic conventions, but only during the day, at night, or in a slightly more remote way, it is the usual to talk with fists and knives.

As Nori Lonely was silent, the atmosphere in the teahouse was cold for a while, and after a while, it was noisy again.

Luntai City is the place of four wars, the people around it have seen a lot of killing, and it is not uncommon for this kind of big forces to move troops, as long as they know that it has nothing to do with themselves, no one will pay attention to it anymore, life on the grassland is not easy, and it is right to have fun in time.

A man with a shaved face with a weathered face sat at the table next to the king camel, looked back and asked in a low voice, "Wang camel, your tribe is stationed in the west, have you seen a strange team?" ”

"Huh? Wei Lao Dao? It's rare to see you in Luntai......" As soon as Wang Camel finished greeting, he lowered his tone under the other party's eyes, "Didn't you take your men to Eli (3)?" There's a lot of water and grass over there, and there's a beautiful green-eyed lady...... Well, when did you come back? ”

"Don't mention it, you know Bishkek (4), right? The place of the people of the Qiangsi ......" Wei Laodao looked depressed, and his voice was very low.

"Than... Shkek, the Yaks? I seem to have heard of it, what's wrong? With the expression of the old friend, Wang Camel also became serious.

"You know, I went to Illel with more than thirty men, all of them good at riding horses without stirrups, and now eight have died, and there are only twenty-three left... Fortunately, I saw the opportunity quickly, otherwise I would have to explain there..."Wei Laodao described in a low voice, the knife face still did not twitch, and it looked very sad.

"Got a big fight?" Wang Camel shrugged his body, looked around, and asked in a low voice. His old friend never lies, not to mention such a humiliating thing, there will never be a fake.

"The Qarluqs of Donkey Day, damned Greas!" Wei Laodao scolded in a low voice, "I and those dozens of fellows were originally happy on the banks of the Ile River, but in the middle of last month, people from the Qarlu tribe came to me, saying that they had gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and condor archers to ambush a caravan in Bishkek......"

"That caravan is powerful? It's impossible, tens of thousands of soldiers, it's okay to set up the camp of the difficult army......" Wang Camel pinched a cold sweat for this old friend, tens of thousands of people fought, and his dozens of guys threw it in it like small stones falling into the river, and there would be no splash.

"Didn't you see that scene, 20,000 people from the Bo tribe, 15,000 people from the Bodhisattva tribe, and other scattered people like us, who were killed by the other party, and whose heads were rolling, and the rivers were dyed red...... If I hadn't seen the opportunity quickly and fled to the mountains with my guys, I guess you wouldn't have seen me! Speaking of what happened a month ago, Wei Laodao felt that the fierceness was right in front of him, and the hot tea bowl in his hand couldn't warm his heart.

"Isn't the big cannibal coming again? What about the Qarluqs and the Ghars? By the way, what flag did the other party fly? Wei Laodao stopped talking, Wang Camel was a little anxious, although he was not able to participate in this kind of war, but if the war broke out, it was necessary to avoid trouble as soon as possible.

"The people in Bishkek have been killed!" Wei Laodao was ruthless and drank the water from the tea bowl in his hand in one gulp.

"Oh my God, what kind of ruthless person is it? Wei Laodao, you bastard, say it quickly, what banner is the other party hanging? "The king camel is also anxious, this bastard hangs people's appetites, how can he not finish it happily.

"What flag?" Wei Laodao lifted the large teapot on the table, filled his stoneware tea bowl, and then said with a depressed face: "The main flag has two sides, both are red on a black background, one side is the chicken intestine character Donggui, and the other side has only one word on it - Luo!" Have you heard of it? ”

"Returning to the East? Gauze? The king camel was also a little confused.

"Camel, you know I can't read, or did a literate guy tell me...... I guess it's the banner of our Han people, but I don't know which one! Maybe it was because after drinking the tea, his stomach was warm, and Wei Laodao's expression softened a little.

"I can't guess, you've been wielding knives with others, and people can spare you?" It's easy to do if it's a Han Chinese, but it's troublesome if it's a big cannibal, and those religious guys are not reasonable at all.

"Hey, I saw the flag from afar and it felt like the flag of our Han people, and I ran away from it, otherwise I would have come back there? It's just a pity for my eight brothers who died in the chaos! Stretching out his hand and wiping his face, Wei Laodao still felt very depressed, but he was quite complacent about being able to escape from the battlefield of tens of thousands of people.

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(1) Yongchang: que'chang, Yong is the meaning of patent monopoly, the word Yongchang appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty, referring to the special trading market opened between the Song, Liao, Xixia and Jin, this thing can only be produced in the Song Dynasty that suppressed the army, the purpose is to control the border with economic means, Anbian Suiyuan, I have to say that this thing later affected the relationship between the Song Dynasty and the surrounding countries. It is a good thing to pay attention to the people's livelihood economy, but the emergence of this kind of thing is actually somewhat out of place, although it was progressive in that era, but because of the heavy wealth and light blood, the consequence was that the overall military combat power of the Eastern world declined, so that when the Meng Yuan army marched into the Central Plains, the Han regime could hardly find a suitable general with troops, and could not recruit suitable soldiers.

(2) Li Deming, the name recorded in the history of the Song Dynasty, Taizong in the history of Western Xia, and Li Dezhao in the history of Liao, a member of the party, the eldest son of Li Jiqian of the Dingyan Army, and the father of Li Yuanhao of Xia Jingzong. This line of Li was originally the party Xiang Tuoba clan, and its Han surname Li was given by the Tang Emperor Li Shimin, a descendant of Xianbei Tuoba Chi after his resignation to the Tang Dynasty. During his reign, his father died in Tibet, so he curried favor with Song Liao and went west to conquer nomadic tribes, which laid the foundation for Li Yuanhao to formally establish Western Xia.

(3) Yile, Yili, was first recorded in the Book of Han, famous because of the place name Ili River, which means that the light is obvious and the river is sparkling. The era in this text refers to the Ili River basin, which covers a vast area east and south of Lake Balkhash.

(4) Bishkek, also known as Pishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic, was once known as Frunze during the Soviet Union, located at the northern foot of the Alatau Mountains at the western end of the Tianshan Mountains, in the center of the Chu River Basin. And: The Chu River was once known as Broken Leaf Water, and the Gyros people are the ancestors of the Kyrgyz people.

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