I

"Da-da!

The blood-red BMW flew on the blue-brick avenue with four hooves, and the rhythmic and rapid drum beat broke the silence of the plateau city in the early morning.

The rider was alone, and he didn't bring any of his relatives with him. It's not that I don't want to bring it, but I can't bring it. There may not be one horse that can keep up with this horse in the whole city - no, not in the whole country.

It is not a lie to say that it is BMW. The city is located on a plateau, and the tall horses on the plains will be a little overwhelmed when they arrive here, let alone gallop with all their might. Although the local horses are hard-working and resistant to the plateau, they are very short and cannot run quickly. This blood-colored steed, capable of both flying and durable, is truly one in a thousand.

Horses are extraordinary horses, and horse owners are naturally extraordinary people. Just look at his horse-handling skills and know that he must have been in battle for a long time.

Under his skillful urging, the speed of the horse became faster and faster, and in an instant, the blue brick avenue came to an end.

A wall was erected in front of him, and two huge iron-inlaid reinforced gates were erected in the middle of the bluestone avenue, tightly closed.

On the city gate, the red bricks are squarely inlaid with two oriental square words: "Xiping"!

On the Sunset Plateau, the largest and most fortified city, Xiping. At the head of its city, a large yellow flag with the word "Tang" is fluttering.

Since the collapse of the Eastern Empire's withdrawal from the Western Regions in the eighth year of Dingwu (1583 in the standard calendar), Xiping has been the mainstay west of Yangguan. All the Tang territories west of Yangguan have collapsed, but only this Xiping is standing. Not only that, after resisting the tidal tide of the barbarian peoples, the Orientals rebuilt a new, small hegemony with Xiping as the core. Half of the sunset plateau is reunited under the yellow "Tang" banner.

Even if the Central Plains has changed course and hoisted the banner of a new dynasty, the people here still respect the non-existent "Tang" as their motherland. For them, this year is not the 14th year of Dahua's Jianzhi, but the 90th year of Datang's Dingwu. They called themselves "Don", while others called their country "Western Don".

It was an empire without an emperor.

Seeing that the gates were closed, the rider jerked on the reins. The horse neighed and stopped in front of the city gate.

"Who are waiting?! The curfew has not been lifted, and there is still an hour before the door opens!"

The sergeant guarding the city gate shouted loudly and asked for his identity. The visitor didn't say much, took out an arrow from his bosom, and threw it on the ground.

"Open the door immediately!" the sentence also fell to the ground along with the arrow.

The sergeant picked up the arrow, looked at it, and was full of excitement. He had never seen this arrow, but the style had been heard of for a long time - the specifications of the arrow were written on the copy of each guardhouse.

"My lord, may I ask you ......," he asked tentatively.

"The extreme west protects Li Anxun!"

There was no emperor in the Western Tang Dynasty, only the protector of the extreme west; because there were too many factions of the non-Tang people at the beginning, no one had the ability to subdue everyone to become emperor; the surrounding "barbarian tribes" and "barbarian city-states" only recognized the protectors, and this system of protectors was passed down in this way.

The 31st protector of the Tang Dynasty, surnamed Li, named Anxun, and Ziping, is the new commander who has just been elected this year. In the past five years of battles with the army of Shatuman Khan, Li Anxun's department has made many miraculous achievements, and finally became the largest faction in the Western Tang Dynasty under the expectations of the public.

"But my lord, it's so early, and our strongholds haven't sent patrols yet, so it's dangerous for you to go out alone......!

"Tell you to open the door, and I'll open the door!"

The sergeant couldn't, so he had to give the order to open the door. As soon as the order was given, the envoy called him back again.

"Who are the soldiers on duty last night? Call them out before the drawbridge is finished, you must be quick!"

"Yes!" the sergeant secretly complained, the plateau in early spring was quite cold, and everyone would definitely complain. But that can't be helped, because ......

Military orders are like mountains. This is a sentence that every Xitang person has been taught. Every boy in the Western Tang Dynasty must be a soldier, no matter whether he is from a noble background, whether his family is rich or not. Since the elven empire conquered all human city-states and the First Emperor established a unified dynasty, there has been no country with such universal military service - the Western Tang is the first since then.

The drawbridge was not slow, but the military order was faster. Almost at the same time that the drawbridge smashed to the opposite bank, a group of disheveled soldiers had already lined up in front of Li Anxun.

"Did you see anyone who left the city last night, and where did he go?" asked Li Anxun a little impatiently.

"You...... Are you talking about the captured general Rorid, who has moved out of the city?" asked one of the soldiers, cringe.

"Yes, that's him! Which direction did he go?"

He and his retinue rode in a carriage in the direction of Baizhou. The soldier pointed to the west.

As soon as his finger pointed out, the horse of the Protector of the Far West had crossed the drawbridge and disappeared like the wind at the end of the road to the west.

"What's going on, sir, what are you going to do?"

The coachman grabbed the reins of the carriage and looked at the commander who had stopped his horse.

His tone was very rude, and his voice was very thick - because the owner of the voice was a dwarf, a dwarf a third shorter than a human. In contrast to the plain dwarves who lived on the plains of the New World, the dwarves who lived on the Old World were called hill dwarves by later ethnologists. Like most Hill Dwarves, this Hill Dwarf wears a rusty full-body steel armor with the coats of arms of their family and their tribe carved into it. Five hundred years ago, dwarves were able to forge this kind of full-body armor.

"Nothing...... It always feels as if something is going to happen. ”

The man on the horse glanced back and muttered to himself. The second half of the sentence is not in Oriental or Dwarven language, but in his own native language. In general, this language is known as "Koman". Under his crotch is a blue-maned sunset horse, a horse breed of high original estate.

"Sir, did we leave a little too hastily, maybe we should say goodbye to the Protector first......"

"I have already left a letter for Ziping, there should be no problem. The man replied in Oriental language, "Three years ago, I agreed with him to help him become the protector of the capital, and today the three-year period has arrived, and he has also become the protector of the capital, and I can leave." ”

"Sir, this is a pity, you can already be a general in the Tang Dynasty, or even a general, a general! As long as His Royal Highness Li Anxun is still in front of the envoy of everything, isn't it a matter of words what status you want!"

"But that's not my home. The man replied in a faint tone, brushing his light brown hair. There are still traces of the previous wrapping in his hair, which is a testimony of the fifteen years he spent in the East. The Orientals never cut their hair, they didn't have a barber there, and they all wrapped their hair in a bun with a square scarf. His clothes say that the East is not the East, and the West is not the West, which looks a little elegant, but there are quite traces of Western tight-fitting clothing. He also has a beard and looks very mature.

Fifteen years have carved shallow wrinkles on his face. Fifteen years have passed, and the young man who was heroic at the beginning has become a middle-aged man. Only the dull white skin has not changed, and even after fifteen years, the complexion does not change to the dull yellow of the Oriental.

"However, isn't it just a matter of one sentence that you want to start a family, this girl in this city, you can't pick whichever one you want......" The dwarf seemed to be unwilling, and blurted out foul language in his own language.

"Tug, I'm a family man. The brown-haired man's tone was still calm. "I have to go back. ”

The dwarf stared at his chief. After staring at him for a long time, he finally got discouraged and decided to follow orders.

"Alright, alright......" he flicked his whip and let the carriage continue along the avenue. "If you don't get on the road, you won't be able to get to the next town before dark. ”

"Wait a minute. The man stopped the horse again and turned his head to look behind him. "There was indeed the sound of horses' hooves, I heard it. ”

"How many?" the dwarf jumped into the car behind him, pulled out a heavy smoothbore gun, and mounted it on the roof of the car.

"Don't be so guarded, just one person. The man replied with his hand on the pistol at his waist. "If I'm not mistaken, I think it's an acquaintance......"

Before he could finish speaking, the blood-colored steed leaped out, and with a strong wind to clear the morning mist, squeezed past the rider, and stopped in front of the carriage.

"Brother Ruide, stay, do you want to leave like this?!" Li Anxun let go of the reins and pointed his right horsewhip at the man on the cyan horseback. "Now that I've arrived, don't even think about going one step further!"

"It's still here. The man known as Rored sighed. "You've already made the capital protector, what's the use of me staying here?"

"If even you are gone, who should lead the rebuilt Zhaohua and Weisai armies?!"

"Just promote the deputy commander to the orthodox leader. As before, I commanded two armies by myself, which should not have been the norm of the country. Rored replied calmly.

"If that's not the norm of the country, as long as you are a general and commander of the whole army, the hussar general, the pillar general, you can do whatever you want!" Du Escort's tone became more and more impatient, he was originally a charging general. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have been able to withstand an attack of that magnitude last time!"

"That's not my credit, it's the soldiers who fought bravely to achieve victory. According to our original agreement, in three years, I have helped you get the highest position in the country, and I have also helped you eliminate the biggest threat to the country. Now, I have to go back to my hometown. When he talked about his hometown, there was a trace of imperceptible loneliness in Luo Ruide's eyes.

"Tell me, where did I treat you badly? Could it be that I was busy arranging personnel a few days ago and didn't give you an official post? Or are you dissatisfied with your current position? No matter what it is, it's easy to talk about! Just by virtue of your merit in reformulating the establishment of the whole army, no amount of reward can be excessive! Relying on your actual military merits, it is enough to promote you to two ranks!"

Li Anxun's hand waved vigorously in the air, and his tone became more and more passionate.

"No matter what, you are also a famous master of the Shangqing faction! If you are allowed to leave like this, what should others think of me Li Anxun? There is no distinction between rewards and punishments, and suspicion of good generals? Do you want to give me such a reputation? Although it is not the bright moon in the sky now, the sun has not yet risen. I admit that I don't have the ability to 'chase people under the moon', but I can still know how to cherish talents!"

"I know your difficulties, so I want to leave. If I don't leave, I won't have a proper place in this new command. Lored smiled bitterly, his expression a little sad, "After all, I am a barbarian, not a Middle-earth clan. Even if I studied Taoism in the Shangqing School for five years, I was still a barbarian. If I am promoted to the rank of general, the generals will not be convinced, and your position as the protector of the extreme west will also be in jeopardy. You don't just want to be the protector of the capital for five years, do you? I have to go, Ziping, so that you can continue to serve as the protector of the capital in the future. ”

"Which guys think so? I'll go back and deal with them all martialed!"

"Ziping, the envoy is not a general, and he can't 'be outside, and the military order is not subject to it'. You are the military order itself, and you must obey it. The current Datang is completely tied to you, and you must not be rash. What's more, I'm tired of it and want to go back to my hometown. It's been fifteen years......"

Speaking of this, the middle-aged man turned over and dismounted, and bowed deeply to Li Anxun.

"This is the only request in my life, please don't keep me, my lord. ”

"Don't do this!" Li Anxun turned over and got off the horse, and even tripped because of his hurried movements. "We are sworn brothers who share life and death, why bother!"

"So, sir, will you agree?"

Li Anxun stared at the other party, kept staring, confirming that the person was serious. He did know that if this barbarian was promoted to a great general, everyone would not be convinced. In the Eastern Empire, it was not the true ability of the individual that mattered, it was the other things that mattered. The envoy of the Western Tang Dynasty was stunned for a moment, and finally squeezed out a few words from his mouth with difficulty: "You go." ”

The brown-haired Rored straightened up, a look of gratitude on his indifferent face. He arched his hand and said, "Thank you." ”

The two of them turned on their horses at the same time, stretched out their hands, and slapped each other's palms. There is no need for more words, all the bloody rain and vertical and horizontal strategies in the past three years are contained in this palm.

"Your hometown, I remember, is it on the west side of the Great Desert? ”

"Yes. Far west of the Great Desert. Roride replied.

"O west side of the great desert...... Then, it may be difficult to have a goodbye day. When mentioning the "Great Desert", Li Anxun's hand shook the whip slightly. "Do you have any relatives at home?"

"I haven't seen you in fifteen years...... But there should still be a wife and a daughter, but she should have remarried. That's what I told her before I left," the man's voice remained unemotional, as if he were recounting someone else's business. "If I don't come back for three years, she'll have to remarry. Unexpectedly, it will be fifteen years. ”

"Maybe she hasn't remarried yet, but the magistrate has already erected a chastity archway for her. The envoy was relieved.

"Ah, we have no saintly way, and we do not encourage women to keep chastity. Personally, I would prefer her to remarry, otherwise it will be difficult to support my daughter. ”

A chaotic sound of horses' hooves came from behind, and it was the guards of the capital escort who had arrived.

"I forgot that your hometown is not in Middle-earth. Li Anxun grabbed the reins of the horse and turned the horse's head. "Well, I'll send it here. If you want to come back, you can come back at any time...... However, with your ability, you will definitely be able to get ahead in your hometown. If we ever have a chance to say goodbye, I hope we are still brothers. ”

"We will naturally be brothers. Rored pulled out a black arrow from his bosom and threw it over. "This is my general's warrant, please put it away. ”

Li Anxun took the black amulet, put it in his arms, took out another letter from his arms, and threw it back. "It's rude to come and go. You entrust me with one thing, and I entrust you with one thing in the end. When you arrive at Baizhou City on the Western Xinjiang Road, give this letter to the Zhizhou there. ”

Luo Ruide intercepted the letter steadily, his eyes showed gratitude, and said, "Thank you." Well, there will be a period later, Ziping. My name in the West is Klaad Leopace, and if you have something to do with me, you can use that name. ”

Clad López...... Clad López...... I remembered. ”

The envoy rode his horse and repeated the name several times that was awkward to him. "But for me, you will always be my sworn brother Rored, and I will always remain a military commander for you. ”

"No need, I will either bury my bones in the wasteland, or go back to my hometown to retire, I'm afraid I won't use swords again in this life. Clad López replied lightly.

"There are monsters in the desert, and the journey is safe. Drive!" the envoy finally patted him on the shoulder, picked up his horse, and headed in the direction of Xiping.

"Goodbye, Ziping. Klad López watched as the Scarlet Steed of the Protector joined the Guards before turning his horse's head and getting back on the road.

When the team was far away, the dwarf breathed a sigh of relief. He asked with some curiosity, "Sir, what is that letter?"

"A parting gift. ”

"But you haven't opened the seal yet......"

"It must be. ”

The dwarf pursed his lips, still not convinced. It wasn't until he got a squad of escort sergeants and twenty carts of supplies in the Baizhou army that he didn't believe it.

"How far is it to your Aintak clan?"

"Probably...... Five days, right?" replied the dwarf Tugo Irontank, with some hesitation. "Lao Tzu...... No, I—I haven't been back in years. ”

The light-brown-haired man unfolded the map and looked at it, which he had drawn by hand, bit by bit. The place where he is located is the border of the Western Tang Kingdom.

"This is the way, right?"

The dwarf looked at it for a moment, then nodded. "Pretty much. ”

The middle-aged man's gaze moved along the map and saw a dot not far away marked "Aintak Tribe".

He then continued to look to the left side of the map until he saw the name of the city. There is still a long way to go.

"Guys, in five days, we'll be there!" he said loudly, turning to the Western Tang soldiers behind him.

"Order, General!"

The convoy re-entered the road and left the borders of the Western Tang and entered the edge of the Roof Ridge Mountains.

From here, the sky is obscured by the endless snow-capped mountains.

I remember that when I first saw these mountains, I was still a young man, and I didn't know a single Oriental word, and I was determined to go to the golden country of the East......

Time flies, and all the old dreams have turned to dust. Oriental people pay attention to "leaves fall back to the roots", and they can be regarded as returning to the roots. It's just that "people die and leave their names" may not be able to do it. Although he is over forty years old, he still has achieved nothing, just accomplishing some business far from his hometown, which no one will pay attention to.

"This year is the standard calendar 1663...... No, 1664, right? I'm so used to the chronology that I can't figure out the standard calendar. It's been so long that I've forgotten my daughter's name. It's called Danica, right?"

Clad López shook her head and took a step toward the setting sun, leaving behind fifteen years, homesickness, lofty ideals, and her own Oriental name.

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