Chapter 443

After going to a deserted place to unzip their pants and take a leak, they would quickly pull up their pants and crawl back into the tents to keep warm.

In the middle of the camp.

Directly below a large banner, there was a relatively larger tent.

Two soldiers wearing sheepskin coats, holding long spears and carrying long bows, stood in front of the tent door.

Inside the tent, candles were lit.

The temperature inside the tent, where a copper fire basin was placed and charcoal was lit, was appropriate.

A woman with long brown hair and light blue eyes, wearing a snow-white sheepskin coat, was kneeling on the ground, holding a comb made of ox horn in her hand.

A man was sitting in front of the woman, with his back to her.

The man had broad shoulders and a straight waist.

There were several scars on his muscular back.

And the woman was using the ox horn comb in her hand to comb the man's long hair.

Although the man had his back to the woman, through the reflection of the copper mirror in front, the man saw the woman's sorrowful gaze.

So he raised his arm gently and pressed one of the woman's hands on his shoulder.

"My wife, can you tell me why you are unhappy?" Beigong Boyu looked at his wife's melancholy face in the copper mirror.

The woman behind him suddenly stopped her hand, looked up, bit her red lips with her teeth, and seemed to want to speak, but after a slight pause, she still shook her head.

"No... nothing."

Beigong Boyu turned around, smiled at the woman: "Do you know, you never lie, and every time you want to lie, you will unconsciously bite the corner of your lip."

Beigong Boyu, reaching out to touch the woman's cheek, gently held the woman's face with one hand and caressed it gently.

The woman seemed to enjoy it very much, turning her head slightly to lean close to Beigong Boyu's hand to cater to him.

Then she opened those light blue eyes slightly.

"This time... must we fight?"

The woman said with a melancholy gaze: "The chestnuts at home are about to be harvested, and the cows and sheep are also about to give birth. I see the longing for home in the eyes of every soldier."

The smile on Beigong Boyu's face froze, and then his eyes became increasingly firm.

"Even if the chestnuts we harvest from the fields are enough, it still cannot stop the tax burden collected by those greedy officials."

"We have worked so hard to sow for so long, yet they can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor!"

"Our cows, our sheep, are driven away in droves by them every year."

"And our warriors still have to fight for them."

"Why is all this?"

Beigong Boyu's words made the woman feel a sense of suffocation.

While speaking, Beigong Boyu pointed in the direction of Lingju City in the distance.

"This place was once the place where our ancestors lived."

"But now."

"Their children can live in the city, in warm houses, while our children can only squeeze into tents, not having enough to eat, and not having enough to wear."

"If this continues, in a few years, there may no longer be a Small Yuezhi in the world."

"Our children will never know where their ancestors came from."

Beigong Boyu looked at his wife seriously and said: "Besides fighting, what else can we do?"

"Yimei, my wife." Beigong Boyu gently touched Yimei's smooth and pretty face and said: "I have never been fighting for myself."

"I am fighting for the Small Yuezhi, for all the people of the Small Yuezhi, for our children, and for the future of our tribe's children."

"The Emperor of the Han Dynasty is incompetent and doesn't even care about the life and death of his own people, so he won't care about us even more."

"The Emperor sitting in the palace in Luoyang City and the Han officials living in warm mansions in the city cannot hear our prayers, so I can only let him see the steel blades in our hands."

Yimei's eyes were still full of worry.

But she also nodded in agreement.

"But... I heard some soldiers say that the Han person named Duan Yu is very powerful."

"He fought the Xiongnu, captured the two sons of the Xiongnu Chanyu, and also shot and killed the Chanyu of the Xianbei in Xianbei."

"After the last time, his subordinates destroyed all the camps of the Dianling Qiang, Zhong Qiang, and Canlang Qiang, and killed more than ten thousand people."

"I..."

Beigong Boyu shook his head with a smile and said: "The last time... it was just because our luck was not good."

"Your husband is the highest eagle soaring in the sky and the fastest horse running on the ground."

"Even if he is very powerful, didn't he fail to catch up with me?"

"And this time, I have made full preparations."

"If we fight next time, I will definitely let him know our power."

"Alright, it's getting late, let's rest."

"I have to go see the old King of Shaodang tomorrow morning," Beigong Boyu said softly.

Two days later.

Adjacent to the Qilian Mountains, also in the Muchenggu Valley at the westernmost end of Jincheng Commandery.

A Qiang tribe composed of more than a thousand people was stationed here.

Crossing the Qilian Mountains from this position is the Western Sea (Qinghai).

At this time, Beigong Boyu, who was north of Jincheng Commandery two days ago, dismounted in front of a large tent.

The dozen or so Huangzhong volunteers who accompanied him also dismounted and walked toward the camp in front of them.

But just as they were about to enter the camp, they were blocked by Qiang soldiers on both sides.

Beigong Boyu looked back at the guards behind him, then nodded, and walked into the camp alone.

There were high cliffs on both sides of the valley, blocking the raging northwest wind.

The thick cowhide of the camp prevented the temperature inside the camp from losing quickly.

Plus, charcoal was lit in the fire pit in the middle.

The temperature outside the camp and inside the camp was worlds apart.

However, this kind of valley that can avoid the wind can only be inhabited in summer and autumn.

Once winter comes and snow falls, this place will be buried by heavy snow.

At this time, inside the camp, sat a man in his forties, nearly fifty years old.

The man had gray hair, but his spirit was very good.

He was holding a small knife in his hand, scraping the meat off the sheep bone in his hand bit by bit.

Besides this, there were two women in exotic clothes beside the old man.

Beigong Boyu, who entered the camp, was not polite, sat directly opposite the old man, and then picked up a lamb chop from the gray pottery basin next to the fire pit and gnawed on it.

The old man looked at Beigong Boyu and said with a smile: "Your courage is really not small."

"Haven't you heard that the new Grand Administrator of Hanyang Commandery is using three thousand cattle for your head?"

The old man raised his eyebrows and said: "That's three thousand cattle. Aren't you worried that I will use your head to exchange for those three thousand cattle?"

"Heh." Beigong Boyu laughed and said indifferently: "If my head, Beigong Boyu, is worth three thousand cattle, then how much is the head of the old King of Shaodang Qiang worth?"

"Should... not be cheaper than mine, right?"

Hmm?

The old King of Shaodang Qiang frowned: "You... what do you mean by that?"

"I just think... compared to killing me, what Duan Yu is more interested in should be cleaning up the Qiang tribes of the entire Liangzhou."

This time it was the old King of Shaodang Qiang's turn to laugh: "Cleaning up the entire Qiang tribe?"

"Joking is nothing more than this. We have lived here for hundreds of years and have fought with the Han people for hundreds of years, but have you seen us disappear?"

"On the contrary, now the number of Han people is getting smaller and smaller, while the number of Qiang people is getting larger and larger."

"What does Duan Yu rely on to clean up all our Qiang people?" the old King of Shaodang Qiang said disdainfully.

Beigong Boyu put down the lamb chop in his hand and said with an extremely serious gaze: "He relies on... the fact that he only spent five days to pull out the camps of the Dianling Qiang, Zhong Qiang, and Canlang Qiang."

"The cavalry under his command is the fastest cavalry I have ever seen."

"And there are also a large number of Xiongnu volunteers under his command."

"In the past, the Han army had many infantrymen, and even if you couldn't beat them, you could run, but what about now?"

The old King of Shaodang Qiang frowned slightly.