The Khitan people sang and danced for most of the night before taking a rest. They rested until sunset on the second day before setting off on the road. It turned out that similar to Jiang Shuo's previous journey, the Khitan people also stayed in the day and went out at night. Although there are no man-made roads in the forest, there are actually paths of their own, called "animal paths". Only Khitan hunters can identify them. The animal paths are the paths used by wild animals in the forest. The trees are slightly sparse, and there are water sources along the way. Take action. But it is much more convenient and faster. There is another advantage to traveling with the Khitan people. The Khitan warriors are all good hunters. They hunt all the way and there is no need to worry about food.
Although Jiang Shuo learned some concealed weapons techniques from Zhao Rui, he did not know how to shoot arrows. Tarigu and others were very surprised. In the eyes of the Khitan people, an excellent warrior is first of all a qualified hunter, and Jiang Shuo was so strong in kung fu. It's simply unbelievable that he can't shoot arrows. The one hundred warriors under Hang Han are all the best shooters in the clan, and he himself is an excellent shooter. He has strong physical strength and accurate shooting skills. He is called the "eagle shooter". The big eagles on the grassland can fly. Being tall and fast, vulture shooting naturally became the criterion for judging a marksman, so everyone recommended Hang Han to teach Jiang Shuo the art of archery.
Although the two of them didn't understand the language, the art of martial arts didn't require too many words. Jiang Shuo was already a very smart person with a deep foundation. After Hang Han personally demonstrated and trained him step by step, he mastered it within a few days. Although his accuracy is not inferior to that of Hang Han, he can shoot higher and further than him. However, there is one section where Jiang Shuo's internal strength is so strong that he often breaks the bow string. Excessive force will also break the long bow, and every time he is not careful, he will destroy a bow string. Jiang Shuo couldn't help but feel apologetic for the long bow. The Khitan people were so heroic in nature that they were filled with admiration when they saw his power, but they did not begrudge the loss of the long bow.
Jiang Shuo thought to himself: "It's a pity that these Khitan people use ordinary mulberry wood bows. I wonder how Big Brother Nan's iron bow is." Three years ago, he witnessed Nan Ba impress He Qianqian with his miraculous bow skill of shooting slow but not fast. , He gave the Tibetan iron bow to Tubo for thousands of years, but Jiang Shuo didn't know how to bow at that time, and he didn't admire it very much. Now that he has learned archery, he can't help but think about Nan Jiyun's iron bow, and he thought to himself, wait until I get back. When Beihai met Brother Nan, he made sure to borrow a treasure bow to try, and even asked him for advice on the art of slow shooting.
Jiang Shuo learned bowing, and Dugu Xiang was not idle either. She followed Tali Gu to learn how to dig traps and set traps, and had a great time catching animals and birds. Xiang'er was originally a clever person, but she was too lazy to study hard. Wu, for such a fun thing as hunting, she was not lazy at all. In just a few days, she learned all kinds of hunting methods, and made many improvements to the trapping methods. Her ingenious conception made her A group of Khitan hunting masters also sighed.
It’s seven hundred miles to Bailing. Although horse racing in the forest is slow, it can be reached in six or seven days. However, the purpose of the group is not to rush to Bailing, but to find the whereabouts of Li Huaixiu and Nie Li, so they go for a walk in the mountains and forests. Went around but didn't go very far north.
After traveling for five days, not to mention Yiluohe, not even a single Khitan person was seen. Only then did Jiang Shuo realize the vastness of the thousand-mile pine desert. Hundreds of thousands of Khitan horsemen scattered into the pine forest, just like sand blown into the sea, leaving no trace behind. I don’t know how many days it will take to find Li Huaixiu and Nie Li. The Khitan people were not in a hurry to arrive. Firstly, Bailing was far away from the scheduled date. Secondly, since they could not find Khan and Dayi Lijin, the possibility of the Yan army finding them was even smaller, and they had not seen them in the past few days. With the Yiluohe warriors, maybe not as many as 6,000 Yiluohe entered the Song Desert.
On this day, there was a clue. A Khitan sentry discovered a mark carved on a tree. The Khitan method of keeping notes has its secrets and secrets. The marks made by ordinary hunters are common among the eight groups and most of the hunters can recognize them; while marching At that time, confidential matters such as the number of people and their whereabouts were written in cipher text, and only the leaders of the eight tribes and the Shanman could read them. This inscription was quite new, and the scouts did not recognize it, so they asked the two leaders Tarigu and Hang Han to identify it.
Jiang Shuo and Xiang'er also went with Tarigu and Hang Han. They saw a piece of bark peeled off a big pine tree, revealing a foot square of white stubble. Apparently it had just been peeled off a few days ago, and there were inscriptions carved on it. There are three lines of text. Jiang Shuo has seen the symbols carved by Khitan hunters. They are all simple pictographic patterns. If you are tracking a deer, you will draw a deer. If there are tigers and leopards in the mountains ahead, you will draw a tiger's head and a leopard's head. Then draw horizontal and vertical lines to indicate the quantity. Even if you are not a Khitan person, you can make a rough guess, but the carvings on the bark of the tree in front of you are completely different.
These three lines of characters are Chinese characters, or similar to Chinese characters. Their glyph structure and radical capitals are similar to Chinese characters, but they are all specious, and either they cannot recognize them or they cannot read them despite recognizing them.
Dugu Xiang said to Jiang Shuo, "What is written here? Why don't I recognize it?"
Jiang Shuo said, "I don't recognize it either. I recognize some of the words, but together I can't understand their meaning. Some of the words I don't recognize at all."
Dugu Xiang patted his chest and said, "It's okay, it's okay..."
Jiang Shuo wondered: "What's better?"
Duguxiang said: "Fortunately, you don't recognize it either. Grandpa often said that I am uneducated and have no skills. I also said that I don't even know every word. It turns out that you don't recognize it either, but it's not that I am uneducated and have no skills..."
Jiang Shuo was both angry and amused, and said, "Xiang'er, have you finished your thousand-character literature?"
Dugu Xiang glared at him and said, "Don't look down on me. You have taught me all the Four Books and Five Classics!" It is true that Ge Ruliang taught her, but Xiang'er did not say that he had learned it.
The two were still bickering, but Taligu stepped forward and said, "Young Master Jiang, Hang Han recognized that this is the secret record of Chu Te's tribe, but Zuwu Khan is not among them."
Jiang Shuo asked: "Brother Taligu, these words look like Chinese characters, but why can't we understand them?"
Ta Ligu said with a smile: "Young Master Jiang doesn't know something. These are Khitan characters. Khitan has no written characters. In ancient times, Khitan only did fishing and hunting. There were no complicated notes. They could just draw knotted ropes. Since the Tang Dynasty, Khitan has been It became the Governor's Palace of Songmo. The Khans of the past dynasties sent their descendants to study in Han areas. They wanted to learn not only the farming skills of the Han people, but also the methods of governance. This prevented the Wu Khans and our brothers from Xiaodu has learned Chinese and written Chinese characters, but Hang Han, who stayed in Songmo like this, is not literate."
Jiang Shuo said, "Then how can he read the writing on the tree?"
Tali Ancient Road: "After several generations of people went to study in the Han Dynasty, there are many people in the Khitan people who are proficient in Chinese studies. However, after all, Chinese studies are broad and profound, and Chinese characters are difficult to understand. There are even fewer Khitan people who can recognize and use them. There are fewer of them. But to convey complex information, it is difficult to express it clearly in fishing and hunting writing, so I came up with the method of borrowing characters to express the Khitan sounds in Chinese characters. However, there were many errors in the writing of the secretary, so these words became specious. .”
Jiang Shuo said, "Since it's phonetic, why can only Hang Han read it?"
Tali Gudao: "Because there is no fixed method for borrowing characters, the characters used in each department are not the same, and even the ligatures are distorted. Even those of us who have learned Chinese characters don't know what each character expresses." What are the syllables? Therefore, only the leaders of each tribe, Shanman and other nobles can understand the characters of each tribe. Hang Han is the younger brother of the Khan and originally belonged to the Chu Te tribe, so he can recognize the inscriptions of the Chu Te tribe."
Jiang Shuo said: "I see, what does the engraving say?"
Tali Ancient Road: "It is about a ranger of the Chu Te tribe. They were lucky enough to escape from an ambush, but the Yan army pursued them in a hurry. The ranger went west to hide in the black forest. There were fellow tribesmen who saw it. , quickly gather manpower to go to the rescue."
When Jiang Shuo and Dugu Xiang heard about it, they both felt refreshed. Dugu Xiang said: "I haven't seen a single ghost in the past few days. Today, I not only found clues to Chu Te's tribe, but also traces of Yan's army. I have nothing to do." It’s been a few days, Brother Shuo, let’s go and kill them all without leaving any trace behind!”
Jiang Shuo said: "The ambush Yan army should also be in Yiluohe. I don't know if Chu Te's men escaped, nor how many people there are in Yiluohe, nor how far away they are."
Tali Gu said: "Young Master Jiang is right. We are turning west now, and we must be careful along the way to avoid being ambushed by Yiluohe again."
Jiang Shuo asked again: "Brother Taligu, where is this black forest?"
Tali Ancient Road: "The black forest is the old forest. We are still on the edge of the pine desert and have not yet entered the hinterland. The ancient pines in the hinterland of the pine desert are more than ten feet high. The crowns of the trees cover each other. Walking in the old forest, even in the daytime Like the night, the land is dark, so it is called the Black Forest. If you hide in the Black Forest, you can't see during the day without raising fire, but if you raise the fire, doesn't it give guidance to the archers? Therefore, ordinary troops can hide in the Black Forest. I don't dare to pursue. Thirty miles west of here there is a mountain depression called Heifeng Depression. The ancient pines inside are like a screen, blocking out the sky and the sun. I guess the black forest mentioned by Chu Te's tribe should be here."
Jiang Shuo said: "Thirty miles is quite close. If there is an ambush in Yiluohe, I'm afraid we are not far away."
Ta Ligu said: "Yes, I will arrange for sentries to explore the road ahead."
Jiang Shuo said, "Brother Taligu, this is inappropriate."
Tali Guqi asked what was wrong, and Jiang Shuo said: "You just said that you can't see anything in the black forest, and those who enter the forest late are easily ambushed by people who have been lurking in advance. Of course, Chu Te's tribe can use the black forest to avoid pursuit. , but Yiluohe can also rely on the black forest ambush for backup. If the sentinel is ambushed, not only will his life be lost in vain, but it will also alert the Yan army."
Tali Gu pondered: "Even so, someone has to explore the way."
Jiang Shuo said, "I'm going to explore the road. I have good eyesight. I don't need to use fire in the dark forest. I can still deal with an ambush."
Taligu quickly waved his hand and said: "Today's battle is frankly between our Khitan and the Yan army. How can we let you, Young Master Jiang, take risks alone?"
Jiang Shuo said: "Brother, what did you say? My name is Jiang Shuo. General Pei said that in my life, I will never take a smooth road. The higher the mountain and the more dangerous the road, the less afraid I will be."
Taligu laughed loudly and said, "Okay! We Khitan people respect the hero the most, Young Master Jiang. Taligu admires him so much that I will go with you."
Jiang Shuo was startled and said, "No, brother, you'd better sit here in the middle, just in case the Yan army has reinforcements."
Hang Han saw them arguing and asked Ta Ligu what was going on. Ta Ligu told him, "I don't want Hang Han to puff up his chest and scream. Jiang Shuo has learned bow from Hang Han these days and has become proficient in the Khitan language. He knows that Hang Han Jiang Shuo wanted to accompany him, and Jiang Shuo even waved his hands and shouted: "Kamo! Kamo!" This is the Khitan language for "no".
But Hang Han insisted on going and talked a lot. He was excited and spoke faster and faster. Jiang Shuo couldn't understand. Taligu translated: "Hang Han said, Young Master, you don't know what's going on in the black forest." It's easy to get lost in the beast's path; secondly, if Ruzhen finds Chu Te's tribe, only Hang Han can make them trust them."
