The ox cart swayed along the endless grassland, and the sky was still fluttering with bustling snowflakes. Crystal snowflakes fall with the wind, like white butterflies fluttering. Li Kuan drove the ox cart, and behind him was the Xuanjia guard who followed on horseback. A large group of people numbered more than 200 people, and they could only follow behind a small ox cart aggrievedly, slowly walking towards the border of the Tang Dynasty, which was really a little aggrieved and panicked. But Li Kuan was really determined to drive the ox cart back by himself, and no one persuaded him.

Not only grain and grass were placed on the ox cart, but there were also dozens of golden pagodas, which were packed in a box with hay padded to prevent them from breaking into bumps. These are the ashes of the soldiers who died in Li Kuan's expedition this time. After the Battle of Dingxiang, Li Kuan divided his soldiers into two ways to find the corpses of those soldiers who did not have the time and energy to collect them. Fortunately, the wolves had been taken to the depths of the grassland by Li Kuan's big dog, and Li Kuan's main soldiers who had lost their battle were not far from the grassland, and the corpses had not yet been swallowed by the wild wolves. But there are still vultures, scavenging birds, pecking at the carcass beyond recognition. The corpses of these corpses, dressed in the iron armor of the Tang Dynasty, were cremated into a pool of ashes and put into the golden pagoda, ready to go to their hometown later.

Li Kuan insisted on sending these brothers on their last journey, so no one dared to stop them, and they were unwilling to stop them. A commander who will be sad about the death of his troops can win the sincere love of the soldiers. So although these soldiers suppressed their speed all the way, they still followed without regrets.

Gradually, the snow thinned and the ground slowly began to emerge. Clumps of dead grass grew scorched on the ground, blown to pieces in the cold wind. In the distance, the dark mountains could also be seen. By this time, it was almost out of the grassland, and the ox cart was getting faster. Because the oxen who pull the cart also began to get used to the work of pulling the cart. Li Kuan held the reins in his hand and shook it for a while. Although in my heart, I am also looking forward to returning to Datang soon. But this is really coming, but he seems hesitant, he doesn't know how to face it. On the return trip this time, Li Kuan decided to go door-to-door to search for the families of those soldiers who died in the war and send their ashes home.

Entering the border of the Tang Dynasty, the road began to slowly see people. Looking at the familiar Han costumes, looking at the peasant man in Guanzhong who was carrying a hoe and wielding a sickle, Li Kuan felt a sigh in his heart: Some of these people's families may have died in this war, but they still know nothing about doing their own things, living their own lives, and looking forward to the return of the expedition. They won't know who they've been looking forward to. Maybe never back. For the first time, Li Kuan gave birth to the idea of ending the era of cold weapons that he fought for, or the era of cold weapons in the Tang Dynasty, and gunpowder, something he had never thought of, entered his mind.

Of course, these are just ideas, and now Li Kuan still has to send these 'people' home according to his own wishes. Most of the soldiers killed in the war already knew their names and places of residence. Therefore, Li Kuan was able to send back the part of the road that was close to them on the way back to Chang'an. The rest are waiting to return to Chang'an first to recover their lives, and they are slowly searching.

Time passed quietly, and Li Kuan and the others had been on the road for nearly half a month, and they had come all the way. The climate is getting warmer and warmer, and although the temperature is still very low, it is much better than on the grassland. But I was also in a much better mood.

On this day, the group entered the Guannei Road and was regarded as entering the customs. Entered the land of Guanzhong. Li Kuan also began his journey of 'giving away'. The first stop was Xiazhou, where the hometown of a soldier named Zhou Zhu was. There is only an old mother and his daughter-in-law who has not been in the door for a few years, and Zhou Zhu, who has been in the army for nearly ten years. has been living a life with the two most important women in his life. Although they have been married for several years, they still have no children. Now that he has died on the battlefield of the Turks, the widow of his old mother is not having a good time.

This is also the reason why Li Kuan decided to deviate from the originally decided route and come here in a big circle, he took his son and husband who were alive and kicking off the expedition, but failed to bring people back, these two weak women and children were the more difficult ones among the soldiers who died in battle.

The name Xiazhou originated from the Jin Dynasty, when Helian Bobo called the King of Xia, on this land, and was later destroyed by the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui, established Shuofang County here during the pre-Sui period. And Shuofang City, the border town of Datang, is not far from here. This generation is often harassed by the Turks, Zhou Zhu's father died at the hands of the Turks, and the reason why Zhou Zhu entered Li Kuan's escort this time is probably because there is also a reason in it, he wants to kill a few more Turks to avenge his father. In the first year of Zhenguan, it was divided into Guannei Road, and Shuofang County, which was originally in the former Sui Dynasty, was renamed again, and the name of Xiazhou was restored.

Changze County under the rule of Xia Zhou is a poor small county town, here is Zhou Zhu's hometown, his home is almost thirty miles away from the county seat, is a remote small village, there are many such villages in this place, most of them are formed by clans with the same surname. Therefore, this village is naturally called Zhoujia Village by the locals. The village is not large, built by mountains and rivers. The mountains are densely wooded and overgrown with weeds. A small river gurgles down the mountain, and at the foot of the mountain is where Zhoujia Village is located. There are less than 100 villagers, guarding a narrow stretch of cultivated land by the river, and the rest of the grain grown every year is barely enough for the family to make ends meet for a year except for paying rent. Therefore, the villagers of this village often go up to the mountains behind them to catch some game and dig up some wild vegetables to subsidize their livelihood.

But recently, something happened in Zhoujia Village, and the most prominent man in the village, Zhou Zhujia, had a big incident. This Zhou Zhu went to fight as a soldier ten years ago, at that time there was chaos everywhere, everyone thought that this man would not come back once he went, who knew that four or five years ago, this Zhou Zhu came back, with a lot of food and property. let his wife live a good life, and begged for a daughter-in-law, and lived a very nourishing life. And has also become the personal guard of Li Tang's prince, who controlled most of the world at that time. This made the whole village proud of him, this time it was his family again, and it was a great thing, which made all the people in Zhoujia Village say that Zhou Zhu and his father's grave were well buried, and Zhou Zhu was blessed.

As the saying goes, woe to you. Where the blessing depends, the blessing is blessed. Woe lurks. This time, the matter of Zhou Zhu's family is too big, and this disaster is also coming.

Because this time Zhou Zhujia's matter appeared suddenly. And it's very abrupt, and many people have seen it. This matter was said everywhere by outsiders, attracting the attention of a group of strongmen in Changze County, this group of people has been entrenched in this Changze County for several years, it is said that the subordinates who rebelled against the king all the way at the beginning, were defeated by Li Tang's original King Qin His Royal Highness, and the current emperor Li Shimin fled here, so they simply entrenched here, guarding the county and doing some businessless business. But this group of people also knows the scale of grasping. He has always been careful not to provoke those who cannot be provoked. Therefore, nothing major has been done, and the local officials here have turned a blind eye, not that this group of people has given this official much benefit, but because of the existence of this group of people, those gangsters and hooligans in the county town do not dare to take the lead. The law and order in the county town is very good, and this gang has collected money from many people in the county to crack down on those gangsters who often eat and take cards.

It's just that the thing that appeared this time really made them excited, because the value of that thing is enough to pay ten thousand dollars at the current price. What is this concept? The tax revenue of the entire county is only a few thousand gold a year, which is enough to cover the tax revenue of the entire county for more than two years. This made the gang unusually red-eyed, and when they learned that the owners of this treasure were only two weak women, they were even more emboldened to take risks. Even if they knew that there was a man who was a soldier outside. And it is also the personal guard of the saint today. But all of them came down from the battlefield, and they were all people who were not dragged down by their families, as long as they made this vote. Far away from here, who can find it?

So. As the year approached, there were fifteen of them. In the afternoon, when the sky was about to darken, he went out of the county seat, and ran towards Zhoujia Village, which was thirty miles away from the county seat, each of them had a horse under his crotch, which was their war horse at the beginning, although they did not gallop together on the battlefield again over the years, but they still need good horses to travel, and these war horses were raised very well by them.

On this night, there was no wind, no moon, and the dark clouds on the horizon had dispersed as early as two days ago when the sky cleared, and only the starlight dotted in the black satin night sky, like jewels. The mountain behind Zhoujia Village was like a huge monster lying on the ground, and the black mass was very scary.

More than a dozen people, more than a dozen horses, dressed in gray linen clothes, the war horses under their crotch neighed and panted, it was the dozen or so strongmen, riding horses all the way wildly, thirty miles were quickly left behind by them, looking at Zhoujia Village, which had fallen into complete darkness, the thief led by waved his hand behind him, and a thin thief rode his horse and leaned over. This guy came to step on it two days ago, and he has thoroughly explored the surrounding environment.

"Which house belongs to the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?" The leader asked.

"Big brother, it's the one far west, and there's an old banyan tree behind that house!" The thin figure quickly replied.

"Did you see the treasure they were talking about?" The leader then asked.

"This is not true, but many of them in the same village have said that they have seen it, according to legend, it is a large piece of flawless white jade, and it is carved with gorgeous cloud patterns, and those villagers swear that this piece of white jade fell from the sky and smashed into the courtyard of Zhou Zhu's house." The thin man's eyes lit up, and they were full of greed.

"Then now that we have made this ticket, we will go to Lingnan Road, where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and the money exchanged for this thing is enough for our brother to live comfortably over there for a lifetime! I heard that you can buy an acre for only a few taels of silver in two days, and if that thing is really worth 10,000 gold, it is enough to buy 10,000 acres of fertile land, and our brothers don't have to do these things of licking blood from the knife edge anymore! Haha...... "The chief sat on his horse, and seemed to be thinking about the future life of the landlord."

"Big brother, let's do it now! Rumors of this thing have spread, and there are many dreams at night! A majestic man on the side said in a rough voice. His body was thicker than that of the black bear in the mountains, one arm was thicker than the thigh of an ordinary person, and his coarse cloth shirt was bulging by his knotted muscles, like a hairless brown bear.

"Let's go, I made this ticket tonight, and I escaped overnight! Don't go back to the county seat, although the county official won't rob the family, but he can rob us! Can't go back, just leave! The leader made a decision, and then with a wave of his whip, he slapped on the body of the war horse under his crotch and rushed out first.

The remaining fourteen people of the "......" also quickly followed, and Dada's horse's hooves spread far away in the night, startling countless small animals in the night, and fled in panic one by one.

At this time, there were still ten miles away from Zhoujia Village, Li Wan and a large group of soldiers were hurrying over, chasing clouds under his crotch was running hard, and a box was firmly fixed there in the saddle, which contained Zhou Zhu's golden pagoda of ashes. They arrived in Xiazhou yesterday night, and set off from the state capital early this morning, knowing that there was still a long way to go in the dark night.

The direction they came from was in the opposite direction of Changze County, and they had to walk a farther way to the county seat for another night's rest, so they simply went directly to Zhoujia Village. (To be continued......)