"It's just a matter of paying some money and going on a trip to get over everything, and then we'll never see each other again in this life!" Wang Wenzuo turned over, made up his mind secretly, closed his eyes, and slowly Fell asleep.
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Liaodong, Pingguo.
The two north-south mountain ranges, Changbai Mountain and Daxinganling, are like two powerful arms, encompassing the fertile Liaohe Plain, with a large number of rivers flowing between them. These rivers flow from north to south and gradually converge together. The largest of them is the Liaohe Plain. The water finally flows into the Bohai Sea near Pingguo (today's Yingkou) (. Since the Wai Liao River was cut off at Liujianfang in 1958, the Hun and Tai rivers merged to form the Daliao River and became an independent water system.)
The first year of Zongzhang (AD 668) was a strange year. In the spring of that year, many special signs appeared in the sky and earth, indicating some unusual events. According to later historians, as soon as the winter snow melted, large swarms of locusts swarmed out from the Mongolian Plateau in the west, destroying pasture and grains. This was often a precursor to the invasion of herdsmen. Blood-red fiery clouds appeared in the sky, as well as a solar eclipse and a broom star.
Someone also discovered the tomb of the legendary King Jumong, the founder of Goguryeo. The tombstone fell down and the tomb door was open. What’s even more terrifying is that the lid of the coffin inside was also opened. There was nothing inside, as if the deceased inside had walked out. The mausoleum, walking in the world of the living.
There are rumors that a huge flood will occur, followed by a plague, and everyone alive will be unlucky. The wealthy people took out food to feed the hungry people, trying to calm the panic. The panic-stricken land of Liaodong ushered in a winter so warm that even the oldest people could not recall a similar year. So much so that the rivers in southern Liaoning remained frozen for just over a month. The snow that melts day by day fills the river channel, and the raging river hides behind the embankment.
Continuous rains and waterlogged grassland have almost doubled the area of Liaoze, in sharp contrast to last year's drought. At the beginning of spring, the grasslands and plains were covered with layers of green grass. Cattle, sheep and pigs roamed on the pastures, and bees buzzed in the woods. This unusual calm seemed so unnatural. In this vast land, everyone is excited, eyes wide open and silent, as if waiting for something unusual.
But in the spring of the second year of the General Chapter, nothing happened. The great wars of last year seemed to have finished all the wars of the next hundred years. Apart from some ordinary fights, there was nothing else going on. Because at that time, this land was like this. Pioneers, drug dealers, herdsmen, and smugglers traveled through swamps, forests, and grasslands, just like boats walking on the sea.
Between the Daxingan Mountains and the Changbai Mountains, in addition to grasslands, woods, and swamps, there are still grasslands, woods, and swamps. There are often hundreds of miles without human habitation. Only on both sides of the rivers, scattered fields are occasionally opened up, just like scattered fields on the sea. Scattered islands. This land nominally belonged to Goguryeo in the past and now belongs to the Tang Dynasty, but in fact it is an empty and unclaimed land. Anyone willing to come here can come here to herd, farm, gather, and even plunder. Today is a pasture, tomorrow is a battlefield.
No one has calculated how many battles took place in this area, and how many people died here, and no one remembers it. Only eagles, falcons, and crows know. If anyone sees crows chirping and flapping their wings, or birds of prey circling somewhere, there is a good chance that there are human remains or unburied skeletons underneath. In this barren grassland, human hunters are just like hunting wild wolves or deer. All kinds of desperadoes lurk in this wilderness. In this land, the identity differences between herdsmen, thieves, and pioneers are blurred. Pioneers attack thieves, herdsmen ambush pioneers, and thieves attack herdsmen. All kinds of things can happen. This place is both empty and eventful, scary and peaceful at the same time. Be it Han people, Goguryeo people or Mohe people, as long as they join in, they will soon be assimilated into this wild land and become a special group of people.
"Uncle!" Da Ting Huai'en pointed at a short distance with his riding crop: "Let's rest there tonight, shall we? Get up early tomorrow morning and walk southwest for two days before we reach Pingguo!"
"Where is that place? Is it a village?" Wang Wenzuo looked curiously at the place pointed by Da Tinghuaien. There was a raised hill, vaguely like a village.
"It used to be, but it has been abandoned for a long time. It must have been more than thirty years ago!" Ah Zhiluo said with a smile.
"More than thirty years? Wouldn't it have been a deserted village for a long time?" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Then why rush further? Isn't it too early to take a rest?"
"Uncle, you don't know!" Ah Zhiluo laughed: "It's okay in this wasteland during the day, but there are ghosts at night. I don't know how many people died here. The ghosts of these people will appear at night, like them They were like that when they were alive. If a living person encounters them, they will surround them, cry and pray, asking the living person to give them food and help them bring messages to their relatives. If they don't agree, they will kill them. Living people, suck their blood!”
"Real or not!" Sancho beside Wang Wenzuo laughed and said, "Have you seen it with your own eyes?"
"If I had seen it, I would have died a long time ago!" Ah Zhiluo said with a smile: "These are what veterans who have patrolled the wilderness said. They said that there were even groups of Yin soldiers appearing in the wilderness, and they were lined up. , fighting each other, just like fighting between living people. In order to scare away these evil soldiers, the scouts even lighted bonfires and blew trumpets and gongs."
While they were talking, a group of them had already arrived in front of the hillock. This was the remnant of a walled village. The flat land under the hillock still had traces of reclamation. A small river skirted the east side of the hillock, winding towards it. The river flows south, the surface of the river is shining with sparkling water, and the storks in the sky sing across the water, breaking the silence. The deserted village is dark and quiet.
"What the hell, are we going to stay here for one night?" Sancho muttered: "Why do I feel like this is more like a mausoleum than a wilderness!"
Wang Wenzuo didn't speak, he felt the same way, but if you don't consider supernatural factors such as ghosts, this hillock is a very good camping site - it is close to the water source, at a high place, and the wall can provide minimum defensive facilities.
"Just choose this place!" Wang Wenzuo said, "Let's clean it up!"
Night came quickly on the wilderness. In the blink of an eye, the moon rose from behind the river. The bright moonlight illuminated the thistle branches and illuminated the distance of the grassland. In the blink of an eye, I seem to see some kind of nocturnal animals moving on the grass in the distance. The clouds move with the wind, covering the moon for a while, and letting the moon emerge for a while. These scenes on the ground are clearly visible for a while, and then appear again. Sadly, it seems to melt into the moonlight. Several shadows walked between the shadows of the grass, disappearing and appearing. Although the surroundings were so quiet, they still observed their surroundings vigilantly, as if they were on guard for something. The wind blew from the west from time to time, blowing the thistles and making a real rustling sound. The sound was as if the thistles were bent and trembling with fear.
The sound of these thistles attracted the attention of the shadows. They stopped and began to explore the depths of the grassland more carefully. At this time, the wind stopped and the rustling stopped. It seemed that everything was immersed in completeness again. in dormancy.
Suddenly, with a sharp whistling sound, various mixed sounds burst out, forming a terrifying chaos.
"Kill! Don't leave any one behind!"
"Get out, get out!"
"Blessed by Bodhisattva, please help me!"
Cries for help and cries for death were intertwined, and the fire illuminated the darkness. The sound of horses' hooves was heard, mixed with the clang of swords, and a group of knights seemed to rush out from under the ground. People's shrill shouts, mixed with the terrifying sound of slashing, soon turned into silence again. After only a few dozen breaths, the battle was over, as if it had never happened again.
"Raise the fire, raise the fire!" A majestic order came from the hilltop.
The flint struck, and sparks burst out. Suddenly, the dry tinder was lit, and then there was Song Mingzi, and the firelight illuminated a dozen young and strong faces.
"Line up in two horizontal lines, with the front and rear lines twenty steps apart, and explore the situation. If anyone finds any trace, blow the trumpet!" Wang Pu said loudly.
"Here!" More than a dozen voices responded, then got on their horses and swept towards the place where the fight had just taken place. Compared with when they accompanied Goguryeo more than a year ago, these young people from Yaqiandu have grown a lot in terms of physique and experience. They wear the same iron leaf scale armor, gray cloaks with red edges, and bearskin hats. , looks agile and powerful, no less than a veteran of many years.
"Here, here, there are many corpses and horses. Bodhisattva, this is a dragon colt!"
Wang Pu turned his body sideways and controlled the horse to rush over without the need for reins or whips. His small battlefield was surrounded by seven corpses lying on the ground.
"Is anyone still alive?"
"There are still two that are breathtaking, but they are about the same. The rest are finished!"
"Who is it?"
"They don't look like Mohe people, nor are they pioneers. They look a bit like Xi people or Khitan people. They seem to have some identity!"
"Yes, it seems like a Khan, or at least a Taiji!"
"No! Look, this is a good horse, a great dragon colt. Even the Uighur Khan's mount is nothing more than that. Look, it's right there!"
Wang Pu took a look, and his eyes suddenly lit up. A soldier tried to pull the horse over. The beast shook its ears, breathed heavily from its nostrils, and looked at the dead man on the ground with a horrified look. Owner.
"Bring the horse here!" Wang Pu shouted: "Such a good horse is going to be presented. Chang Shi will be happy and everyone will benefit!"
"It has an arrow wound on its leg. No wonder it didn't run away!" The soldier leading the horse discovered that there was an arrow wound on the horse's right hind leg. He sighed with some distress: "It's a pity if it can't be raised so well." The horse is useless!"
"Shut up!" Wang Pu scolded. He took the reins and gently stroked the horse's mane twice to appease the other person: "This is a stallion, and it is still young. Even if it cannot be a war horse, Being a stallion is also very good! Quick, you guys get the corpses and wounded people on horses, and go back and report!"
On the hillock, Wang Wenzuo, who was awakened, looked at the corpse and the horse on the ground, and then asked the accompanying doctor to deal with the wounded, but soon received the news that the wounded had also expired. The only thing that can be determined is that the people who were killed were indeed Xi people, but as for which tribe they were from? Who was killed? Why was he killed? That means you don’t know anything about one question.
"Actually, this kind of thing is so common in this wasteland!" Seeing that Wang Wenzuo remained silent, Ah Zhiluo said boldly: "Because of hatred, money and women may kill people, and no one cares about it anyway. , Not to mention anything else, just because of his good horse, it’s not surprising at all that he was ambushed!”
"It's night now! No one can see clearly whether the horse is good or bad!" Wang Wenzuo shook his head: "But you are right, there are too many reasons for killing people here. We don't have the time or energy to find out now. The origin of the matter. Let's do this. The bodies of these people will be cremated tomorrow morning, and then put together with their belongings. When we go back, we will return them to Xiren together with this horse. Such a good horse should not be owned by ordinary people! "
"Return this horse?" Ah Zhiluo was stunned when he heard this: "Actually, you don't have to do this. According to the rules on the grassland, this horse is yours now!"
"Haha!" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "With my current status, I won't covet a mere horse, so just do as I say! I have a hunch that this matter will not be so simple later, and it may lead to Lots of things to come!”
Returning to the straw mat covered with animal skins, Wang Wenzuo found that he could not sleep. During these days of walking through the wilderness, he could feel that special power, desolate, rough, unpolished, but extremely powerful. Different from the orderly and clearly defined order of Chang'an and Luoyang, in this wilderness, everything is generous. She opens her mind to everyone. No matter who you are, you can be equal. She wants to ask for and get, but in the next second, she may become extremely cruel and take away everything you have, even your life. No one can control it!
"This is really a magical land!" Wang Wenzuo sighed. He stared at the night sky with his eyes open for a long time before falling asleep.
The next morning, just after dawn, Wang Wenzuo woke up. The soldiers were preparing breakfast. They caught a lot of prey in the traps they set last night. They skinned the prey, took out the internal organs, cleaned it and roasted it on the fire. Next to it was an iron pot for cooking porridge. The campfire was very hot. Boom, scattering a big halo on the grassland.
The corpses have been cleaned, and dry firewood is piled around. There are shrubs and hardwood trees everywhere on the hills. There is no shortage of firewood. According to Wang Wenzuo's order, the bones of these people who fled to foreign lands will be brought back to their hometown. , able to reunite with his family.
There was a lot going on today, so the update was very late, but at least it was updated before twelve o'clock, thank you!
(End of chapter)
