Tibet

This is a very small tribe, with only more than a hundred households.

"General, their tents are very strange!" a lieutenant whispered.

From a distance, I thought they were tents, but when I got closer, I found that they were not. They were huts built with birch bark and covered with animal skins.

"These should be the Shiwei people, Yang Jian, can you speak their language?" Zhang Dian asked, turning his head.

Yang Jian was one of his scouts, a Han Chinese from Liaodong. He followed his father to buy medicinal materials everywhere in Liaodong since he was a child, and could speak the languages ​​of many tribes.

Yang Jian nodded, "The Shiwei people speak the same language as the Khitan people, and are also called the Northern Khitan."

As soon as the words were spoken, dozens of strong men wearing animal skins suddenly emerged, holding hunting forks and wooden bows, and nervously looked at the five hundred Tang cavalrymen who came from afar.

Yang Jian stepped forward and said in Khitan language: "We are the army of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. We are ordered to pursue the Khitan fleeing generals. Please cooperate with us, hand over the fleeing generals, and don't cause trouble for yourself!"

A group of people discussed for a while, and an old man came out and said: "I am the elder of this tribe. There was indeed a Khitan cavalry before, about a hundred people. They thought our tribe was too small, so they took a batch of our prey to the big tribe."

Yang Jian turned back to report to Zhang Dian. Zhang Dian carefully looked at the more than a hundred birch bark tents. Even if the Khitans hid in the tents, the horses could not hide, but maybe the horses would hide somewhere else.

"Tell them that we must search the big tent. If there is really nothing, we can leave!"

Yang Jian translated it. Everyone was furious and wanted to fight the Tang army. The old man stopped them, "The other side has more people, all of them are soldiers. If you want to die, what about your wives and children?"

The Tang army was 500 people, more than ten times theirs, and the hunters had to bow their heads.

The old man said to Zhang Dian in not very fluent Chinese: "You can search, but please don't hurt our people and don't rob our property!"

Zhang Dian nodded and said to a captain: "Take fifty brothers to search, look carefully, don't touch their people and things!"

The captain took fifty cavalrymen to search, and after a careful search, the captain came back and said to Zhang Dian: "No abnormality was found!"

Zhang Dian pondered for a while and said to Yang Jian: "Go and tell their elders that we need a guide, we can pay to hire!"

Yang Jian went over to negotiate, and soon, he brought a hunter in his thirties, "General, this is the elder's son, who can speak some Chinese and is willing to take us to most of the way."

Zhang Dian immediately asked the soldiers to pack up and ran to the northeast under the guidance of the hunter guide.

The hunter was called Weng Jiang. He used to go to Liucheng County to sell furs. He could speak some Chinese, but he had to use an interpreter to talk about business.

"General, this hunter said that his father was actually very grateful to us. If we hadn't been chasing them so quickly, the Khitans would have killed all the men in their tribe and taken over their women."

Zhang Dian smiled and said, "Ask him how far the big tribe is? Will they hand over the people?"

Yang Jian exchanged a few words and said worriedly, "The hunter said that it would take two days to get to the big tribe, but he thought that the big chief would not hand over the Khitan leader because they were sworn brothers!"

Zhang Dian's heart sank, and he said to Yang Jian, "You should learn more about the situation of the big tribe!"

Soon, Yang Jian brought the details.

The big tribe is Nanshiwei among the five tribes of Shiwei, which is composed of more than 20 tribes of different sizes. The small tribe they passed by before also belongs to Nanshiwei. The place they are going to now is the main tribe of Nanshiwei, which has thousands of households. The leader is called Yimohe, and there are 2,000 standing troops. If all tribes are mobilized, there will be more than 20,000 troops.

But the characteristic of the Shiwei tribe is that it is very loose. The small tribes they met before had no blood relationship with Nanshiwei. They just lived in the sphere of influence of Nanshiwei, so they had to submit and pay tribute to prey and pigs every year, which accounted for 30% of their annual harvest. The burden was very heavy.

Zhang Dian smiled and said, "Tell him that if they are willing to become the subjects of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, they can move to the original Khitan territory to live. The Tang Dynasty will not collect taxes from them. They only need to pay tribute to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty with the best prey every year."

Yang Jian translated it, and Weng Jiang was very excited. He bowed and said, "We are very willing to become the subjects of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and no longer be oppressed by the Shiwei nobles!"

Two days later, 500 Tang cavalrymen arrived at the Nanshiwei camp, which was much more magnificent than the small tribes they met before.

Zhang Dian gave Yang Jian twenty taels of silver and asked them to move to the Songmo area to live. Yang Jian thanked him again and again and left.

Zhang Dian looked at the Nanshiwei tribe camp again, and it actually felt a bit like a military camp. A river about two or three feet wide surrounded it, and there was a ten-foot-high camp fence on the bank. At this time, the suspension bridge was pulled up, and hundreds of soldiers were holding bows and arrows and staring at the Tang cavalry outside, waiting seriously.

At this time, dozens of people appeared above the camp fence, among which was a middle-aged man with a medium build but unusually strong, wearing a fur hat.

Behind him stood a tall Khitan general, who was also in his forties, wearing a golden helmet, looking at the Tang army outside with a smile.

Yang Jian recognized him at a glance, stepped forward and whispered to Zhang Dian: "The Khitan general wearing a golden helmet behind is Yelu Salad."

Zhang Dian also expected it, he urged his horse forward and asked: "Who is the chief of Shiwei here?"

He spoke Chinese, but the middle-aged man and Yelu Salad could understand him. The middle-aged man said loudly: "I am Chief Yimohe. What can this general do for you?"

Zhang Dian said coldly: "The Khitan general behind you is a criminal wanted by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. We are chasing him all the way. Please hand him over to us immediately!"

Yimohe laughed dryly twice, "Yelu Salad is my brother and a distinguished guest of Nanshiwei. No matter who it is, don't think of taking him away from me."

Zhang Dian's face was as dark as water, and he said slowly: "I I warn you, the Tang Dynasty has already destroyed the Khitan. If the Shiwei are stubborn and want to fight against the Tang Dynasty, they will definitely die. "

"I will not hand over the people, so don't dream!"

Imohe turned and left. Yelu Salad sneered at Zhang Dian twice, and a soldier next to him was so angry that he raised his crossbow and shot. Zhang Dian held down the crossbow and said coldly: "Don't worry now, deal with them at night!"

Zhang Dian then sent out several scouts to hide at several key nodes near the camp to prevent Yelu Salad from running away on a raft.

Night gradually fell. In a big tent, Imohe and Yelu Salad sat on sheepskin and drank, and two maids roasted meat on the fire in the middle.

"Brother, think more leniently! It is estimated that the Khitan nobles were taken away, but the Khitan people are still there. You can completely establish yourself as Khan, rebuild Khitan, and have a few more sons. You don't have to worry about not having heirs in the future."

Yelü Salad nodded, "The Tang army is really cruel and ruthless. They must kill everyone. They even chased me for thousands of miles and chased me to Nanshiwei."

"It shows that you are important! If you are not important, they will be so persistent?"

Yelü Salad sighed and said, "I am just worried about causing trouble to my brother!"

Imohe laughed, "Don't worry, I am far away from here, and the main force of the Tang army can't come here. There is only a small team of spies outside. If they dare to mess around, I will directly destroy them!"

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and countless people shouted. Imohe was stunned. I don't know what happened?

A blazing rocket hit the big tent and got stuck in the big tent. The big tent was immediately ignited. The two maids were so scared that they rolled and crawled out. The rocket fell and landed in the fire pit. 'Bang! 'There was an explosion, sparks flew everywhere, and Imohe stood up in shock and ran out of the tent quickly. Yelu Salad also ran out quickly.

Rockets were flying all over the sky, and they fell into the tribal camp one by one. Hundreds of tents in the south were burning fiercely, and new tents were constantly being ignited. The people were panicked and ran to the south in groups.

"Tear down all the tents quickly!"

As soon as Imohe finished speaking, he heard two deafening noises of "boom! boom!" The ground was shaking, and many people couldn't stand and fell to the ground.

Imohe squatted down quickly, stunned. At this time, a soldier ran to report crying, "Great Chief, the Tang army attracted thunder from the sky and killed more than a hundred of our soldiers!"