The Green Ridge, located west of Shule Town, the westernmost of the four towns of Anxi, is the confluence of several mountain ranges, which is today's Pamir Plateau. The green ridge is separated from the east and west, isolating the inside and outside, to the east of the green ridge, is the four towns of Anxi, and to the west is the nine surnames of Zhaowu in the river.

There are two roads in the Green Ridge, to the south, you can enter Tibet through Xiaobolu, or to the southwest, you can enter Tianzhu through Tocharo (present-day Afghanistan). This road is high and dangerous, remote and difficult to walk, but it is the only way for Tubo to go north into the river or Anxi. After Gao Xianzhi captured Xiaobolu four years ago, he firmly blocked this passage, stopping Tubo from entering the river and the throat of Anxi, and the Tang Dynasty firmly occupied the initiative in the Western Regions dispute between Tubo and Datang.

Shule to the west, along the Chi River north, over the green ridge can reach the city of Ningyuan Kingdom, this passage is the only way for the Anxi army to enter and exit the river. And Ning Yuanguo is firmly stuck at the exit of this passage, and the importance of its geographical location is self-evident, so it is no wonder that Datang attaches great importance to Ning Yuanguo.

Xiao Qu is walking on this mountain road at this moment. Before the army arrived in Shule Town, Gao Xianzhi noticed that something was wrong, and none of the scouts sent out to inquire about the information in the river returned. It wasn't until Li Siye sent people back and forth from Shule to report the situation that he knew that these scouts had been ambushed on the way to Ning Yuanguo. Only two of the dozen scouts managed to escape, seriously wounded.

The ten-member team where Xiao Quzhi was located was the second batch of scouts sent by Gao Xianzhi. This is proposed by Xiao Quai, ten people are all extraordinary, proficient in the elite of riding and archery, four people in the Anxi Army, in addition to Xiao Quai, there are also Gu Xiaojun, Li Ergou, and a scout veteran named Wang Heshui; five Qarluqs, led by the Condor Amirjan; There is also a leading party Cao Alanyan. Ten men and twenty horses opened the way for the army to go first.

This road is very difficult to walk, fortunately there is nothing to do along the way, after crossing the Geluo Ridge at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters, the team of ten people entered a valley road with slightly lower terrain, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the feeling of lack of oxygen on the plateau is really uncomfortable. Everyone jumped off the horse, tightened the loose belly belt, straightened the saddle, and then hung a cloth trough on the horse, and fed some horse feed. When all this was done, someone sat down on the floor to rest, panting.

Gu Xiaojun leaned on a big stone and said in a low voice: "Follow this valley road all the way to the west, walk for about two and a half days, and then turn north and walk for three days, and you will arrive at Ning Yuanguo." I have followed Zhongcheng twice on this road. ”

Amir Jiang had a grass stalk in his mouth, and when he heard Gu Xiaojun speak, he spit out the grass stalk and echoed: "After walking for seven or eight days, it looks like we are about to arrive at Ning Yuan Kingdom, doesn't it mean that there are scouts who are ambushed by the enemy?" How come we are all so far away, not even a ghost shadow can be detected! ”

Xiao Quzhi shook his head and said with a faint smile: "I can't say that they are waiting for us in front." Gu Xiaojun, how is the terrain of the road ahead, is it easy to walk? ”

Gu Xiaojun sat up: "The road ahead is okay, the terrain is too steep, and there are many canyons." ”

Xiao Quzhi nodded: "That's it, isn't this kind of terrain just suitable for ambush and sniping?" He paused suddenly, made a silent gesture, and listened intently, and sure enough, there was the sound of people and horses moving, and he laughed: "Isn't this open, four or five miles ahead, someone is coming, and the brothers are ready to pick up guests!" ”

Everyone was excited, and quickly sorted everything out, mounted their horses, took off their bows and arrows from their backs, and drew their feathered arrows from Hulu.

This is a valley road about 20 zhang wide, with towering mountain walls on both sides, and most of the ground is gravel, which may have been formed by glaciers or rivers tens of millions of years ago. After walking for a long time, I saw more than a dozen small black dots in front of me. Xiao Quzhi has good eyesight and can see farther than others. He stood on horseback early and saw seventeen men on the opposite side, led by three knights dressed in snow-white clothes.

Two words suddenly popped up in Xiao Quzhi's mind: "Snake teeth!" ”

The seventeen people on the opposite side obviously also discovered Xiao Quai's illness, and they looked very excited, and under the leadership of the white knight, they all picked up their bows and arrows, and rushed towards this side.

Xiao Quzhi and Amir Jiang rode their horses and ran in front, Xiao Quzhi smiled and pulled out three flower carving arrows: "Amir Jiang, see the first three in white clothes, the one on the right is mine, the two on the left belong to you, I want one alive." ”

Amir Jiang's blood was boiling, and a bloodthirsty and hideous smile appeared on his face: "Okay, the next fourteen, let's compete!" ”

"Good!" More than two hundred steps away, he rounded the heaven-shaking bow at once, and in less than two seconds, he fired three arrows in succession, shooting them at the eyebrows, throat and heart of the white knight on the right.

The white knight had his horse between his legs, skillfully manipulating the direction. Because there was a lot of gravel on the ground, the war horse did not run very fast, but it still kept going up and down, but he seemed to be glued to the horse's back, slightly arched his body, and used his waist and legs to remove the undulating force, and the whole upper body was motionless on the horse's back, with almost no bumps. He held the longbow firmly in his hand, gently pinching the arrow feathers and bowstring with one hand, patiently waiting for the other to enter his shooting distance. As soon as the other party came within a hundred and fifty paces, he was absolutely sure that he would kill the young knight who was running at the front, riding a tall horse.

However, he had no chance, and when they were still two hundred and fifty paces apart, he saw the young knight begin to bend his bow and arrows. He said disdainfully in his heart: how can he kill and injure the enemy at such a long distance? But when he saw the three black dots rushing towards him, his pupils shrank sharply, and his mouth opened in surprise, he had never seen such a swift arrow. He subconsciously lowered his short head, deviated his neck, and successfully dodged the two arrows in front of him, when suddenly his chest was cold, and an arrow pierced his heart. In disbelief, he clutched the blood-spurting hole with his hand and fell off his horse.

"How can there be such a fast arrow? Faster than sound! It was the last consciousness in his mind before he died.

Xiao Quai's three arrows were successful, and he glanced at the results of the Amir River next to him with his spare eyes, but he fired two arrows in a row, one dead and one injured, which was not bad at all. Then he drew three more feathered arrows, and shot them at the fourteen knights behind him with great speed. Xiao Quai's illness was not far behind, the heaven-shaking bow was half open, and ten arrows were shot in one go, each arrow was less than a second apart.

Woohoo blah blah!

The rapid fire of Xiao Quai's two people alone shot out a piece of arrow feathers, and all the fourteen knights behind him had been shot within a few breaths. At this time, the distance between the two sides was still more than one hundred and twenty steps, and Gu Xiaojun and other hundred-step marksmen in the back had no chance to shoot arrows and were rounded by the two.

"Xiao Yingying, I shot eight of the fourteen in the back, and you shot six. There are two arrows that I shot first, and you made up for them. ”

"You're right, Amirjan, you won. I'm not ashamed, half of my archery skills were originally learned from you. ”

Xiao Qubing is right, in the past 20 days, under the guidance of Amir Jiang, Xiao Qubing has practiced riding and archery every day. At least 90% of the shots are at least 90% sure at a distance of more than 100 paces, and there is no miss for an arrow within 100 steps. But if it is far away, it is not sure that it will hit, and it can only be made up for accuracy by quantity, which is why the white knight had to shoot three arrows in a row at the beginning.

"Alright, let's go ask the wounded white knight and see if we can get any information?"

Xiao Quai's ten people soon came to the wounded white knight, he was shot in the shoulder blade of the right shoulder by Amir Jiang, and was knocked off the horse by the force of the five-stone bow, and fell to the ground to the bones that could be dropped by the rubble on the ground, and he could not get up. Xiao Quzhi and the others were about to dismount and ask each other, when they saw the white-clothed knight, holding a short knife in his left hand, the blade was facing his heart, and he had already pierced half an inch, and his face looked very proud: "There are only ten of you, you are dead, and someone will avenge me soon, haha, none of you can escape!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he used a force in his left hand, and the short knife was inserted into his heart, blood spurted out, and he spat out a mouthful of dirty blood, muttering: "The God of Light is above!" ", convulsed twice, and died.

Xiao Quzhi found that a red snake head was painted on the corners of his coat and sleeves, and the two terrifying fangs on the snake's head and jaw were very conspicuous. Sure enough, it's snake teeth!

"Wow, if you kill yourself, you will commit suicide, and you dare to threaten Lao Tzu!" Xiao Quzhi spat at him and said indignantly. Suddenly I felt that something was wrong, so I listened intently and shouted loudly: "It's bad, there are forty or fifty horsemen coming this way!" ”