At the foot of the South Mountain, a group of about three or four thousand foot riders was slowly advancing.

They walked slowly and were in a low mood. Although it is already late autumn, the sun has lost its power of summer, and the climate is cool and pleasant. A small river of snow-capped mountains flowed around them, bringing a rare moist scent. In the distance, half-yellow grass can be seen on the hillside, and sometimes a few rock sheep can be seen standing on the cliffs. The scenery is beautiful and beautiful, but they are not in any mood to watch.

It's the best season of the year and the busiest of the year. Winter is approaching, and they should be busy packing their bags, tidying up their mud houses, and preparing enough firewood, instead of traveling thousands of miles to fight.

Wars are fought to protect oneself, or to plunder others. But now they are neither. They were forced to leave their homeland only to satisfy the wolf's desire for revenge. The enemy they were going to attack was weak and impoverished, and the spoils of war were simply not enough to offset their efforts.

This is destined to be a war that outweighs the losses.

However, under the coercion of the wolf, no one dared to disobey his orders. They can only swallow their anger and move forward with their burdens. The low morale made them unable to raise any thoughts of moving forward, and even when they were close to their destination, they still had no enthusiasm to fight, but only moved forward mechanically.

So it is with men, so with horses, and so with camels. They didn't even notice the knight appearing on the hillside in the distance, they just walked forward with their heads down until someone spotted the stone monument on the side of the road.

The stele was simple, just chiseled a boulder flat on one side, and then drew two arrows on it, one arrow turned around and pointed at a man who walked briskly, and the other went straight forward, pointing to a man who had fallen to the ground, and an arrow shot through his throat, and the blood that had turned brown flowed all over the ground.

There are no words, but the picture is very clear, moving forward is death, and turning back is life.

The soldiers looked at each other and felt a chill. They did not dare to slack off, and immediately passed the news to the former army commander Ruoqiang King. King Ruoqiang was also taken aback, and rushed to the stele with his personal guards, and after a careful inspection, his face changed for a long time, and he still couldn't make a decision.

He summoned several tribal leaders who were with him. These tribes are of average strength and can only obey his command most of the time. But now that it was a matter of life and death, he hesitated and needed their advice.

After several tribal leaders arrived, they discussed it for a long time and decided to move on.

Advancing may be shot by Liang Xiao, but retreating will also be shot by the Heavenly Wolf. For them, although Liang Xiao's prestige is great, they have never seen Liang Xiao, but the brutality of the wolf is obvious to all, and some of them can become the leader or the king, just because the previous leader or king was killed by the wolf. If they retreat without a fight, the Sky Wolf won't mind another person.

Of course, what is more important is that they know that Liang Xiao's strength is limited, and the several tribes that depend on him combined, all the old and weak, are counted, at most three or four thousand soldiers. And they now have three or four thousand people, not to mention the main force led by the Heavenly Wolf behind them. Compared with the two, even if Liang Xiao is good at fighting, there is no hope of victory.

After weighing the weights, several people decided to ignore this warning and move on.

As danger approached, the sound of warning horns sounded repeatedly, and officers at all levels raised their voices to cheer up their subordinates and prepare for the enemy who might appear at any time.

If the Heavenly Wolf is famous for his super archery skills and brutal methods, then Liang Xiao is famous for his surprise attacks, and his achievements in rushing to Hexi are still a legend that people talk about. In the face of such an opponent, negligence is undoubtedly very fatal. Relatively speaking, in the case of having superior forces, as long as they remain vigilant and do not let Liang Xiao have a chance to sneak attack, the victory will definitely be theirs.

This logic doesn't strictly hold true, but a lot of people think so.

――

Liang Xiao immediately stood on the top of the mountain, looked at the enemy winding in, chuckled, and tilted his body slightly. Huang Ruo, the leader of the Eagle Tribe beside him, immediately leaned over and listened attentively.

"This is King Ruoqiang?"

"The general is right, that is his battle flag, the one on the left is Jimo, the one on the right is Xiaowan, and the one in the distance can't be seen clearly." Huang Ruo said with a smile: "Although Ruoqiang is not a big country, they are close to Ruoqiang water, the water and grass are abundant, the land is fertile, and they are very rich. The Heavenly Wolf occupied the Nanshan countries, but Ruoqiang had already returned to it, so now he was a forward general and squeezed Loulan aside. ”

Liang Xiao understood. "You're red-eyed?"

Huang Ruo laughed, but did not answer.

"It's time for you to change your ranch." Liang Xiao said with a smile.

The Eagle Tribe was originally a small tribe, but Huang Ruo was very knowledgeable about current affairs, and he supported Liang Xiao from the beginning, and last time he was very cooperative with the killer of the Scalper Tribe, which can be regarded as a meritorious man. So in this battle, Huang Ruo led a group alone and fought with Liang Xiao, which was equivalent to a deputy general, Huang Ruo was very happy and very active. Now that Liang Xiao has promised to give Ruoqiang's territory to him after the war, he is even more excited.

"General, these people don't listen to advice, let me teach them a lesson."

"There's no hurry. They are very vigilant now, and they have a lot of troops, and it will be a hard battle for you to rush down. Wait, when we get to the killing field we have chosen, it will be easy to kill again. Liang Xiao paused, and then said: "If you want to gain a firm foothold in Ruoqiang, you must have a certain strength. I don't want you to come to me twice in three days. ”

Huang Ruomei smiled and nodded again and again. "The general said yes, the general was right."

Liang Xiao turned his horse's head and walked down the hill. Huang Ruo followed closely and did not leave for a moment.

――

Akiti Castle.

With his clothes open and his legs in his hands, Arekan sat curled up on the big chair dedicated to Dongfang Shuo, his eyes sad. She quietly looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance and sat motionless for a long time.

Wudan sent the news that he had gathered all the forces of the Nanshan countries and had begun his crusade to the east. According to the calculation of time, he will soon have to fight with Liang Xiao. According to the information he heard, including the Han cavalry, Liang Xiao only had 1,000 cavalry, and the other tribes probably had more than 2,000 cavalry, which was all the strength. And Wudan only has 4,000 elite cavalry directly under it, and all the infantry cavalry adds up to more than 20,000, which has an absolute advantage.

But Arekan saw a bad omen in this seemingly good news.

Wu Dan's re-emphasis on his superiority in strength shows that he lacks confidence in the face of Liang Xiao. In a way, the two of them are very similar. Liang Xiao rode into the Western Regions with more than ten horses, and he controlled the Nanshan countries with a hundred horses. Liang Xiao has a human bow and is excellent in archery. Wudan has a ground bow, and his archery skills are even better. He should have challenged Liang Xiao with his superior archery skills like he killed Aliusu, instead of leading the army.

If there are many troops, it will be useful, and he will be defeated in the first place.

Do you want to save Wudan, how to save it? Arekan hesitated. She thought about it for a long time, but sadly found that she couldn't save Wudan. Not to mention that Hunt Jiaomi didn't dare to act rashly, even if Hunt Arrogant had the courage to tear his face with the Han people, he didn't have time to save Wudan. By the time he crossed the desert and arrived at the battlefield, it would be at least a month later. And a month later, the winner has long been known, and if Wudan is not defeated, he will definitely die.

What's more, Hunting Jiaomi is not in the mood to save Wudan at all. He now drinks with Dongfang Shuo every day, goes to bed after drinking, and gives her the task of accompanying Dongfang Shuo. Of course, she didn't believe that Lie Jiaomi didn't know about her personal relationship with Dongfang Shuo, and he did this, which could only mean one thing: she was no longer the daughter of the inviolable Hun Evil King in his mind, but just a gift that could be used to please the Han people.

Without the strong strength of the Evil Sect as a backing, she has lost her dignity.

She doesn't blame the arrogance of hunting, the people on the grassland are so practical. In order to survive, let alone a wife and concubine, even if it is yourself, you can bow down to the enemy and wait for the opportunity. That's what Mao Dunshan did back then, when Wusun was killed by the Yue clan, Hunting Jiaomi also relied on the Huns so much.

If she wants to regain her dignity, there is only one way: find a strong backer again.

Dongfang Shuo gave her a chance. Rebuild the Evil Division, although this Evil Ministry cannot dominate Hexi like the previous Evil Division, and can only serve as a vassal of the Han people, but because of this, she can use the power of the Han people to regain her dignity.

If that's the case, watching Udan die may be the only option. Since the Han people are willing to make mistakes and only recognize the wolf, not Wudan, then it is not a good thing to let Wudan die as a wolf.

Of course, it would be even more perfect if Wudan could kill Liang Xiao and regain control of the Nanshan Kingdoms.

"What are you thinking?" Dongfang Shuo's voice came from above Arikan's head, and a pair of big hands reached out from behind her back, covering her face, and there was a burst of warmth in her palm. A shallow shyness immediately appeared on Arekan's face, and he turned to glare at Dongfang Shuo. "Drinking too much?"

"Not much." Dongfang Shuo lifted Arikan up, sat down on his chair, and put Arikan on his lap. "Isn't Kunmo too tired lately, getting drunk as soon as he drinks. I couldn't get enough of it, so I asked someone to bring the food and drinks later, and we continued to drink. Good no good? ”

"Okay." Arekan agreed. "Did Kunmo bring up the matter of soldiers helping the war?"

"Help in the war?"

"Autumn has arrived, doesn't General Liang want to go west and defeat the Heavenly Wolf? We have received news that the Celestial Wolf has assembled an army of 100,000. ”

Dongfang Shuo laughed. "An army of 100,000? Do you even count the sheep who can fight? ”

"Even if there are no 100,000, there will always be 20,000. However, the combined number of tribes of General Liang and those tribes who supported him were only three or four thousand. ”

"Three or four thousand is too many." Dongfang Shuo looked careless, hugged Arikan in his arms, and gently rubbed Arikan's body with a big fan-like hand, rubbing her skin hot, as if she had returned to the grassland, when she was young, avoiding everyone's eyes and ears, and having a tryst with her lover in her heart. She was weak, and she could only snuggle up to Dongfang Shuo's chest, but she still had to calm herself and listen to Dongfang Shuo's every word.

"Who is Liang Xiao? Many people think that the more troops, the stronger, but for Liang Xiao, the disadvantage of having more troops is more obvious, that is, it is difficult to command and it is difficult to coordinate with each other. What he is best at is to fight slowly with fast, the stronger the opponent and the more troops, the more he is like a fish in water. seems to be a powerful opponent, but in his eyes there are flaws everywhere. ”

Arekan was shocked. She had the same thoughts, but she couldn't say it clearly. Listening to Dongfang Shuo's analysis, she immediately understood where her worries came from. If this is the case, Wudan's forcible conquest of the forces of the Nanshan countries is meaningless at all, and will only drag himself down.

"How many people can there be in the Nanshan Kingdoms combined?" Dongfang Shuo sneered softly. "Do you think Liang Xiao couldn't attack before? Definitely. He just wanted to wait for the Heavenly Wolf to forcibly recruit the troops of the Nanshan countries and arouse the resistance of the countries. If the wolf seems to be a lot of people, who can he trust? It's like sitting on a pyre and playing with fire, and if he's not careful, he'll burn himself to ashes first. ”

Arekan shuddered involuntarily, the flush on his face faded, and even his lips lost their blood. She understood Dongfang Shuo's meaning, and also understood Liang Xiao's sinister intentions. The Heavenly Wolf did this, which was what Liang Xiao wanted, and unconsciously, he became Liang Xiao's knife to slash and kill the countries of Nanshan. When he and the other countries turned against each other and lost both, Liang Xiao just took advantage of the situation and took control of Nanshan in one fell swoop.

If Liang Xiao wanted to conquer them one by one, it would be difficult to do it in two years--it took more than two years for the Heavenly Wolf to control the Nanshan Kingdoms in the first place. But now, driven by the Heavenly Wolf, these large and small kingdoms have traveled thousands of miles and taken the initiative to send them to Liang Xiao, giving Liang Xiao a chance to decide the outcome of a battle. After this battle, as long as Liang Xiao sent a messenger, the Nanshan countries whose strength was lost could only bow down and obey orders.

Liang Xiao hasn't moved for a few months, and when he moves, he is a big deal.

These Han Chinese are really insidious.

"What's wrong with you, cold?" Dongfang Shuo looked at Arekan with a grin, pulled the skin, and wrapped Arekan in it. Arekan is not short, but in front of Dongfang Shuo, she is as petite as a child.

"It's not cold, I'm scared." Arikan crouched on Dongfang Shuo's chest, pretending to be trembling. "You Han people are too scheming, and if you associate with you, you may become your prey at any time."

"We Han scheming is only for the enemy, and for our friends, we have never been scheming, we are all open-minded. You see, am I not opening my heart to you now? If you're not at ease, I can take off all my clothes and see you in the middle. ”

Dongfang Shuo said, and went to untie his clothes. Ah Rui's face was flushed, and he twisted, and hurriedly grabbed Dongfang Shuo's hand. "Don't worry, it's not too late to finish drinking. You see, the wine and meat are delivered. ”

Dongfang Shuo laughed, didn't take off his clothes again, but didn't let go of Arekhan. The servants brought the wine and meat, and Arekan picked up the wine glass, leaned in front of Dongfang Shuo, and said with a smile: "Take a sip, this is the wine I hid when I first arrived in Wusun, and today is the first time I have drunk it." Look at this color, what does it look like? ”

Dongfang Shuo glanced at the crimson wine and blinked. "I know, virgin blood, right?"

Arekan was slightly stunned, and then his face turned red-

(To be continued.) )