From Youzhou to Linhuang, it is nearly a thousand miles away, mostly traveling in the Gobi Desert or grassland.

While the team was replenishing food and water in a yard, several Khitans were wandering around, looking at the prisoners of Song with the eyes of picking animals. The prisoners were sitting numbly on the ground. Such things are common. In addition to hundreds of royal families and important officials, most of the prisoners were bought one after another. More than 5,000 Bianliang craftsmen who needed to be taken to the capital were also snatched by the Liao people's workshops on Nanjing Road because they had no books.

"Is there anyone who can make ironwork?" "Is there anyone who does wooden work?"

"Just know one skill!" "Can you burn brick kiln?" "Can you use a loom?"

Han'er's entourage looked at the head and asked, and the manor manager had an urgent look and his eyes swept around the crowd. The Khitan nobles did not need too much food, so most of the Liao Manors did not have much crops. In addition to large pastures, they planted cotton, mulberry, fruits, alfalfa, etc. After many Song Dynasty craftsmen were captured to the north, exquisite porcelain, silk, etc. that were originally made by Song State, which were only made by Song State, were now also able to make, but the price was not cheap. The Liao Manors needed less food, but the Qidan

The nobles are fond of pomp and have not had enough demand for luxury goods. Since the southern expedition of Yelu Dashi, trade between the north and the south has been almost cut off. In various parts of the Liao Kingdom, Khitan nobles have opened workshops. Workshops of all sizes are often used to work by slaves. However, ordinary slaves are easy to obtain, but excellent craftsmen are not easy to obtain. Therefore, in the eyes of the Khitan masters, slave craftsmen with superb skills are very valuable property, and their living benefits are not only higher than other slaves, but also more than ordinary Khitans, and even more than the treatment they were originally in the Song Kingdom.

Among the teams starting from Bianliang, most of the more than 100,000 prisoners of the Song Kingdom were all kinds of craftsmen, but when they got here, there were less than one-tenth of them left. If these craftsmen had not been escorted to Linhuang Mansion of Beijing Road, they were bought by Khitan nobles halfway. This was the case, and local Khitan nobles came to search for craftsmen along the way. The more they walked north, the workshops opened by the Liao people were lacking skilled craftsmen, and the price they offered was getting higher and higher. Later, under the temptation of a lot of money, the escorted officers began to conspire to report the number of deaths of craftsmen and sell some scarce craftsmen at high prices.

According to the order that was useful to the Khitan nobles, the status of the Song people in the captive team also underwent earth-shaking changes. The Liao army treated valuable "goods", not only giving craftsmen better food, but also having better camping conditions. On the contrary, the royal family and important officials of the Song Dynasty were either without skills or old or weak, and they received the worst treatment. Not only did they have to starve to travel, but the camping residences were also low-lying and wet and cold places. If they died of illness and exhaustion, whether they were princes or ministers, they would be abandoned by the roadside and not buried. They would let wild animals eat corpses and circle the person.

"Wait until I arrive in Beijing," Lu Bugu patted Li Ruobing on the shoulder, "You can choose any woman over there."

After three months of walking, Lu Bugu completely felt that this kid was a talent. When traveling to many places, Li Ruobing could always communicate with locals. Such people were very rare in the closed Khitan tribe, and only those merchants who traveled around the world could do it. Therefore, Lu Bugu decided to spend some money to keep Li Ruobing. However, Li Ruobing did not seem to be selling the bills too much. Every time a Khitan nobleman came to select slaves, Lu Bugu was worried that he would take the initiative to stand up and sell himself. You must know that most Han people wanted to stay in the south, even if they were in the territory of Liao, even if they were the same as slaves. In the snow and ice, every time they walked a mile north, it seemed like they would have killed their lives. Fortunately, Li Ruobing had been following the team and had no intention of staying halfway.

Li Ruobing spent these days in pain. His smile and smile in the past have long been deeply engraved in his heart. Now he doesn't know the opposite side, and his heart is even more like a knife. Since his eyes were intertwined that day, the queen deliberately dodged Li Ruobing's gaze. This made Li Ruobing even more uncontrollable. The cold weather that freezes to death is completely inferior to the torment of his heart, which makes him almost crazy. The defense of the king and his ministers has forced him to bury this lava-like feeling in his heart. Since he read and practiced the way of the saint, Li Ruobing has not only restrained his words and deeds, but also made him think.

The mind must also conform to the way of sages, especially after Zhu Ying was selected into the palace. However, this guard in his heart became increasingly shaky. Every day, Li Ruobing suffered from the torture between ice and fire. He could only bury his head and rush around. Occasionally, he could only glance at the familiar figure in the prison car. He dared to glance past it at once. Even if there was a moment, he was afraid that he would not be able to run forward and hold the familiar and strange face in his palm. He kept walking and stopping. This team of prisoners mixed with people of all kinds walked for nearly four months before he arrived at the Beijing Linhuang Mansion.

Only the Khitans could live in Linhuang Prefecture City, and the prisoners of the Song Dynasty could not enter the city. The Northern Court of the Liao Kingdom divided the craftsmen into workshops, and most of the palace ladies and noble ladies were also divided into workshops. A piece of land outside the city was set up with the concubines of the Song Emperor and his accompanying ministers. This was the hinterland of the Liao Kingdom, and there were grasslands on all sides. The Northern Court was not worried about the prisoners of the Song Dynasty escaping. They simply built dozens of sheds with birch bark, and a fence was enclosed outside. Zhao Ke was usually imprisoned in a simple courtyard, and Zhao Ke was not allowed to leave the fence. The concubines, royal family and ministers could walk around. Ezhou Prime Minister

After the mansion respected Zhao Qi as the emperor, Yelu Dashi's interest in the deposed emperor Zhao Ke was greatly reduced, and he had never summoned him once after he arrived in the capital. Correspondingly, Zhao Ke's treatment also plummeted. Zhao Ke, Empress Zhu, and concubines with titles each gave only three liters of Chen Gu every day, and had to pound it himself before he could swallow it. Other ministers, such as Zhao Zhifu, Qin Hui and others, only had one and a half liters of Chen Gu every day, and they had to pick wild vegetables every day to satisfy their hunger. It is said that after the spring, the ministers of the Song Dynasty had to grow grains themselves and no longer gave food in the summer.

Lu Bugu kept his promise. In the book of prisoners in the North Court, Li Ruobing, the young minister of the Honglu Temple of Song Dynasty, was already a dead person, and there was an extra man named Chagan in the Rilian tribe under the jurisdiction of Yelu Tiege, the Privy Councilor of the North Court, who was registered as a Khitan by the North Court.

The Rainian tribe's pasture is nearby. The Khitans originally lived by nomads, but now it is the severe winter season. Cattle, horses, alpacas and other livestock are enclosed and only placed when the weather is good. In this way, Li Ruobing hid in the Rainian tribe. In appearance, he was completely like a taciturn shepherd, covered in dirty sheepskin coats, his face full of messy beards, horse manure and sheep smell. He often drove the flock to the fence of the Song Emperor.

Nearby, there was a hot river that did not freeze in winter. In the white air that was steaming like smoke and fog, he saw the figure washing clothes by the river. Although the two of them didn't say a word, they were like an appointment. Whenever the weather was sunny or late, they would appear next to the river. At first, Li Ruobing just looked away from afar, gradually getting closer and closer, but he could never take the last dozen steps.

"Maybe in her eyes," Li Ruobing looked at the figure, "I am just a shepherd from an alien race..."

These days passed day after day, until one day, the figure did not leave directly after washing clothes, but walked straight towards him. Li Ruobing was a little panicked. Zhu Ying's pale face came to him and looked up at him. Li Ruobing suddenly understood that she had recognized him from the beginning. At this moment, the rational embankment collapsed, and Li Ruobing suddenly stretched out his hands to grab Zhu Ying's hands in his hands. These hands were once so soft, but now they are red, swollen and covered with frostbite. He could no longer help but hold his delicate body tightly in his arms.

"Yinger..." Li Ruobing said hoarsely.

"Ruobing, Li Lang..." Zhu Ying thought as if she was muttering in her dreams, and suddenly she trembled all over and pushed Li Ruobing away with force, and said tremblingly, "Li Lang, respect yourself..." She did not dare to look at Li Ruobing's face, and gritted her teeth, Zhu Ying whispered, "I am disappointed Li Lang, don't miss it anymore..." She was weak and strong, and she was already sobbing at this time, and she turned around and wanted to leave. When Li Ruobing was harmed by a treacherous minister and exiled from the capital, Zhu Ying had abandoned a lot of youth for him. When Li Ruobing was finally pardoned and returned to court, it was when Zhu Ying was selected to be married in the palace. The two were far away. Li Ruobing had already passed his thirty years and had not been married yet. Every time Zhu Ying heard about him, she could only cry and swallow her voice, secretly praying that he would find a good match soon.

"Ying'er," Li Ruobing pulled her, looked at Zhu Ying and said, "I can't leave you anymore."

"Li Lang, I can only repay your kindness in the next life." Zhu Ying murmured, looking at the withered yellow mountains in the distance, shook her head and cried, "The flowers have not yet bloomed, and the flowers have faded, so it is hard to bloom again. I can't harm you anymore." She broke free from Li Ruobing's hand and ran to the river to pick up the wooden basin for washing clothes. She was heartbroken and almost fell down, but ran away without looking back.

"The flowers have not yet bloomed, the flowers have faded, and it is difficult to bloom again..."

Li Ruobing looked at her back and murmured and repeated. He seemed to be pierced by a sharp sword, and his heart was filled with great sorrow, which made him unable to bear it anymore. Li Ruobing raised his arms to the sky and looked up at the sky as if it was close to him. He was like those lonely shepherds, "Ah--" and screamed, and the sad and angry voice echoed in the empty grassland. In the echo, it seemed that someone was sighing: "The flowers have faded, and it is hard to bloom again..."
Chapter completed!