When Guo Song saw that the wolves had gone away, he jumped down from the boulder and came directly to the body of the Wolf King.
There was a pool of blood under the wolf king's head. It was indeed dead, but its body was huge and terrifying, almost like a tiger. Its tail alone was nearly one meter long. Guo Song unexpectedly discovered that this wolf king actually had white body hair.
Just now I thought it was the moonlight shining on it, but I didn't expect it to be completely white.
"Which friend above acted righteously?" someone in the valley asked loudly.
He spoke Chinese, and his accent was the same as Guo Chongqing's. He was from Chang'an.
"I was in Xia Lingzhou, Guo Song, passing by Yinshan Mountain, and found that you were trapped, so I gave you a little help."
Guo Song used his strength to carry the Wolf King, which weighed more than a hundred kilograms, on his shoulders, climbed up the stone wall with one hand, and slowly climbed down.
The two big men in the canyon were stunned to see that someone could carry such a big wolf carcass down the cliff, and he did so with one hand.
"You two brothers are from Chang'an, right?"
Only then did the two big men react. They clasped their fists and said, "I'm Wei Ping from Chang'an. This is my companion Zhang Quanyong. We are caravan guards. Thank you for your generous help."
Seeing that they were tall and strong, Guo Song smiled and waved his hand, "You're welcome, where are you going?"
"Let's escort the caravan to the Si Jie Department!"
Guo Song was immediately overjoyed. He just wanted to go to the Sijie Department! He happened to be on his way.
At this time, a waiter came forward and saluted: "My master invites the strong man to come over and talk to you!"
Guo Song nodded and followed the man to the car. The leader of the caravan was a middle-aged man about fifty years old. He was tall and thin and had a clear face. Although he was surrounded by wolves just now, he did not panic.
Very calm.
The man cupped his fists and saluted, "I'm Chang'an Li An, thank you for your help. Is the warrior a hunter in the Yinshan Mountains?"
It's no wonder that others thought Guo Song was a hunter. He came down from the cliff with only a bow and arrows and no luggage. His arrow skills were accurate. He was obviously a hunter who was making a living in the Yin Mountains.
Guo Song smiled slightly, "My horse and luggage are in the cave above. Like everyone else, I also passed by Yinshan Mountain. It's just my first time to Yinshan Mountain and I got a little lost. I just saw your fire, so I came here."
"I see, where are you going, Master?"
The merchant's demeanor changed and he called Guo Song son instead. He was indeed a little embarrassed, actually thinking that he was a hunter.
"I'm going to the Si Jie Department!"
At this time, someone in the carriage next to him whispered: "What a coincidence!"
There was a young man's voice in the carriage, and Guo Song laughed again: "It's my first time to go to the grassland, and I don't know where the Si Jie Department is? I just heard two guards say that you are also going to the Si Jie Department, can you go together?
?”
The middle-aged man said: "Let me ask the master for instructions!"
The man walked to the carriage and whispered a few words. He came back and asked, "I wonder what business you have in mind when you go to the Sijie Department?"
Guo Song said calmly: "My brother was kidnapped by the Sijie cavalry. I will go to the Sijie tribe to redeem him. If it is inconvenient, forget it. The wolves will be back soon. You guys hurry up and get on your way!"
I just heard the young man in the carriage say: "Uncle An, let's go together!"
The middle-aged businessman nodded, clasped his fists at Guo Song and said, "Young Master has misunderstood. We have to go to Yinshan Shoujiang City to stay for two or three days. I'm afraid that Young Master is in an emergency."
Guo Song thought that Sijie Cavalry had gone far away and could not catch up, so he was no longer anxious, so he nodded and said: "I don't mind!"
"Then the young master is going to get the horse. Let's wait for a moment. Also, the young master wants to take away this wolf corpse?"
Guo Song said with a smile: "I saw that its leather was good, so I wanted to find a place to tan it."
"I understand, there is a specialized fur shop in Shouxiang City, Yinshan Mountain."
Guo Song immediately climbed up the cliff and ran towards his cave.
At this time, the window of the carriage opened, revealing a pale face. It was a young man in his twenties. He looked at Guo Song in surprise as he climbed up the cliff like an ape. After a while, he said: "Uncle An, we may have encountered a
Strange man!"
Li An nodded, "Your Highness is right, this giant wolf should be the wolf king, otherwise the wolves will not retreat. I am afraid there are not many people in the world who can kill the wolf king with one arrow."
The interest in the young man's eyes became even stronger. This trip to the grassland was really not in vain.
.........
After the Tang Dynasty defeated the Turks, it built three surrender cities on the northern border, east surrender city, middle surrender city and west surrender city. Among them, west surrender city was located in the south of Yinshan Mountain north of Fengzhou. It originally stationed five thousand Tang troops, known as
For the Hengsai Army.
After the Anshi Rebellion, all the Tang troops in Shoujiang City withdrew to the south, and there were no troops stationed in Shoujiang City. However, the Tang Dynasty still maintained its power, so Shoujiang City was not occupied by foreigners, but instead became a lively and prosperous commercial city.
Tiele merchants from the north, Sogdians from the west, Tang Dynasty merchants from the south, and Khitan merchants from Liaodong all met here and became a famous border commodity distribution center.
Guo Song and his party walked out of the canyon that morning, with endless grassland in front of them. Only then did Guo Song realize that although the mountains he was lost in also belonged to the Yinshan Mountains, they were not the main mountains of the Yinshan Mountains, but Langshan Mountains, a famous haunt of wolves.
, they still have to walk another hundred miles to reach Yinshan Mountain.
The caravan he accidentally rescued turned out to be the Imperial Merchant. The Imperial Merchant was not an official caravan, but also a private caravan, but its investors were special.
The Royal Merchants were a caravan formed by private investment from the Li Tang clan. The profits were distributed to each family in proportion to the investment. It was considered a source of income for them. Li An did not hide it. He told Guo Song that even the Emperor and Lonely
The imperial concubine also invested her private money in the caravan.
However, the caravan did not come from Lingzhou, but went north along the Yellow River from Yan'an Prefecture. The imperial caravan had another task this time, which was to inspect the current situation of the three surrendered cities in the east, middle and west, as entrusted by the emperor.
After traveling thousands of miles, they turned to the city of Xihou.
"Uncle An, since the imperial merchants do not belong to the government and are no different from private caravans, then why do you need to investigate the current situation of Shoujiang City? This should be a matter for the local government!"
Li An stroked his beard and thought for a while and said: "The emperor also wants to know the real situation in the local area, so he needs many channels of his own. Huangshang can also be regarded as one of the emperor's eyes and ears!"
Guo Song was even more puzzled, "The emperor still needs to know the truth himself. Is the local official's report false?"
Li An sighed and said: "Young master, I don't know. Many things reported to the court by local officials are not necessarily true, but it cannot be said to be false.
For example, the Shengzhou government once reported to the court that the city of Shoujiang had collapsed, not even a tenth of the people in the city were left alive, and most of the city had been submerged by wind and sand. Is that right? That's absolutely correct. This is what we saw, so the court
I felt that since the city of Zhongshoujiang was abandoned, there was no need to garrison any more troops.
But in fact, if you ask the locals carefully, you will know that this has always been the case in Zhongshoujiang City. As long as spring comes, half of the city will be submerged by wind and sand. As for the collapse of the city wall, it often collapses when the army is stationed.
A little repair will be enough, and there are only ten people in the city left. Most of the people in the city are military dependents who accompanied the army. When the army withdrew south, the military dependents also left. If the imperial court continues to station troops, the military dependents will follow."
Guo Song said with a smile: "It seems that the local officials are making trouble."
Li An chuckled and said: "The word "mashing" is used very vividly, that's what it is. On the one hand, local officials are afraid of trouble. After having military dependents, local officials have to deal with various supplies, which increases their burden. On the other hand, local officials are afraid of trouble.
On the one hand, officials are also afraid of death."
"Afraid of death?" Guo Song asked with a puzzled smile: "Doesn't fear of death make it even more necessary to garrison troops?"
"Then you don't understand. If there is no army and the nomads come to kill, the local officials can abandon the city and run away. There is no garrison anyway! No one can blame them. The responsibility will be borne by the court. But if the city recovers once it is surrendered,
Garrison, if your local officer escapes again, your responsibility will be heavy, you understand!"
Guo Song nodded, "I was afraid of death and didn't want to take responsibility, so I fooled the court and said that Zhongshou surrendered and the city could not garrison troops."
"You're right, in your words, it's called making paste."
Guo Song laughed. He quickly glanced at the carriage behind him out of the corner of his eye. The young man in the carriage was very mysterious. He had been keeping the curtains open since dawn. He was only interested when something fierce fell on his shoulder.
He pulled back the curtain and took a look, revealing a slightly sickly face. Who is he?
Since he followed the imperial merchant to the north, Guo Song guessed that he might be a descendant of a certain royal family.
At this time, a large city appeared in front, and Li An smiled and said: "The city of Xishou has arrived!"
.........
[It will be released on September 1st. It will be updated three times a day after it is released. Please vote for recommendations!]