The author says: The heroine (one of them) appears!
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If Guangyang Street Market opened Qiu Yizhi's eyes, then the Turkic Horse Market was another world. The view was full of foreigners with curly hair and beards, the melodious Turkic language was echoing in his ears, the body odor of cattle and sheep filled his nose, and even the layer of sand on his skin made Yizhi extremely excited. Zheng Miao had been to the horse market several times before, but he was always accompanied by his father, brother and elders. Today, he came to the horse market with Qiu Yizhi, who was one year younger than him, and he was responsible for following his brother, which made Zheng Miao full of the excitement of adventure.
This horse market has no fixed buildings. Today it is a wide passage, but tomorrow it may be occupied by new merchants. Therefore, there is no fixed route to follow. Qiu Yizi lost Zheng Xin and Zheng Sen after walking a few steps in the horse market. He quickly turned back to find Zheng Miao. Fortunately, he was still beside him. He asked hurriedly: "Brother, can you still see where the two brothers are?"
Zheng Miao shook his head, but he was not worried. He said, "It's usually in this market. We can look for it slowly."
With Zheng Miao's words, Yizhi felt relieved. While looking for his brothers, he admired this unprecedented wonder. As they walked, there was a sudden commotion in the horse market. No one knew what happened. The merchants stopped shouting and moved in one direction. Yizhi couldn't figure out what was going on, so he turned around and asked Zheng Miao. Unexpectedly, Zheng Miao, who was still beside him just now, had already run a few steps. He turned back and shouted at Yizhi: "With such a big commotion, the brothers must be there. Let's go and have a look too!" After shouting, he continued to run forward. Qiu Yizhi thought it made sense, but was afraid that he would not be able to find Zheng Miao, so he quickly followed.
Qiu Yizhi ran a few steps and finally caught up with Zheng Miao. He grabbed his collar, fearing that he would run away again. He looked up and saw countless layers of spectators surrounding him. Zheng Miao stared at him with his big round eyes and blinked at Yizhi a few times, as if to say: Let's go and have a look too? Although Yizhi was three parts scared, he was seven parts curious, so he nodded and took Zheng Miao's hand and squeezed into the crowd.
The two were short and agile, and they squeezed into the gaps in the crowd. After a while, they squeezed to the innermost part of the crowd. Then they saw a big Turkic man in the open space in the center of the Gai, dragging a girl and about to leave. Yizhi had no interest in the short and ugly Turkic man, but he looked the girl up and down. The girl looked about thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a bright red robe with yellow and blue edges. It was obvious that she was dressed in Turkic style, but she looked different from the general Turkic women with big mouths and small eyes. Her thick brown curly hair was tied into a ponytail that rippled in the air like waves. Her healthy wheat-colored face was decorated with a small and round nose. Her clenched teeth in her cherry mouth, her twisted willow-leaf eyebrows and her wide-open light-colored eyes showed her stubborn personality as a girl from the grassland. Although the Turkic man was short, he was strong and muscular. He waved his hands to grab the girl. The girl did not show any weakness. She scratched the man's face and eyes with her hands. The man immediately retracted his hands to protect his soft parts, but he could not do anything to the girl. Suddenly, a Turkic man shouted something in the crowd. The man seemed to have received instructions and did not try to grab the girl. He simply picked her up from behind and held her under his armpits and was about to leave. At this time, several women who were probably acquainted with the girl rushed out, hugging the waist and legs, just to prevent the man from leaving. At the stalemate, more than a dozen Turkic people jumped out of the crowd, picked up the woman who was in the way like a chicken, threw her aside, and escorted the man away.
Qiu Yizi and her mother had been bullied by her two uncles since she was a child. She hated to see women and children being bullied. However, she was only a thirteen-year-old child. Looking at those Turkic men with fat faces, she knew she was no match for them. She was so anxious that she broke out in a sweat. Her brain raced for ideas while her eyes scanned the crowd.
Suddenly seeing his brothers Zheng Xin and Zheng Sen in the crowd, Qiu Yizi made up his mind in an instant, gritted his teeth, and ran towards the Turkic man with the girl under his armpit like an arrow, kicking him hard in the crotch. The man was caught off guard and was hit by this tricky trick. His legs suddenly went limp. He didn't care about anything else, threw the girl down, covered his vital parts with his hands, and rolled madly on the ground. Qiu Yizi saw it as an opportunity, and pulled the girl's hand to run out, but he didn't expect that the crowd watching the excitement had already surrounded this place, and the two of them couldn't rush out. The few Turkic people who came to help just now, after a moment of surprise, also came to their senses at this time, and pulled out steel knives hidden somewhere, and approached Yizi with murderous intent.
Qiu Yizi swallowed his saliva, cold sweat all over his body, but he did not forget to protect the girl, but he looked at his two brothers Zheng Xin and Zheng Sen with pleading eyes. Zheng Xin and Zheng Sen originally planned to rescue the girl, but they did not dare to act rashly because they did not know the reason. They could not help but admire the young boy who dared to do what was right, but when they saw that the boy was actually their sworn brother, they were stunned again. At this moment, Qiu Yizi's eyes were obviously asking for help from his brothers. Zheng Xin thought that it would be fine if Guangyang City allowed the Turks to commit crimes, but if the adopted son of the King of Youyan suffered a loss on the ground of the capital of Youyan Road, how could the face of the Youyan Palace be saved? So he stepped forward, pointed at the Turks holding steel knives and cursed: "Northern slaves! I am Zheng Xin, the eldest son of the King of Youyan. Guangyang City is not a place for you to commit crimes. Why don't you put down your weapons and surrender!"
There seemed to be some Turks who could understand Chinese. They knew that the man in front of them had an extraordinary background. They whispered to each other for a few words. Although they still held the steel knife tightly in their hands, they did not dare to move forward. At this moment when the atmosphere froze, Qiu Yizi had already found a gap in the crowd and pulled the girl out to run. Seeing this, more than a dozen Turks screamed and ran to chase. But before they could move half a step, the crowd scattered. It turned out that Zheng Miao saw Yizi going to rescue people, and was afraid that it would be difficult to deal with, so he ran outside to find the Youyan soldiers who were patrolling the horse market. When the officer saw that it was the youngest son of the King of Youyan who came to invite him in person, and heard that several princes were trapped by the Turks, he gathered 500 soldiers without thinking, picked up fine steel swords, and went to the scene of the incident. Even if the dozen Turks were extremely brave, they were no match for the 500 elite soldiers. They were disarmed and tied up in a few moves.
Qiu Yizi didn't care about all this, so he took advantage of the chaos to rescue the girl and ran towards Guangyang City, but he got lost in the streets and couldn't find the city gate. After running for a while, the two were already out of breath. When they looked back and saw that no one was chasing them, they found a poplar tree and sat in the shade to catch their breath.
The trunk of this poplar tree is straight, reaching up to the sky, several feet high. There are no trees around to compete with it for sunlight, so it can stretch its branches to its heart's content. After all the leaves have fallen, it looks like a thousand-armed Guanyin from afar. Qiu Yizi saw the sweat oozing from the forehead and nose of the girl, like pear blossoms in the rain, and he liked her very much. He dared not look at her too much, but he didn't want to stop looking. His eyes looked around excitedly, but he was still attracted to the girl from time to time. Yizi wanted to strike up a conversation with her, or at least ask her name, but then he thought that she was a Turkic girl, and he didn't speak the Turkic language, so asking in Chinese would be like talking to a chicken and a duck...
While she was feeling distressed, the girl patted Qiu Yizhi on the shoulder and said in Chinese: "Thank you for helping me out. What's your name?"
This was the first time that Yizhi had been so close to a woman other than his mother. He was also surprised by the girl's fluent Chinese. His mind was in turmoil as he thought about how to answer. He could only say a few words: "My name is Qiu Yizhi, what's yours?"
The girl didn't understand the reservedness of the Han Chinese women in the Central Plains. She grinned and said, "I am a woman from the Wulin Yala clan, named Yibiluku Yala Ran. According to your Han Chinese customs, you can call me Wulin Yala Yibiluku Yala Ran."
Qiu Yi thought that you sounded nice, but how could the Han people have such a long name? He listened carefully twice but still couldn't remember it clearly, so he scratched his head and said, "Isn't your name too long? If you just call it casually, a stick of incense will burn up."
The girl laughed: "You are right, it is too long. Everyone in my family calls me Yi Ran!"
"Yiran...Yiran..." Qiu Yizi thought, "This feeling can be recalled, but it was already gone at that time. What a good name!"
The girl from the Wulin Yala clan also learned Chinese from the local dialect. She never thought that the abbreviation of her name could correspond to two beautiful Chinese poems. She was very happy and praised Qiu Yizi: "Your name is also very good, but your courage is better than your name."
This sentence touched Yizhi's heart, and he asked, "Why did those Turks want to arrest you?"
Yiran didn't have any ulterior motives, and said bluntly: "Those are the people of the Viromele clan. They didn't dare to compete with us Wulin Yala people on the grassland, but came to capture a little girl like me. But I'm not easy to mess with, and I escaped!" After that, there was a burst of laughter. It was nothing unusual for two children to chat under the shade of a tree, but one of them was wearing Hanfu and the other was wearing a Hu robe, which was too eye-catching. Yiran's unbridled laughter inevitably attracted everyone's attention.
Qiu Yizhi quickly put his hand on his lips and made a gesture of silence. This gesture was indeed universal, and Yiran stopped laughing immediately. Yizhi nodded and asked in a low voice: "Since that is what is said, why didn't you have any defense? At least you should have a few guards to accompany you. What use were those old ladies just now?"
Yiran paused, smiled, and answered in a voice lower than Yizhi's: "What do you know, little kid? Do you know that Prince Youyan captured more than 700 Turkic women and children?" Yiran saw Yizhi's big eyes, and felt a little proud in his heart, and continued, "We, the Wulin Yala clan, are fighting with the Biromel clan to see who is the real eagle on the grassland. The men are all fighting, where is there anyone to protect us?"
Although Qiu Yizhi was young, he had at least seen some of the world with King Youyan. While he was surprised, he also knew that this matter was of great importance. He immediately changed his expression and said to the innocent girl beside him: "In this case, do you want to meet King Youyan?"
Yiran blinked when she heard Qiu Yizi's words, and suddenly laughed out loud: "You seem to be quite honest, but you can actually brag. But your bragging is not good. How can a child like you meet the dignified King Youyan? Hahahaha..."
"Stop laughing! Whose children are you?" A rude voice interrupted Yiran's laughter. It turned out that the residents around saw the two children, one Han and one Hu, chatting for a long time and their behavior was very suspicious, so they reported it to the government. The sergeant on duty in Guangyang Outer City today did not hesitate to receive the report. He selected five or six soldiers to investigate the big poplar tree. Sure enough, they saw two children chatting under the tree. Especially the girl in the Hu robe was talking and laughing very wildly, so he rushed over to ask for clarification.
The chief had only finished half of his reprimand when the young man in Hanfu unexpectedly grinned and said, "Do you still recognize me?"
The sergeant was surprised when he heard this. He looked carefully and found that it was the adopted son of Prince Youyan. He bowed and apologized immediately, saying, "It turns out that it is His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince who is here to enjoy the cool air. I am sorry for my rudeness!"
Among the five hundred elite soldiers that King Youyan brought with him when he entered the capital, there was this sergeant, and Qiu Yizhi was half-acquainted with him, so Yizhi was not polite and said, "I am out for fun with my three brothers, and I don't want to get lost, so I would like to ask you to lead the way. Is that convenient?"
The captain smiled foolishly and said, "Since Your Highness has said so, I am naturally happy to do so. Your Highness, please come this way..." After that, he stepped aside and asked Yizhi to walk in front.
Qiu Yizi stood up, pulled up Yiran, who was standing there like a fool, brushed the dirt off his butt, and walked in the direction the captain pointed.
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PS. The horse market was a win-win situation between the Central Plains dynasties and the nomadic peoples. However, the Central Plains dynasties usually had the mentality of a big empire, not focusing on mutually beneficial trade but on tribute trade. They would only open horse markets when they had no choice. Fortress cities were often built to set up horse markets. The fact that markets were opened in big cities... was also made up by me. (To be continued)