The hope of not being reconciled is getting slimmer and dwindle, because of the fierce attacks they have suffered. First of all, hundreds of black-armored cavalry, they whistled, like a gallop of lightning, a rain of arrows flew over, and no matter whether they shot down ten or dozens of coalition sergeants, anyway, before you could react, they had already turned their horses' heads and disappeared, leaving only a cloud of dust and smoke, a dozen corpses, and screaming wounded.

Or in a certain place with woods, just as the coalition cavalry stopped to clean up and prepare for a temporary rest, a dozen Beifu sergeants in black leather armor rushed out of the woods, armed with axes, broadswords or sticks, knocked the stunned coalition sergeants to the ground several times, and then suddenly disappeared into the woods as they came. Looking at their comrades lying on the ground with bloody flesh and blood, looking at the calm woods, the coalition sergeants didn't know what to do?

The coalition sergeants all know that most of the injured companions will die screaming and coma because of the "infection" they don't know, and a few lucky ones may be left alive, but without the kind care of their companions, it will be difficult for them to return to their tribes and pastures alive. Looking at the trees gently swaying in the wind, listening to the calm, gentle sound of leaves, the coalition sergeants knew they couldn't do anything.

Later, they were not at ease at night, often being attacked by hundreds of people running rockets. However, on the seventh day of their entry into Atami Prefecture, they were subjected to one of the largest night raids.

When the coalition sergeants easily survived midnight in vigilance and anxiety, and stayed up until dawn, the Beifu sergeants, who were very experienced in night battles, quietly sneaked closer. They know that this is the time when people who have been suffering all night are most sleepy.

The sharp arrows of a dozen "sharpshooters" flew silently through the black air, and then pierced into the bodies of the dazed coalition sentinels like the teeth of poisonous snakes. The occasional scream sounded like a clarion call for the Beifu army to attack the ground at night, and I don't know how many people came out of the night. They emerged from the ground like the fierce warriors of the Demon King of Kalechia (a demon in the legend of Kangju). Their shouts were the sneer of the Grim Reaper, their sharp sabers were the punishment of the Grim Reaper, their torches were the gaze of the Grim Reaper, and the entire camp had become the territory of the Grim Reaper.

In a hellish camp. The sound of horses' hooves. The sound of sharp weapons breaking through the air. The screams, the cracking of bones, and the crackling sound of the fire made Shuo Weitian feel a fantasy world, a mysterious world like the mouth of the old man Maude Aihe. All the sounds fluttered in the night with the beating of the firelight, like the footsteps of the Grim Reaper, beating the hearts of the earth in the wind one after another. And the elusive Beifu sergeant is like wearing the mask of death. Or maybe they're the Grim Reaper. They floated around the camp like those voices, their terrible holes in the ground looming in the light of the fire. Either in the midst of panic running, or just out of the tent at the sound of the noise, or in the midst of a nervous assembly, many coalition sergeants were suddenly attacked by the flickering sound. This may be the true face of the god of death, they often look at the face of the Beifu sergeant who emerged from the darkness at the last moment of their lives, and let out a long sigh.

When the sky finally turns purple. According to the previous style of the Beifu Army. Still just like when they came, the Beifu cavalry soon disappeared into the darkness of the night, just like their mounts and the steel knives in their hands.

More than 4,000 allied sergeants lay in pools of blood. Some were cut down, some were shot by stray arrows, some were burned alive in the tents that were crushed down, some were trampled by horses and men, and many of the looted booty were reduced to ashes in the fire. At this time, the coalition forces were also surprised to find that in addition to these losses, their horse camp and prisoner of war camp were also attacked, not only thousands of captured Atami people fled, but also their own war horses were scattered in the fire and chaos, if it was not for the timely encirclement and recovery, the loss of more than a thousand war horses.

And what did the coalition gain by paying these heavy costs? Hundreds of corpses of the enemy, but most of them were fleeing civilians of Atami Prefecture, and there were less than fifty real Hokufu sergeants.

This time, the leaders were not angry, they looked at the devastated camp in front of them, and felt more fear than ever, and they finally realized what kind of enemy they had encountered. However, these Beikangju people should really be thankful that they did not meet the "old Xiang Army" in Beifu. If Zeng Hua's first westward expedition had followed the Xiang army to launch this attack, the Kangju coalition army, which was not an army at all, would have collapsed long ago, and was already on the way to flee for its life.

Some of the more than 100,000 Xiang troops who perished in Wusun a few years ago and recovered the Western Regions returned to Guanlong, some of them used as the foundation and skeleton to build the Xiang Army and government soldiers in the West and Sha Prefectures, and some of them retired and directly converted into "grassroots cadres" in the West and Sha Prefectures according to Zeng Hua's order. The current Western and Shazhou Xiang armies and government soldiers are really far inferior to Guan Longhuben, who has been trained by Zeng Hua for more than ten years, and even the government soldiers of He, Shuo, and Pingzhou are inferior, after all, the government soldiers there have successively destroyed Rouran, Daiguo, Yan, Goguryeo, Silla and other countries, and their combat experience is far better than that of the Western and Shazhou armies who are just thieves.

Qi Zhiwu's heart had turned to ashes, and he didn't know why the Beifu army had become so cunning and tough, and the cooperation with each other, the quality of individual soldiers, even far exceeded the glorious ancestors he imagined. The clansmen who moved westward, those Hun warriors who crisscrossed the grassland, could they continue the myth of invincibility when they encountered such an enemy?

Different from the anxious mood of the Qi Zhi House, Shuo Weiping seemed more and more anxious, his eyes full of loss searched carefully on the ground, trying to find the gourd elixir he longed for from every corpse, every inch of land, although most of the corpses on the ground belonged to his coalition companions, but Shuo Weitieping never gave up.

During the morning of Shuo Weiping's search, the leaders of the coalition finally came up with a decision, and they were ready to retreat back to the area west of the Shiba River and return to their pastures. In less than ten days after entering Atami County, less than 5,000 old and young women and children were captured, but more than 6,000 people were lost. Most of the leaders were illiterate, but they could still settle the account. They have lost too much. Moreover, the military strength and determination to fight shown by the Zhongbei Mansion Army in this night attack have already made these tribal leaders frightened. It's like a few robbers who are ready to rob a bank, only to find that today is the day when the police pay their salaries, and the bank hall is full of armed policemen, and everyone will be depressed.

However, before the coalition forces retreated, they had to conduct a reconnaissance of the surrounding Beifu Army and verify the military situation before deciding on the route of withdrawal. Hearing the news, Shuo Weitieping did not hesitate to sign up with a pair of blood-red eyes. The Prayer House and the Warmer looked at each other, knowing that his good brother was red-eyed. Prepare to find the most in Scouting

Opportunity. They didn't hesitate anything. He stood silently and quickly the rest of the dozen or so cavalrymen also signed up, making up the number of people in this reconnaissance team.

God may have really taken pity on poor Shuo Weiping, and gave him one last chance. Soon, Shuo Weiping's coalition reconnaissance team very accidentally encountered a Beifu Army squad, a patrol of the Beifu Army to contain the wounded, and there were two medical guards in it.

Medical soldiers are the characteristics of the Beifu Army, since Zeng Hua founded the army. As a traverser, it is natural to attach importance to the medical care system. However, due to the medical level at that time, this system could only be configured with a few "Langzhong doctors" to see "colds and the like", and it was completely impossible to implement it as a formal configuration. After more than ten years of governance and gathering, Zeng Hua's subordinates finally have a group of medical and nursing talents, and every non-commissioned officer school has a medical department, and has also accumulated a wealth of "contemporary medical experience".

In the great restructuring of Xingning. Zeng Hua formalized the medical care system of the Beifu Army. Each outpost is staffed by a medic. The military rank is second-class or first-class warrior officer, and there is one military medical officer above each team, which is a subordinate officer for the team. Directly under the Department of Military Affairs, the subordinates directly have a medical guard as their deputy. The military medical officer in each battalion is also responsible for a medical station, which is responsible for larger "surgical operations" and provides a general recuperation facility for the wounded. And from the non-commissioned officer school, the same level of medical and nursing schools are separated, specializing in training medical soldiers, and then the medical and nursing soldiers are promoted step by step, and sent to the military medical university to train military medical officers.

In addition to being equipped with armor and horizontal knives like non-commissioned officers, the medical staff of the Beifu Army were also equipped with a "medical kit", which was full of medicines and equipment. In addition to a gourd epaulette on the right shoulder, they also wore a white gown on the outside of the armor, and a black gourd was embroidered on the front and back sides as a sign of identification.

Shuo Weiping saw the gourd logo and immediately pounced like a hungry wolf on the medical guard who was identified as a gourd baby. Qi Zhiwu and the others hurriedly followed behind, covering Shuo Weiping.

The patrol soldiers of Beifu couldn't help but be angry when they saw Shuo Weiping rushing towards the medical soldiers like crazy, these Kangju people were really bold as the sky, and they actually dared to fight the idea of the medical soldiers. You must know that in the Beifu Army, in addition to the most respected clergymen in the army, the next is the medical guard. Seeing that the Kangju coalition army didn't say a word and went straight to the medical soldiers, how could they not make the Beifu sergeants angry? So he swung his steel knife and urged his mount to meet him.

For a time, people screamed and horses neighed, knives and axes collided, and the sound of killing shook the sky. The two teams are equal in number, they are also herdsmen, and the quality of individual soldiers is about the same, so the quality of morale and weapons is the fight. Although the soldiers of Xizhou Mansion are not as elite as the soldiers of Guanlongfu and the soldiers of Heshuo Prefecture, they are also formed in strict accordance with the military system of Beifu, and there are many weapons and armor standard in Beifu. After more than ten years of development, the industrial capacity of Beifu has made the world unimaginable. Moreover, according to the fine tradition of the Beifu Army, military discipline and a sense of honor ensured that the soldiers of the Xizhou Prefecture had high morale and fighting spirit.

Compared with each other, the Kangju coalition army quickly gained the upper hand, and if it weren't for the heroic performance of Qi Zhiwu and the others, inspiring other companions who were struggling to support, this coalition reconnaissance team of more than 20 people might have collapsed long ago.

But Shuo Weiping was even more courageous, avoiding the obstruction of the two Beifu sergeants, and went straight to one of the medical guards, seeing that he was about to swallow this medical soldier in one bite. However, in addition to treating injuries and saving people, the medical guards in Beifu have also received strict military training, and they can also shoot and kill on horseback.

Seeing Shuo Wei Tieping rushing over, the medical guard raised his horizontal knife and fought against him unhurriedly, and also used the sharpness of the horizontal knife to suppress Shuo Wei Ping's momentum.

Shuo Weiping saw that he couldn't take advantage of it for a while, so he changed his strategy, and pointed the knife directly at the medical bag carried by the medical guard, probably because the gourd logo on it attracted him.

The medical guard sighed secretly, this kid is quite knowledgeable. The most valuable and precious thing on my body is this medical kit. There are sulfur powder, Beifu secret blood meal, marching pills and other medicines, gauze bandages, alloy copper hemostats and other tools and instruments. Sulfur powder is made by grinding sulfur into a powder. Specifically for wound disinfection; Beifu secret blood powder is Chang'an Pharmaceutical Factory collected folk prescriptions from all over the world, and it was developed after many tests, which contains pangolin shells, crane grass, Panax notoginseng and other medicinal materials dried into powder, which is the most effective in stopping bleeding and removing stasis, and I don't know how many injured sergeants have been saved; The marching pill is configured according to the prescriptions provided by Zeng Hua, such as Xiangzheng Qi Water and Rendan, which specializes in treating alternating cold and heat, not adapting to water and soil, and has the effect of clearing heat and opening the body and dispelling filth, detoxification, and peace. Needless to say, gauze bandages. The hemostatic clip made of silver, copper, tin and other alloys is packed in an iron box. It is specially used to clamp blood vessels. It can be regarded as one of the "new surgery" inventions created by Zeng Hua.

Therefore, this medical bag is the guy who eats for the medical soldiers, and it is also the root of his life, how can he let Shuo Weiping snatch it, so he danced more happily with the horizontal knife in his hand, so that Shuo Weiping couldn't get close to him, and he was almost about to go away. And the sergeant of the Beifu next to him quickly came back to his senses, and two horses came over. Supporting the Medic.

When the medical soldiers turned around, Shuo Weiping easily found an opportunity to cut the medical bag. The medical kit is made of Beifu canvas, which is soaked in tung oil, which is waterproof but cannot block the blade. The medical bag snapped a small opening, and a porcelain vase fell gently, rolled on the ground and came to rest at the edge of a nest of grass.

Shuo Weiping has long seen it. Immediately turn the horse's head. Reach for the elixir. Just as his hand touched the medicine bottle, a Beifu sergeant next to him rushed over and waved his hand with a knife. Splitting on the back of this Kangju man who grabbed medicine and didn't want to die, he suddenly cut out a deep knife cut.

Shuo Weiping screamed, his hand paused, but he still did not stop moving, and in an instant he held the medicine bottle in his hand, and then climbed on the saddle, turned the horse's head and ran back. Seeing that Shuo Weiping had succeeded, he didn't care about his injuries, so he immediately covered him and ran back together.

Back in the camp, the prayer branch house checked the wound that had not been flattened, and found that it was deep and long, and the blood was flowing out like a spring, so he hurriedly found some rags and wool with Wen Jishu and others, and pasted them on the wound to stop the bleeding, and then found some herbs and put them on it. After a moment of scramble, the bleeding finally stopped from the wound that had not been flattened, and he lay there tiredly, his lips pale from blood loss, and he tried to drink the water from the warm beard's hand. Qi Zhiwu stood aside, his heart was unusually heavy, he knew that if Shuo did not close the wound and stop the bleeding, it did not mean that he was out of danger, the biggest danger of such a big wound was infection.

At the same time, more than a dozen other reconnaissance teams also returned from the desert, and there were also many casualties, and the news they brought was that this place was now full of Beifu troops, with tens of thousands of people, and it seemed that they were about to launch a counterattack.

Let the leaders immediately make a decision to withdraw their troops, no matter whether they lose this time or this massive crusade is like this, these leaders have only one thought, to retreat. Because they know that if these young men of their tribe die, not only will no one herd cattle and sheep for themselves, but even their own tribe may disappear into the grassland.

The coalition forces retreated quickly, following their original route straight to the Broken Leaf River, and then crossed the shallow section of the river west of Broken Leaf Fort, returning to their original hometown. The prayer house and the warmer made a cloth net and hung it between the two horses, so that Shuo Weijie lay down in it and retreated together.

In the past three days, the Beifu Army has been in hot pursuit, and the coalition army has kept running westward, and people have kept falling behind and falling into the encirclement of the Beifu army, and the situation of the entire coalition army has become more and more critical. And the situation is becoming more and more sinister. Not only did the wound begin to rot and pus, but the person also began to develop a high fever and fell unconscious from time to time. Seeing him like this, Qi Zhiwu couldn't help but get anxious, but there was nothing he could do, he could only wash it with hot water and then apply it with herbs, but the effect was not obvious at all.

In the end, the prayer house listened to a home remedy of the warmer, washed the wound with horse urine for Shuo Weiping, and applied grass ash to the wound, but it still had no effect.

On the fifth day, the prayer house had already heard the rushing sound of the Shiba River, and you could see the Sensensan Mountain (Kyrgyz Mountain) on the opposite side in the distance, and you would be the hometown after crossing the river. But Shuo Weiping was even more seriously injured, his pale face was burned to black and red, and his sunken eyes had little brilliance. All day long, he was in a coma and babbling gibberish, barely waking up.

Maybe it was the rushing sound of the Broken Leaf River that woke him up, or maybe it was the smell of his hometown waking from the other side that woke him up, Shuo Weiping actually woke up, and he was very sober.

"Are you almost home?" Shuo Weiping asked.

"It's here after the Broken Leaf River." Qi Zhiwu replied heavily.

"Okay, I'm finally home, I've finally brought the elixir home." Shuo Weiping smiled, and there was a sudden hint of vitality on his pale and thin face.

"Maybe it's a return to the past." The warmer who had seen more of it whispered to the prayer house.

Qi Zhiwu nodded knowingly. Holding Shuo Weiping's hand more and more. "Brother Shuo is not sticking to the flat. It's better to use some of the elixir first, so that you can cure both your illness and your son's illness, killing two birds with one stone. ”

"No, such a small bottle of immortal medicine may only be able to cure my son's disease. What if I use it and he doesn't have enough medicine? I'd better leave it to him. Shuo Wei Tieping said this. His breathing became a little rough, and his face became darker and bluer.

"Qizhiwu, my brother, can you help me bring this bottle of medicine to my son?" Shuo Weiping shuddered and took out the small medicine bottle that he treasured closely, and handed it to the prayer branch house with a trembling voice.

Qi Zhiwu's eyes turned red all of a sudden, and his nose was sour, and he took the immortal medicine bottle and treasured it closely, and then held Shuo Weiping's hand tightly. "Good brother. I'll keep the elixir for you for the time being, and I'll return it to you when you get home. ”

"Brother Qizhiwu, please bring it to my son. I will repay it in the next life..., please bring..."

At this moment, Shuo Weiping's eyes suddenly became blank, and his hands became extremely weak, but his right hand was unexpectedly raised, pointing unusually firmly to the southwest, where there was his land, his pasture, his cattle and sheep, his family, and his hope for his son. Shuo Weiping's throat muttered several times, and finally he breathed a long sigh of relief, and his life disappeared gloomily into the endless grasslands and heaven and earth with that sigh of relief.

"Brother Shuo Weiping!" Qi Zhiwu was full of grief, and hugged Shuo Weiping's increasingly cold body tightly, and tears fell on Shuo Weiping's shirt one after another.

In the whirring wind, the weeping warmer softly sang the Kang folk song: "You can no longer hear this song, you are far away, my good brother, you have returned to the territory of your ancestors." Do you know that you will never become an eagle, never fly back to Kosi Ilesi (the Serb name for the lower reaches of the Syr Darya), and not see that tent, and cannot say to it: 'Oh, my homeland, I am back!' You've flown away forever. ”

Listening to the low singing in my ears, mixed with the sound of the river in the distance, I was like crying. Looking at the blue sky, white clouds, grasslands and snow-capped mountains in the distance, Qizhiwu suddenly understood in the song that no matter which nation, no matter whether it was once strong or declining, it was always full of suffering, and countless sufferings finally converged into this vast land, grassland and Gobi, and the people lived and extended their heirs in this heavy suffering, but did not forget the desire for beauty, freedom and happiness in the midst of hardship, and the desire for these ideals finally gathered into the Broken Leaf River, rushing away from the land of suffering and roaring towards the beautiful other side.

At this time, a thick and majestic horn sound woke up the entire land of Broken Leaf River, and it was like a god's gaze looking down on this rich grassland, looking down on more than 10,000 anxious coalition soldiers.

With the sound of the horn, the dull sound of horses' hooves slowly sounded, and a piece of white appeared in everyone's sight. Tens of thousands of Beifu troops lined up in a neat phalanx horizontal line formation, slowly pressing forward. And such a team also appeared on the opposite side of the Broken Leaf River, but their armor was black, and they also stood unusually neatly in the distance, lined up on the way home of the coalition army.

The coalition sergeants who were preparing to wade across the Shaba River knew that they were surrounded by the Beifu army, and what awaited them was a brutal battle, and they had only two endings, either surrender or die in battle.

Qi Zhiwu gently put down Shuo Weiping's corpse, touched the medicine bottle attached to his chest, and said secretly in his heart: "Good brother, I will definitely bring the immortal medicine back to your son." ”

After a while, in a tidal wave of cheers, the Beifu Xiang army brandished their sabers and rushed over with shouts, and they lined up in several horizontal lines, guided by three large cones, and soon inserted themselves into the chaotic formation of the coalition army. Soon, a huge shouting of killing sounded from the Broken Leaf River, covering the sound of the Broken Leaf River from a distance.

At dusk, the tide had long receded, the ground was full of corpses, weapons and guns were thrown aside, and the war horses were looking up and neighing beside them, trying to wake up their masters who were lying there, but the sorrowful roar that echoed between heaven and earth could only drift faintly in the twilight wind, like these souls that had fallen in a foreign land.

On the messy ground, Qizhiwu also lay quietly here, his empty eyes looking at the sky, as if he was just lying here listening to the sound of the river rushing in the distance. The placket of his body was cut open several times by a sharp blade, and in one of the openings, a gray-blue porcelain vase exposed half of the mouth.

The colder and colder wind, like the darkening sky, soon caressed the wilderness, the blood-stained face of the prayer house, and then continued westward, toward the distant land.