Chapter 529 Falling

Author: Chris Webber

Danzeng lowered his head in a tame manner, asked the escort to untickle the rope around his neck, and then walked to the stretcher. The stretcher was very heavy, making his steps slow and stagger, his muscles became sore, and then numb, and finally he had no sense of consciousness. Every few steps, he had to find a way to lift the heels to avoid the boots falling off. The Qiang people next to him had already seen his embarrassment, but they did not give him a tight space for his shoes with straw ropes. These hateful guys stood aside, either watching coldly, or joking loudly, waiting to see his jokes. Danzeng knew that shoes on this land were equal to feet, and life. As a captive, even if there was a wound on his feet, he would become weaker and weaker and eventually die.

Grassroots suddenly tripped their toes, Danzeng staggered, knelt heavily on one knee, biting his tongue, and he tasted the taste of blood, which was extremely sweet. The stretcher turned over, and the people above screamed. Danzeng grabbed a bush, held it firmly, and tried to pull himself up again, but the stiff legs were really unable to support it. The stretcher was too heavy, and he was too tired and too weak.

"Get up, Tubo dog, don't pretend to be dead!" The Qiang guard shouted loudly, waving the whip in his hand. Dan Zeng lowered his head and gritted his teeth to endure it. He seized the opportunity to tear off a few grass roots and tied his boots tightly. This was a rare opportunity. Suddenly, he was hit hard on his shoulder. Dan Zeng fell back to the sky, and flew out with a copper pot containing his friend's bones in his arms, landed on the ground and rolled out for a long time.

"Huh!" The Qiang guard picked it up from the ground, took it in his hand and played with it for a few seconds and sneered: "Where are you stolen good things? If you hide them, you won't hand them over. I'll give it a discount!"

In an instant, a thread in Danzeng's heart seemed to be broken. He jumped up from the ground angrily, threw the Qiang guard to the ground, took back the copper jar, stuffed it into his arms, and looked around fiercely, like a beast being forced into a desperate situation.

"What's going on! What's wrong?" Akden jumped off the horse and walked over. At first he thought it was a mutiny by the prisoners, but soon he realized that it was not. Most of the Tubo people were sitting honestly on the ground, like a group of tamed sheep, with only a dozen Qiang people gathered together, holding wooden sticks and whips in their hands, and shouting loudly. He walked into the crowd and saw a Tubo people curled up in a group, the Tubo officer who begged for surrender to him.

"What's wrong?"

"This guy has private property!" A Qiang man shouted: "He hit someone just now and wanted to escape!"

"Escape?" Akton looked at Danzeng, his whole body was ragged, without dry food, no protective weapons, and no horses. On this wasteland, he was full of malice. Where could he escape?

"What kind of property is hidden privately?"

"It's the copper jar in his arms. He just now couldn't help but fall to the ground and was picked up by me. He rushed up like crazy. There must be valuable things inside!"

Akden turned around and said to the Qiang girl behind him: "Tu Yanmang Jiebo, go and ask that guy, what is in that copper jar?"

Tuyanmang Jiebo nodded, stepped forward and said to Danzeng two times, "My husband asked me to ask you, what is in the copper jar in your arms?"

Dan Zeng glanced at the Qiang girl and did not answer immediately. He answered a few minutes later: "The copper jar is the bones of my friend, not a treasure. I have promised him that he will take him back to his hometown for burial!" At this point, he took out the copper jar and presented it with both hands.

Tuyanmang Jiebo showed a hint of astonishment. She took the copper jar, hesitated for a moment, and finally handed the copper jar to Akton, whispering: "He said it was the bones of his friend. He wanted to take this back to his hometown for burial!"

Akton took the copper jar, opened it and looked, and then closed it again: "Give it back to him! Tell those Qiang people that we are still in danger now, so no troubles are allowed!"

Facts proved that Akden was right. Just in the afternoon, the sky began to become gloomy, and the north wind became heavier and heavier, and then it began to snow. Snowflakes fell on everyone's hair, beard and shoulders, and soon became one. Whether it was the Qiang or Tubo people, they threw their original hatred behind their heads. They were familiar with the local climate, and they knew very well that this sudden wind and snow was not simple, and it was very likely to cover up everything on the earth and turn it into a snow field. In the face of this great power of nature, the personal rift was irrelevant at all.

"Go away quickly, go away quickly!" Akton urged loudly: "Just get to the camp. There is enough food there. We can camp there and wait until the snow stops before returning to Songzhou City!"

Although Dan Zeng couldn't quite understand what the Tang officer was shouting, he could guess a few points. But he no longer had the energy to care about these things at this time. Every point of his strength was spent moving his feet. He lowered his head and could see the clumsy and unformed things stumbled across the mud and snow. He remembered that the boots were black, but the ice and snow melted and frozen around them repeatedly. In the end, they became strange-shaped snowballs. His legs were like two popsicles, stiff and unable to bend.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier, and the snow quickly overwhelmed his ankles. His pace was slow and staggering. The stretcher behind him made him look more like a huge four-legged monster. I was too tired, really tired, and I could no longer walk. The Bodhisattva mercies, let me lie down! Even if I die, just don’t have to walk anymore. Although the snow covered the ground, walking became more and more dangerous. There were not only stones and grass roots under the snow, but also caves - groundhogs like to dig this kind of cave. Once exhausted people step into the cave, they can easily sprain their ankles, or even worse. What if they step into it by themselves? - Danzeng dared not think about it.

In despair, Danzeng took another step. He felt as if his feet were not mud, but cotton balls. He fell endlessly, but he couldn't touch a hard place, but just kept going down and down. I had to stop and find a place to lie down. It was so painful. I was cold and tired, and wanted to sleep... Even if I slept by the fire for a short time, I could eat something casually.

But Danzeng knew very well that if he stopped, he would be dead. He had never seen people frozen to death in the snow, his face was blue and purple, his face showed a strange smile, and some even pulled their coats away. It is said that people would have an illusion of being extremely hot before being frozen to death. Danzeng had never experienced this feeling, and he didn't want to experience it.

After exhaling his breath, Danzeng took another step. He is now very glad that Tangren confiscated the iron armor on his body, which reduces the load and does not lose temperature. What's better is that he has not been stripped of the sheepskin coat and yak velvet cloak, but his boots are helpless - snow water seeps into the broken place and freezes, and he can no longer feel the pain. I hope he can keep his toes, so that although he can't run in the future, he can at least walk, and no one will need a slave who can't walk.

Suddenly, Danzeng tripped his feet and wanted to stand firm, but his whole body fell down like a stone statue, and someone was shaking his shoulders. "Get up," a voice said, "Idiot, this is not a place to sleep, you will die! Get up and keep moving forward!"

"I didn't sleep, I just rest. Let's go away and leave me alone!" Dan Zeng said, rather than talking, murmured: "I'm fine, I just want to rest."

"Get up." It was the voice of the Qiang girl, with a hoarse voice. She appeared above Sam, and a thin layer of ice had formed on her cloak. "If you can't rest, you will freeze to death."

"Don't worry about me!" Dan Zeng smiled and said, "No, really, I feel comfortable like this. You go quickly, I will catch up if I rest for a little while."

"Lie!" The girl's cheeks were frozen and purple: "You will only become less and less powerful when you lie down, and then you will die!"

"What's going on?" Akton jumped off the horse. He looked at Danzeng's situation and said, "Tu Yanmeng Jiebo, bring a horse over!"

Tu Yanmang Jiebo responded and went to find the sheepskin. Akton first took a gourd from the saddle, poured Danzeng two times, then took out a knife and cut Danzeng's boots, slapped it with snow twice, and then rubbed it hard. After a long time, Danzeng's feet became conscious. He felt countless steel needles piercing his feet, and screamed!

"It's good to be conscious!" Akton smiled. He wrapped Hadden's feet in a piece of sheepskin, and then put them on the horse, saying, "You can ride a horse, it's good to get to the camp. If you don't say luck, your feet should be able to be kept!"

Under the leadership of Akton, the group finally met with Wang Pu before the early morning. Wang Pu had already established a camp. Seeing the embarrassing appearance of Akton and his group, they were shocked: "What are you doing? Why are you like this? Why are there so many more people?"

"We caught up with the Tubo people and defeated them. These were the captives and the Qiang people who were taken back!" Akdun smiled and said, "I just encountered wind and snow on the way back. I didn't expect the weather here to change so quickly, and I almost told them to be on the road!"

"Yes, I also heard those veterans say that the weather in Songzhou is unusual, but I didn't expect it to be so bad! So are you. When the weather is wrong, you just bring our people back. Why both the Qiang and Tubo people? We have no money to lose even our brothers in front of the yamen!"

"The Grand Governor is new and is not familiar with the Tubo people and Qiang people. If he can send dozens of prisoners, wouldn't it be right?" Akden smiled and said, "How is the Grand Governor treating us in front of the yamen on weekdays? Isn't it just that this is the time to do whatever he wants?"

"What you said is reasonable. If you haven't seen each other for a few days, your knowledge has increased!" Wang Pu smiled and said, "Forget it, I have already made someone cook ginger soup. Let's drink a bowl of ginger soup first and apply some plaster!"

"Yeah!" Akton responded: "By the way, do you think the wind and snow will fall? Then will we be trapped here!"

"It's only September now, probably not!" Wang Pu said: "I've asked. They said that the weather here comes quickly and goes quickly. If it's October, it may snow continuously. Now it should stop in one or two days. It's not too late for us to return to Songzhou!"

As it turned out, Wang Pu was right. The sudden heavy snow fell light at noon the next day and stopped completely in the evening. On the third morning, the group set off and sent it back.

Songzhou City.

"Wang Pu and Akton are back?" Wang Wenzuo raised his head: "Okay, I guess I was trapped by snow on the road. This ghost place is worse than Baekje and Goguryeo. If you are not careful, you will suffer a big loss!"

"They encountered heavy snow on their way back!" Igrilynbod smiled and said, "But they didn't come back empty-handed!"

"Don't you come back empty-handed? What does it mean? Have you snatched some of the Qiang people back?" Wang Wenzuo asked.

"Not only, Akton caught up with the Tubo soldiers and wiped out all the troops. He captured more than 70 people alive, brought back all the soldiers and armor, and there was also a deputy household."

"Oh? Akton has made great contributions this time!" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "I thought it would be great if I could capture a few Tubo prisoners back, and it would be great to see where the Tubo people are. Now that they have caught so many things, they can ask for clarity! Otherwise, they would be blind people riding blind horses and approaching the deep pond in the middle of the night, and this battle would be impossible to fight!"

"The blind man rides a blind horse and is at the deep pond in the middle of the night! This poem is good!" Ijirenbod smiled and said, "The subordinates immediately bring the captives of the Tubo people!"

"Don't panic, take a few more of their armor and let me see it! It's not too late for the prisoners to ask about them tomorrow!"

Ijirenbod responded and soon sent several armored weapons. Wang Wenzuo looked closely and saw that these pairs were all armored. The armor leaves were exquisite and hard, and ordinary swords could not be injured. He also used a crossbow to test the shooting. He could penetrate the armor by thirty steps. Compared with the armor of the Tang Dynasty, it was even better than that of the armor.

"What a great awesome!" Iggi Lianbod said astonished: "The craftsmen in our country are far from enough!"

"Actually nothing!" Wang Wenzuo smiled and said, "The Tubo people should have good mines, so they can smel out good iron and then repeatedly forge them coldly. The armor obtained is naturally powerful. However, there are only a few craftsmen in their country who spend so much artificial iron on weapons and armor. I believe that the equipment of agriculture and animal husbandry in the country must be very crude. Maybe the farmers use wood and stone tools. Agriculture is the foundation of all industries. The Tubo people are so powerful that they will not last long even if they gain profits for a while. As long as they invade and gain nothing for a while, they will naturally devour each other and die!"

"What the governor said!" Ijirenbod nodded: "But the poor rats eat cats. The Tubo people are so powerful that they are hard to defeat. What do you think should be done?"

Wang Wenzuo frowned and did not say anything. His analysis of Tubo just now is true. With such backward productivity level, small countries and few people, but they can raise so many well-equipped troops, it will inevitably invest all the limited domestic resources in the military. For example, young and strong people join the army, limited craftsmen and metal are used in the military, and agriculture and animal husbandry cannot obtain enough metal tools, which will inevitably have a worse impact on the country's agricultural and animal husbandry production.
Chapter completed!