In the face of a group of fierce cavalry, Gesang, who was curled up on the ground, hugged her last lamb, no matter how the strong man in front of her punched and kicked her, she still gritted her teeth and did not let go.

Even if there is already salty blood coming out of the mouth, even if it is doomed to be futile.

Spring has just passed, the cattle and sheep who have finally survived the cold winter, now is the critical period of growing up, at this time grazing is the happiest time for herdsmen, as long as the cattle and sheep eat enough, grow strong enough, and will not starve to death in winter.

This year is a good season, the grassland is lush with wild grasses, this is the happiest time for the herdsmen, thirteen-year-old Gesang heard the old people in the tribe say, this is the most abundant time in the past ten years, if they graze well this year, next year the tribe will be able to feed more people, the tribe can grow a lot.

It's a pity that in such a good season, there is a big war on the grassland, a big war that affects everyone.

Military disasters are not natural disasters, but they are often more terrible than natural disasters.

It has been several months since the Khitan army attacked the Tang Dynasty, and they have eaten a lot of cattle and sheep they carried earlier, but they have never been able to storm the Great Wall on a large scale and obtain food supplies from Han cities and villages. Under such circumstances, the army had to divide many soldiers and go to the steppe to raise military rations.

Everywhere, the way armies raise food and forage in wartime is much the same.

Robbing is the main content.

Gesang's tribe is not large, and there are only more than 100 people in the old, weak, women and children combined, because of this, their tribe is not qualified to participate in this war, and it is normal for cattle and sheep to be robbed now.

How to survive a tribe without cattle and sheep is obviously a question that the army will not consider, and the army must first ensure its own survival.

When Gesang opened his eyes in a drowsy state, there was no flock of his own sheep in front of him, not a single one of the dozens of sheep was left, and the cattle and sheep of other tribes from near and far were gone, and those who resisted were now corpses, lying on the lonely grass, and the blood flowing into the grass had begun to coagulate.

Such a frenzied way of grabbing grain is rare on the grassland.

Gesang felt that her head hurt as if it was about to crack, she now suspected that there were a few cracks in her head, and her trembling hand carefully touched it for a long time, and she didn't find the terrifying cracks, she was slightly relieved, but the whole head was sticky, which still made her realize that her injuries were very serious, and she was afraid that she was going to die.

Today's journey to herd sheep is not short, if there is no horse to walk for a long time, Gesang looked up at the sky, it was already sunset, he should have been asleep for a long time, although he was lucky to be alive, but if he couldn't return to the tribe, he would definitely die at night.

After sunset, wolves will come to eat the corpses of their dead people.

Gesang struggled several times before she staggered to her feet, her eyes blackened, and she almost fell down again. She half-walked and half-climbed up the grassy slope, stopping several times because of weakness in the process, and when she looked everywhere, her heart was immediately filled with despair.

Sure enough, there was not a living person with them.

Not a single horse is gone.

Gesang sat down, tears streaming down her face as she watched the sinking sunset, and she felt an incapable fear of resistance. However, crying is an extremely physically demanding thing, and it will affect the wound on her head, and she can no longer even cry as an act of catharsis and self-comfort.

Soon, Gesang lost the heart to cry.

She didn't even dare to move.

The wolf has appeared.

At first one, then one after the other, the corpses of the clansmen soon surrounded the wolves, torn into pieces by their sharp fangs.

Such a scene made Gesang can't help but want to vomit, but just now, the stars began to pop up in front of her eyes again, and she knew that once she lost her vision this time, she would completely pass out and become the wolf's belly.

The old people in the tribe often say that before people die, the last scene they see is the starry sky, which Gesang couldn't understand before, but now she realizes it, which makes her tremble.

A thin wolf, driven out of the feeding circle and deprived of the right to eat, whimpered a few times and began to wander around the periphery, trying to change places to eat several times, but was chased away by its companions until it found Gesang on the grassy slope.

The wolf's bloody mouth was particularly hideous, and its exposed fangs were terrifying, and it squatted down a dozen paces in front of Gesang, staring at her with unblinking green eyes.

Gesang was afraid and wanted to scream, wanted to run. But she didn't have the strength anymore.

She found out that the emaciated wolf was waiting for itself to die, and once it fell, it would pounce, tear at its own flesh, and eat itself in its stomach.

Listening to the sound of the wild wolves around him gnawing on his people, Gesang gritted his teeth and suppressed his fear. If it weren't for the thought that she would die and be eaten, she would have wanted to die here.

After all, the sun fell, and Gesang began to shiver with cold, although it was summer, but the temperature was still not high after dark, and for her now, fear was the biggest reason for her coldness.

Just when the stars began to pop up in front of Gesang's eyes, and she couldn't hold on, she heard a terrible scream.

It was the howl of a wolf.

And it's right at hand.

She reluctantly opened her eyes, and vaguely saw that the thin wolf in front of her had fallen three steps in front of her, headless, and bleeding all over the ground.

Then Gesang saw a strange and handsome face.

She looked at the armored warrior in confusion, and then looked left and right, and saw that there were many such armorers around. Their attire is noticeably different from that of the steppe people. The cavalry on the steppe does not wear their whole body, and the knife is not as straight as that.

place

To this should be the Don Army.

Gesang didn't think too much about it, and fainted.

When she woke up again, she was already in her familiar tent, but she didn't see her parents and brother. Only the armorer who saved him, who had taken off the hood, was cooking something in her iron pot, and the fragrance was so strong that Gesang, who had not eaten for a day, had an appetite.

Gesang struggled to get up and touched his head, only to find that he had a strip of cloth wrapped around his head, and it seemed that the wound had been bandaged. She looked at Tang Jun who was sitting in front of the fire, stirring food in the iron pot, and wondered why the other party could bring her back to her tent, "Who are you?"

Zhang Changan glanced back at Gesang and showed a gentle smile, "Are you awake?" just in time, the broth is also cooked, I have steamed cakes here, you can come over and eat some." ”

Zhang Changan's words were not smooth, but he didn't stumble either, although Gesang sounded a little weird, but he could understand the meaning.

At this time, a man in a Taoist robe opened the curtain and walked in, first glanced at Gesang, and then said to Zhang Changan: "After treatment, only three of the seriously injured survived, plus two lightly injured, there are five people in total...... Oh, counting her, it should be six. ”

Naturally, this was said in Chinese, and of course Gesang couldn't understand it.

But she knew the man in the robe.

In fact, there is no one in the nearby tribe who does not know him.

Gesang knew that he was a Taoist, the Taoist name was not dusty, and the people in the tribe called him Master Buchen, and there were several disciples under the seat, who often came to the tribe to preach and preach, and by the way, he helped people to see the sick, and sometimes performed a few spells, if someone needed any goods, he could also trust the foot merchant to come over.

This person is very mysterious in the hearts of the nearby shepherds, his status is very good, and he is very respected on weekdays, but there are not many people who believe in Taoist immortals with him, and the shepherds have their own gods.

After eating, Gesang's spirit was much better, the kind of steamed cake she had never eaten, although it was dry, but when eaten with broth, it tasted good, and it was easy to fill up. For a poor shepherd, the deliciousness of something is directly proportional to its ability to fill its stomach.

After eating, Gesang also knew about the tragedy of the tribe.

The Khitan cavalry not only robbed their cattle and sheep, but also swept through the tribes, robbing all the food they could, and all the shepherds who resisted were ravaged by swords and horses' hooves. The tribe of more than a hundred people was now left with six people alive, one of whom had lost an arm, one with two legs broken, and one without an eye.

I don't know if it was the Khitan warrior who beat Gesang at the beginning, seeing that she was pitiful, so he started lightly, but Gesang was the least injured among these people.

After finding the bodies of his family, Gesang cried and fainted again, and the wound on his head was cracked, and the blood stained the white cloth that wrapped the wound.

After carrying Gesang back to the tent and placing him, Zhang Changan came out to discuss his next actions with Buchen.

"This Khitan grain raising cavalry, I have seen it during the day, when they slaughtered the tribes, I hid in the forest over there, so I observed it very clearly. They were a standard team of 1,000 men, and when the deed was done, they divided into a team of 100 men to escort the cattle and sheep back to the east, and the rest went north, and it seemed that they would continue to plunder. ”

When Buchen said this, he muttered an immeasurable Tianzun, his eyebrows showed two emotions of forbearance and hatred, and then said: "Within a radius of one hundred and ten miles in this area, there are four tribes with a scale of more than 100 people, and there are more other small tribes and meteor herdsmen, with the strength of this cavalry, it seems that in less than two days, this place will completely become a no-man's land." ”

Zhang Changan was silent for a moment.

The Khitan army will not only send one or two armies to raise food, but can make a thousand-man team dispatch in formation, you can imagine how huge the number of this army is, and it will definitely not be less than 20,000.

This is a suitable tactical objective.

Zhang Chang'an also came as a scout this time, and the army led by Shangguan Chengcheng was still behind, and his task was to find out the situation of the enemy army in front, and cooperate with the eyes of the monks who scattered everywhere like chess pieces, and the monks who had no empty release gates, to find targets that could be attacked for the army, and also to find out the strong enemies that must be avoided for the army.

"The situation on the steppe is more complicated, and the army cannot be dispatched without a guide, otherwise it is easy to lose its way in the vast wasteland, although we have also traveled a lot over the years, but compared to the local knowledge, it is still far inferior to these herdsmen.

"If the army needs to find a suitable and hidden place to fight, it needs the cooperation of the shepherds. ”

When Buchen said this, he sighed, "But there are no my followers in this tribe, and it is estimated that others are not willing to take us to attack the army on the grassland." Even if they wanted to, I couldn't fully trust them. ”

Zhang Changan glanced at Buchen, "Among the people you saved today, are there no people who can develop into believers? They may not be willing to be used by me before, but after something like today, will the situation not change?"