And Liu Cheng won the battle first, secondly, he had the strength at hand, thirdly, there were people in the outer court and the palace to speak for him, and the most important thing was that the Jurchens were still alive and kicking in Liaodong at the moment, and a general like Liu Cheng who had great achievements, no matter how unhappy Chongzhen was, he would not kill him with one sword. In this way, the biggest damage to Liu Cheng from those bullets is nothing more than his reputation in Shilin, and he naturally won't care. However, he looked at Ahmat's earnest eyes, and felt that he should still give the other party a little face, so he smiled and said: "Okay, come here, pass the order: if anyone catches the chief of the Tushetu tribe, Qiu Bu, whether he lives or dies, he will be rewarded with one hundred silver coins and five horses!" ”

"A hundred silver coins, five horses?" Ahmat was taken aback when he heard this, the reward given by Liu Cheng is too little, although the phoenix that has landed is not as good as a chicken, but Qiu Bu is also one of the chiefs of the three major departments of Mobei anyway, isn't it Lord Liu's bounty for flesh pain? Ahmat thought for a moment and said cautiously: "My lord, isn't this reward a little low, I'm afraid it won't play the role of a reward, right?" Otherwise, this reward will be issued by the villain, even if it is a congratulatory gift to congratulate the adult on this great victory! ”

"Humph!" Liu Cheng sneered: "No need, this guy is worth so much, just give the order like this!" After saying that, he turned his head and left, Ahmat had no choice but to follow.

The night was dark, but there was a great deal of jubilation at the foot of Mount Temur, and the camp of the army was filled with jubilant laughter, and the mare's milk wine was rapidly consumed like water. "Long live Jinong-sama!" The Tumuts and Chahars cheered loudly, sweeping away the depression and gloom after being defeated by Liu Cheng. For these Mongols in southern Mongols, victory is the best fertilizer for the flower of loyalty, and if Liu Cheng can constantly bring them victory, spoils of war and pastures, then what does it matter if he is Han or not? It is true that he is not a descendant of the Golden Family, not even a Mongol, but his wife is a descendant of Yexian Taishi, and his adopted son is a descendant of Dayan Khan, the future Great Khan of Mongolia, who is fully qualified to hold the position of Jinong. Before the Great Khan came of age, wasn't it the duty of every Mongol warrior, especially the Chahars, who were the leaders of the Great Khan, to conquer the north and south under the command of Jinon?

"Brother-in-law, dear brother-in-law! We won so beautifully today, but it's a pity that the Qiu Bu ran too fast, no, no-" At this point, Chechen Taiji's tongue was a little knotted, and the barrels of mead, mare's milk wine, and barley wine found in the Qiu Bu tooth tent had already glued his tongue to his jaw,

Liu Cheng took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "It's okay, the women, children and livestock of the Tuxie Tubu have all fallen into our hands, and then it will be winter soon, without livestock and tents, that fur cloth can't turn the sky!" ”

"Yes, he won't be able to run! Brother-in-law, don't worry, as soon as I grab the fur, I will immediately cut off his head, paint it and give it to you! Speaking of this, Chechen Taiji affectionately hugged Liu Cheng's neck and said with a smile: "Why don't we marry our sons and daughters, you and my sister have a daughter, marry my son, if you have a son, marry my daughter!" ”

"This-" Liu Cheng was stunned when he heard this, Chechen Taiji and his wife are half-brothers and sisters, so if he and Minmin have children in the future, won't they be cousins with his children? Isn't this a marriage of close relatives? But what you hear left and right is a familiar look, isn't it that the Mongols were not taboo in this regard at that time? Liu Cheng thought about it and decided to cleverly refuse.

"It's okay, it's just that Minmin and I don't have children yet, so why don't you marry your daughter to Abunai! Although he is not my biological son, he is no different from my biological in my eyes, and he is the future Great Khan of Mongolia, with a noble status, what do you think? ”

Although Chechen Taiji drank a lot of alcohol, his mind was not confused, and the purpose of his proposal to marry Liu Cheng was to obtain a powerful foreign aid in the future struggle for his father's Khan's inheritance, so as to seize the opportunity. Although Abunai is not Liu Cheng's biological son, he is the only adopted son, and among the steppe nomads, there is not much difference between the rights of the adopted son and the biological son, not to mention the identity of the future Mongolian Great Khan, and he only needs to pay for a daughter. Thinking of this, he nodded: "It's okay, then it's decided!" ”

After deciding on the matter of marriage, he went to a heart in Chechen Taiji, he poured a few large glasses of mead, jumped up from his cushion suddenly, and sang and danced in the middle of the tent: "The stars in the night are the eyes of the steppe wolves, and the howling wind is their singing!" Half of the people in the tent were shouting with him, and even those who were already drunk were woken up and joined in, and the voices of the people rustled the top of the tent and splashed a lot of dust.

"Your Excellency!"

Just let them sing and dance, they're all puppets in my hands anyway! Liu Cheng thought as he played with the delicate gemstone ginjiu glass, which was a foot-high gold cup, with six sides on each side, each inlaid with precious stones, and two intricately decorated ears, which were ruby, jade, agate, sapphire, opal, and amethyst.

"My lord, this wine glass in your hand is so beautiful!" Wang Anshi's voice was not loud, and his voice was a little hoarse, which was the result of shouting loudly on the mountain.

"Really? This is a treasure from Tushetu Khan's collection, and it seems that it should have been passed down from the Hezhong region! Liu Cheng played with the golden cup twice, handed it to Wang Anshi, and said, "If you like it, take it!" "Thank you, Lord for your reward!" Wang Anshi didn't shirk it, he took the wine glass and looked at it under the light, and praised it: "It's really a rare treasure, and the adults are so rewarded, the last general is a little deserved!" ”

"It's okay, if you feel deserved, just sell more strength next time you go into battle, and this right should be my deposit first!"

"What a joke from adults!" Wang Anshi laughed when he heard this, he laughed for a while, and the expression on his face gradually became solemn: "Lord Zhentai, please forgive the last general, if you win a battle like today, it's better not to have a next time!" ”

"Why do you say that?"

"My lord, make good use of the soldiers, do not worry about victory before thinking about defeat, you this time with thousands of lonely troops, the people of the fox doubts, the army of the Han Sea Labor Division, today on the Natamur Mountain, the victory or defeat is actually in the millimeter, if you lose, I am afraid that it will be difficult to return the horse? The son of a daughter, he can't sit down! Your golden body is related to the safety of Ningxia, Northwest China, and Daming, and this matter is indispensable! ”

Liu Cheng groaned for a while, and finally nodded slightly, he led the army to the north this time, in order to deal with the attack of Houjin, except for the battalion of infantry, the rest were almost all from Chahar and Tumut, and it was okay to win the battle like this, if the soldiers were frustrated, the situation would become extremely complicated and difficult to clean up.

"What An Shi said is that this incident is indeed indispensable!" Unconsciously, Liu Cheng became a lot more affectionate to Wang Anshi: "Then what do you think should happen next?" ”

"My lord said earlier that you should slow down and fight quickly, which is really a brilliant strategy." Wang Anshi smiled, and his expression became serious: "And the next step should be to retreat and advance, and peace to value!" ”

"Oh, what do you mean by that?"

"My lord, only this battle, the Tushetu Department has been destroyed, only the Chechen Khan, Zasaktu Khan Subati two people are left in Mobei, the Subadi Department has not participated in the meantime, you can not be chaotic for the time being, Chechen Khan Shuoli left Tushetu Khan on the battlefield today and retreated alone, the strength is basically preserved, even if Chechen Taiji annexed the Tushetu Department, its strength is also weaker than Shuolai. Therefore, Chechen Taiji will definitely try his best to form an alliance with the adults to fight against Shuo Base! "Do you mean that since Chechen Taiji asks me, then I should pretend to retreat in order to fight for greater interests?" So what does it mean to value harmony? “

"When Na Shuo Li withdrew his troops today, in fact, the victory or defeat of the two sides was still between the two sides, and if he was desperate and desperate, it was not without hope of getting it back. But he did not hesitate to return to the division and put Qiu Bu to death. This shows that he has no confidence in victory. Second, his alliance with Tushetu Khan was not stable, otherwise even if he did not make a desperate bet and retreat in battle, although Tushetu would have been defeated, he would not have been defeated as he was today. ”

"Well, then Anshi, you mean you can make peace with this Shuo Lei?"

"Not bad!" Wang Anshi nodded: "My lord, in the final analysis, your expedition is not for Chechen Taiji to expand the territory, two people are better than one person." ”

"Hehehe, two people are better than one person, An Shi said it well!" Hearing this, Liu Cheng laughed: "It's okay, pass the order, pick a hundred people among the captives, and let them take the word out: I only sent assassins to assassinate me for Qiu Bu on this northern expedition, and only killed Qiu Bu alone, and the rest didn't ask." If there is a man who shelters the cloth, he will destroy the people of the gate; Those who send the head of Qiu Bu will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver and a thousand households! ”

The sky was dark, and the north wind swept the smell of sand and hay, revealing a chill. Yellow-brown smoke rose from the grassland, obscuring the view of the pursuers. Qiu Bu lay on the back of the camel, struggling through the wind and sand, he only felt his stomach tumbling, nauseous, but he couldn't vomit anything, as if an invisible hand was kneading his stomach, but what made him feel most uncomfortable was not his stomach, but fear, which he felt for the first time in his life: the ironclad knight wrapped in metal rushed towards him like a wall, crushing everything to pieces; Arrows and lead bullets slashed past his ears, the guards around him kept falling, his identity, bloodline, and wealth could not protect him, and the Grim Reaper was clinging to the back of his neck, and he could feel that cold aura. His mind was like porridge mixed with milk, sticky.

"Great Khan, Great Khan, rest for a while, the wind and sand are too big, the chasing soldiers should have been thrown off!" Lama Gro's voice woke Qiu Bu up, he turned his head with great effort, and sure enough, as Gro said, the yellow-brown smoke had occupied the sky, and the figure could not be seen clearly from a dozen paces away, and there were only a dozen guards left beside him, all of them with gray faces and embarrassed expressions, and then a war horse neighed softly, full of desolation.

With Gro's help, Job managed to climb off the camel's back, and the group camped on the back of a nameless mound. As twilight fell, the wind and sand gradually faded, and the sky began to snow. People huddled around the fire, and Jobu watched as the snowflakes landed over the campfire, quickly melting and dissolving. Although he was dressed in two layers of fur and a piece of leather armor, he still felt cold to the bone, and the others were even worse, some soldiers had only an old sheepskin under their armor, shivering in the cold wind.

Phew!

"What's going on? The enemy is chasing the horse? When Job heard a hissing sound, he almost jumped up from the ground in fright, and Gro grabbed his hand and whispered, "Great Khan, is this killing horses?" ”

"Kill the horse?"

"Yes, you haven't eaten for a day!" Gro's voice was full of exhaustion, and so were the faces of everyone around him, and if there was one thing that was different, it was a voracious appetite. A soldier skillfully cut the horse's belly with a skinning knife, and the heat immediately came out of the belly. With both hands, he skillfully cut the poor beast open, and the hungry people rushed up, and immediately there was a shouting and brawl beside the horse's corpse.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, leave a piece for the Great Khan!" It took a lot of effort for Gro to get a piece of horse meat from everyone, and he limped back to the fire, pierced the bloody piece of horse meat with a branch, and roasted it on the fire, and the grease and blood fell on the fire, making a squeaking sound, and the smell of meat began to fill the air, which aroused Qiu Bu's appetite, and he couldn't help but swallow his saliva when his stomach was empty.

Under the scorching flames, the bright red horse meat gradually turned brownish-black, and Gro cut a small piece and handed it to Qiubu. Tushetu Khan, who was already hungry, stuffed the roast meat into his mouth, and to be honest, the roast horse meat was not very tasty, it was coarse and hard, and it was half-cooked, and there were no condiments, not even salt. But hunger was the best accompaniment, and after a few chews, he swallowed it, and turned his gaze to the meat on the fire.

"Cavalry!"

Screams came from the top of the hill above, and before resting, Groh sent a sharp-eyed man to stand guard above. Everyone was stunned for a while, and the first to react was Gro, who quickly helped Qiu Bu up from the ground: "Quickly help the Great Khan to get on the camel, everyone get on the horse, and prepare to break through!" ”

"Get on the horse!"

"Get on board!" The people climbed into their mounts as quickly as they could, and with all his strength they sucked, climbed onto the back of the camel with the help of Lama Gro. The sentries at the top of the mound ran down with a lot of sand and gravel. He shouted breathlessly, "I see forty fires, maybe sixty, only more, surrounded from the east and north, I think I see our fires!" ”

There was no need for his warning, as long as anyone who was not deaf could hear the rumbling hooves, everyone's face was pale, the enemy was at least four or five times outnumbered of them, resistance was only self-defeating, and running away was no better, their horses did not have time to catch their breath, and they could not run far before they would be overtaken. Gro gritted his teeth and whispered to Qiu Bu, "Great Khan, we must find out who it is first!" (To be continued.) )