"That Tang man must be a noble man!" Tuyan Mangjiebo said: "I remember that he had two to three hundred followers around him at that time, and he was very generous. Otherwise, he would not have given us a piece of Shu silk so casually. He had a lot of wealth. There is a high possibility that they will take us in! Besides, we have no other way out now!"
Everyone fell into silence. No one could refute the girl's words. A few minutes later, someone said: "She is right, we have to go to Songzhou!"
People walked through the woods, the lower branches slapped Tuyan Mangjiebo's face, and the leaves wiped away his tears. Before climbing over the top of the mountain, she turned back and took one last look at the village she had not left since she was born. The wisps of gray smoke continued to climb into the sky, which was no different from the usual scene of the village being filled with smoke in the evening. The distance blurred the details. From a distance, it seems that the village is still the same as before, everything is intact. Tuyan Mangjiebo told himself that as long as we are alive, the Bailan tribe will still exist. The village has not been destroyed, but has been injured, just like himself who broke his leg. One day, the Bailan tribe will flourish again. , just like myself running around like flying.
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Songzhou, alpine meadow.
The sky was gray and it seemed like it was going to snow.
The hound just sniffed the footprints on the ground, then retracted and returned to the crowd with its tail between its legs. The oncoming cold wind penetrated the leather jacket and felt, and Liu Gao also felt cold. Even dogs couldn't stand the damn weather, but I had to go out on patrol in the snow. Thinking of this, his mouth twisted into a ball, and the pimples on his face turned red with anger. I was supposed to stay in my hometown in Longshang, warming my arms by the brazier with my wife in my arms, but because I offended the captain, I was kicked to this hellish place and guarded for a year, which is why I ended up in this situation. Damn, my balls are almost freezing if I stay on this meadow with these wild dogs.
"You bitch!" He grabbed the hound's reins suddenly, pulled it to the footprints, and yelled: "Smell, you bitch, this is the trace of the Tibetan people. Smell it quickly. If you can't smell it anymore, I will kill you." Eat your flesh!”
But no matter how much Liu Gao roared and waved his whip, the dogs still couldn't smell the traces. They just roared at him.
"Okay, okay!" Acton on the side couldn't stand it anymore. As a Mohe man, he had been told since he was a child that dogs are hunters' partners. Not to mention whipping, not even cursing, let alone cursing. Eat dog meat. He stepped forward and took the reins from Liu Gao's hand: "Forget it if you can't find it. The hoof prints have disappeared here. The Tubo people must have gone to the meadow!"
"Meadow? How is that possible?" Liu Gao looked at Acton with a sneer. He didn't like the new governor's cronies: "Don't look at the flat plains here. In fact, there are bottomless swamps everywhere. If you sink in, We will never get out again! If the Tibetans really go in, it will save us trouble!"
"No!" Tuyan Mangjiebo said loudly: "I know there is a road inside and I can pass through this meadow safely!"
"Shut up!" Liu Gao shouted: "You wild woman, it's not your turn to speak here. I think this is a trap. There are no Tibetans at all. The destruction of your village is just a good show directed by yourself." , the purpose is to lure us into the swamp and drown us. Right?"
"I didn't lie. You saw it in the village. How could it be a lie?" The Qiang girl was so angry that tears flowed from her eyes. She felt that her chest was about to burst. How could this Tang man use this to say something about himself? lie!
"Okay, don't say anything!" Acton stopped the two of them, and walked to Wang Pu: "What do you think we should do now?"
"We were ordered by the governor to chase this group of Tubo people, but the footprints disappeared when we got here, and they looked like this when the dogs came to smell them! And this damn weather!" Wang Pu had a stuffy nose and kept his hands in his armpits. : "In my opinion, it's better to go back. We don't have to work so hard for this group of Qiang people!"
"If we go back empty-handed, what will the governor think?" Acton whispered: "Don't forget, we are the governor's face. If we go back like this, what will happen in front of these veterans? We have to lower our heads in the end!"
"That's true!" Wang Pu nodded: "What do you mean?"
"You lead the team to find a shelter to camp here. I will take 20 Mohe people and two horses to look for it again. Our hometown is also very cold. We can survive it. Besides, if there are few people, it will be easier to advance and retreat!"
"That's fine! It's just a thank you for your hard work!" Wang Pu said in a low voice.
"Compared to being in the village, this is not too hard!" Acton smiled: "But you must tighten up your old camp here!"
"Yes!" Wang Pu nodded, the two of them opened their arms and hugged each other, and then went to prepare. At this time, Tuyan Mangjiebo ran over and said to Aktun: "I know why the hunting dogs don't smell the footprints!"
"Oh? Why?" Acton asked with interest.
"I heard from the elders in the village that the Tibetan people have domesticated a kind of mastiff that is so ferocious that even wild wolves can't beat it, let alone hounds. If they smell it, they will stay away from it. If the Tibetan people If you smear mastiff feces on your footprints, the hounds will definitely run away in fear!”
"Oh? There is such a thing?" Acton laughed in surprise: "So we are not wrong. These footprints belong to the Tibetan people?"
"Well, there is only one road that can pass through this meadow, and the Tibetans will definitely take that road. They have many prisoners with them, and they will definitely not be able to go fast. We can definitely catch up!"
Actun looked at the Qiang girl with interest. By the standards of the Tang Dynasty, she was not beautiful, but her anger gave her face a lively and wild beauty.
"Can you ride a horse?"
"Yes, I can ride a horse at the age of eight!" Tuyan Mangjiebo replied.
"Very good, I'll give you a horse and you can lead the way for us!" Acton said with a smile: "But there are only twenty of us in total. I'm afraid there won't be any extra manpower to protect you by then!"
"Give me a knife, I don't need anyone else to protect me!" Tuyan Mangjiebo's face turned red.
"Give her a knife, a bow and arrows!" Acton laughed: "I hope you are as capable as you said!"
Before the snow fell, Acton and his party set off immediately. They waded across the small river. The water was bone-chillingly cold, and thin ice had already condensed on the bank. As they went deeper into the meadow, Acton gradually found that the surroundings were getting colder and colder. It was desolate and cold, and the ground under our feet became softer and softer. Many times the horses' hooves would sink when they fell. When the horses' hooves broke free of the mud, they would make a faint chirping sound. A Mohe soldier approached Actun and whispered: "Boss, I think Liu Gao is right, the Tibetans will not come to this kind of ghost place!"
Acton didn't say anything. He looked ahead. The air was moist and heavy. There were shallow pools all over the place. The Tuyan Mountains were at the forefront. He carefully chose the path, walking on only a few dry and hard areas in this meadow. , the diffuse fog obscures the mountains in the distance, like ghosts. Did he fall into the trap of that Qiang girl, or was this Qiang girl carried away by the year of revenge? He hesitated for a moment, whipped his riding crop, and prepared to go up and talk to the girl.
"There's a corpse!" The exclamation broke the silence. Actun jumped off his horse and ran over. He saw an almost naked male corpse in the meadow. Tuyan Mangjiebo stood beside the corpse, his face pale.
"It's not rotten yet!" Acton turned the corpse over, his face was pale, his eyes were wide open and facing the sky, and his neck was cut: "It should only be a day or two!"
"They are from our tribe! The Tubo people are just ahead!" Like a madman, the Qiang girl remounted her horse and moved forward. Actun followed helplessly. Sure enough, as Tuyan Mangjiebo said, the various footprints and hoofprints became more obvious and dense. Obviously, the Tubo people should not be far away from them.
"Take a rest first!" Aktun took the reins of the Qiang girl: "Dismount, rest for a while, and eat something!"
"No, I'm not tired, I can still go!" Tu Yanmang said anxiously.
"Maybe you are not tired, but the horse is already tired. Walking on this soft muddy ground consumes a lot of horsepower!" Aktun said: "We have horses, and the Tubo people can't run away. Let's eat and rest first." , so we can fight!"
Tuyan Mangjiebo stared at Actun angrily, but in the end she gave in. Everyone dismounted one after another, put horse feed bags over their mounts' mouths, and let them eat as much as they could. They themselves sat in a group, lit a fire, and shared mashed dried meat and soy flour, dry biscuits baked with flour, and water mixed with wine.
"Tuyan Mangjiebo, do you know anything about the Tibetan people? I mean, what are their characteristics in fighting, cavalry, infantry, or bows and arrows?"
"I heard from elders that the Tubo people are not afraid of death when fighting. Their cavalry is actually mediocre, because their horses are very poor, neither tall nor fast, but they have very good endurance. But their soldiers are very strong and have very good endurance. Well, you can wear full-body armor and fight for a long time without resting!"
"What about bows and arrows? Do they have crossbows?" Acton asked.
"Bows and arrows are average, but their slings are very good. Even if they have crossbows, they don't have many. They are definitely not as good as you Tang people!"
"Well! If that's the case, he's a powerful enemy!" Acton nodded: "What do you think we should do?"
"If the horse is not good, then there is no need to be afraid of the cavalry. If the crossbow is not good, then you can just get closer and fire arrows!"
"Yes, use a heavy bow and a big arrow, and shoot him in the face or both ribs ten steps forward and back! No matter how you are not afraid of death, I don't believe you can still fight with an arrow in the face!"
"Yes, we can be divided into two wings, or we can be divided into two teams at the front and rear, mixing left and right, advancing and retreating to help each other! No matter how thick the armor is, there is nothing to be afraid of!"
"But you can't fight in a place like this where there are swamps everywhere. You have to choose a flat and hard ground!" Acton thought for a while: "Tuyanmangjiebo, how far do we have to go before there is no swamp?"
"It's not far away!" Tuyan Mangjiebo hurriedly said: "In another three or four miles, we will reach the plains. Our tribe often grazes sheep there!"
"That's good! Let's rest for half an hour and then hit the road!"
Tuyan Mangjiebo didn't lie. They didn't go very far when Actun and his party noticed that the ground had become hard. They quickened their pace and there were more corpses on the roadside. Tuyanmangjiebo looked at the corpses on the roadside. Corpse, biting his lips subconsciously.
The Tubo camp is located under a mound. On the top of the mound are dozens of huge black rocks, arranged in a huge circle. Legend has it that in distant ancient times, a great king once tried to build a temple to worship the gods here. temple. It's a pity that time has destroyed the former glory of this place, leaving only these stones, like the skeleton of a dead giant.
Awang stared at the fire in front of him. He was from a hundred households. Like most peoples who have just entered civilized society, the Tubo people's military organization and their social organization are integrated, that is, all adult men in the society are part of the army, the nobles are officers, the civilians are soldiers, and the slaves are Military slaves, and each tribe had its own army. However, after Songtsen Gampo unified Tibet, he established a military system more suitable for the kingdom, which divided the territory under its jurisdiction into five wings. Each wing has ten thousand households, each wing has hundreds of households below the thousand, and there are hundreds under the hundred. Ten households, arranged in decimal system. Each wing has Ruben (wing leader, meaning leader of the wings), and a thousand households have Dongben (chief of a thousand households).
This operation went smoothly. The Qiang and Hu tribes that were attacked were defeated before they had time to resist. They robbed a lot of property, but the most important thing was their lives. The emerging Tubo Empire was conquering the north and south, and fighting almost every year. The young and middle-aged men suffered great losses. If there were not enough slaves, no matter how much land they occupied, there would be no one to cultivate and graze, so what was the use?
The screams and obscene laughter brought Awang back to reality from his thoughts. He frowned. Of course he knew that war was a very hard thing, and the soldiers must be allowed to vent appropriately so that they could fight better. But the problem is that these prisoners will be the property of Ruben and Dongben. If the prisoners he brings back this time are too few, or if they are all injured, the superiors will be dissatisfied with themselves. Thinking of this, he decided to get up and scold some bastards in case they went too far.
"Please pay attention to me! We have to go on a journey tomorrow, so please rest!" Awang said loudly.
The voice immediately calmed down. Awang nodded with satisfaction and sat down again. This was enough. Being too harsh was not good! Thinking of this, he nodded secretly.
The screams sounded again. This time Awang was enraged. Someone dared to ignore his orders. He was determined to hang this bastard up and give him twenty lashes.
"Attack! It's the enemy!"
The screams made Awang wake up immediately. This was not his men torturing the prisoners for fun, but an attacker. It didn't matter who the attacker was. There were too many enemies in this wilderness.
"Hurry up, put on your armor, put on your armor, don't panic, come closer to me! Come closer to the fire in the middle!" Awang's voice was loud, and he immediately suppressed the chaos. In order to let his subordinates see Shangguan's appearance clearly, he even raised a torch Swinging it above his head, it drew a long arrow that shot through his right chest, nearly pinning him to the ground.
(End of chapter)
