Fumon Lingcha began to organize the construction of the altar by hand, and the dismantled wooden stakes of the camp were ready-made materials, and the base was made of rammed earth, and the steps were covered with wool felt. Worship the sky needs ritual music, the Chinese army has ready-made snare drums and bronze horns, and the ritual music also needs to dance after the ritual music, the Tang people of this period are not only bragging, but also very good at dancing, and the army can pick out a few men at random, and they can dance a passionate and generous Qin King breaking the array dance.

From the north gate of Dundo City to the side of the altar on the riverbank, the military formations and honor guards on both sides are very representative troops, and they also have to take care of the emotions of the ethnic minorities in the Western Regions. Therefore, Fumeng arranged to be close to the Chinese army on both sides of the altar for Gai Jiayun, and a little further away was the Tuqi Shihe Mobu, then the left and right Yu Marquis army led by him, and then the army of Bahanna Khan, followed by Yang Xilie's left and right side army, so that the team of the king of Shi Guo Mi Guo and other kings could only stand at the city gate and look forward to it from afar.

The Eighth Regiment led by Li Siye was very fortunate that they were arranged to stand in the front as representatives of the jumping honor guard, so that they could observe the entire sacrificial process.

Today the sun is shining, the west wind is bleak, countless large flags on both sides of the sacrificial road are waving in the wind, the military array is solemn, and tens of thousands of soldiers gather to change the south bank of the river. In Li Siye's view, such a scene can only be compared to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

As the deputy priest, Fumeng Lingcha presided over the whole sacrificial process, and he ordered the braziers standing on the left and right sides of the altar to be lit, and when the sundial pointed to the direction of the hour, he shook his cloak and held a horizontal sword, and opened his voice facing the city gate and shouted: "The hour has come!" Sacrifice!"

The gates of Dundo City slammed open, and the muffled sound of bronze horns came from the doors, filling the air with a solemn aura. The two gates of the Jiedu envoy were the first to go out of the city, followed by the Chinese army's tooth flag, and the three large flags were several feet high, and all the flags of the honor guards on both sides were eclipsed in front of them.

The trumpeters are playing in a formation and slowly walking out, the sound is long, enduring, to achieve this effect, the trumpeter array needs tacit cooperation, when the front row of trumpeters is not breathing, the rear trumpeters hurry up, so that the front row of robes can be ventilated, and the third row of trumpeters will continue to top when the front row is exhausted. The sacrificial ritual is not trivial, and if something goes wrong, it is a sin to kill the head.

Dense and rhythmic drum beats sounded, hundreds of military men carried two snare drum stands side by side, two muscular men, with white foreheads wrapped around their foreheads, thick arms waving drumsticks to beat the cowhide drum surface, the sound was like thunder shaking on both sides of the river.

In the primitive-sounding sound of horns and drums, the wild factor in the soldiers' chests was stimulated, as if a frenzied rhythm beat with the beat of the drums, and the spears in the hands of the soldiers unconsciously hammered the ground up and down. Even Li Siye, a modern man who prides himself on being well-informed, was confused by this fanatical atmosphere, and he couldn't wait to rush to Shattered Leaf City with a Mo knife and cut off hundreds of heads right now.

Behind the drum platform is a hundred halberd commanders and five hundred dancing soldiers dancing out of the city gate, the halberd phalanx is wearing bright light armor, the dance out of the dance also seems to be heavy and mechanical, the footsteps beat left and right with the drum beat, the halberd in the hand stabs the air in front of the air with a swinging attitude, neatly uniform to produce beauty.

And in the center of the long square with a halberd, there was a general carrying a horse lance and dancing horizontally. He was dressed in a blue-black mountain armor, a red cloak on his shoulders, and the phoenix wings were exquisitely lined, and although his dance seemed rusty and clumsy, he had a nervous martial spirit.

Li Siye recognized it, the dancer was Gai Jiayun, the envoy of the Xixi Festival, which really surprised him, and the dignified Jiedu envoy actually danced in person, and he danced so ugly. But in this case, no matter how ugly Gai Zhongcheng danced, no one dared to laugh at him.

The Tang people are more martial and dance, from the emperor to the courtiers, anyone who is happy can dance twice. In the early years of Zhenguan, the military god Li Jing broke the Western Turks, and the news came that Li Yuan and Li Shimin danced opposite each other, and now the sheep thief in Youzhou relied on dancing to meet the flattery, and won the Three Towns Festival. Today is a big day for Gai Zhongcheng, what's wrong with people jumping twice, what's wrong.

The dancing of the swingers is much more agile, the scales and armor on their bodies are light, and their dancing posture also seems to be jumpy. In the front row are the sword and shield soldiers with the left hand and the shield in the right hand, and the pikemen in the back row are also dancing in a similar way to the battle, and when the shield soldiers are side by side to form a shield wall, the pikemen stab out in the gap between the shield wall, and then spread out and crouch.

The sword and shield soldiers bowed and squatted, their feet walked out of a straight catwalk with the rhythm of the drum, their shoulders swayed from side to side like jumping bazaars, and the horizontal knives in their right hands slapped on the shield with the beat of the drum, and their mouths sounded neat trumpets.

The drums are beating, boom! Boom! Boom!

The knife strikes the shield face, and boom! Revile! Revile!

The soldier shouted, hey! Hi! Hi!

Even the flagbearers holding yellow flags in a formation shook up and down with the rhythm.

At the end of the procession, dozens of soldiers drove the yaks and goats that were sacrificed.

According to the ritual system, the festival envoy is a vassal, the sacrifice should be used in the Shaojiao, the sacrifice is a pig and a sheep, the sacrifice of the Son of Heaven is the Taigao, and the three animals of pigs, cattle and sheep are killed to sacrifice to the sky. But the pigs could not be found in a hurry, so they had to use yaks and goats instead.

When the sacrificial procession reached the altar, the chief drummer shouted a trumpet, and all sounds stopped abruptly.

From the altar, Fumeng Lingcha shouted, "Open!"

The procession parted to both sides at the same time, giving way to the middle way, and the first stage of the sacrifice was announced.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment, and everyone held their breath as they waited for the official ceremony of the sacrifice.

Gai Jiayun jumped profusely and took the hood off his head, and the attendant of the prison army hurriedly offered a handkerchief, and he reached out to wipe the sweat from his face. Another attendant handed a water bag, took it and poured it a few sips, poured the rest of the water on top of his head, drenched his armor and clothes along his face and beard, stretched out his hand to wipe his face, and shouted: "Refreshing!"

As he did this, all eyes were on him. In this solemn ceremony, everyone tensed their strings for fear of making a mistake, and no one dared to say a word or make one more action. Only Gai Zhongcheng seems to be out of the norm without restraint, in his opinion, this sacrificial dance is just a big drama directed by him, and he can see the truth in it. Everyone involved in it was in awe and solemnity, but he didn't, and this was his advantage as a superior person.

After all, the battle must be fought, the sacrifice must also be carried out, life needs a sense of ritual, and war needs even more.

It's just that what he doesn't know is that in this grand sacrifice, there is another person who is not in awe of it.

Fumeng Lingcha walked down from the altar, stood in front of Gai Jiayun and bowed his hands and said, "The hour is not early, please also invite Zhongcheng to come to the stage to sacrifice."

Gai Jiayun threw out the water bag in his hand, and the attendant hurriedly stepped forward and hugged it in his arms.

"Okay, kill and sacrifice!"

At the sound of Gai Zhongcheng's order, the soldiers who drove the livestock drew their horizontal knives at their waists and slashed at the cattle and sheep, and in the blink of an eye, the livestock fell in a pool of blood.

Twenty-eight warriors came up with wooden planks, put the severed heads of oxen and sheep's heads on the boards, and took seven bowls of blood from black porcelain bowls.

The sacrificial ceremony officially began, and the warriors carried seven pairs of oxen and sheep heads on wooden planks and walked side by side to the altar. Seven chief priests and deputy priests followed side by side, they were, Gai Jiayun, deputy envoy Yang Xilie, Fumeng Lingcha, Tuqi Shihe Modagan, Bahana Khan, King of Shiguo Tutun, and King of Mi Musi. They were followed by their own flags.

The warriors put the sacrifice on the sacrificial table and retreated, Gai Jiayun and other seven people held incense sticks in their hands, worshiped heaven and earth, and after they knelt three times and bowed nine times, they stood up and held a bowl full of blood, and turned to face the Tang United Army listed as a phalanx below.