"Eat! It's for you!"
A short and stocky Mongolian staggered over and threw several dark things to Lu Shu. Lu Shu reached out to catch it, but after a slight movement, his neck, shoulders and ribs all hurt so much that he couldn't catch it.
More than half an hour ago, this group of people suddenly jumped out of the mud of the salt pond behind Lu Shu, and knocked A Duo over with a sap from behind. A Duo was caught off guard and fainted immediately, and was dragged away the next moment.
They dragged Lu Shu into the mud again. Lu Shu tried to resist, but he was hit several times so hard that two of his molars flew out. He was not stunned. Seeing that someone around him was already holding a dagger, he knew that these people didn't care about killing people at all, so he immediately surrendered.
I thought that these people were Belgutai's men, but I never thought that they grabbed Lu Shu and A Duo and drove them waist-deep into the mud. Lu Shu was dragged along the entire journey, half fed with sewage, and then hung head and foot on the back of a horse to gallop... By this time, Lu Shu's mouth was full of blood and mud, and he had turned into a clay figure. There were bruises and scratches all over his body, and he felt like he only had half his life left.
Half a life was also important. Not wanting to offend the other party, Lu Shu gritted his teeth and bent down to pick up the things. The sky was getting dark, and when I held it in my hand, I realized that it was a potato newly dug from the ground.
When Lu Shu was a child, he often went out with his parents and sister to dig wild vegetables in the fields outside Wusha Castle to satisfy his hunger. The best harvest is to dig out the vole's burrow and eat both the vole and the stored grain. Being able to dig potatoes is considered a happy thing, at least it can make you half full.
The Lu family has been practicing medicine for generations, so his father often said that potatoes can strengthen the spleen and replenish deficiency, cure various deficiencies and injuries, and treat five types of fatigue and seven injuries. Eating potatoes is better than eating corn and wheat.
In the past few years, Lu Shu's life has undergone earth-shaking changes, but it has been a long time since he had eaten this food.
He hesitated for a moment, and the Mongolian was a little unhappy. He took a step forward and said, "Aren't you going to eat?"
Lu Shu looked up.
This Mongolian man was wrapped in a black and yellow sheepskin jacket, and his body had a strong smell of sheep mutton, mixed with the stench of human feces, urine and sweat. His face, hair, and beard were all greasy, and he probably hadn't taken a bath since he was born. Even the braids of hair and beard had not been combed for a long time, and they were all tangled together in dark clumps, covering her face.
This kind of person is probably the lowest slave among the Mongols. They are like wild beasts and have no reason to explain. Lu Shu grinned and whispered, "I'll eat it. This is what I'm used to."
He answered in fluent Mongolian, which first surprised the Mongolian.
Then he picked up a potato, picked up a small stone next to him, scraped off the soil attached to the potato, and then chewed it with the skin on. This casual attitude actually relieved the Mongolian man's violent mood, and he turned around and left.
The sweet potato tastes bad when eaten raw, and it can easily cause abdominal pain, not to mention that Lu Shu ate it with sand. But he jolted on the horse for a while, and all the overnight meals from a few days ago were squirted out. Now he was hungry and panicked, so he quickly finished one.
He picked up the second stick and used a stone to peel it, using a slightly more careful movement, carefully scraping away the dirt. The juice from potato can cause skin itching, so you have to process a few more potatoes while there is still sunlight, so that Ado can fill his stomach when he wakes up.
Lu Shu knew that feeding him potatoes was not cruelty, as these potatoes were also commonly eaten by the lower class Mongolians.
In the imagination of many Han people, the Tatars on the grassland eat meat and drink milk every day, so they are all as fierce as wolves, but this is not the case.
In general, people's food in Mongolian tribes is mainly dairy products and supplemented by hunted meat. Although they raise many cattle and sheep, they are not willing to eat them. Once there is a black disaster or a white disaster, livestock often die without a single one left. The grassland is so vast that disasters occur almost every year, so every year there are tribes whose economic foundation is destroyed by disasters and they have to rely on hunting or plundering to survive. Even after surviving the most difficult times and reproducing the herds, they are still reluctant to eat.
When Lu Shu went to the fields to dig vegetables and pick fruits when he was a child, he often bumped into little Tartars who were also digging in the soil. In the first few years, the two sides looked at each other and continued to work in different places. Later, the older children carried knives with them, but that was just in case. After all, both sides were digging potatoes, so there was really no value in fighting over them. .
However, the group of Mongolians in front of them didn't look like they had a tribe.
Lu Shu noticed that the several Mongolian tents in the distance were very shabby, and there were no old people or women in sight. The people responsible for lighting the bonfires were all strong men. Occasionally, there would be a few round-faced children holding firewood and running towards the camp from Lu Shu. Their skin color was all dark and red, with large scars from sunburn and frostbite on their faces, making them look a bit vicious.
Beside the bonfire that had been lit at the other end of the camp, several Mongolians took off their outer robes, revealing their strong muscles, and were wrestling. There were also many people who did not leave the field and only concentrated on cheering for others. Lu Shu was startled and looked again, confirming. Many of them are missing arms and legs and are actually disabled.
While looking at the scene, the sound of horse hoofbeats was heard beside him. A Tatar passed behind Lu Shu on horseback and reached out to grab it. This man was so strong that he could lift Lu Shu up with only one hand and drag him back and forth twice in the camp.
Lu Shu's physique was younger than the average young man, but he was also several dozen pounds heavier. When he fell into the Tatar's hands, he felt like a feather. He started to run and even made a throwing motion in the air.
Lu Shu was shocked and said that he was going to die this time. Unexpectedly, the robe tightened behind his back, and the Mongolian used half of his strength to catch Lu Shu again, and then threw him back to where he was with contempt.
Lu Shu landed on his shoulders first, and his head immediately followed him. He was knocked to pieces with two bangs, and his mouth began to feel fishy and salty again.
He muttered a few curses and heard Ado's voice coming from behind him: "Who are these people? Are they thieves?"
Lu Shu turned around and rushed towards him, hugging A Duo and shouting repeatedly: "A Duo, are you awake?"
"Don't move! Don't move!" Ado waved his hands repeatedly: "My head and neck hurt, I'm very dizzy, and my eyes hurt, don't shake."
Lu Shu calmly let go and placed the potatoes in front of A Duo, asking him to eat some slowly to regain his strength.
A Duo's eyes were extremely bloodshot. He opened them slightly and took out a potato, then closed his eyes and continued to lie there.
They were in a temporary stable built with wooden boards and animal sinews. Outside the stables there were several Wu Lachi, also known as grooms, each holding a chicken heart iron lao and patrolling back and forth.
Besides the two of them, there were several horses in the stable. One of the horses licked Ado and ate the potatoes in his hand.
Ado closed his eyes and still lay still.
Lu Shu looked at him, and then at the camp that was getting darker and darker. After a while, he patted his forehead: "I heard from Lu Wusi that after the business in Gouluo Market prospered, merchants were often robbed by horse thieves. That's why the outer walls of the reservoir area were raised earlier. , and also asked Yeli Yasi to build a watchtower and an arrow tower outside the reservoir area. Maybe the person who captured us is a certain group of horse thieves? "
"They are not horse thieves."
A'duo still closed his eyes and shook his head: "There are not many Mongolians among the horse thieves on the edge of the grassland today. Instead, more than half of them are stragglers from the Jin Kingdom, especially the Wanggu and Khitan people... I don't seem to have listened. When we arrived at the camp of this group, there was not a sound of any Wanggu or Khitan people speaking, but not a single one."
"As expected..."
Lu Shu stood up, held the fence of the stable and looked out: "But they don't look like serious Mongolian tribes. Mongolian tribes on the grassland, as long as they are of some size, have maintained Han craftsmen in the past two years. Blacksmiths make weapons, fight Horseshoes; carpenters and tanners making tents and horse gear; and women who are seamstresses who make clothes with finer craftsmanship than Mongolian women..."
“But there are no artisans here either.”
Lu Shu nodded: "There have been no wars in the Central Plains in the past two years. Many craftsmen are trying to escape from the grassland. The Mongols from various tribes are watching them very closely. In the past, they were all detained in the camp, but now they are ordered to follow the packhorse team closely. …The Tatar just dragged me and galloped around the camp twice, and I didn’t see a single Han craftsman.”
"That's strange. It's not horse thieves or the Mongolian tribes under Genghis Khan. What is it?"
