Facing a group of ferocious cavalrymen, Gesang curled up on the ground, tightly hugging her last lamb. No matter how much the strong man in front of her punched and kicked her, she still gritted her teeth and refused to let go.
Even if there is already salty blood flowing out of his mouth, even if doing so is doomed to be futile.
Spring has just passed, and the cattle and sheep who have survived the cold winter are now the critical period for growing up. Grazing at this time is the happiest time for the shepherds. As long as the cattle and sheep eat enough and grow strong enough, winter Only then will people not starve to death.
This year is a good season. The weeds are lush on the grassland. This is the happiest time for the shepherds. Gesang, 13, heard from the elders in the tribe that this is the time when the water and grass are the most luxuriant in the past ten years. If they graze well this year, Next year, the clan will be able to support more people, and the clan will grow a lot.
It's a pity that in such a good season, there is a big war on the grassland, which affects everyone.
Military disasters are not natural disasters, but they are often more terrible than natural disasters.
It had been several months since the Khitan army attacked the Tang Dynasty, and the cattle and sheep they brought earlier had eaten a lot, but they had not been able to attack the Great Wall on a large scale and obtain food supplies from the Han cities and villages. Under such circumstances, the army had to send many soldiers to the grasslands to raise rations.
Everywhere, the way armies raise food in time of war is much the same.
Grab is the main content.
Gesang's tribe is not big, and the old and weak women and children together only have more than a hundred people. Because of this, their tribe is not qualified to participate in this war. It is normal for their cattle and sheep to be robbed now.
How a tribe without cattle and sheep can survive is obviously something that the army will not consider. The army must first ensure its own survival.
When Gesang opened his eyes in a daze, there was no sheep in front of him. Not a single one of the dozens of sheep was left behind, and the cattle and sheep of other clansmen all over the place were gone. Turned into corpses, lying here and there on the lonely grass, the blood flowing into the grass has begun to solidify.
Such a frenzied way of grabbing food is rare on the grasslands.
Gesang felt that her head was hurting as if it was about to split open. Now she doubted that there were several cracks in her head. After carefully touching it with trembling hands for a long time, she was slightly relieved when she couldn't find any terrible cracks. It was all sticky, but it still made her realize that her injuries were serious, and she might die.
The journey today to herd the sheep is not short. If there is no horse, it will take a long time. Gesang looked up at the sky, and the sun was already setting. Must die at night.
After sunset, the wolves will definitely come to eat the corpses of the dead clansmen.
Gesang struggled several times before standing up staggeringly, her eyes darkened, and she almost fell down again. She half-walked and half-crawled up the grassy slope, and stopped several times because of her weakness. When she looked around, her heart was immediately filled with despair.
Sure enough, there was no living person who came with them.
Not a single horse was left.
Gesang sat down, tears streaming down her face as the sun continued to set, and she felt an irresistible fear. However, crying is an extremely exhausting thing, and it will affect the wound on the head. Now she can't even continue the behavior of crying, which is an emotional vent and self-comfort.
Soon, Gesang lost the desire to cry.
She dared not even move.
The wolf has appeared.
One at first, and then one after another, the corpses of the tribe soon surrounded the wolves, torn to pieces by their sharp fangs.
Such a scene made Gesang want to vomit, but just after this movement, stars began to pop up in front of her eyes again. She knew that if she lost her vision this time, she would completely pass out and become a wolf's meal.
The elders in the tribe often say that the last scene a person sees before death is a sky filled with stars. Gesang could not understand it before, but now she understands it, which made her tremble all over.
A thin wolf was driven out of the eating circle and deprived of the right to eat. It whimpered a few times and then began to wander around the periphery. It wanted to change places to eat several times, but was chased away by its companions until it found grass. Gesang on the slope.
The bloody mouth of the wild wolf was extremely ferocious, and the exposed fangs were terrifying. It squatted down a dozen steps in front of Gesang, staring at her unblinkingly with its green eyes.
Gesang was afraid and wanted to scream and run. But she has no strength.
She discovered that the thin wolf was waiting for her to die. Once she fell down, it would pounce on her, tear her own flesh and blood, and eat herself into her stomach.
Hearing the sounds of wild wolves eating his own people, Gesang gritted his teeth to suppress his fear. If she didn't think that she would be eaten after she died, she would have wanted to bump her head to death here.
After all, dusk came, and Gesang began to shiver from the cold. Although it was summer, the temperature was still not high after nightfall. For her now, fear was the biggest reason for her chills.
Just when the stars began to shoot up in front of Gesang's eyes, and she was about to lose her hold, she heard a shrill scream.
It was the scream of a wolf.
And it's close at hand.
She tried her best to open her eyes, and vaguely saw that the thin wolf in front of her had already fallen three steps in front of her, with its head missing and bleeding all over the floor.
Then Gesang saw a strange but handsome face.
She looked at the armored soldier in confusion, then looked left and right, and found that there were many such armored soldiers around. Their attire is obviously different from that of the prairie people. The cavalry on the prairie will not wear full body armor, and the sword is not that straight.
So this should be Tang Jun.
Gesang passed out without thinking too much.
When she woke up again, she was already in the tent she was familiar with, but she didn't see her parents and younger brother. Only the soldier who rescued him took off his pocket and was cooking something in her iron pot. The aroma was so strong that it whetted the appetite of Gesang who hadn't eaten all day.
Gesang struggled to get up, touched his head, only to find that his head was wrapped with cloth strips, it seemed that the wound had been bandaged. She looked strangely at Tang Jun who was sitting in front of the fire and stirring food in an iron pot. She didn't know why the other party could bring her back to her tent, "Who are you?"
Zhang Changan looked back at Gesang, showing a gentle smile, "Are you awake? Just in time, the broth is ready, and I have steamed cakes here, you can come over and eat some."
Zhang Chang'an's speech was not fluent, but he didn't stutter. Although Gesang sounded a little weird, he could understand the meaning anyway.
At this time, a man in a Taoist robe opened the curtain and walked in. He glanced at Gesang first, and then said to Zhang Changan: "After treatment, only three of the seriously injured survived, plus two slightly injured. Yes, there are only five people in total... oh, including her, it should be six."
These words were naturally spoken in Chinese, so of course Gesang couldn't understand them.
But she recognized the guy in the Taoist robe.
In fact, there is no one among the shepherds of the tribe within a radius of a hundred miles who does not know him.
Gesang knew that he was a Taoist, his Taoist name was Buchen, and everyone in the tribe called him Master Buchen. He had several disciples, and they often came to the tribe to preach, help people see diseases, and sometimes performed a few performances. In this way, if someone needs some goods, he can trust the traveling merchant to come over.
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This person is very mysterious in the hearts of the nearby shepherds. He has a very good status and is very respected on weekdays. However, there are not many people who believe in Taoist gods with him. Shepherds have their own gods.
After the meal, Gesang's spirits improved a lot. The steamed pancakes that she had never eaten before were dry, but they tasted good when eaten with broth, and they were easy to fill her stomach. To the poor shepherd, whether something is delicious is directly proportional to its satiety.
After eating, Gesang also knew about the tribal tragedy.
The Khitan cavalry not only robbed their cattle and sheep, but also swept through the tribe, robbing all the food that could be robbed, and all the shepherds who resisted were ravaged by swords and horseshoes. There are only six living people left in the tribe of more than one hundred people, one of them has lost an arm, one has two broken legs, and one has lost an eye.
I don't know if it was the Khitan warrior who beat Gesang back then, seeing how pitiful she was, so he hit her softly, but Gesang was the one with the least injuries among these people.
After the collapsed Gesang found the bodies of his family members, he cried until he passed out again. The wound on his head also burst due to this, and the white cloth covering the wound was stained red with blood.
After carrying Gesang back to the tent and settling him down, Zhang Changan came out to discuss the next move with Buchen.
"I saw this Khitan cavalry raising food during the day. When they slaughtered the tribe, I hid in the woods over there, so I observed them very clearly. They are a standard thousand-man team. A centurion was sent to escort the cattle and sheep back to the east, and the rest went north, and it seems that they will continue to plunder."
When Buchen said this, he murmured to Wuliang Tianzun, with two emotions of intolerance and hatred in his brows, and then said: "Within a radius of one hundred miles, there are four tribes with a size of more than one hundred people. Other small tribes and Meteor Shepherds What's more, with the strength of this cavalry, it seems that within two days, this place will completely become a no-man's land."
Zhang Changan was silent for a moment.
The Khitan army will not only send one or two troops to raise food, but it will make a thousand-man team dispatched. It is conceivable how huge this army is, and it will definitely not be less than 20,000.
This is an appropriate tactical goal.
Zhang Changan also came here this time as a scout. The army led by Shangguan Qingcheng is still behind. His task is to find out the situation of the enemy army ahead. Look for targets that can be attacked, and also identify powerful enemies that must be avoided for the army.
"The situation on the prairie is more complicated. A large army cannot go out without a guide, otherwise it will be easy to lose direction in the vast wasteland. Although we have traveled to many places over the years, compared to the understanding of the place, we are still far inferior to these shepherds.
"If the army needs to find a suitable and hidden battle field, the cooperation of the shepherd is even more needed."
When Buchen said this, he sighed, "However, there are no followers of mine in this tribe, and it is estimated that others are not willing to take us to attack the army on the grassland. Even if they are willing, I cannot fully trust them. "
Zhang Changan glanced at Buchen, "Among the people you saved today, are there any who can develop into believers? They may not be willing to be used by me before, but after what happened today, will the situation not change? "