On the north bank of the Kuli River, there is a long and narrow plateau running north-south, the edge of the plateau is not as steep as a knife, but the curve is smooth and meets the valleys on both sides, looking from a distance, like a bear lying on the ground.

Therefore, this plateau and its surrounding valley area are also known locally as Crouching Bear Ridge.

The area of the plateau is about six or seven hectares, and the pine and cypress trees occupy nearly half of the space, and the rest is the flat land with a thick layer of soil. The valleys on both sides are also densely vegetated, and because of the irrigation of the Kuli River canal, it can be called a rich area of water and grass.

In late autumn, the river is exhausted, revealing a large tidal flat riverbed, and most of the reeds and aquatic plants have withered.

At this time, there was a group of ragged male and female slaves in the tidal flats, stepping on the muddy ponds with deep and shallow feet, cutting the withered yellow reeds and aquatic plants with stone knives.

Although it has withered, these reeds are strong enough to be used for weaving bedding and repairing houses, making them an excellent material for a wide range of uses. But if you use a rough and blunt stone knife, it becomes very difficult.

There was still water left in the mud pond, and it was not completely frozen, and the slaves walked in it barefoot, most of their legs were sunk in the mud, and they still held tools that did not fit them, and they were all pale and bloodless from the cold.

In such a situation, every breath is cruel torture, but they dare not slack off. Because there were Hu pawns on the case to supervise the work, once it was found that they were slow and did not harvest much, a sharp arrow would immediately fly and shoot people directly into the mud pond.

"Dog slave shoots accurately!"

A pawn mistakenly killed a slave who worked quite diligently, which immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the team leader, but he only pointed and scolded, and did not give more scolding and punishment.

After scolding his subordinates, the leader looked at the slaves who were still active in the mud pond and sighed: "With only these Han slaves, it will be difficult to survive this winter!" Be merciful and don't kill at will. Han'er is getting more and more slippery, and the winter hunting income is getting less and less. At the beginning of spring next year, if there are no slaves to make, you will all get off your horses and plow the land! ”

"Doesn't it mean that there are big men who blow trumpets and beat drums and want to lead us to attack Han'er City? Attacking it, I am worried that there are no slaves to use! ”

A Hu pawn said disapprerovingly, with a lot of expectation in his tone.

When the leader heard this, he snorted coldly: "Are you so easy to attack the big city of Dao Han'er? Even if the various tribes are mobilized, they must have human lives to fill the formation, and they may not be able to take it. Besides, the big man clan is not strong, and a few of our Qu Shuai may not be willing to support him. ”

As he spoke, dozens of men and women in the valley behind the slope drove a large herd of cattle and sheep back from grazing, and most of those men and women were disheveled and laughing.

When the Hu pawn who was in charge of supervising the work of the slaves saw this, he was very angry, and pointed to the returning shepherds and shouted: "If you don't keep an eye on the herd carefully, you will only have wild fun, lose your cattle and sheep, and skin your men and women!" ”

Sexual prostitution, men and women can have sex at will before they get married, but they will be restrained after they get married. Not out of chastity and morality, but out of the protection of property.

Jihu's living environment is already bad, it is extremely difficult to support a population, the woman's productivity is not high, eating at home, fattening the outside household, if her husband finds out, beat and kills at will, serious her father and brother will even be implicated and scolded.

As the sun began to set in the west, the chief looked at the sky and commanded, "Call those slaves back, and look closer to the left." We're going to move out in a few days, but don't make a mistake! ”

This area is suitable for farming and grazing, and every spring and summer there will be Hu tribes to settle here. However, because the environment is too superior, the risk of exposure also increases. Therefore, in autumn and winter, the beard who lives here will scavenge for surface resources and move to more secluded valleys for the winter.

"The Western Thief just lost to the Eastern Dynasty last year, and now it is difficult to protect himself, I am afraid that the King of the Eastern Dynasty will attack and kill him, and he will be willing to use his troops here! In my opinion, it's nothing if you don't move this year, even if a small army of thieves comes to disturb you, just kill it. Turning back in the coming year, I don't know which part of this fertile land will be occupied! ”

Hearing this, several young pawns couldn't help but complain. Although they lived in the wilderness, they had also heard of the outcome of the Great War between the East and the West, so they did not think that the Western Dynasty would attack them in such a situation.

"Where is all this nonsense! In previous years, there were warriors in the ministry who were more heroic than you, but they all died. ”

The leader scolded impatiently, turned his horse to a big tree beside the road, grabbed a shepherdessman who was waiting there, and rode his horse to the plateau.

On the top of the hill sits a rammed earth walled castle, part of which is a dwelling with felt tents, and part of which is a stack of warehouses of different sizes, in which the materials that this tribe has been settling here for half a year to produce and accumulate.

On one side of the castle are herds of cows, horses and sheep, and simple stables and shacks are built. On the other side, the slave population they had plundered from various places only lived in holes in the ground, and the environment was even more dirty and simple than that of the stables of cattle, sheep and horses, and they could live for a long time.

To the south of the castle is a large area of rough land, where the crops have already been harvested. Further south is a dense forest. At this time, a group of slaves also cut down trees and collected firewood here.

A short shout suddenly came from the forest, but the Hu pawn who was fortunate to be supervising the work outside the forest did not notice it.

A woodcutter fell into a deep ditch, and when he saw several strong men with bows and knives hiding at the bottom of the ditch, he was terrified, and said in a trembling voice: "You, you are ......"

"We are the officers and soldiers of the Northern Defense, who have entered here to suppress thieves and relieve hard labor. Don't make a noise, the army will soon arrive. How many people and horses are in this thief army, and how well they live, you can tell me carefully. ”

Lu Chuan, who had led the way and sneaked into this place for a long time, comforted the woodcutter in a low voice in a local voice, and inquired about the details of this book.

When the woodcutter heard this, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly explained what he knew about Hubu's situation, and said over and over again: "These thieves are not people, please kill them all!" ”

"The number of thieves is more than 3,000, which is not a few, no wonder it can be based on this."

After Lu Chuan got the news, he climbed close to Zhu Meng's hiding place under the cover of wild grass in the forest ditch, whispered the information to Zhu Meng, and asked for instructions: "General Zhu, should we return to Lord Lang, or ......?"

"Three thousand people, it's not worth the effort to go back and forth, just do it, fireworks are the number!"

After Zhu Meng heard this, he made a decision directly, and conveyed his order to his comrades who were hiding near the left, and the group sneaked towards the edge of the woods, which was inevitably noticed by the woodcutter in the forest, and after telling them of their intentions, he signaled them to flee into the forest and not be affected.

"Come out, get out!"

At this time, the Hu pawn, who was supervising the work outside, also noticed the strange movement of the slaves, and shouted loudly with his saber in his hand, and just took two steps with his legs, a feathered arrow flew out from the forest, directly piercing his chest.

This arrow was a signal, and dozens of brave soldiers were like tigers out of the forest, waving their knives and bows and pounced on the guards near the left.

More than a dozen Hu pawns here were also suddenly shocked, some people drew their knives and stepped forward to meet them, and some people turned around and got on their horses and galloped to call the police.

The battle happened suddenly, and the end was fast, and within a few breaths, the left and near Hu pawns were cut down and shot, but there were also several people riding horses and blowing horns to convey the warning of encountering enemy attacks.

There were still a few horses left by Hu pawns on the left, Zhu Meng and several others turned over their horses, and ordered the rest of the people to set fire to smoke outside the forest to pass the news, and a total of several people rode their horses straight to the north of the Tucheng.

Hearing the sound of the police, Tucheng reacted in panic, first dozens of Hu soldiers rushed out of the city, and soon met Zhu Meng and several people, and the two sides shot at each other before they could meet each other.

Hu Gong's soft disadvantage was divided into life and death at this moment, and several people were shot first, but Zhu Meng and the others swept sideways unscathed, and shot several more people with the Hu pawn team, and then rushed straight to the gate of Natu City.

"Stop them, stop them!"

The commander of the Hu soldiers who led the team was shocked when they saw this, they rushed to the battle, and the soldiers in the city had not yet been organized. Although the other party only has a few members, once it is rushed into the city, it will inevitably cause even more chaos.

When these Hu soldiers returned to their horses to stop the attack, the remnants of the forest had already collected firewood and burned fireworks on the flat ground, and a few people left behind to guard the fire to add firewood, and the remaining forty or so people lined up to go to the earth city.

With more than 20 soldiers to obstruct them, the infantry squad formed a circle and defended on the spot, with shields on the outside, spears on the inside, and strong bows and arrows to fight back.

Although the Hu people came quickly, more than a dozen spears burst out of the formation, so that they did not dare to collide directly, so they could only shoot around.

The stray arrows are dense and fast, but because they dare not get too close, the actual damage caused is limited, but although the rhythm of the longbow and strong arrows in the enemy formation is slow, every time the arrow is shot, there will be damage.

"Drive the horse to rush into battle, and if the formation is broken, you will die!"

Before the enemy situation was fully known, Hu Pawn did not dare to fight, so he gathered several horses that had lost their owners, and drove them straight towards this battle formation.

"Left and right geese!"

With the order of the commander, the armor soldiers came out left and right, and the originally circular formation was suddenly divided into two columns, and the rapid Hu pawns did not have time to change direction, and the side was already exposed to the enemy's edge, and the side slashed at the shield, but the ribs had been cut through by the enemy knife.

After an encounter, Hu Shu injured several more people, and several more people got into a fight. Although the enemy formation was broken away, the remaining soldiers were no longer strong enough to win.

The obvious gap in equipment made their mobility advantage insignificant, and when they saw that several enemy troops had already taken the horses, the remaining dozen or so Hu pawns did not dare to fight again, turned their horses and retreated, summoning more companions.

At this time, the Huzhong people in the city also recovered from the initial turmoil, and all the men and women in the city gathered, each holding a staff to form a defense, and another two hundred horsemen galloped out to continue to pursue the enemy on the hill.

Zhu Meng and others originally surrounded the city to make a nuisance, although they did not get in, but they also took a closer look at the bottom of the city, and seized a few idle horses, galloped back around the plateau, so that their cavalry increased to a small twenty people, and the rest of the people gathered in the field with swords, shields and spears.

When the enemy cavalry rushes closer, the cavalry is the first to block the shot, and the sharp strength has been lost in the front, and there is no foot to break the formation, so the only way to retreat is to regroup. But when you go and come back, a similar situation plays out again. If so, the third is helpless.

At this time, the police were transmitted from all sides of the plateau, and the people and horses finally arrived at the valley below, and most of the scouts scattered by Jihu were driven back, and the enemy information that had not been detected was also transmitted.

The sound of drums and horns for the internal defense of the troops sounded in the earthen city, and as the Hu pawns on the hill withdrew, Zhu Meng and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the two converged, and the men and horses checked and found that they also suffered more than a dozen casualties.

"But if you can leave this thief completely behind, the dead can rest in peace!"

Zhu Meng glanced at the crowded Tucheng, and thought silently in his heart. The terrain of this land is high and high, and Hu is cunning and vigilant, if they are not disturbed, it is difficult to completely trap them in this situation and wait for death.

(End of chapter)