Chapter 5: Deer Hunting (Mikami)

The lingering fragrance on the pillow was still there, and the girl disappeared like the first time. Li Xu wasn't sure if Tao Kuo's silk really got into his felt bag again last night, but he felt a little weak. I may have messed things up again, and if the things in my dream really happened in the felt bag, within half a month, this matter would once again become the laughing stock of all the men in the tribe.

It wasn't until the spring sun baked the whole felt bag hot that Li Xu got up. After the battle was over, there was no need for him to take Ganro with him to boost morale. If I guessed correctly, today should be a big day for the elders of the various tribes involved in the war to gather and discuss how to distribute the captives. For owning a group of Xi slaves who had been killed by himself, Li Xu couldn't lift half of his spirit. Sooner or later, he and Xu Dayan will have to go back to the Central Plains, except for Tao Kuo and the memories related to her, Li Xu doesn't want anything here to accompany him to leave.

The strong have everything, and can even trample on the lives and dignity of the weak at will. This is the rule of the grassland, and since it is incompatible with this rule, it is better for me to return to my hometown earlier. Thinking of his home thousands of miles away, as well as the quiet and somewhat boring youth, Li Xu was leisurely fascinated. At the time, I didn't think how beautiful those days were, but now when I look back, I find that all the memories are full of warmth.

"If the conscription is over, or the government can be ......." Li Xu suddenly believed what Uncle Jiu had said that the officials of the Great Sui were not so bad.

"My brother once sacrificed his life for the Great Sui, his parents are old, and with a few exquisite jade artifacts to speak, the magistrate should be able to tell some feelings." Li Xu thought silently, and picked up the linen wrap stacked in the corner of the felt bag.

The package had apparently been turned over, and the treasures had been rearranged and wiped clean. Judging by the size of the pile, all the treasures should be there. Li Xu flipped through it carefully, and found that the tortoiseshell hair chisel he had promised to give Tao Kuo was missing.

"This savage girl!" Li Xu smiled bitterly, knowing that the dream he was drunk last night was a fact. Looking at his hands for a moment, he tied the package and walked out of the felt tent.

The spring sun bakes people's bodies warmly, which is very comfortable. The entire Susi tribe is bathed in the sunshine of this mid-spring, which is extraordinarily quiet and harmonious. The traces left by the celebration had been cleaned up by the slaves, and new black soil had been dug out of the blood-stained ground. The scent of grass roots and the smell of burnt wool completely replaced the bloody smell in the air, and the madness of yesterday was gone. Su Sibu is still the same hospitable Su Sibu, and the smile on the face of the kind shepherd is still so kind. It's just that in the eyes of the teenager, everything has changed under the sun.

A few herdsmen, with their wives and children, are happily making marks on their family's newly allocated livestock. They sew a piece of cloth on a sheep's ear or scald a flower on a horse's buttocks, and the shepherds who lived for a long time had a way to separate their possessions from those of others, and their ancestors taught them all the skills and rules of survival in the songs they had sung.

Two strong shepherds held down a little girl and put an iron collar around her neck. Then put a felt soaked in water on the girl's chest, lift the burnt lead, and weld the seal of the collar to death. The girl was so smoky with tears from the heat of the lead water splashing on the felt that she did not dare to cry out loud, nor did she dare to struggle to dodge. This collar was a mark of a slave, and she could never remove the iron collar unless her kind master released her, or took her as a young wife for coveting her beauty.

Li Xu saw that his heart was blocked, and he desperately accelerated his pace. Fortunately, Dürr's home is not far from his felt bag, and it is a blink of an eye. Missing an arm, Durr didn't make it to the last war, so the front of his house wasn't as lively as someone else's.

After losing one of his arms, Durr was in a coma for four days and four nights due to excessive bleeding. The elders of the tribe all thought that he had no hope of survival, but Li Xu brought Ganluo to call him every day, and used the legend of the holy wolf blessing to give him the motivation to live. For the strange power and chaos, Li Xu adheres to the teachings of the saint and has never believed it. But when you can use it to save people's lives, you will never tire of it.

Therefore, the Duerr family is very grateful to Li Xu. Seeing him walk in with a large package, he immediately took out milk tea and snacks. Li Xu doesn't know how to cook on the grassland, so most of his lunch in the past few months has been eaten at Dur and Aslan's house. Smelling the fragrance of milk tea, he was not polite, sat opposite Dürr, and ate it in a big gulp.

"Tao Kuo dewired your felt bag yesterday?" Duer's first question almost made Li Xu choke to death with milk tea.

"Cough, cough, cough......" Li Xu coughed desperately, his face flushed like a rotten persimmon in early winter. Seeing that his face was full of embarrassment, Dur smiled, and said with a bit of ridicule: "You kid is indeed blessed, Tao Kuotuosi is the most beautiful girl in the tribe, since last summer, how many men in a radius of hundreds of miles have dreamed of her!" ”

"I didn't do anything!" Li Xu shouted in his heart, and the expression on his face became even more strange. Durr thought he was young and tender, stretched out his only left hand, patted him on the shoulder, and smiled encouragingly, "Don't be shy, what is there to be shy about a man." Come on, I was only fourteen years old when I ......."

"Ding!" The silver spoon in Dürr's wife's hand made a crisp sound against the copper bowl. The one-armed Durr stuck out his tongue in fright, swallowing the second half of the sentence back into his stomach.

This kind of thing, the more you describe it, the more unclear it becomes. Li Xu shook his head and reluctantly accepted the facts in front of him. After propping up his stomach with cheese, dried meat, and milk tea, he took his package, took out a few jade carvings from it, and placed them in front of Duer.

"Attached, what are you doing here, bullying me with only one arm?" The warm-hearted Dur immediately turned his face, stood up side by side with his wife, and said with the hilt of the knife at his waist in his hand.

"According to the rules of the grassland, you have fought side by side with me, and as a holy wolf guard, I can transfer my loot to you!" Li Xu smiled, not threatened by the Duerr couple at all. There are many unwritten customs in the steppes that anyone has to follow. For example, if you enter a friend's felt bag, you can bring him wine and live sheep, but you can't give him dry food or meat. Otherwise, it is tantamount to scolding a friend for being so poor that he can't open the pot.

Li Xu has been living in the Su Si Department for half a year, and he knows a little bit about the customs here. If he gave the looted treasure to Durr as friends, the two were not blood relatives, and it was indeed an insult to Durr's dignity. But as a comrade-in-arms and boss, Durr could not refuse.

On weekdays, Li Xu's identity is a holy wolf guard, and his status is equivalent to that of a tribal elder. In wartime, Li Xu can command a hundred warriors, while Dur is just a small arrow (gang leader). So Li Xu put out the words fighting side by side, and the Duer couple immediately had nothing to say.

The husband and wife understood Li Xu's kindness and had to sit down. The jade carving in front of him refused to accept it, from not being able to continue to protect the attached adults to Li Xu and Dur not being subordinate to each other, he found countless reasons to excuse himself. It wasn't until Li Xu put out the guard shelf again that Duer reluctantly ordered his wife to put away the jade carving.

Dur was a wealthy man in the Susibu and was well-informed, knowing that the price of either of the two jade carvings would be enough for a hundred live sheep. I also knew in my heart that the reason why Li Xu did this was because he was worried that he would lose an arm and have no life. After being moved, he proposed to give his family's horse to Li Xu. Li Xu couldn't bear to continue to push off and hurt Duer's heart, thought about it, and said, "Forget about the horses, I estimate that the elders will give me a few good horses from the spoils." I'm alone, and I don't usually use that many horses. I don't have many sheep, so you give me five, and let's go to my house for a drink in the evening!" ”

When Durr heard this, his heart was overjoyed. Hurriedly asked his father to help him go to the field and catch his own sheep, and the thickest of the five fats came back. Spring is a good time for fat grabbing and conception, and herders rarely slaughter their animals during this time. But the gift given by Li Xu was too valuable, so Dür's miser father, Gabler, jumped on the horse happily, despite the pain in his flesh.

"This time, there are two hundred warriors who will go out with me and Brother Xu!" Li Xu took a sip of milk tea and continued. "The two of us want to give them some treasure, but we are afraid of the uneven thickness and want to hear what Dur has to pay attention to!"

"What, you give the treasure to your subordinates!" Durr was so surprised that he almost choked on the milk tea. There is no military salary in the grassland, and in the past, when there was a war between tribes, it was always the soldiers who offered the plundered booty to their superiors. Although reasonable superiors will eventually reward those who have done meritorious service with some money, it is never the case that all the spoils of war will be divided equally among their subordinates. Those who dare to do this are either crazy or buy people's hearts and try to do wrong.

After Dur's repeated explanations, Li Xu finally understood that his and Xu Dayan's ideas were indeed very naïve. What Patriarch Sil said that day was just to give them a reason to take the spoils.

"The brothers have worked hard, and I will give these things to the brothers!" Every elder who divides the spoils of war will say the same, and even blushing over the fact that one of his warriors has not received his due reward. In fact, they never really divide the spoils evenly among their subordinates. This has been the rule for centuries, and it is like the execution of the most virtuous of the vanquished, and no one cares whether it is reasonable or not.

Looking at a large pile of belongings, Li Xu was in a daze again. Deep down, he had always equated these belongings with the dirt of the roadblocks. Occasionally, I forgot it when I was happy, and then I remembered the wail of the Xi people that day, and it was still not a taste in my heart. As a young man from a small family who has never seen much of the world, his experience and nature make it impossible for him to treat others as inappropriate. Even if the other party is of a different race or an enemy.

Dürr is quite good at financial management. Seeing that his friend was worried about an absurd reason, he smiled and gave the other party an idea: "The value of jade and jewelry is not understood by ordinary people." And the contents of the package are of varying value, and unless you smash them all, you can't divide them evenly. Why don't you take out a few pieces and exchange them for sheep with the elders? But not too much, it's enough to divide two sheep for each warrior under the command of you and Sage Xu. Too much, but it will cause unnecessary trouble! ”

Li Xu couldn't think of a better way, so he had to implement the plan designed by Duer. Dur also suggested that he and Xu Dayan had better not come forward to do this kind of thing in person, and it would be better to find a warrior from the Su Si Division. The two brought treasures to Ah Silan again, and entrusted each other with the matter of giving gifts on their behalf. Ah Silan is also a cheerful person, seeing the sincerity of what Li Xu said, he picked out two pieces of bloodstone and a jade bracelet from the package, and happily went to help change sheep.

Li Xu and Dur picked out some jade carvings with good color and sent them to the Ezhutai and Ba Ximi families, and the two old people were secretly weeping because of their son's death.

After making an appointment with Dur for a night of drinking, and entrusting the matter of killing sheep and cooking meat to their husband and wife, Li Xu took the package to visit the coppersmith master, Aunt Qing, and a few shepherd friends who had taken care of him. A large circle came down, and the sky was getting dark.

Several young people set up a fire in the open space in front of Li Xu's felt bag, drinking wine and eating meat while singing happily. In the recent war, the Su Si Department suffered very few losses and heavy captures, so everyone was in a good mood. Although the impact in Li Xu's heart yesterday has not dissipated, the smile on his face is no longer so reluctant in front of a large group of friends of the same age and cheerful and optimistic personality.

"This time to expel the Suotou Xi people, the Bakoruo patriarch of the Pure Silt Department did not keep the promise and send troops, but found a lot of excuses to push and delay. I've heard that Patriarch Sil is very angry about this! When the wine was drunk, Ah Silan pretended to mysteriously confide to everyone.

"Ba Keruo's kid was originally a cow with a glossy surface, and when Eru married him, it was really a flower inserted into the cow dung!" Gosana, the warrior of the Shetu Division, who had cut down five opponents in the first battle, secretly looked at Xu Dayan and muttered in a low voice.

Eru's fierce gaze when she looked at Xu Dayan, even a fool could see the meaning. Susisir united with nearby tribes to attack the enemy, and if Bako, who was of the Pure Silt Department, did not keep his promise and send troops to help, it was equivalent to making it clear that if Susisir competed for the throne with Zhiqiba in the future, he would not stand on the side of his future father-in-law.

Therefore, from the perspective of Eru herself and her family, this marriage contract is worth reconsidering. Hou Quli, Ah Shibi and other young heroes all raised their wine bowls and touched each other, but their eyes secretly swept to Xu Dayan. Ah Silan's words today may have another mystery, the key to the whole matter now does not depend on Eru, but on the sage Xu in front of him, whose wisdom is deeper than the Crescent Lake.

"It's not a good idea to fall out with the Pure Silt right now!" Xu Dayan didn't seem to see the expectation in everyone's eyes, took a sip of wine, and calmly analyzed. "The tribes far away from us don't know the truth, and they will think that the Sil clan will turn their faces and be ruthless when they gain momentum. In the future, there will be a conflict between the Su Si Department and the Obsessive Ministry, and the people's hearts will fall to the side of the Devastated Ministry! ”

Everyone was silent, and what Xu Dayan said was indeed the truth. The marriage between tribes and tribes originally had a strong exchange of interests, and Eru was also the pearl of the Sil patriarch's palm, one of the beauties within a radius of hundreds of miles. The matter of repenting marriage is very simple, but the chain reaction caused by this, I am afraid that Su Sibu needs to think about it carefully.

"Hey!" Durr picked up the bowl and sighed faintly.

"Hey!" Ah Silan shook her head.

Drops of lamb fat roasted on the fire fell, and the flames rose to light up everyone's eyes.

The young man's heart was very small, and after a few sips of drunkenness, the topic turned elsewhere. From the spring fat of the cattle and sheep of each family, to the dream-like deployment of soldiers by Xu Dayan, every mention of one can cause a burst of happy laughter.

Drinking on the prairie has always been unstoppable. Because he was in a happy mood, Xu Dayan, who has always been very restrained in drinking, also made an exception today. While telling jokes to everyone, they drank with everyone bowl after bowl. Soon, he was the first to fall. Ah Silan and the others laughed and continued to raise their bowls to salute each other, until everyone's bodies began to shake, and then laughed and dispersed.

Li Xu once again overwhelmed the crowd with the amount of alcohol, closed the stall, put out the fire, and still felt clear-headed. Looking at Xu Dayan, who was drunk into a pile of mud, he shook his head and carried his good friend on his shoulder. Xu Dayan didn't find someone to fight for wine because he was happy, and the rough man couldn't see it, but Li Xu knew that his friend was sad.

"Actually, if you marry Eru, what else can others say. It's a big deal, let's fight with the pure silt department! Putting Xu Dayan on the felt, Li Xu persuaded in a low voice while preparing a brazier for his friend. With the current strength of the Su Si Tribe, there was indeed no tribe within a radius of hundreds of miles that dared to provoke. The Sil patriarch proposed to withdraw from the marriage, and the Pure Silt Department, which was already in a loss, might not really dare to raise any objections.

"Zhong Jian, you don't understand!" Xu Shiji opened his drunken eyes and muttered.

"Don't you like Eru, my fair lady, gentleman. What is there not to understand! Li Xu blew the fire and asked while adding charcoal to the brazier.

"The Xu family marries a daughter-in-law, hey, the Xu family!" Xu Dayan sneered and turned over, and was silent.