The short prairie horse is best at running long distances.
They may not be the fastest, but their endurance is among the best.
The gray sky makes people feel depressed.
Although no snowflakes had fallen yet, as the wind gradually picked up, Zhang Qi knew that today would be another snowy day.
It has been five or six hours since we set off early in the morning.
He ran for a whole morning and roughly calculated that the journey would be about eighty or ninety miles.
It's not that they don't want to go fast, it's that even if there are horses under the heavy snow, they can't go fast.
Not to mention they have a real big guy on their team.
Three hundred kilograms of weight weighs on a prairie horse. Running at full speed, the prairie horse can last for up to three quarters of an hour, and then it has to change horses.
This is the disadvantage of heavy cavalry. Under full speed charging, no team can defend it. However, once the horse power begins to tire, the heavy cavalry will stop and can only dismount and fight on foot.
Fortunately, Zhang Qi and the others only have seven people and nine horses. In addition, Ma Gui is a creature of the world of riding and slashing, so they can still keep up with the pace in turns.
"start."
"Heavy snow is coming. We need to find a place to repair."
Man's calculation is not as good as God's calculation. He originally thought that he would hurry up and hurry up today, but Hui's words let Zhang Qi know that heavy snow was coming.
For those who had been slaves in the hands of the Huns for more than ten years, seeing the weather on the grasslands clearly was a required course. All slaves who could not figure out the weather trends had long been covered under the heavy snow.
Zhang Qi nodded and said in a deep voice: "Eagle! Go and look for a suitable place nearby."
"Everyone tightens the supply ropes and prepares for repairs!"
After hearing the order, Ying immediately rode out of the queue and headed into the distance, while the others who stayed behind dismounted and adjusted the ropes binding supplies on the horses.
Whoosh.
The crossbowman fired his crossbow, and a blood flower bloomed on the snow. A snow fox hiding in the snowdrift for food was shot to death by the crossbow.
"Harrier, go pick it up and bring it back for lunch today."
Seeing the results of the crossbowmen, Zhang Qi smiled. In the outside world, these NPC soldiers were more terrifying than in the world of cavalry and slashing. The outside world was a scientific place, and being hit by an arrow in the vital part would mean death.
In the world of riding and slashing, they face monsters with the same health bars as themselves.
"Oh!" the harrier screamed, and ran over to pick up the snow fox on the ground. The snowdrifts loosened and peeled off layer by layer. The harrier was about to turn around, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the snow fox hiding in the snowdrift, which had been stiff and pale. The hand is revealed.
"Qi! There's a situation!"
Harrier shouted loudly, squatted down and dug out the snowdrift, and he dug out a young body from the snow.
Hearing Harrier's cry, Zhang Qi held the heavy crossbow and approached cautiously. He didn't relax a little until he saw the young body picked up by Harrier.
"It's dead. There are a few bite marks on the body. It must have been discovered by the fox and was about to eat it."
Harrier said as he threw the child's body on the ground.
Then he kicked the snow fox on the ground with an unlucky look.
"I just ate, this fox can't add another meal."
Others also gathered around and took a look at the body of the young child on the ground. They no longer looked at the snow fox. They were not short of food now. If it were before, they would have eaten even an animal that ate a whole person. You can keep your mouth shut if you can, but now, it's no longer necessary.
Zhang Qi put the heavy crossbow on his back again, glanced at the child's body on the ground, and glanced around to see several raised snow bags.
I didn't think much of it before, but after discovering a body, those snow bags became very conspicuous.
"Look through it and see if there are any under those snow packs."
Zhang Qi said, and the others went to dig up the snow. Sure enough, after a while, Bo and the others dug out four more corpses, two old men and two girls.
"It seems there should be a small tribe nearby..." Zhang Qi murmured a few times while looking at the corpses.
At the right time, the eagle that went out to find a campsite also came back on horseback.
"Qi! Six miles east, there is a small tribe with a population of less than a hundred!"
The eagle tightened the reins of the horse, and the prairie horse stopped with a high neigh.
"really."
Zhang Qi's eyes suddenly narrowed and he was thinking.
After a while, he whistled, and the prairie horse kicked through the snow and trotted to his side.
"Mount your horse! Let's go as guests!"
Zhang Qi said hello, and everyone else also understood and got on their horses one after another.
"Eagle, lead the way."
"Haha, let's go, follow me."
Among the people, Eagle was the most excited one. As soon as the horse's buttocks were twitched, the prairie horse stepped on the creaking snow to lead the way.
It was not far away for six miles, and they arrived in about ten minutes.
More than twenty felt houses stand in the snowy field leaning on the mountain line.
Inside the wooden fence, less than half a hundred cattle and sheep crowded together for warmth, and there were more than a dozen prairie horses outside.
It seems that this small tribe really can't survive anymore. There are only so few cattle and sheep left together.
For a normal small tribe, cattle and sheep are their fields, and it often takes more than a dozen cattle and sheep to feed one person. But now, except for these cattle and sheep that have been left to breed, all the others have disappeared.
I don't know if it's a natural disaster or... a man-made disaster.
When the prairie women who were working outside to milk cows saw a few horses coming towards them, they were so frightened that they quickly threw away the buckets in their hands and started shouting.
Hearing the women's shouts, twenty or thirty strong men rushed out of the yurt, each with a bow in his hand.
Zhang Qi raised his arm, Bo and others reined in their horses and stopped, while the prairie men also gathered together, ready to bend their bows and arrows at any time.
A leading man walked out of the crowd, holding a scimitar in his hand.
"Praise the gods, I wonder where you nobles come from?"
It can be seen that they do not want to fight, and now their tribe has reached a precarious situation. Shan Yuting levied a batch of cattle and sheep taxes before the heavy snowfall, making it difficult for them to survive this winter.
On the grassland horse, Zhang Qi also uttered a word of praise to the gods, and then said lazily in Hun language without getting off his horse.
"Are those young children and old people outside from your tribe?"
Zhang Qi's question made the leading man look a little complicated, one of whom was his daughter.
"Can't your tribe survive...?"
Seeing that the man didn't reply, Zhang Qi continued to talk to himself.
Since the person opposite doesn't want to take action, then he can look more noble by being more arrogant.
"What do you want to say, noble man? There is no need for prairie men to beat around the bush. You have also seen the situation of the tribe. Yes, we are indeed in a difficult situation and can no longer bear another tax."
"I didn't say I came to collect taxes. I came here to help you."
Zhang Qizai spoke slowly on his horse, raised a finger and shook it at the man: "Han slaves have ten kilograms of grain, Hu slaves have eight kilograms of grain, and children have five kilograms of grain. Do you want to make an exchange?"
"You know, the food I'm talking about is food from the Han region. One kilogram is enough for a person to survive for a few days. Although it's not much, you still have a chance to survive this winter."
