Gubeikou is located opposite the gap between Longpan Mountain and Wohu Mountain.
Zhu Li was not unfamiliar with the customs and practices within the Great Wall. After all, he had worked here as the guard of the northern entrance for nearly a year.
As for the customs outside the Great Wall, Zhu Li is now traveling quickly through it.
Riding a horse across the vast grassland and riding the wind, if it weren't for saving people, you would definitely feel very happy.
The sky is vast and the distance is blue.
The air is also filled with a warm and humid feeling; the unique fragrance of wild grass mixed with the scent of soil makes people feel relaxed and happy.
The vast grassland, like a great mother, nurtures countless herdsmen; but it also raises countless jackals.
The Khitans were originally a weak nation; so weak that they had no fixed pastures, so they had to live in a wandering environment, following the water and grass.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, due to a beautiful mistake, the Khitan envoys who went to the Central Plains to pay tribute were granted a seat by the emperor of the Central Plains. Although it was the last seat, it also subverted the Khitan people's worldview.
The Emperor of the Celestial Empire actually gave him a seat, which made the envoy ecstatic and as if he was sleepwalking.
After returning to the tribe, that person began to spread the word widely, describing the Central Plains as a paradise full of treasures, power and wealth.
It was precisely because of his exaggeration that not only did the entire Khitan begin to desperately pursue the civilization of the Central Plains, but they also eagerly absorbed everything from the Central Plains.
The Khitan tribe, which was originally like a turtle in the countryside, gradually developed.
Not only did they use special products such as horses, furs, and iron to exchange for advanced tools and daily necessities from the Central Plains, they also asked the emperor of the Central Plains for a place to stay. Fortunately, they succeeded.
Today's Zuzhou and Muyeshan areas are the places where the people in power in the Central Plains allow their livestock to be raised.
As the tribe grew larger, they began to become restless.
In the Khitan tribe, there are two long-standing words, "Koudao" and "Kouchao", which show that they are also a group of hungry ungrateful wolves.
Hunters have the terms "hunting" and "going out hunting", while bandits and robbers are just like what hunters call hunting and going out hunting, except that their prey are not wild beasts and elk, but the people in the border areas of the Central Plains and their property.
The income from banditry and plundering became a stable and long-term source of income for the ethnic minorities on the grasslands. Of course, it was not just the Khitans who did this; all the ethnic minorities on the grasslands did so.
The Khitan tribe relied on the favor of the Central Plains Empire while constantly harming the people in the border areas of the Central Plains, and gradually became stronger.
In the northern border of the late Tang Dynasty, the Khitan tribe had apparently grown into a powerful force that could not be ignored.
Although their current territory is not large, there are millions of soldiers under their command within the Khitan tribe, and this is definitely not just talk.
In recent years, they have become much more honest, not because they have improved themselves, but because the Tang Dynasty produced a man named Zhu Li who won three battles in a row and severely damaged the Khitan.
If history had developed normally, powerful ethnic groups like the Uighur, Zhubu, Huihe, and Gekun would have all been destroyed by the Khitan.
The Heshuo forces led by Zhu Li, in two large-scale battles with the Khitan, annihilated the Khitan's manpower, as many as 200,000 young and strong men.
Although the death of so many elite members of the tribe did not cause serious damage to the Khitan, it did severely damage their vitality and curbed their pace of expansion.
The vast plains are boundless, vast and beautiful, but for Zhu Li, who rode far away from the others, they did not have much appeal. His heart had long since flown to Shangjing, to the side of his younger sister Zhu Ning'er.
Why should I be your brother? My younger sister won’t marry, and my father and brother should protect her.
As long as Zhu Ning'er remains unmarried, Zhu Li has the obligation to protect her and keep her safe and happy. This is what Zhu Li understands as the duty of an eldest brother; as long as the other person is safe, he will have no regrets even if he dies.
"Dang", "Dang, Dang, Dang", "Dang, Dang"... ...
The sound of weapons clashing suddenly awakened the anxious and dazed Zhu Li.
With Red Hare's speed of traveling a thousand miles a day and eight hundred miles at night, in the blink of an eye, the two fighting parties were brought into Zhu Li's sight.
Zhu Li signaled Chi Tu to slow down and look around.
On the green grass, dozens of Khitan men with shaved heads and leather armor were waving gleaming scimitars and besieging the three young men in the battle circle.
The three young men, all wearing felt robes and leather boots, were obviously foreigners from the grassland. They also held scimitars and fearlessly resisted the attack of dozens of Khitan men.
Among the three, the two boys were less skilled in martial arts and were already in danger; on the contrary, the girl was extremely strong and tough.
The young girl was as nimble as a snake and as fierce as a tiger. She looked like a little tiger walking out of the forest. She faced more than a dozen Khitan strongmen alone, not only killing them and forcing them to retreat step by step, but she still had some weapons left.
It was precisely because of her ferocity and her constant help to her companions in blocking fatal attacks that the fight became stalemate.
"Hahaha, you still want to run, little brats? We have wiped out your entire tribe, how long do you want to struggle?" A Khitan man with shaved hair and several braids laughed wildly while waving a scimitar vigorously and slashing at the girl frantically.
"Scatter, surround them, don't let them escape." Another burly foreign man with shaved head and shoulder shawl shouted loudly while directing others.
... ...
The cold light was shining, and the shouts of killing filled the fields. This was the grassland at the end of the Tang Dynasty, full of blood and the smell of devouring.
The shaved head is a characteristic of the Khitan people.
If the group of people who were surrounding him were not Khitans, Zhu Li might have ridden away.
To help the weak and suppress the strong also depends on the target. Who can guarantee that the weak people who are rescued out of soft heart will not become jackals that trample on innocent people in the Central Plains in the future
However, these three young men were very lucky because the people who surrounded them were the Khitans.
At this time, Zhu Li hated the Khitans so much that needless to say, as soon as he saw these Khitans, Zhu Li immediately drew out his long sword with a "clang" and rushed towards the battle circle on his horse.
Looking around, I saw a red shadow flying like an arrow on one side of the battle circle, accompanied by a dazzling lightning, as fast as thunder and as fierce as a roaring tiger, rushing wildly and recklessly towards the Khitans who were committing crimes.
A big Khitan man, who was standing outside the battle circle, was holding his sword and staring intently at the three young men in the battle circle, so as to fill the vacant position of his comrades in time.
But at this moment, a red shadow, like a gust of wind rising from the ground, suddenly hit him from the side.
With just a "bang" and a "crack" sound, Zhu Li didn't even need to draw his sword. The Red Hare under his crotch rammed fiercely into the spine of the Khitan knight's horse with great swiftness and fierceness.
The warhorse was hit by Red Hare in an instant, like a fold of paper, with its spine broken and its body deformed.
At the same time, when these Khitan knights didn't know what was happening, a flash of silver light appeared in the corner of their eyes.
The silver light was like a thread, like a flash of lightning across the sky, sudden and swift, carrying a cold and chilly aura, passing by in an instant.
If someone stood far away, they would see that as the silver light flashed, countless huge bald human heads were thrown into the air, and the sky was filled with blood rain, almost instantly blocking the view from afar.
Is it a breath or a blink of an eye
Limbs and heads flew everywhere, blood was pouring down like rain, and the swords were wielding without parallel.
In just a moment, of the dozens of Khitan elite cavalry, only three were still able to sit firmly on their horses. Even these three had their eyes wide open and their mouths open, trembling all over as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
The three young men, who had just been surrounded by the Khitan elite cavalry, subconsciously reached out and wiped their faces, leaving their faces and hands covered in blood.
All three of them retreated in horror, looking at Zhu Li as if he were a ghost from hell.
Just now, because they were fighting desperately and were too close to the Khitans, they suddenly felt a scarlet color in front of their eyes, and then a wet and sticky liquid splashed onto their faces, so they wiped it off subconsciously.
Unexpectedly, just at that moment, those Khitans who were entangled with them were suddenly beheaded by the young man riding the red horse.
This strange scene really scared the three of them.
At this moment, the Khitan men who were surrounding and killing them, as if they had agreed, all fell off their horses with "thumps", "thumps"... Dozens of heads rolled everywhere like falling balls.
The three young men looked horrified.
They had no idea what the young man riding the red horse had done in that instant that caused all the ferocious Khitan soldiers to lose their heads.
With Zhu Li's current martial arts, facing a small group of Khitan elites would be a one-sided massacre. These people are not even qualified to deliver food to him.
A moment later, the Khitan man with shaved hair and several braids suddenly dropped the scimitar in his hand with a "puff" sound, and then rolled off his horse with a "gulp". He knelt in front of Zhu Li with his buttocks and urine flowing, and kept knocking his head "dong, dong, dong..."
He was seen kowtowing like pounding garlic, trembling like a sieve, and crying out in a loud voice: "No, God, spare my life, spare my life, I have done anything to offend God, please forgive me."
With him taking the lead, the other two Khitans, although a little slow to react, immediately dropped their scimitars with a "puff" sound, rolled off their horses in shock, and followed his example, kneeling in front of Zhu Li and kowtowed "dong, dong, dong..."
Even though the three men kowtowed like crazy, Zhu Li still had no intention of letting them go. He needed to vent his anxiety, his resentment, his worry, and his fear, and the best target would be the Khitans.
The Red Hare slowly approached, and the long sword in Zhu Li's hand was still dripping with blood. The "pat, pat..." sound of dripping blood was enough to scare the three people who begged for mercy to death.
"God, you, you, you can't kill me. I, I, I am a Mogu from the Ugu tribe!" The Khitan man, with a pale face and trembling like a sieve, looked at Zhu Li who was approaching. His pupils were infinitely dilated, but he shouted stutteringly.
"Mahu?" Zhu Li was very confused by this word and couldn't help but mutter to himself.
On the side, the three young men who were also frightened, when they heard Zhu Li's voice, realized that this young man was a human being, not a god, nor the legendary evil spirit.
The leading girl, not knowing what she had thought of, immediately mustered up her courage and explained, "Brave man, are you a knight-errant from the Tang Dynasty? Ma Hu is the centurion of the Khitan."