During the Anshi Rebellion, the border guards were transferred back to the Central Plains to fight. Tubo and Uighurs took the opportunity to send troops to occupy Anxi, Hehuang and most of the Hexi Corridor, which were empty of troops.
Tubo and Uighur have been engaged in a protracted war to compete for the vast Western Region. They had no time to take care of the lands of Longyou, Hehuang, and Hexi, so they handed them over to their agents.
The Tuyuhun people are the agents of the Tubo people. They currently occupy the southern part of Longyou and the Hehuang area. Among the five states of Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou and Shazhou in the Hexi Corridor, except for Liangzhou and Ganzhou, part of them is in the Tang Dynasty.
Except for those in their hands, the others were occupied by the Shatuo people who surrendered to the Uighurs, and fell within the sphere of influence of the Uighurs.
Zhangye City is just on the edge of the Shatuo people's sphere of influence. Six thousand Tang troops are stationed in the city, while the Shatuo people in the north are eyeing the fertile grasslands in southern Ganzhou and Liangzhou.
In late April, Ganzhou is still full of spring. The woods are covered with lush emerald green. Groups of birds fly happily over the grasslands and woods, enjoying the breath of spring and looking for a new home.
A bird of prey hovers in the sky, suddenly falling down from time to time to prey on lone birds.
On the endless grassland, an official road stretches straight into the distance. From time to time, horse teams and camel teams pass by on the official road. At this time, behind a carriage filled with food, Guo Song is sitting in the cart.
In a corner, he was looking at the vast grassland and the snow-capped Qilian Mountains in the distance with great interest.
He had been walking on the road for half a month, and finding food and water sources in the wild was easy for him. When he was tired, he took a car to rest for a while.
Coming from Liangzhou, there are fewer and fewer farmlands and more and more grasslands. After entering Ganzhou, there are not many Han people. They are mainly Qiang people grazing. Farmland can only be seen near Zhangye City.
"Taoist Master, keep walking along Zhangye City. I'm going to Baitinghai. We have to break up."
There is a branch road ahead, one going north to Xiutu Lake and Baitinghai. There is a Tang army guarding the military city over there, and the carriage is going there to deliver food.
If Guo Song wanted to go to Zhangye City, he had to continue walking west along the official road.
Guo Song jumped off the carriage, clasped his fists and saluted: "Old donor, thank you!"
Seeing that he knew etiquette and was a monk, the old coachman reminded him: "Taoist priest, try not to leave the official road. Horse bandits have been in the grassland recently, and they are very cruel.
"Are there many horse bandits?"
"Not many, but they will be dead if you encounter them. They usually don't come to the official road for fear of running into officers and soldiers, so they usually hang out on the grassland."
"Thanks for the reminder!"
The carriage left, Guo Song stretched out two fingers to whistle in his mouth, and the little eagle in the sky circled down and landed on his shoulder.
Guo Song smiled at Xiaoying and said: "It is said that it is more dangerous on the grassland, but we have to find food. There is nothing we can do about the danger, right?"
The little eagle flapped its wings and flew towards a forest more than twenty miles away. There seemed to be a small river over there.
Guo Song immediately cheered up and ran towards the woods more than twenty miles away.
It is a pine forest. In this season, there should be mushrooms and grouse in the forest. If you are lucky, you may even encounter deer.
Scenes of chicken stewed with mushrooms and barbecued venison already appeared in Guo Song's mind, making him even hungrier.
As he gradually approached the pine forest, he realized that the forest was very large, covering at least several hundred hectares, and could be considered a forest. A clear river meandered out of the forest.
Guo Song waved to the eagle above his head and dove into the pine forest.
The light in the pine forest was relatively dark, and there was a thick layer of pine needles under his feet. He saw a Ganoderma lucidum growing on the trunk of a big pine tree at a glance. This discovery immediately surprised and delighted him. He collected it in Kongtong Mountain.
I have been to Ganoderma lucidum several times. This dark red Ganoderma lucidum is at least fifty or sixty years old. It is definitely a good thing to give to Master to prepare medicine.
He pulled out his dagger, which was given to him by Gan Lei. It was very sharp and sharp. He specially used it to dig mushrooms and kill fish.
Guo Song carefully cut off the Ganoderma lucidum root and put it into his backpack. He continued walking along the river deep into the pine forest, hoping to encounter another Ganoderma lucidum.
At this moment, he suddenly heard the cry and pleading of a woman in front of him. Guo Song was stunned for a moment. He stepped softly and walked forward step by step, bypassing a bush, and two horses appeared in front of him.
In front of him, there were saddles and weapons on the horses. Looking down, Guo Song suddenly saw a scene that made his eyes split open. There was a thick blanket on the ground, and two men were holding a woman down and doing beastly things.
It was this woman who was crying just now.
Guo Song was furious, and the short dagger in his hand flew out with great force. There was a flash of cold light and a sound of 'poof!', and it shot through the forehead of the man opposite.
The man screamed and fell to the ground. Another bearded man was shocked. He turned around and saw Guo Song. He threw away the woman, jumped up like a monkey, and rushed towards the horse naked.
At this time, Guo Song was in a daze. He had just realized that he had killed someone. Can the man still survive after his dagger was inserted into his forehead?
The man jumped on a horse. Only then did Guo Song wake up. He immediately drew his sword from behind and rushed towards the man.
The man drew his sword from his horse, turned the horse's head and struck at Guo Song, but he struck the air with his sword. Guo Song dodged and pierced the man's thigh with his sword. The man screamed and galloped with his horse.
The man's equestrian skills were astonishing. Guo Song jumped up high and was about to chop him off his horse with a sword, but found that the man was missing.
Guo Song was stunned for a moment, watching the war horse run away. Only then did he see that the man was naked and pressed under the horse's belly. No wonder he didn't see it.
After the horse galloped more than twenty steps, the man turned around and got back on the horse. He urged the horse, and the horse leaped high across the river and ran out of the forest.
Guo Song ignored him for the time being and turned to look at the other person. The other person fell on his back on the ground, his eyes widened, his mouth wide open, staring blankly at the sky. A dagger was inserted into his forehead. Guo Song touched his nose and said,
Already dying of anger.
Guo Song felt panicked in his heart. Although the man who was killed had a high nose and deep eyes, and his appearance did not indicate that he was a Han from the Central Plains, he was still very young after all, and yet he was killed with a knife out of anger. Who was he?
Guo Song felt that he was in a panic. When he turned around, a young woman was standing behind him. She had put on a coarse cloth dress hastily. There were bloodstains on her face, her hair was messy, and she was holding...
A knife, eyes full of grief and anger.
Guo Song was so frightened that he quickly stood up and shouted: "I'm not with them, I'm just passing by."
The woman suddenly rushed forward, but her target was the man on the ground. She slashed with her knife and shouted like crazy. Guo Song suddenly realized that this woman was not Han, but probably a local Qiang. She said
is the language of the Qiang people.
The woman actually cut off the man's head, and chopped the man's lower body to pieces with a knife. Then she sat on the ground unable to do anything and cried loudly.
Guo Song felt quite sympathetic. He saw that she was about 26 or 27 years old, with rough palms and slightly dark skin. She was wearing a coarse cloth dress. Her family was not rich. It was possible that she was kidnapped by these two men while she was grazing.
Give vent to animal desires.
After a while, she stood up and saluted Guo Song, saying something excitedly, as if to express her gratitude, but also seemed to tell herself to leave quickly.
Guo Song suddenly realized that they had some accomplices, one of whom escaped just now.
He hurriedly took the horse and asked the woman to get on it. The woman got on the horse and pointed behind her, asking him to get on too.
Although Guo Song had never ridden a horse, his balance ability was unmatched in the world. He lightly jumped on the horse, clamped the horse's buttocks with his legs, and grasped the saddle tightly with his hands.
The woman urged the horse and ran out of the woods. After running out of the woods, it galloped towards the south. Guo Song almost fell off his horse several times, but he was able to steady himself every time.
At this moment, a low horn sound suddenly came from the distance, and a dozen men in black on horseback were seen approaching. They were moving very fast, and soon they were less than 300 steps away from them.
This was not possible. Neither of them could escape. Guo Song jumped off the horse. The woman quickly reined in the reins and looked at the man in black getting closer and closer in horror.
"Go quickly!"
Guo Song shouted to her and pointed to the forest, "I go to the forest, they can't catch up!"
The woman understood what he meant, bit her lip, and spurred the horse to gallop. Without Guo Song's drag, the horse's speed became extremely fast, and it quickly ran away.
Guo Song turned around and ran towards the forest. More than a dozen men in black, regardless of the woman, came to chase Guo Song from all directions.
At this time, Guo Song felt a sound of wind behind his head. On the side of his head, an arrow shot past his ear and nailed it to the ground. He felt a burning pain in his ear.
This was the biggest loss he had ever suffered. Guo Song was furious and pulled out his long sword. Suddenly he realized something was wrong and immediately jumped up. Two arrows shot past his feet.
At this time, another arrow was shot hard at his face. He swung his sword to split it. The arrow was so powerful that it made his wrist hurt.
More than a dozen men in black were running like hunting rabbits, shooting at him with bows and arrows. The arrows were precise and hit his vitals.
Guo Song fired more than a dozen arrows in a row. As soon as he got close to one person, the opponent immediately rushed away without giving him a chance to fight. He picked up an arrow, but the opponent was forty or fifty steps away and was not in his hidden weapon.
Within shooting range.
Guo Song had never been so passive as he was today. He was getting more and more depressed. He suddenly shouted, "I won't play with you anymore!"
He volleyed, rolled, and ran towards the forest more than thirty steps away.
The leader of the men in black waved his hand and told everyone to stop shooting. He changed his bow and drew out a large wolf tooth arrow. The horse ran lightly. He suddenly drew the bow and aimed at Guo Song's back. With this bow
, he never missed.
At this moment, a black shadow fell from the sky, and its iron claws suddenly scratched his forehead. The man in black at the head missed the target with an arrow, and screamed, with blood flowing from his forehead.
The men in black were shocked, and they pointed at the goshawks in the sky and shouted, seizing this opportunity, Guo Song threw a baby swallow into the forest, and his body disappeared in the forest.