Soon after, the sun climbed up from the horizon and dispersed the morning fog, and the boundless wetlands on both sides of the Liaohe River could be clearly seen. Hundreds of waterfowl rise from the reeds and fly over the travelers' heads. In the reeds on the shore, there are everywhere the birds chirping, splashing water, flapping wings, and courtship calls. It seems that these birds are also having a big party.
As the ship passed Laoyekou, the river began to turn to the southeast, and the two banks became gentle. There were also many river forks. These river forks were covered with forests of rushes, reeds and various aquatic plants. Large groups of Water birds inhabit it. Looking past the black crows, there are also many fewer boats on the river.
What appeared in front of Dahe Huaien was such a wild wilderness. Due to the hot and muggy climate, all kinds of mosquitoes are everywhere here. Some are even as big as a person's little finger. They sting people so badly that if one is killed, there will be blood all over your hands.
At night, Dahe Huaien arrived at Hangan, which means "a place with many fish" in the words of the local natives. This is a small island in the river, and they are about to spend the night here. When the ship just docked, groups of natives gathered around and looked at the uninvited guests curiously. Most of them were wearing clothes tanned by fish skin. In order to avoid mosquito bites, their exposed skin had They were all smeared with tar and gave off a disgusting smell.
Compared to the nomads on the meadows, these fishermen are even more barbaric. They gather here every year at this season to salvage catches from the river and dry the fish to dry. This is a hard and smelly job, but it is also very profitable. Throughout the summer every year, the migratory fish that swim upstream will gather here. On the river, you can kill many fish with wooden oars without even using fishing nets. The entire island is filled with the fishy smell of catch.
"Why do we have to live in this ghost place?" the boy servant asked: "Even if we live on a boat, this island is full of stinky fish smell, it stinks like hell!"
Dahe Huaien didn't say anything. He smiled and said, "You think dead fish stink, but actually the smell of dead fish is much better than that of dead people!"
"Dead person?" The boy servant was stunned: "Mr. Lang, what do you mean?"
Dahe Huaien pointed to the distance: "Did you see it? Those dotted things, do you know what they are?"
The boy servant looked along Dahe Huaien's finger and saw little lights flashing in the distance. Judging from the distance, he should be on the shore: "I don't know, what are those?"
"Those are the pine trees that are illuminated on the grassland. They are used by people who are walking at night!" Dahe Huaien sighed: "There are actually people on the grassland who are walking at night. This is going to cause chaos!" After that, he did not wait. The boy servant spoke and walked towards the market not far away.
As soon as it dawned the next day, Dahe Huaien got on the boat again and continued to sail downstream. There were fewer and fewer boats on the water, and both sides of the river were becoming more and more deserted. There were no farmhouses or villages in sight, only the occasional sightings along the river. The hunters in the reed swamps mainly hunt otters and other furry beasts, and then sell the furs to traders. Even the boy servant no longer asked questions, he had become accustomed to the wild land around him.
That night, the ship arrived at Urta, which was the farthest Shouchu city in Liaodong of the Tang Dynasty. After passing here, getting off the ship and heading north was the real wilderness. Said to be a city, it was actually just a small stone village with less than 300 steps around. The soldiers guarding the village were either criminals exiled from the mainland or local soldiers serving the Tang Dynasty. Although Dahe Huai'en was a general in the Songmo Dudu Mansion of the Tang Dynasty, according to the military regulations here, no one was allowed to enter the city as soon as it got dark, so he could only spend the night in a village outside the city. Their living quarters were terrible, the kind of semi-underground mud huts that were so short that one had to crawl on their knees and hands to enter. They were called underground huts by the locals.
Because there will be attacks from other barbarians at any time, in order to avoid being used by the attackers, once there are signs of enemies, the guards in the city will destroy all the houses outside, so no one will be here. Spend the effort building better homes. The people living in these houses are homeless people of unknown origin, including Han farmers who have lost their land, Mohe exiles who were expelled from their tribes, and Baekje and Goguryeo people who fled after the country was subjugated.
Everyone here cares for themselves and doesn't care about other people's business. No one grows crops because people come to rob them when they are harvested. Some of them make a living by fishing, some are bootleggers, and some can repair weapons. Armor, some can tan fur, each has their own skills. Even the guards in the city turn a blind eye to them.
Early the next morning, Dahe Huaien came to the city and asked his men to blow the horn. The guards in the city immediately learned that Liucheng's military envoys had arrived.
The guard's name is Modo Lousheng. He is a man in his fifties with a gloomy expression and only one eye. He is nearly two meters tall and looks like the mythical Cyclops. His face, which had suffered from smallpox, was covered in pockmarks, looking like a piece of cowhide sprinkled with white sesame seeds.
Living in a place where there are more beasts than people all year round has made him more severe and rough, but he is a true soldier, guarding this place as vigilantly as a white stork, and his one eye seems to never be used. He closed his eyes, staring at the barbarians in the distance and the guards in the city. To be honest, it was hard to say which one was more dangerous, these guards or the barbarians outside.
He would often get up from bed erratically and patrol the sentry. If he found any mistakes, he would order the wrongdoer to be hanged. For him, whipping and sticks were already a kind of mercy. However, he was also a generous man who never withheld military pay and distributed the spoils of war fairly, so the soldiers in the city both admired and feared him.
"I've heard of your reputation!" Mo Duolousheng welcomed Dahe Huaien into his room and filled him with mead: "Anyone who can be a shooting general here is a good man! That's right! Okay, where are you going when you pass here this time?"
"North!" Dahe Huaien pointed out: "What's wrong? Is there any news here?"
"There's going to be a war!"
"Is there going to be a war?" Dahe Huaien asked, "What news have you heard?"
"Have you heard the news?" A smile appeared on Mo Duolousheng's ugly face, which made people look even more terrifying: "There is no need to look or listen at all, just smell it with your nose, the air It was full of the smell of war. The chiefs on both sides of the river were drying dried fish for military rations, and the young and strong young men were heading north in groups. They crossed the river and headed for a destination. If you give me three thousand people, I can intercept as many of them as possible, hang the leaders on trees, and drive the rest back. These guys are eager for war and plunder. Really, I doubt they have. There are 100,000 people!”
"So many? Are you talking about the pseudo-King of Goguryeo?"
"Who else can it be?" Modo Lousheng sighed: "The traitor Jian Moucen made a little baby king, saying he was the grandson of the last king of Goguryeo. He sent envoys every day to ask for help from the Silla people and ask for new The Luo people sent troops to support them. Seriously, if you stay here for another month, you will see these guys, they will never let this place go!"
"Can we hold it here?"
"I can only do my best!" Mo Duolousheng took a sip of wine: "You have seen all the situations. I have a total of two hundred people guarding this small village, half of them are criminals from Hebei and Shandong, and the rest Half of them are local barbarians. I want my soldiers to act according to orders, and I will do as they are ordered. When they tell me to stand, I stand; when they tell me to lie down, I lie down; If I fight, I will fight until my last breath. If this is the fate, I also know how a man should die!"
"Can't we ask for some reinforcements?" Dahe Huaien asked: "Make the walls higher and dig the trenches deeper!"
"Reinforcements?" Modo Lousheng's terrifying face made a grimace: "Hell, of course I asked for it, but do you know what Shangguan answered me? Most of the young and strong soldiers have been transferred to the west to fight against Tibet. You are so barbaric that even my two sons have gone, and the rest have to support the Ungjin Governor's Mansion and Pyongyang. There are Silla people there who are looking for trouble. Even Liucheng is only guarded by some old and weak people. I urged them I got impatient, so I finally sent two hundred people to me—children as young as willow branches, who couldn’t even draw a bow. I really didn’t know where to put them!”
"I saw a lot of people in those mud houses outside the city. They are all strong men. Why don't you recruit them!"
"I can't figure out their details!" Mo Duolousheng sneered: "There are everyone there. Letting them enter the city is like throwing poisonous scorpions into the bed."
"Okay!" Dahe Huaien sighed, and he took a sip of wine: "I have brought you bad news. General Manager Xue led one hundred thousand troops to fight against Tibet, and was defeated in Dafeichuan. Only less than one Thousands of people fled back!"
"There are less than 10,000 people -" Mo Duolousheng's face froze. This steel-like man became older in an instant. Dahe Huaien noticed that his shoulders slumped and tears flowed from the corners of his eyes. He couldn't help but regret it. After saying these words, he knew that the two men who followed Xue Rengui to Longyou were Mo Duolousheng's only blood relatives in the world.
"This is just the news I heard, maybe it's not necessarily-" Dahe Huaien explained.
"That's it!" Mo Duolousheng turned his head and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes: "There will always be a day when we fight against the Han people. There is nothing to be sad about. What is the court going to do next?"
"I don't know, but I think we will have to fight again!" Dahe Huaien said.
"Well!" The old man's face became a little more angry: "Victory and defeat are common matters in military affairs. The Tubo people have offended the majesty of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. How can we just let it go? By the way, is there anything you want me to do? ?”
"I plan to go overland and need a good guide!"
"No problem, I will prepare it for you later!" Mo Duolousheng stood up and looked down at Dahe Huaien: "I don't know why you went out this time, but I know that a good man like you is here. I will definitely not lie in bed and waste my time, so do your best!"
After leaving Ulta, Dahe Huaien and his party continued north. As Modo Lousheng said before, they can often see groups of young and strong men heading northeast on the grasslands. These hurried men hold simple weapons and are covered with leather and linen. Like the poorest savages. But their faces shone with excitement, as if something was motivating them.
"Mr. Lang, what are these guys going to do?" the boy servant asked in a low voice: "They look like they are on a pilgrimage to worship the Bodhisattva? Do you want me to go over and inquire?"
"That's fine!" Da Hehuai'en looked at the boy servant. This boy servant had been with him for five or six years. He was only fifteen or sixteen years old. He had a friendly face and pleasant words. It would be a good idea to go and find out the news.
The boy servant responded and rode over. Soon he came back and said, "They said they were going to join the good king!"
"Good king?" Dahe Huai'en frowned, but he still couldn't think of anyone worthy of this title. If I must say, the only person who has anything to do with "good king" is Goguryeo's King Gwanggaetu. But the problem is that this person was from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, more than three hundred years ago. He thought for a while, then rode up to the group of men and asked, "Who is the good king you just mentioned? Why haven't I heard of him?"
When those people saw Da He Huaien's appearance, they knew he was not an ordinary person and did not hide it, so they started telling the story. It turns out that the good king they were talking about was a puppet supported by Jian Moucen, a rebel force in Goguryeo at that time. In order to prevent the remaining forces of Goguryeo from supporting members of the Goguryeo royal family after the army retreated, the Tang army captured all the royal members they could find. Jian Moucen had no choice but to find Anshun, the grandson of the second-to-last generation King of Goguryeo, as a signboard. In order to increase his appeal, he claimed that Anshun was the reincarnation of Godande, the famous Gwanggaetu king in the history of Goguryeo. , and became a "good king".
"Isn't it a joke that the surname is not the same, but it has to be stuck up?" The boy servant laughed when he heard this.
"The centipede insect is dead but not stiff. Goguryeo has been a country in Liaodong for six to seven hundred years. Its appeal is really extraordinary!" Dahe Huaien sighed: "This matter should not be that simple. There should be people hiding behind it. !”
"Why did you just go there like this?" Dahe Huaien asked: "This is no joke. The Tang Dynasty has just destroyed Goguryeo. If you learn about this kind of thing, you will definitely send troops to conquer it. What will you do then?"
"We are not afraid!" A young and strong man at the head laughed and said: "The gods are no longer on the side of the Tang people. Several Tang generals who originally conquered Goguryeo are dead, and the Silla people and the Mohe people will stand on our side. As long as If we can drive away the Tang people, we can all become high officials!" (End of Chapter)
