Chapter 1: The Great Thief (Part 2)

The snow cleared, and the wind slowly stopped howling. The heavens and the earth fell silent again, so quiet that one thought that the stars had stopped moving. Occasionally, a hare popped out of a snow pit, causing the neighing of the horses at once. The hare has thin legs, and it doesn't take a few steps before it gets stuck in the snow. But the traveler and the war horse don't bother to bully these little things, the world after the snow is too lonely, and it needs some living creatures to embellish it. No one wants blood to be stained red with the boundless whiteness of food without the need for food.

This lonely road will take a long time, and according to the memories of the time when I went north with Uncle Jiu last year, there will be no more people in the thousands of miles of wilderness between Xiaoluoshui and Lulongsai. With good luck, Li Xu and Xu Dayan may encounter a caravan heading north to seek wealth. If they were unlucky, they would only be able to find supplies after seeing the Great Wall.

After wading through the Tokuchen water, the snow gradually thinned. This seasonal river, which flows from south to north, has countless unpredictable tributaries. The origins of each tributary can be traced westward to a valley. The east-west hills and valleys have become important obstacles to the northward movement of warm winds. Every time I turned a hill to the south, the weather was warmer, and after crossing several valleys one after another, the snow suddenly disappeared, and the autumn grass that was more than half a person tall, dark green, and had a slight yellow tip appeared in front of Li Xu and Xu Dayan again. (Note 1)

"In another hundred miles, we will be able to see Suotou Water." Xu Dayan pointed to a crimson low mountain not far away and said. This peak is an important marker for the north, it is not high, but from the base of the mountain to the top of the mountain it is a flame-like color. Embraced by the surrounding dark green hills and wilderness, it looks like a red lotus floating in the blue waves.

"I don't know what the Turks are going to do when they occupy that pasture?" Li Xu responded in a low voice. If it weren't for the Turks forcing the Suotou Xi tribe to relocate, the huge tribe would not have ended up with the entire tribe wiped out.

"Bullying the weak, only by waving their claws frequently, will the other tribes realize the existence of the Turkic master!" Xu explained with a big smile.

This explanation obviously underestimated the wisdom of the Turks, and after walking more than ten miles, Xu Dayan realized his mistake. Just south, a company camp made of wood stretched out of their path.

"What a big battalion!" Li Xu and Xu Dayan secretly praised in their hearts. Turning their heads to look at each other, they saw an ominous omen in each other's eyes.

The two turned their horses' heads and were about to make a detour, but their whereabouts had already been discovered by the sheep herders around the company camp. With a series of low horns, more than a dozen shepherds flanked them. The shepherds were very good at riding, and although they were hasty, they adjusted their horses to a fan-shaped riding formation as they galloped.

Xu Dayan and Li Xu were shocked, this was no longer an ordinary shepherd's behavior. Even the young men of the Xia tribe, who had been trained by Xu Dayan for half a year, could not put on such a neat formation when they suddenly encountered the enemy. In the steppe, there is only one tribe of shepherds who are so well trained. That is the Turks, the Turks who claim to be descended from the blue wolf line.

"I'm afraid it's a group of debt collectors!" Xu muttered a word of laughter, and the horse walked forward, opening his arms at the same time. Li Xu followed behind him, taking advantage of his body to cover, and lightly pressed his hand on the handle of the scimitar.

"Friend blessed by the Immortal Heaven, how is the harvest this autumn, have the cattle and sheep caught enough autumn fat?" Xu Dayan greeted the shepherds in proficient Turkic language. This is the most common greeting used by the shepherds of the tribes when they meet, and it is enough to tell from the tone of his voice and the empty hands that he has malicious intentions.

The shepherds did not answer his words, and instigated the war horses to get closer and closer, until they surrounded Li Xu and Xu Dayan in a small area, and then stopped, and asked domineeringly: "Who are you, why are you sneaking peeks at our camp?" ”

"We are shepherds of the Shepherd! Go south and sell some tea! Just passing through here, without any malice! Xu Dayan reported himself to his home in Turkic. Both of them were wearing leather clothes at this time, and at first glance, they were indeed no different from the shepherds of the Xia tribe.

"Shepherd, I look more like a spy. What goods you have brought with you, let's review them first! The shepherd who took the lead sneered and said that he had no intention of letting Xu and Li go over. On the steppe, all the tribes, large and small, were servants of the Turks, and he had never heard of any ethnic group in the Shetuo tribe, but the bulging bags of Xu and Li aroused his great interest.

"Yes, let's take a look before we can determine if you are a spy or not!" Several shepherds with bows shouted. The two young men of unknown origin in front of him were brightly dressed, and they looked like two fat sheep. In particular, the one who walked behind had a horse under his crotch that was two feet taller than an ordinary horse, and his body was seven feet long. If you forcibly recruit you, you will definitely be rewarded by the adults. (Note 2)

"It's arrogant!" Li Xu and Xu Dayan collided angrily, and pressed their hands on the hilt of the knife. Thinking about whether to injure these rogue shepherds, he rushed straight over. Suddenly, several horses ran in the distance, and the samurai on horseback rushed forward and shouted, "But the other side is attached to the lord, my master has been looking forward to you for a long time!" ”

"How does anyone recognize me?" Li Xu's eyes widened in surprise. I saw a few samurai with red cloaks rushing forward like a whirlwind, waving their leather whips, and beating the shepherds who blocked the way to cry and cry for their fathers and mothers.

"Blind your dog's eyes, even the adults dare to stop you!" The red cloaks cursed as they waved their whips. He pulled the shepherd leader from his horse with a horned bow and ran away with his head in his hands, unable to figure out what he had done wrong.

"Don't be like these stupid people!" After fighting for a while, a warrior with a cyan wolf's head tattooed on his breastplate dropped his whip and bowed to Li Xu.

"Forget it, forget it, they're just doing their duty!" Li Xu looked at the shepherds with blue noses and swollen faces, and said sympathetically.

"Don't thank you for the Attachment, you stupid things, you don't know the Attachment Adult, don't you recognize this Taller?" The leader of the samurai turned and yelled at the shepherds.

"Thank you, Attached!" The unlucky shepherds saluted Li Xu at the same time, and only then did they realize who they had offended. The Tele Bi is a cross between the Western Regions and the Khitan horse, and the Turkic royal court has cultivated it for many years before it was successfully cultivated. In the entire Turkic Khanate, only the people of the Ashina family were eligible to ride. The young man in front of him whose name is attached is actually riding a Thorn Hu, and everyone has indeed been wronged by this whip. If it weren't for the military masters coming in time, everyone would continue to recklessly go down and snatch the young man's mount, and I am afraid that someone would have been dragged to death on the grass tonight. (Note 3)

"It's okay, it's okay!" Li Xu waved his hand again and again. For no reason, the shepherds were beaten up, and he was very upset.

"I don't know what kind of wind blows the attached lord to us, my master has been thinking about you in his heart since he came back from Su Si Ministry!" The red cloak with a wolf's head tattooed on his chest asked coquettishly. He greeted the samurai under his command and ordered them to help the Attached Master lead the horse and fall into the stirrups.

"I'm afraid I miss Black Wind more!" Li Xu secretly complained in his heart. By now, he finally recognized the red cloak with a wolf's head tattooed on his cuirass as one of Ashina Choyu's guards, whose name seemed to be called Brown Deer or something. Now that the guards have appeared outside the company camp, the identity of the company camp master has been revealed.

"A few of you are leading the adult's horse slowly, Bowang, you go and report to Lord Qiyu that the attached master of the Su Si Department has come to our camp as a guest!" Brown Deer didn't ask Li Xu's opinion at all, and arranged it on his own.

The red-cloaked samurai called Bowang bowed down and sped away. Immediately after, a low horn sounded all around. For a while, solemn and slaughtering, as if thousands of troops were facing each other in the distance.

Li Xu and Xu looked at each other again, knowing that they would definitely not be able to get out today. He had to sit on horseback and let the warriors pull their mounts towards the camp. The closer they got to the gate, the more shocked they became. Compared to the wooden fence camp in Susibu, this place can be called a huge city. Although the city walls are made of wood, there are many arrow stacks, horse faces, enemy towers, and even the moats filled with water and the drawbridges on the moats are no different from the cities of the Central Plains. And the last time the two of them walked through this place with Uncle Nine, it was still a desert with no people. (Note 4)

In a moment of surprise, the door of the village in front of him was wide open. Hundreds of red-cloaked samurai rushed out of the suspension bridge. As soon as the horses' hooves left the edge of the ditch, they immediately changed direction, one after the other, and formed two neat rows with the gate as the central axis.

"My master must have been glad to hear that you were coming. No, he's already out to greet you personally! The brown deer bowed to Li Xu, and used his fingers to direct the other party's gaze to the main gate of the camp. At the main entrance, more than a dozen golden-armored warriors slowly stepped across the drawbridge with a handsome middle-aged general in their arms. It's not Ashina, but which one is it?

"Brother, you have such a big face!" Xu Dayan attached to Li Xu's ear and teased in a low voice.

Li Xu couldn't say anything about the bitterness in his heart, so he could only smile and walk towards Ashina Choyu. As soon as the horse's hooves took a few steps forward, the red cloaks on both sides immediately pressed their hands on their shoulders and half-knelt on the ground and shouted, "Welcome to the Attached Majesty!" ”

"Greetings to Greetings!" The golden-armored guards beside Ashina Choyu bent down at the same time.

Li Xu was so shocked that he raised his leg and wanted to dismount. No sooner had his feet kicked off the stirrups than a red-cloaked warrior rushed over and put his back on the horse's belly.

Since he was a child, Li Xu has never seen such a battle. For a while, sitting on horseback was not up and down, nor was it down, and it was so embarrassed that the sweat on his face was rolling all over his face. Seeing his embarrassed expression, Ashina waved his hand and said with a smile: "Even if you jump down, they are all my guards, and I have always admired you very much!" ”

Hearing this, Li Xu had no choice but to step on the back of the Turkic warrior. For him, there is a flat ground on the back of the living. After swaying for a long time, he finally stood firm, and before he could thank the warrior who had stepped up for him, he heard Ashina Qiyu ask loudly: "That must be the sage Xu who is famous in Modong and cleverly broke the iron horse of the Xi clan." But what an honor it is to meet two young heroes at the same time today! ”

Note 1: The Tofuchen River, that is, the Laoha River, has basically been cut off.

Note 2: This is a Chinese ruler. A horse's hoof-to-shoulder bulge is called body height, and chest to hip is called body length. The requirement for a war horse is that the shoulder height is greater than the body length. The shoulder height of an ordinary Mongolian horse is about 1.3 meters, and the height of Sa Luzi in the Tang Dynasty is about 1.70 meters now.

Note 3: Telebiu, a Turkic breed in the Tang Dynasty, is said to be a bloody horse. Tang Taizong once got one, and he fought for several days in a row, and the war horse was tireless. Later, it was one of the six horses of Zhaoling. Li Shimin commented on it: "Ying Ce vacated the sky, and the voice of half a man; Destroy the enemy in danger and take advantage of the danger to help the enemy! ”

Note 4: Horse face, the Tang Dynasty city wall is raised, which is used to offset the defensive dead corners and form a flanking advantage for the besieging side.