Chapter 15: The Southern Expedition

At three o'clock, the grassland was already full of people, war horses neighed, and Qin Zhen and they were already waiting quietly in the thatched hut.

Tuoba Liang took the two sergeants to their thatched hut in Qin Town, and then, Tuoba Liang pointed to Qin Zhen, Chaochuan Wu, and Yang Xiaoqi: "You, you, you, you three come with me." ”

Another sergeant casually nodded at Xue Yuan, Chen Luosheng, and Wang Tiezhu and said, "You three come with me." ”

The remaining sergeant waved his hand, but his eyes didn't even look: "The remaining four, follow me!" After speaking, he bowed his head and walked out of the thatched hut.

Qin Zhen, Chaochuan Wu, and Yang Xiaoqi followed behind Tuoba Liang and came to Tuoba Feng's team, where other Han slaves had already gathered together, plus the three Qin Zhen who had just arrived, a total of nine people.

Tuoba Liang pulled out the scimitar he was wearing at his waist, the scimitar emitted a cold silver light in the dark night, and said with a murderous face: "From now on, you will be subordinate to the military slaves under the account of Lord Tuoba Feng, you must obey my orders, act in unison, if there are those who do not obey the order, they will be killed immediately!" ”

"No!"

At the beginning of the day, a low and heavy horn sounded.

Six Ten-Commanders and two Deputy Commanders had already led their teams to assemble and slaughter.

Tuoba Feng's subordinates originally only had twelve people, but because of the meritorious training of the war horses, ten more soldiers were added, plus nine Han slaves such as Qin Zhen, and the number of Han slaves increased to thirty-one at once, and he became one of the strongest ten commanders, and he was suddenly ambitious and high-spirited.

Tuoba Jue was dressed in military uniform and came to the horse farm, followed by dozens of personal soldiers.

Coming to the center of the racecourse, Tuoba Jue inspected his team in front of him, and the team of more than 200 people was quiet at the moment, and everyone was silent, waiting for Tuoba's lecture.

"Thanks to the courage of the sons, we have won the position of the first army in the army of the Lord of the Wild Hope, and we will be the eyes of the Lord of the Wild Wang, like a sharp arrow, shoot at the tribes of those Han people, and snatch their grain, livestock, strong men, and women, the grain and livestock make us stronger, the strong men work for us, and the women give birth for us, and those cowardly Han people do not deserve these."

"Rob, rob, rob!"

"Tuoba Feng!"

"The last general obeys!"

"Lead your men and horses to be the vanguard of the army, explore the way for the army, set off at three o'clock, and report to me every other hour!"

"No!"

"Tuobaze!"

"The last general obeys!"

"You lead twenty personal soldiers as the rear guard of the army, and inform Lord Yewang of my march at any time."

"No!"

"The others are waiting for our Chinese army, and after an hour, the army will be drawn out!"

"No!"

"Worship the sky!"

After Tuoba Jue finished speaking, the soldiers behind him pushed out two prisoners, grabbed the prisoner's hair with one hand, the knife flashed, the head was separated, the head was lifted in the air, and the headless body fell to the ground, blood gushing and splattering.

The other two soldiers held the tray, placed the heads of the two prisoners in the tray, and held the tray high in front of Tuoba.

Tuoba Jue stretched out the middle finger of his right hand, dipped it in the hot blood in the tray, and wiped it on his forehead: "Sacrifice the soul of my warrior with the blood of the enemy!" ”

The two deputy commanders and the six ten commanders walked to the tray containing the skulls in turn, and like Tuoba, they stretched out their right index finger and dipped it in the blood that had not yet coagulated, and wiped it on their foreheads: "Sacrifice the soul of my warrior with the blood of the enemy!" ”

Qin Zhen looked at this scene, his eyes widened with anger, and his whole body trembled, he was afraid that Tuoba Liang would find out his abnormality, so he lowered his head and tried to control his trembling body, just because the two prisoners who were killed just now were all Han.

Tuoba Liang really noticed Qin Zhen's abnormality, and when he saw Qin Zhen trembling with his head down, his tone was contemptuous: "Scared? See, those are all diehards of your Han people, and they still want to resist Lord Jue, so they just pulled over to worship the sky, if you dare to disobey my orders, those two people are your example. ”

Qin Zhen's eyes were cold, just for a moment, he changed to a cowardly and helpless look, and said respectfully: "Yes!" ”

At three o'clock, Tuoba Feng and his sergeants were fully armed, wearing armor, wearing scimitars at their waists, and longbows and quivers were obliquely buckled in the saddle, and clusters of arrow feathers were exposed at the mouth of the quiver; Compared with the party sergeant, Qin Zhen and the other nine people were much worse, their clothes were tattered and shabby, and they were unarmed, only each of them was accompanied by a horse.

For the first time in three years, Qin Zhen walked out of the Bulzhi Horse Farm.

Tuoba Feng's team consisted of 32 people, but there were 37 horses, of which five sergeants were each equipped with two horses, and were responsible for delivering news to Tuoba Feng of the Chinese army.

Because Tuoba Feng's team was all cavalry, he only brought some accompanying dry food, and there was no burden of food and grass, so the speed of the march was very fast, and it only took three days to reach Lanzhou.

Tuoba Feng ordered the troops to make a slight repair in Lanzhou, replenish some dry food and drinking water, and then continue to advance south.

After leaving Lanzhou, the road is extremely desolate, the ridges are overgrown with artemisia grass, and the villages encountered are all deserted, the houses have collapsed, a broken wall and ruins, and you can vaguely see the appearance of the previous residence.

Looking at the barren scene in front of him, Qin Zhen felt an inexplicable sadness and indignation in his heart, when he was a slave at the Bulzhi Horse Farm, he could actually imagine the scene in front of him, but when this fact really fell into his eyes, he couldn't help but feel a sadness in his heart.

When it was almost dark, he suddenly saw smoke rising from a village in the distance, and Tuoba Feng was overjoyed: "At last we are about to reach a place where there are people, so tonight I will camp in the village, surround this village, gather all the people in the village, and don't let one go." ”

When he was about to reach the entrance of the village, Tuoba Feng waved his hand, and more than a dozen people were divided into his subordinates, sneaking from the left and right sides of the village without making the slightest sound.

Qin Zhen and they followed Tuoba Feng straight to the center of the village, only to find that the whole village was already dilapidated, if it weren't for those wisps of smoke, this village was no different from the uninhabited village they encountered on the road in Qin Town.

After a while, Tuobafeng's men had gathered the people in the village and rushed over, there were not many people in the village, only a dozen, and all of them were old men and old women, none of them were young and middle-aged, and they stumbled under the push and shove of the party sergeant.

"My lord, all the people in the village have gathered here, please send it down." A party sergeant reported to Tuoba Feng.

Tuoba Feng looked at the gathered villagers, frowned, and looked a little impatient: "Which of you is the Lizheng here, step forward to answer." ”

A white-haired old man walked out tremblingly on crutches, his shabby cloth shirt was torn and covered with dust, apparently caused by the push and shove of the party soldiers just now.

"Little old man Zhao Hai is the right man here, dare to ask what advice this party military master has?"

Tuoba Feng quietly looked at the white-haired old man Zhao Hai, did not speak, and the sergeant just now saw the opportunity to shout to Zhao Hai: "The person who asked you is our ten-master Tuoba Feng, and you still don't kneel down when you see your lord?" You answered the questions of Lord Tuoba Feng honestly, and if you were not true, you would have slaughtered your entire village. ”

Hearing the sergeant's threat, all the villagers who had gathered lowered their heads and knelt down tremblingly, trembling all over.

Zhao Hai knelt at the front, put down the crutches in his hand, and said with both hands: "Zhao Hai meets the adult, but the adult has a question, the little old man must tell the truth, and he dare not hide it at all." ”

Tuoba Feng cast a ray of appreciation for the sergeant just now, and then turned his gaze to Zhao Hai: "Let me ask you, what is the name of this village?" Why are there no young people here, just you old and immortal, and others? ”

"If you go back to your lordship, our village is called Wujiagou, because every year there is a war, the people in the village are either captured by the passing military masters, or they will flee, there is no one in the radius of ten miles, and there are still us, useless old men and old women left in our village."

"Oh, then why did you stay in the village and not leave?"

"If you go back to the adults, we have lived here all our lives, and it is difficult to leave our homeland, and the people who stayed behind are already old, and they can't walk if they want to escape, and they don't have a few years to live, and our village is relatively remote, so no one usually comes, so they stay together."

"Well, your village is indeed remote enough, if I hadn't happened to see a few wisps of smoke, I would have really missed your village today, okay, let me ask you, how far is this from Weizhou City?"

"Our village is about 150 miles away from Weizhou City."

"Oh, I heard you say that, you still have some insight here?"

"I can't talk about knowledge, when Xiao Lao'er was young, he went to Chang'an with a caravan, passing by Qinzhou, Weizhou and other places, so he knew the approximate distance from here to Weizhou."

"Then let me ask you again, are there some relatively large villages and towns on the way to Weizhou here?"

"There is a unity town thirty miles to the south of this place, and then fifty miles to the south is Tong'an Yi Town, especially Tong'an Yi Town, is the first post station out of Weizhou City, the merchants who used to come and go will stay in Tong'an Yi to rest, it is very lively, Weizhou Zhichong Mansion also built a fort there to garrison, but then the war broke out, the trade route was interrupted, these villages and towns also became deserted, and the garrison also returned to Weizhou City."

Tuoba Feng stretched out his hand and said, "Bring me the map." ”

One of his personal soldiers took out the map and spread it out in front of Tuoba Feng: "My lord, this old man is not lying, the map shows that Tong'anyi Town is seventy miles north of Weizhou City, and Tong'anyi is a mountain to the north, and there is only one trade route for entry and exit, and the terrain is dangerous, which can be said to be an important barrier in the north of Weizhou City." ”

After looking at the map for a while, Tuoba Feng nodded, and with a wave of his hand, the pro-soldier quickly put away the map.

Then, Tuoba Fengyou looked at Zhao Hai and said with a sneer: "It seems that you are quite honest this old man, let me ask you again, how is your harvest this year?" Where is the food? ”

Hearing Tuobafeng's question, the villagers trembled even more, and their bodies were like chaff, and Zhao Hai kowtowed again and again, his eyes full of pleading.

"My lord, there are only us old men and old women left in the village, there are no livestock, we can't plow in spring and harvest in autumn, more than a dozen people will guard a few acres of thin fields to plan, and we will collect a little life-saving food all year round, if the adults take it, we won't be able to live at all."