After a few more days, Zhu Ming came to Pugu Cage.

He was a little surprised by what he saw, it was not a village, but a small city, and even a stone wall.

If Zhu Ming carefully flipped through the "New Tang Dynasty Book" or "Zizhi Tongjian", he would be able to know the origin of this city.

It is the Tang Dynasty loyal military general Yan Qingfu, in order to resist the Nanzhao State built Xin'an City.

The Qiongbu Chuan Barbarian Bedeng Department occupied this place, repaired the collapsed city wall, and built many watchtowers in the city. renamed Utorku, that is, "Uto City"; According to the name of the tribe, it is also called "Bedeng City"; Or called "Pugu City", "Pugu Cage".

The barbarians south of the Dadu River are actually descendants of the Qiang people of Yihua.

To put it more specifically, their ancestor is Baimayi, also known as Baimaqiang.

As for the Qiongbe River, it is the name of a river, and the tribes that live along the river are collectively called the Qiongbe River.

Along the way, Zhu Ming's small notebook was almost full. He briefly recorded the mountains, rivers and tribes along the way, and drew simple maps of key places.

For Da Song, this is unprecedented information.

Because since Zhao Kuangyin founded the country, the Great Song Dynasty court has never sent envoys to the south, and only let Lizhou officials deal with the barbarians.

The officials of Lizhou, on the other hand, only focused on the area north of the Dadu River, and never thought of going to the south to find out the truth.

Inside the city.

The houses of the Han people in the Tang Dynasty have long ceased to exist, and have been replaced by various barbarian houses.

The Great Ghost Lord of the Hundred Barbarians lives in the center of the city, and his cage fort is built on five floors. The top floor is full of food and weapons, the ghost lord and his wife and concubine live on the fourth floor, the children and grandchildren live on the second and third floors, and the ground floor is where the ghost lord works.

There are also a number of cage forts around this cage fort, most of which are three-storey and a few are four-storey.

Nestled between the cages and forts are ordinary two-story buildings, and even livestock are housed on the ground floor. Well...... It's a bit like moving a village into the city, there are hardly a few shops to be seen, and the lifestyle is similar to that in the village.

"The big ghost master, the Han official is here!"

The lord of the hundred barbarian capitals, Tho Meng, was personally feeding the war horses, and his subordinates hurriedly ran to report.

Tho was stunned, frowned and said to himself: "What is the Han official doing here?" ”

Han Chinese officials have not set foot here for more than 200 years.

Tho Meng returned to the bedroom, combed his hair in a bun, put on a robe that symbolized his status, and led his sons to the city gate to greet him.

Li Jien scolded when he met: "This is Zhu Ming of Hanyuan Zhixian County, Lizhou, who came on the order of Zhizhou, why did you delay for so long and let Zhu Zhixian wait?" ”

"Who are you?" Tho Meng asked.

Li Jien said: "I am Sha Peng, the son of the great ghost master of the two forests, and my Chinese name is Li Jien!" ”

Tho Meng was too lazy to talk nonsense with the young man, and said to his son, "Call one of the Han people in the city." ”

Li Jien said: "I can speak Chinese, so I don't need to look for Han people." ”

"Can I trust you?" Tho sneered.

Zhu Ming was invited to the largest bunker as a guest, and a Han man named Sun Shu came after a while.

When Zhu Ming met, he asked: "It's understandable that you have come to live in a barbaric land, why don't you want the Han people's hair buns, but they comb the Yi people's hair buns?" ”

Sun Shu replied: "Go with the flow." ”

Zhu Ming took out Yu Wenchang's letter, handed it to Sun Shu and said, "Read it to this barbarian leader." ”

Sun Shu opened the letter, turned to Tho Meng and said, "Honorable Lord of the Great Ghosts, this is a letter from the Han official of Lizhou. ”

"Read." Tho said fiercely.

Sun Shu translated the literary dialect into Barbarian: "The Han officials of Lizhou said that the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians were favored by the Great Song Dynasty for generations and accepted the canonization of the imperial court......"

"Your department was originally just a big ghost master. Seventy years ago, the great ghost lord of the hundred barbarian capitals blea Mo and ungrateful plundered Lizhou. Lizhou Taishou Sun Gu sent troops to conscript, and your grandfather took the opportunity to kill Ba Mo, and he usurped the throne and became the great ghost master of the hundred barbarian capitals. ”

"The Great Song Dynasty remembers your grandfather's merits and recognizes your grandfather's status as the master of the Great Ghost of the Hundred Barbarians. The imperial court has the kindness of promoting and rebuilding your whole family, why did you often harass the Han people after you succeeded to the throne, and also blocked the passage of tribute and mutual market for the barbarians? ”

"The two forest barbarians are also the barbarians of the imperial court, why do you keep attacking them, and you also take away the land and population of the two forest barbarians, and many Taishou in Lizhou don't listen to the admonitions?"

"I heard that you robbed the two forest barbarians of tribute horses and goods last year, and also plundered hundreds of men and women and a lot of grain from the two forest barbarians. The government has generously refused to investigate the previous mistakes, and the population and grain looted last year must be returned to the two forest barbarians. ”

"If you still don't obey the order, the Han official will go to the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, deprive you of all your titles, and take back your position as the Great Ghost Master of the Hundred Barbarian Capital!"

Tho Meng suddenly smiled when he heard this: "The Great Ghost Lord of the Hundred Barbarian Cities, I robbed it by my grandfather himself, what does it have to do with the emperor of the Song Kingdom?" If it weren't for my grandfather's help, how could the Han official named Sun Gu at that time be able to win the barbarian army? ”

The contradictions between the barbarian tribes are really not small, and Tho Meng's grandfather belongs to the usurper, and he was also in the Qingli period, taking advantage of the Great Song Dynasty to kill the lord and stand on his own.

Li Jien immediately translated Tho Meng's words, and added fuel and vinegar and said: "County Zun, this person doesn't take the imperial court in his eyes and is disrespectful to the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty. ”

Zhu Ming said: "Ask him if he will return the population and grain of the two forest barbarians. ”

Sun Shu hurriedly translated and advised in a low voice: "The Great Ghost Lord, these two Lin Barbarian princes are sowing discord and want to lure the imperial army to attack us. Although the Han soldiers in Lizhou were weak, the Great Song Dynasty had a more powerful army, and they were able to send hundreds of thousands of troops. Don't provoke this Han official, pretend to agree for the time being, and casually return a few old and weak, a few sick horses, and a few stones of old rice. The Han officials in Lizhou have face, and they will no longer pursue the matter. ”

Tho Meng developed the Qiongbu Sichuan Barbarian into an extremely prosperous state, and looked down on Han officials and Han soldiers in his heart, and he has been a little drifting in recent years. But the basic sanity was still there, so he said: "Tell this Han official that I will return the population and food." ”

Sun Shu didn't give Li Jien a chance to provoke, and hurriedly translated: "The county respects Rongyu, the big ghost lord has already realized his mistake, and is willing to return the population, war horses and grain of the two forest barbarians. ”

Zhu Ming said: "Let him prepare immediately, and within ten days, I will watch him return!" ”

After Sun Shu's translation, Tho Meng was angry when he heard it.

He felt that he was already very face-saving, and he could send it away by returning it casually, but Zhu Ming insisted on watching him return it within a time limit.

Forcibly holding back his anger, Tho Meng said: "I will return it in ten days, please ask this magistrate to eat meat and drink wine at night!" ”

Eating meat and drinking wine is fake, but showing strength is real.

There was an open space in the city, and when night fell, torches were lit.

Tho Meng recruited many tribal warriors, all of them with armor.

He wanted to scare Zhu Ming, but he just gave Zhu Ming the opportunity to observe the barbarians.

These elite brutes were all dressed in leather armor, and their weapons were mainly spears, bows and arrows were homemade earthen bows, and a few carried shields and short knives.

As the great ghost lord of the hundred barbarian capitals, Tho Meng personally presided over the ghost sacrifice ceremony.

A human animal was brought to the altar, disemboweled, the heart was taken out, the head was cut off, and the sacrifice began in blood.

"Vomit ......"

A Lizhou cavalryman beside Zhu Ming vomited directly because of nausea.

Li Bao said in disgust: "It's really a barbarian, and he even kills people and sacrifices." ”

Zhang Bo said: "When troops are sent to suppress it, and then vigorously carry out education, the work of a hundred years may be reversed." ”

Tho Meng kept staring at Zhu Ming's side, and when he saw that some of Zhu Ming's subordinates were vomiting, he suddenly felt even more proud, and felt that the Han people were weak, and they were even afraid of killing and sacrificing ghosts.

At the end of the ghost worship ceremony, the barbarians present cheered in unison, as if they had been blessed by the ghosts and gods.

"Knock knock!"

Tribal priests beat leather drums.

More than a dozen elite barbarians began to dance around the bonfire, dancing the kind of war dance that sacrifices to the ghosts and gods and celebrates victory.

Zhu Ming watched coldly throughout the whole process.

After the war dance, they then tried their martial arts, and the barbarians wrestled in pairs.

Tho pointed at the brutes: "What about my warriors?" ”

Zhu Ming nodded: "Acceptable." ”

Sun Shu translated: "The Han official said that he was very brave. ”

Li Jien immediately debunked: "The Han official said that the warriors of the Bedeng Department are not very good, and they can barely see it." ”

"Huh?"

Tho Meng's eyes widened suddenly, and he said angrily: "The Han people are weak, and the Han officials have no strength, so they actually look down on my warriors." You, a Han official, came with weapons, do you dare to fight with our warriors? ”

Li Jien and Sun Shu rushed to translate the former deliberately provoked, and the latter tried to ease it as much as possible, but the general meaning was similar.

Li Bao was furious when he heard this: "What kind of identity is Xianggong, how can he fight with the barbarians?" Let me teach these bastards a lesson! ”

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Zhang Bo will go to test the weapon first." ”

Zhang Bo's battle skills are average, but his foot combat heads-up skills are top-notch.

Zhu Ming said to Sun Shu: "It's not interesting to wrestle in the corner, if you want to compare and test weapons, it doesn't matter if you live or die!" ”

Li Jien hurriedly translated: "The Han official said that children only wrestle, and real warriors fight with weapons, and they deserve to be killed!" ”

"That's not what Han Guan said." Sun Shu hurriedly corrected.

Li Jien asked: "Did the Han official say that he wanted to use weapons to compare life and death?" ”

Sun Shu defended: "It's to make such a comparison, but I didn't say that children only wrestle!" ”

Tho Meng understood and called a warrior: "Ah Ji, you go to test the weapon, kill the Han man, and let the Han officials see the bravery of my son!" ”

The brute soldiers who were wrestling retreated one after another.

Zhang Bo walked into the middle with a sword, and Ah Ji also walked over, holding a short spear and shield in his hand.

There are many barbarians around, and there are many women with disheveled hair.

"Knock knock!"

The barbarian priest began beating the leather drum again.

He stooped forward and slapped his shield with his spear, as if he were hunting wild beasts.

Zhang Bo has two swords, long and short, and the short sword is inserted in the waist and is not pulled out.

Ah Ji bent forward and began to move around Zhang Bo, who just stood in place to adjust the direction.

"Drink!"

Ah Ji roared, trying to shock with his voice, and at the same time, the short spear made an attack feint.

Zhang Bo was unmoved, just stood with his sword.

After a full half a minute of probing, Ah Ji finally couldn't help it, and pounced forward with his shield, and the short spear was hidden behind the shield and stabbed.

Zhang is accustomed to a ranger-style heads-up, immediately pulling away and going around to the side.

Ah Ji thought that the opponent was scared, and suddenly attacked more fiercely, and chased after him step by step.

This barbarian warrior is quite difficult, although the shield is not large, but he always shrinks his body, hiding all the vital parts, and a spear is like a poisonous snake waiting for an opportunity.

Replaced by Zhu Ming, he smashed it directly with a blow, even if he didn't smash the wooden shield, he could shake the opponent's mouth numb!

The two sides were entangled for a while, and Zhang Bo deliberately sold a flaw to lure Ah Ji to stab with a spear.

At the moment when the short spear stabbed out, the shield finally revealed the gap.

Between the lightning and flint, Zhang Bo swung his sword with his right hand and hit the spear, and pulled out his short sword with his left hand and threw it.

The short sword flew into Ah Ji's exposed thigh, and Zhang Bo took the opportunity to take a step sideways, and the long sword swiped at Ah Ji's neck.

Ah Ji was shocked and retreated, and the leather armor on his right shoulder was cut out.

Zhang Bo was unforgiving, swinging his sword and attacking continuously.

Ah Ji was hit by a sword in his thigh, his steps became more and more messy, and he was finally lured away by Zhang Bo, and a sword accurately stabbed into his throat.

The drumming stopped, and the barbarian shouts died down.

Ah Ji fell to the ground, blood gushing from his throat.

Zhang Bo pulled back his short sword, put the sword into the sheath and walked in front of Zhu Ming, and arched his hand: "Bore's good luck is not dishonored!" ”

(End of chapter)