Going west from Yanluoyuan, the further we go, the fiercer the snow becomes. Originally, one day of falling snow could give us two or three days of fine weather, but now it takes four or five consecutive days of falling snow to get half a day.
After the frost, the entire northern border was covered with ankle-deep snow, and even the Huxiao River, which would only freeze over in severe cold weather in previous years, had already formed large ice cubes.
The wind and snow greatly slowed down the speed of the Red Flame Army, and also covered up any traces that the pack of wolves might have left when they passed by. The settlements where a large number of herdsmen originally gathered to escape the cold and spend the winter, now not only have no signs of living people,
Not even the shadow of half a galloping wolf could be found.
"Did the scouts sent out discover anything new?"
Jiang Yan sat on Wu Chen's back, stretched out his hand to wipe away the hoarfrost on his eyebrows, turned to Qian Hu, a leader who had just been promoted next to him, and asked. The other person's name was Bodu, but he shook his head when faced with the leader's question.
Shaking his head:
"Since a large blood stain was found on the south bank of the Huxiao River three days ago, there have been no new clues. Dahehan, we have been marching continuously for more than half a month. It is not a good idea to continue like this in the winter in the North.
——”
Just as the other party was mid-sentence, he was interrupted by the black-eyed boy:
"It is true that all the people and horses have reached their limit, but we must persist for one more day. Both sides of the Huxiao River are the most fertile pastures in the Onma Department. From there, going west, you will reach the Pingtung Desert and
The sea of stone mirrors is gone. Even if we encounter the backlash of the Chilang that we have raised, it is impossible for the fortress and outpost that Qiheyou has worked hard for so many years to disappear without a trace. Moreover, in such a wind and snow, we must find a place to take shelter from the wind.
Only when the snow is blocked can we stop."
Bodu understood that although the Hehan in front of him was not a grassland person, he had already clearly understood the temper of this wild northern land from the late Bakwuqin Tuya. The stubborn energy in him was the same as that of thousands of years.
There is no difference at all from the grassland people struggling to survive in Shuobei. However, the stubbornness is obviously different from when they first arrived in this grassland. It is less reckless and reckless, but more thoughtful.
Even Qianhu himself couldn't figure out how he was persuaded by such a much younger young man to lead a cavalry team that may be the only one left on this grassland to rush west and north. But.
The black-eyed boy's words were not wrong. There was no cover around them now. If they set up camp like this, nearly half of the centaurs would be buried alive by the wind and snow overnight.
"Found it! There is wolf dung here!"
Suddenly, someone shouted loudly in the wind and snow. Jiang Yan clamped his horse's belly hard and rushed forward, only to see a ridge as high as half a man appearing on the plain. The wind blew from the north of the ridge, which was slightly
The top of the slope that is higher than the surrounding area blows over, forming a place behind it that can be used for shelter.
After walking closer, people realized that the so-called ridge was actually a half-arc formed by sixteen or seven large vehicles unique to the grassland. The convoy was seriously damaged, and even
The baggage pulled by several vehicles has not yet been unloaded. Beside the huge wheels, the frozen corpses of more than a hundred Onma tribesmen were lying strewn about.
The tall car body and the baggage piled high on it are now like a wall, making the biting wind and snow suddenly weaken a lot in the middle of the arc. It is obvious that before the arrival of the Red Flame Army, no matter in the wind or snow,
Herds struggling to find food, remnants of the Onma tribe, or hungry galloping wolves have all visited this place in the wind and snow.
"Fortunately, the snow fell early this year, so the dung beetles on the grassland didn't have time to clean up the dung of these animals."
Qianhu also followed closely, but his face was relieved. After all, although the big car did not completely block the wind and snow, it made people feel much better.
However, Jiang Yan did not show a relaxed expression. Instead, he ordered the Red Flame Army to be more vigilant. He jumped off his horse, walked to the pile of wolf dung that had been frozen hard in the wind and snow, and squatted down.
, grabbed a piece of dung and crushed it hard.
"It's just as I expected. These wolves are exactly the same as what we saw in Suiyao City. They also eat human flesh!"
Bodu stepped forward and saw two human finger bones among the pieces of excrement in Hehan's palm. He quickly turned to look at the corpses lying beside the cart, but found that there were no missing parts on their bodies.
.
"If the corpses on the ground were not in the belly of the wolves, then where did the werewolf find enough corpses to feed those terrible beasts?"
Qianhu's expression immediately became frightened and uneasy, but soon, his and Jiangyan's eyes fell on several large carts carrying baggage.
"If this convoy only planned to rest here for a short time, how could it unload most of the baggage on the car? Besides, in addition to the large cars and corpses everywhere, the tents and water and food used for camping have gone
where?"
Jiang Yan seemed to be talking to himself, but he pulled out Xiao Tianmo and walked straight towards a large car. Before Bodu could react, he had already cut off several ropes tied to the car with one knife.
A corner of the linoleum wrapped around the baggage was lifted by the wind, and soon slid to the side. But what was covered under the linoleum made everyone take a breath of cold air——
What was piled high on the car like pasture was not the curtains and pillars used for camping, nor the supplies of food and water for people to eat and drink. Instead, it was chopped off with sharp tools and neatly tied together in groups.
Arms and human legs!
Some of the brave ones in the Red Flame Army immediately cut off the ropes on the other car. After removing the linoleum, they discovered that there were countless human torsos without limbs and heads stacked on the car!
“These corpses—could they be used to feed wolves?!”
Bodu held the horse's rein in his hand tightly, pulling his horse back continuously. Even a veteran like him, who has been on the battlefield for many years, has never seen such an unnatural scene on the grassland. And those in front of him
The corpse, which had been frozen as hard as stone, looked strange and ferocious, like a nightmare falling from the sky.
"The mutilated corpses in Suiyao City probably ended up here."
After a long time, the young He Han spoke again, "Before, we were still wondering why those ferocious beasts that had the upper hand disappeared without a trace from Changzhou overnight. Now it seems
, they did not disappear, but were gathered here by someone, gathered in this sparsely populated and barren land in the North..."
"Could it be that those Onma tribesmen were lying before? Qihexu has not lost control of the wolves?"
Qianhu's face became increasingly pale. He knew very well how ruthless the leader of the Onma Tribe was, and he didn't even dare to think about what horrifying evil things those man-eating beasts could do if they were under his command.
Come.
However, Jiang Yan shook his head:
"No. The members of the Onma tribe who fell here were killed by someone using the secret technique of witchcraft. There were no obvious fatal injuries on these corpses, but all of them were abnormally shriveled and thin, as if they had been drained of blood.
Normally. I was thinking that they might have been captured by the wolf-hunter to work as coolies. When they arrived here, they no longer wanted to work for him and planned to run away. Xiaocai lost his life because of this..."
Having said this, the black-eyed boy suddenly shook his head in a self-deprecating manner, "However, no matter how we guess at the moment, it is impossible to know what happened to these Good Horse tribesmen - and we don't need to know,
These people deserve to die! Send me an order to camp here to rest tonight and continue on the road tomorrow!"
Before Bodu could say anything more, young He Han had already driven far away alone. Qianhu originally wanted to say that this sheltered place seemed a bit small for thousands of people, but when he saw
Jiang Yan looked at the corpses everywhere and wished he could burst out with flames, but he finally gave up without persuading him.
The wind and snow didn't stop overnight, and when we woke up the next day, both humans and horses were covered with a thick layer of snow foam. Prairie people have lived and thrived on this land for thousands of years, and they have never seen such desperate weather.
.At the moment, the north wind like a knife swept up the newly fallen snow on the ground, and like a sandstorm in Dankli, it swept over the sky and the fields, and nothing could be seen beyond a few steps.
They had no choice but to hide behind the cart and use several layers of horses as a barrier to set up the tent in the howling wind. However, after one night, more than half of the tent was still destroyed by the wind and snow.
Fortunately, the snow in Shuobei is dry snow. It fell off people's bodies after a slight shake and did not soak into their inner clothes. But even so, there were not a few warriors who suffered frostbite in the wind and snow. Even in Shuobei, they had already changed into thick winter hair.
Many of the war horses could no longer stand up and could only be slaughtered and used as rations for the march.
After heading west for most of the day, the blizzard that had been falling for four consecutive days finally came to an end. However, the dark clouds in the sky refused to disperse, densely blocking the setting sun and reflecting the entire snowfield.
A rather strange purple-red color appeared.
Approaching the lower reaches of the Huxiao River, the water became more and more turbulent. The ice in the water collided together, making a loud "bang bang" sound, accompanied by the seemingly never-ending north wind, which sounded like the roar of a tiger.
The hair on people's foreheads stood up.
Gradually, a sea that was much brighter than the surrounding snowfields appeared in front of everyone. On both sides of the water, there were the Kinu River originating from the Wuping Mountains in the west, and the Huxiao River coming from Lancang Mountain in the east. And here
, is the end of the entire Shuobei Grassland, an inland lake with a radius of dozens of miles called Shijing Sea.
Standing on the east bank of the lake and looking to the northwest, all you can see is the boundless permafrost. However, the surface of the lake is calm, like a whole piece of marble exposed from the ground. You can see it when you get closer.
It is clear that the sea is covered with a thick layer of ice shell all year round, and because the north wind sweeps away all the snow on the ice, it is as smooth as a mirror. This is why the Shijing Sea got its name.
For several days in a row, Jiang Yan's eyes were all white, and even the soil and rocks were hard to see. But now, on the ice of the Stone Mirror Sea, he could vaguely see dozens of slowly moving black spots.
Those black spots were evenly distributed on the ice. At first, the young man even thought that his eyes were dazzled. However, after blinking his eyes hard a few times, he could see more clearly - it turned out that those black spots were actually
These are people who walk on ice!
Digging out ice for fishing has been a long-standing tradition of the Onma tribe for thousands of years. Every winter is also the season when fish migrating in the Shijing Sea spawn. Sometimes, you can catch fish with just one net.
Thousands of golden-bellied black-backed catfish arrived. The plump and tender roe in the belly of the fish was a delicacy that was bid at high prices by nobles from all over the South.
At this moment, the group of people on the ice were obviously preparing for fishing. They were holding iron drills and wooden mallets for drilling holes in the ice, and they were dragging a large group of fishing nets behind them. It was obvious.
, he never thought that there would be any living people coming to this sea. As soon as he saw the red armor and red flags lining up on the shore, he spread his legs and wanted to escape westward.
However, how could Jiang Yan let them go so easily? Hearing a whistle that resounded through the sky, more than a hundred vigorous war horses lined up and surrounded those people. In just half a stick of incense, they had been brought to the stage of youth and peace.
In front of Han.
"Oma tribe, are you the only ones left now?"
The black-eyed boy showed no sympathy at all on his face. He just sat on the horse and looked coldly at the crowd kneeling in front of him. Most of them were wearing heavy leather jackets and fur hats on their heads.
Hat, at first glance there is not much difference.
"May I ask where your Majesty came from? Please don't embarrass us."
A person in the crowd stepped forward and bowed. He seemed to be the leader of this fishing activity. However, Jiang Yan only brushed his eyes once and then moved his eyes away from that person. Instead, he looked at someone else behind him.
On one person's face. The person he was staring at always lowered his head, as if he was deliberately hiding something.
"That person behind you, you must have recognized me - otherwise why would you hide!"
The young He Han shouted sternly, but saw that the other party not only did not answer, but actually turned around and ran away. He immediately clamped the horse's belly and rushed forward to get the person. He never thought that the originally trembling Onma tribe would see this.
Seeing the situation, they all pulled out their weapons from their waists, stopped Wu Chen who was unprepared, and planned to protect the man from breaking out!
The horse stood up and neighed, almost knocking the owner on its back to the ground. This move made Jiang Yan even more suspicious, and he ordered the Red Flame Army to surround it from both wings, blocking the last retreat of the Onma tribe.
On the ice sheet, the red cavalry drove the fur-clad Muyun tribe together. They dodged, screamed, and ran, but they still couldn't escape and were heavily surrounded. They were knocked to the ground and tied up.
The end of the hands and feet.
But when he was brought back to the black-eyed boy, it was completely beyond Jiang Yan's expectation - it turned out that the guy who wanted to break out was none other than the man who once led the troops to fight against the Muyun tribe.
The leader of the horse tribe, begging for peace!
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