Realm of Power

Through the dense woods, fish belly white appeared in the east, the first ray of sunlight after the heavy snow stopped shining from the bare branches, the wet muddy ground, unknown frightened birds chirping on the branches, and the exhausted escapees

"Wow!"

Yelu Qiyeguang's throat felt sweet and he vomited out a large mouthful of blood. His vision turned black for a while, and his whole body collapsed weakly. He almost knelt on the horse's back with his front legs on the ground, fell down suddenly, and fell thickly underneath. In a layer of snow, the bright red blood is already like Ice usually hangs on the horse's belly and neck, and several arrow clusters have not been pulled out. It is already the limit to be able to run all the way here. This also has to feel that the cold temperature has frozen the wound, otherwise just because of the blood loss, it is enough to make The horse died a few hours ago

"Ahem!" Yelu Qiyeguang, who fell into the snow, let out a dry cough. The pain in his chest and abdomen was as if there was a fire burning. The huge pain as if his internal organs were being torn apart tore through his almost frozen nerves. Qi Yeguang woke up from pain. He leaned against a tree trunk and glanced at the dead horse. A trace of sadness flashed in Yelu Qi Yeguang's eyes. If he wasn't injured, that would be it. You wouldn’t know it if you froze to death on horseback after running all night. In severe cold weather, it is not uncommon for people to freeze to death on horseback on the grasslands. Yelu Qiyeguang once saw tribes one after another after a snowstorm. More than thirty people lost their way while chasing the fleeing horses and plunged into the lake. As a result, more than thirty people and horses were turned into miserable ice sculptures in the lake.

What the hell is going on! In her confusion, Yelu Qiyeguang recalled the attack last night in her mind, and also remembered the scene she saw outside the camp that made her wet with cold sweat.

In the wind and snow, the Baihe pro-army cavalry, who were regarded as the direct descendants of the Yelu family, each with a stern face and holding a sharp scimitar, formed row after row of skirmishers on the ground, riding on horseback to check the woods and shrubs line by line. Bushes, grass, paths, shallow ravines covered with snow, dark The cave... every corner where someone might be hiding was not spared. They used their machetes to poke and sweep the places they passed without missing a single place. Behind the search force, every team of Baihe soldiers were There was an archer holding a long bow in his hand, looking around with vigilance.

Yelu Qiyeguang knew that this was the signalman who was responsible for sending out signals after discovering the target. As soon as he received the alarm signal, people nearby would immediately rush over and surround the target. If his head didn't turn around more, plus Seeing the abnormal state of the Baihe soldiers under Yelu Guda, Yelu Qiyeguang almost stood up and shouted that he was here.

How did the camp know they were under attack? Even if he really knew that he was under attack, shouldn't he send rescue immediately? How could they not let go of any place like a huge net around the camp? This is not looking for people at all, but searching. What are they asking for?

Thinking of this, Yelu Qiyeguang's pretty face became more and more gloomy, and the hope in his heart was instantly shattered. Even if he couldn't see it, he could still feel that something must have happened in the camp. As for the Baihe soldiers in front of him, although they were members of the Yelu family personal guards, but this Baihe personal army has been following Yeluguda from the northwest.

It is said that if it were not for the outstanding performance of the Baihe pro-army in Tianlang City, Yeluguda might have been intercepted and killed by the Southwest Dragon Army as early as in Tianlang City. With such a relationship, Yeluguda had already promised that as long as he could board the Taking the position of the head of the family will make the Baihe pro-army take the blame. The person in charge, Lurha, serves as the commander of the entire Baihe pro-army. On weekdays, this Baihe pro-army has already regarded itself as Yeluguda's pro-army. Although he still treats himself with respect, in fact, even if he is himself, on weekdays, Without Yeluguda’s nod, it would be impossible to adjust.

The Baihe pro-army are now spread out on such a large scale. No one can do it except Yeluguda who gives the order!

In terms of the camp, Yelu Guda should have controlled the entire Yelu Army. Now his only way to survive is to return to Daizhou immediately, but it is hundreds of miles away from Daizhou. Yelu Qiye's teeth are biting on his frozen and broken lips. On the top, she stood up unsteadily with a determined expression, and her strong will to survive supported her as she marched towards Daizhou step by step.

midnight.

The soldiers of the Yelu family moved forward cautiously, the torches burning in their hands, but the area that the firelight could illuminate was limited. In front of them was a large area of ​​birch, thorn forest, beech and oak trees, even if they fell in winter. The leaves also rustled at night, surrounding them like a wall. The ground was covered with white snow, and people walked on it, making a creaking sound.

"Open your eyes and look carefully!"

The officer leading the team shouted, and the soldiers were like a huge fan, slowly moving forward to search step by step. They were uneasy in their hearts, and seemed to be very afraid of meeting the people they might be searching for. From time to time, there were people in the bushes = hiding in winter. The little animals that got up jumped out, causing them a panic every time. Suddenly, a voice came from the front of the queue, and everyone became nervous.

There was fire on the opposite side of the woods. It looked like there were not one or two people, but dozens of fires. Dozens of people were sitting around the fire. On the outside was a circle of strangely shaped caravans lying horizontally. The four wheels at the bottom of the carriages Showing the identity of these carriages,

"It's an imperial merchant!"

The officer leading the team secretly breathed a sigh of relief. In the Central Bia region, the carriages are all two-wheeled, because the carriages in the Central Bia region are not equipped with rotating shafts. Only the carriages in the Western Continent have four wheels. Although Tribal leaders do not have a good impression of imperial merchants, but ordinary tribal soldiers welcome imperial merchants very much. team, because no one except the imperial merchants dared to collect the trophies they had secretly hidden during the battle, and as long as they could get enough money, the imperial merchants would not care whether the buyers were nobles of the tribe, so that Ordinary soldiers of many tribes can sometimes buy items that are only used by nobles.

They saw the imperial caravan, and the caravan also saw these nervous Yelu Army soldiers. Some of the guards with weapons stood up immediately. After all, this was the Yanzhou battlefield, not a peaceful area. Although the Yelu regime was very strict with the imperial merchants. There is a protection policy, but the several incidents of Yelu Army soldiers robbing imperial caravans some time ago have also made the imperial caravans walking in this war-torn area more vigilant.

"Did you see anyone passing by here?" Officer Yelu, who was leading the team, walked out of the woods and glanced fiercely at the caravan. There were about fifty or sixty people in the entire caravan, with more than a dozen carriages filled with carriages. This made the Yelu officer's eyes reveal a trace of unnoticeable excitement.

Here at the Yanzhou battlefield, these imperial merchants are really brave.

However, during the Yelu family's battle, there were no imperial merchants who followed them to make a fortune. In many cases, the various properties plundered by the grassland people were sold privately to these merchants at low prices before they were handed over to the leaders. This was also the reason for the various ministries. One of the reasons why the leaders were so angry with the imperial merchants was that

According to the rules on the grassland, one-third of the proceeds from the battle belong to the leader, one-third belongs to the tribe, and the remaining one-third belongs to you. But now, because the imperial merchants have stepped in the middle, the leader and tribe The share of income often shrank significantly, while the income of ordinary soldiers increased greatly, and the money was made away by the various low-priced goods of the imperial merchants. How could this not make the tribal leaders mention the empire? The businessman was so angry that he hated it.

"Dear Sir, we didn't see anyone passing by here." The captain of the imperial caravan was a middle-aged man about thirty years old. When he saw more than a hundred prairie people coming out, he didn't show the slightest panic on his face. He saluted the Yelu family officer with a calm expression and said

"Really? I suspect you are harboring important prisoners here. I want to check!" The Yelu family officer sneered. Hundreds of prairie people immediately wanted to get close to those carriages with ferocious looks.

"Impossible, these are the products of the empire. According to the agreement, if you take the products of the empire without authorization, you will declare war on the empire!" The caravan captain's face darkened. Most of the merchants in the empire were either former aristocratic groups from areas conquered by the empire, or they were The disbanded soldiers with the status of former soldiers, especially the caravans who dare to travel back and forth between the empire and Central Asia, are not extremely tough beings. Many caravans are followed by more They are all from the imperial side. How could they be afraid of these hundreds of grassland people? Didn’t they realize that in the northwest, the empire had just forced a hundred thousand grassland troops to surrender in one fell swoop, and now it was dragging hundreds of thousands of grassland people to build roads in the wilderness? At work, as soon as they heard that the prairie people dared to touch their goods, dozens of people in the caravan immediately drew their weapons. Even the stout cook who was grilling meat raised his cleaver and shouted who dared to touch me. Damn it, I asked him to lie down and go out.

The bright cold light of the weapon blades made the faces of the Yelu army who were about to surround them turn green. This was Yanzhou, and a hundred thousand Yelu army was nearby. This was a clear plan to destroy the place.

"Do you want to rebel?" The Yelu officer turned pale and shouted in a sullen voice,

"Rebellion? You deserve it! You, the Yelu family, dare to talk about rebellion! I am from the sixth and fifth regiments of the Imperial Gang. If you dare to touch the goods, you are declaring war. Do you know what declaring war means!"

"I will kill anyone who dares to take action. Anyway, if you die, the empire will take revenge!"

"!, I have long disliked these grassland people!" The crowd on the other side was so excited that a group of more than a hundred Yelu Army soldiers who did not understand the imperial language were dumbfounded. They did not expect that these imperial people would have such a big influence. The reaction was to stir up a hornet's nest. Even though there were only a few dozen people, they felt much more arrogant than the hundreds of people here.

Just as Officer Yelu was about to open his mouth, he was drowned out by the tide of voices from the other side. What kind of people are the imperial caravans? Officer Yelu's mouth was bitter. If he really wanted to do something, he wouldn't dare. Although there were plundering of imperial caravans some time ago, those who robbed imperial caravans Although the grassland people were not held accountable by the Yelu family, they could not bear the fact that the empire offered 100,000 gold to buy their heads. It is said that several leaders were secretly executed by their own tribal leaders, and they immediately went to the empire with their heads. In exchange for the bounty, none of those who participated in the robbery are alive now.

At this moment, a whistling whistle arrow suddenly rose from the northwest not far from the forest.

"The scout has found the target!" Officer Yelu's face paused, and he immediately turned around and rushed towards the northwest. The soldiers behind him followed closely, forming a semicircular encirclement, and stepped on a piece of grass in the middle of the jungle. On the snowdrifts, there were faint footprints, as well as blood-stained branches and pieces of clothing. Obviously, the target had stayed here not long ago and had his wounds bandaged here. The most likely reason was that the target was awakened during the quarrel just now!

"Spread out and search the area with all your strength. She's injured and can't go far!" The officer looked surprised. So many people couldn't find him, but he actually encountered her. Thinking of the large reward promised by the higher-ups, he breathed. They all became anxious, loudly urging the soldiers behind them, "Hurry, move quickly, everyone, come on, take down If you achieve the target, each person will be rewarded with thirty silver pancakes!" Due to the motivation of the large reward, the soldiers were so enthusiastic that the originally dense queue was stretched very long, and a long string of sparse torches danced in the dark forest. As they stood, noisy voices rang out from all directions, and the light of torches illuminated the surrounding area getting brighter and brighter.

This was the third day of Yelu Qiyeguang's escape. Although he had the intention of running to Daizhou, he had no food for several days in such a cold weather. In order to avoid starving to death before he arrived in Daizhou, Yelu Qiyeguang could only choose to find a village where he could get food first.

It is a pity that in the Battle of Yanzhou, under the advance of one hundred thousand Yelu troops, all the villages that could be used as supply points were cleaned up. All the people inside were killed and all the supplies were looted. After searching seven or eight villages in a row, Yelu Qiyeguang She gave up. She had no food, no rest, no sleep. More importantly, she was betrayed by her own people. She couldn't identify the direction in the sky without the sun. She ran in darkness for three days without even her knowing. He knew where he was, and as soon as he lay down, Yelujun came up to him immediately. He was awakened by the noise just now, and got up with difficulty. Every step was accompanied by bone-chilling pain, and it felt like continuous tearing between the chest and abdomen. The scene in front of him began to twist and deform, and his consciousness became a little blurred. There seemed to be fire ahead... The footsteps around him began to get closer and closer. Yelu Qiyeguang's last consciousness had already accepted his fate.

"Is this the target you are looking for?" a deep voice asked

"There should be nothing wrong. Although he is a little embarrassed and deformed due to injuries, the difference with the picture is not big. Twenty teams followed the Yelu army for three days, and finally we met."

"What are you talking about? Hurry, get in the car immediately!"

"What if those prairie people came after me just now?"

"Kill them all!" (To be continued.)