chapter 13 – the autumn plains, the rising sun, and the black rider

A touch of white appeared in the sky, the sun is still rubbing his eyes, and has not opened them, and the faint morning light envelops the grassland, and does not make the sight of the people better. After last night’s revelry of the small tribal people, still immersed in the wine and sleep, should not feel the call of the morning sun, but gradually, the tribal curtains, hidden sounds ringing, seems to have a lot of people woke up.

What woke up the tribal people was not the rising sun, but the sound of hoofbeats from the back of the tribe like thunder, as well as the noisy hoofbeats from the front of the tribe, in all directions, there seemed to be countless cavalry approaching.

In the midst of the morning light, Fan Xian, with a calm expression on his face, took one last look at Haitang, picked up from his feet the small knife she had given to Liangzi, and solemnly placed it in his bosom.

“Goodbye, I hope I don’t have to wait another three years.” Fan Xian said very seriously to Haitang, Haitang’s lips were a few strands of blood, it looked very compassionate, but the arrangements on the grassland had already started to be unleashed, the royal court monarch had already sent troops to chase after him, if he wanted to get out, he could only go while he was here at this moment.

Haitang did not know how he was going to go, because in all directions there was the sound of hoofbeats coming from afar, it seemed that the cavalry of the royal court had already surrounded this grassland, and his eyes looked at him in a complicated way.

This glance seemed to be like a heavy hammer that struck Fan Xian’s body, causing his body to drift diagonally toward the meadow behind him, drifting easily and pleasantly yet eerily.

Without seeing how his toes stomped on the ground, Fan Xian’s body was like a thin rope tied around his waist, like a kite, disheveled backward, gradually accelerating, transforming into a blurred figure in the morning light, gradually traveling farther and farther away, gradually becoming smaller and smaller, and merging into a large piece of smoke and dust coming from the left front of the tribe.

That piece of smoke and dust should look like free wild horses traveling across the grassland, beside the horses, there are more than a dozen grassland men, holding lasso, as if they have been tracking this group of wild horses for several days and nights, waiting for the head horse to be lassoed in one fell swoop.

Haitang quietly watched this scene, knowing that this group of wild horses is just an illusion, it must be Fan Xian first arranged to receive his team. Watching Fan Xian float back earlier without stirring up smoke and dust, she knew that after not seeing him for three years, this young friend from the Southern Dynasty had successfully fused the Heavenly Dao Heart Technique with the overbearing true qi in his body, and stood firmly at the pinnacle of the ninth grade, already on the verge of touching the limits of human beings.

No wonder he was so confident that he dared to go deep into the middle of the grasslands and launch a blackout attack on the royal court and the Left Virtuous King’s tent. With such a realm, unless a great master reappeared in the grasslands, who could defeat him?

But behind him, the three parties have already hidden the sound of cavalry sprinting, Shan Yu Speed Bida has already endured for three days, has endured to the limit, at this moment finally closed the encirclement, even if Fan Xian matter first placed to receive their own horse team, can it be in the vast grassland to escape from the pursuit of the royal court more than a thousand cavalry?

Haitang’s eyes narrowed, and a trace of worry appeared with difficulty, a strong person of the ninth rank, if they were to face the enemy head on, of course, it would be difficult to meet a defeat, but after all, the two of them were still countless distances away from the realm of the Great Master, and if they were to face thousands of horses, how could they be spared?

In the distance Fan Xian’s figure had already landed in the wild horse herd, it was amazing that those wild and free-spirited wild horses that looked like they refused to be at peace, actually didn’t exclude Fan Xian’s entry, even when Fan Xian sat on that head horse, that fierce head horse, just helplessly shook its neck, but didn’t think of dropping him.

Sharp hoofbeats swept past Haitang’s side, carrying the sound of the wind, the scum of the grass, and an air of forward momentum, as the brawny cavalry of the Western Hu Royal Court wasted no time in retaining their speed, swept across the meadow, and killed their way toward the wild horse herd in the distance!

The strong wind swept across her body, driving the leather robe on Haitang to whistling, she wiped away the blood on her lips and bowed her head speechless.

A stallion gave a long neigh and stopped from its surprisingly fast speed, the Hu nobleman on the horse turned around and rose up through inertia, and landed beside Haitang with a snap, his feet were as stable as a mountain, revealing a superb riding skill.

The person who came was none other than the master of the grassland, Shan Yu Speed Bida. He glanced at Haitang, anger and rage gradually surfacing in his eyes, and said, “Injured?”

Haitang nodded and smiled with some difficulty.

“Nanqing Fan Xian?” Shan Yu Suibida, who was tall, with firm features and eyes of divine splendor, looked at the figure in the distance that was galloping along with the herd of wild horses to the southeast, and asked in a soft voice.

“That’s him.” Haitang answered softly.

Shan Yu Suibida never took any of his enemies lightly, especially a ruthless and big shot like Nan Qing Fan Xian, he had endured for three days, and in fact prepared for three days, mobilizing the Hu sons and daughters who were in this prairie, making sure to keep this Nan Qing’s powerhouse on top of the grassland.

Since the other party dared to penetrate deep into the grassland, approaching the royal court and challenging his dignity, Shan Yu Speed will definitely show his anger in the most direct way.

The royal court was well-prepared, confirming that there were no Qing cavalry roaming the grasslands, ready to secretly receive Fan Xian, but those scouts did not notice the group of wild horses, because herds of wild horses could be found everywhere on the grasslands, and most crucially, they had once looked at these wild horses beside a patch of water and grass, and judging from their jumping postures and habits, this was indeed a group of wild horses.

No one could use the wild horses to escape before collecting them, this was a theorem in the grassland, but today this theorem seemed to be broken.

Smoke and dust rose in all directions, and more than a thousand cavalrymen of the royal court killed, rushing past the tribe’s tents, and under the shocked and fearful gaze of those Hu people, rushing towards the group of wild horses, and it looked as if they were going to close up at the place three miles ago, encircling the group of horses, as well as a dozen or so of hans beside the horses, and Fan Xian, who had hidden himself amongst the group of wild horses, but… …

Only to hear a long hiss rise up to the sky, the wild horse herd seemed to be driven by some kind of power, suddenly waking up from a chaos, stretching the muscles on their bodies, raising their hooves vigorously, accelerating fiercely, and rushing towards the gap in the southeast direction of the encirclement!

The morning light was dim, the wild horses were neighing, hundreds of steeds reflecting the faint light, emitting a black complexion, galloping on the grassland, in just a split second’s time, they had already rushed out before the royal court cavalry closed in on them!

This scene had a primitive, power-filled beauty that shocked countless people’s hearts and minds.

Shan Yu Speed Bida, holding the reins in one hand, stood by Haitang’s side, indifferently looking at this scene, his eyes slightly narrowed, but hiding the shock in his heart extremely well, with a flip of his body, he leaped onto the steed, and opened his mouth to say, “I’ll catch this little white boy back, and take it out on you.”

In fact, he had already admitted at this time that this young powerhouse of the Southern Dynasty who could be compared to Songzhi Xianling was definitely more than just a little white boy, just by looking at this divine ability to manipulate wild horses, I’m afraid that he couldn’t find a second person in the entire grassland.

“The royal court was attacked last night, King Zuo Xian was assassinated, his life and death are unknown.” Haitang stood on the meadow, amongst the dozens of Shan Yu’s close guards, and calmly spoke out what Fan Xian had confessed.

Shan Yu held the reins with both hands and was slightly stunned, then he clamped his feet on the horse’s belly and rushed towards the bottom of the meadow.

It turned out that that Tishee of the Qing State Supervisory Court, who had penetrated deep into the grasslands, was doing so for these things. The royal court was attacked or a small matter, as long as it was not the elite cavalry of the Kingdom of Qing killing over, even if some people died, what was it? Shan Yu didn’t think that the Qing State Supervisory Court is also very picky in killing people, and those people who died have an extremely important role to play in his ideal of building a country in the grassland.

The key is the assassination of Zuo Xian Wang, this news makes Shan Yu’s heart cold, does it mean that the grassland which has been calm for two years, is going to fall into chaos again because of Zuo Xian Wang’s death? Thinking of this point, he could not help but curse secretly, Zuo Xian Wang is his clan uncle, when in front of his own arrogance, who knows that even let the assassins of the Qing country a knife to end, really is a bastard to the extreme.

Shan Yu angrily looked at the smoke in the distance, a clip of the horse’s belly, when the first to the southeast direction rushed over. Although that little white man used the cover of the wild horse herd, unexpectedly killed out of the encirclement, but in this vast grassland, Shan Yu believes that no one can escape the pursuit of the royal court cavalry.

From this place to the Qingzhou city, the most frontier of the Qing country, even if it is not spared horse power, run wildly, but also need to ten days of time, in the grassland running ten days, behind the Western Hu royal court cavalry pursuit, who can resist? Shan Yu is riding a thousand miles of grassland horse, he believes that he will be able to stop Fan Xian, although the Qing country riding and shooting is also extremely powerful, but the people on the grassland still believe that the whole world, is still the West Hu children’s riding skill is the most exquisite, if in the grassland can’t catch up with the shadow of the enemy, they might as well go to commit suicide.

The morning light was growing, the sight between heaven and earth was becoming clearer, the deformed morning sun poked out halfway on the eastern horizon of the grassland, illuminating everything on the Autumn Plains.

Haitang quietly looked at everything in front of him, eyes flashed a trace of worry and gloom, only to see the grassland above, such as a torrent of Western Hu cavalry merging before, by virtue of the Hu people’s subtle riding skills, swiftly compiled into a team, transformed into a fan, a thousand riders as a general, speeding towards the east to chase.

And in these Hu cavalry pursuers in front of two or three miles, hundreds of black wild horses are hoofing wildly, hoofs born smoke, such as a wisp of two wisps of smoke, to the east, to the red sunrise forward. Suddenly, some people leaped out of those wild horses and mounted on the back of the horses, I don’t know where these people were hiding earlier, and how they were able to follow the wild horses forward, more than one hundred good men of Qing, riding on top of hundreds of wild horses, galloping in the grassland ruled by the Hu people, and before the red sun, those steeds and figures on the horse, looked so spiritual and arrogant.

Western Hu pursuers made a big mistake in judgment, they had thought that when it comes to riding skills, the royal court cavalry is naturally the world’s unrivaled, there is no one can match, and I don’t know how those Qing people control the wild horse herd, the wild horses, although they are tough, but ultimately no better than the war horse obedience and endurance, so they thought that in the flat grassland, at most, need a small half a day time, will be able to catch up with those who are running by the sun of the Qing people.

Shan Yu Suibida also thought the same way, and he was even thinking that once he had surrounded these Qing people, should he not kill that Qing powerhouse named Fan Xian with an arrow first, without giving the Songzhi Queen’s daughter any chance to plead for mercy.

However, everything developed differently from the judgment of the cavalrymen of the Western Hu royal court, a small half day passed, a day passed, and the proud knights on the grassland still couldn’t catch up with those Qing people, and couldn’t even close the distance a little bit!

The reason is very simple, because the wild horse group in the eyes of these hu people, is not a wild horse at all, but the Qing State Supervisory Office has been stored for a long time of the military horse, and the reason why the grassland can be hidden from the eyes of countless people, hidden from the tribes that are famous for the phase horse, to become a group of wild horses wandering between the water and grass, all because of the horse has been drugged.

A kind of drug mixed with ephedrine, let these inspector general s military horses, appear more active than the general horses, more wild, more sex good freedom, and this group of horses are very careful not to nail iron, not branding, even the mane has not been organized, once running up, really have …… the feeling of long hair floating, no matter who see, will think it is a group of wild horses. A group of wild horses, that’s why that night, under the vigilance of the cavalry of the royal court, silently approached where Fan Xian was.

Fan Xian held the reins in one hand and crouched low on his horse, carefully feeling the horse’s condition. The men who had met him totaled a hundred, and other than the ten or so elites who had disguised themselves as horse-covered hans, the others had initially hidden themselves amongst the horses by virtue of their superior horsemanship.

After experimenting quite a few times, the effects of the ephedrine’s medicine on the horses were not as great as the effects on humans, not so much as to make these warhorses disobedient, but for the pursuers of the royal court, the speed at which these horses sent out to run was a bit scary.

A warhorse disguised as a wild horse is still a warhorse, not to mention a warhorse that has eaten stimulants. Fan Xian knew that the stimulants could not support him for too long, but he didn’t need too long. 100 people, riding hundreds of horses in turn, gave the horses enough time to rest and get back to their medication, and if he still let the people of the Shan Yu royal court catch up with him, Fan Xian might as well simply cut his own neck.

A good horse must be ridden by a man, and this is also the second mistake made by the Western Hu pursuers in their judgment, they always thought that there was no one under the sky who was more skillful than their own riding skills, and more powerful in long distance running attacks, but they forgot one name.

Black Riders.

Qing’s cavalry was already extremely powerful, except for the armor and protective gear, it was not much worse than the cavalry of Xihu, and the Black Horsemen were even the elite of Qing’s cavalry, and under Chen Pingping’s careful selection and training, the high quality of a single soldier was just mind-boggling.

Especially in the Western Hu people proud of thousands of miles of running, long-distance pursuit, the black cavalry is to have the whole world’s most illustrious war history.

Recall that year, the Qing country’s northern expedition failed miserably, the Qing emperor was trapped in the poor mountains, Chen Pingping heard of the rate of black cavalry rescue, within six days, in the battlefield on top of the thousands of miles, alive at that time is still the crown prince of the Qing emperor.

Another year, Chen Pingping personally led the black cavalry, deep within the territory of Wei, captured alive a generation of lords Xiao En, before the Wei military simply could not react, such as the lightning withdrew to the territory of Qing, one in and one out, trekking through thousands of miles of water.

History has long proved that the black cavalry’s ability to raid thousands of miles is the strongest in the world, not one.

The black cavalry of the Supervisory Yuan, famous for the thousand-mile raid, after the system, the most common practice is this situation, for the war horse to maintain the strength of the drug is a great effort. Sudden advance like wind like fire, retreat like water like clouds, in a moment will disappear in the sand, sudden advance, the world’s first, sprinting back, is also the world’s first, those elite Western Hu royal court cavalry, and how can catch up with this group of like a bird of prey like a sudden spiking team?

The autumn wind on the grassland hit Fan Xian’s face, his eyes narrowed, glanced at Jing Ge beside him, looked at the silver mask on his face, couldn’t help but smile, if he didn’t have absolute confidence in his own subordinates, how would he dare to be so risky, to penetrate into the grassland royal court, to lure out the Hai Tang monarchs in the heart of Xihu, to put down those two big bombs.

Chase to the third day, the royal court cavalry finally found a trace of strange, they did not slow down a speed, under the seat of the steppe steeds have been tired to the extreme, but still can not catch up with each other, and those bold, deep into the grassland of the people of the Qing dynasty, even seems to still have the strength to go, it seems that they may be ready to let go of the horse, just forced to pressure the speed, seducing the rear of the royal court cavalry.

Hear the big pawn vigilant and tired return, single Yu speed Bida full of dusty face, flashed a trace of cold, in fact, he is the first to find the problem of people, he can feel, the front of the group of strange and even some magical wild horses, something is not right, but the royal court of the eagle although hovering above, from this to the grasslands of Qingzhou, but there is no big tribe can be from which to intercept, single Yu also has no way.

The news of the assassination and death of the Left Virtuous King has been confirmed, and Shan Yu knows what he should do the most. Once the entire grassland knows this news, will cast a suspicious eye on themselves or the right virtuous king, and the left virtuous king’s account of those sons, must have begun to clamor for the left virtuous king revenge.

In order to stabilize the position of the royal court, Shan Yu Speed Bida this time should immediately hold the reins and return to the left side of the king of an explanation, an explanation, he left the longer, the left side of the king of the tent of the king of the suspicion of their own will be greater.

Single in speed than the natural fear of the left virtuous king’s subordinates of revenge, but he wanted to become a real king on the grassland, it must prevent bloody infighting, he believes that the words of the Songzhi queen daughter, grassland state-building, absolutely not only rely on the blood of killing will be able to succeed.

Just …… unwillingly ah …… the speed of the steed under the seat of Shan Yu slowed down, looking at the far away and gradually far away, seems to never feel tired of the group of wild horses, he sighed inwardly, unusually unwilling.

All the cavalrymen of the royal court stopped and turned their eyes to the great Shan Yu, not knowing what they should do next, whether to continue this futile chase, or to go back? They all knew that there seemed to be some chaos on the grassland, but if they just went back like this and watched the Qing people come to the grassland to show off their strength, they were really not willing to do so.

Of course, Shan Yu Suibida was also unwilling, but as the master of the grassland, sometimes he had to suppress the anger in his heart and choose the most correct path from the interests. He waved his hand somewhat grimly, signaling the royal court cavalry to turn their horses around and prepare to go back to the royal court, and at this moment, an extreme rage suddenly rose in his eyes!

Because when the Western Hu cavalry stopped pursuing the momentum of the moment, the front of the twilight under the desertion, actually also stopped, stopped in the shallow meadow above, looking back, seems to be waiting for them!

This is what kind of humiliation, Shan Yu clenched his teeth, narrowed his eyes, after a long time but relaxed facial expression, indifferently said: “back.”

“The other party is not fooled.” Jing Ge glanced at the sandy-headed Lord Tishi and said, “It seems like it shouldn’t be pursued any further.”

Fan Xian spat out the sandy dust in his mouth and frowned, but his mood relaxed a bit, the situation at hand seemed to be easy for his own deserters, but only they, the ones being chased, could feel the horror of the Hu Riders.

These west hu royal court elite cavalry, really gave the black cavalry huge pressure, from the speed alone, these west hu cavalry, is really the most powerful genus under the sky, far more powerful than the year Wei’s cavalry, the black cavalry escaped seemingly dashing, in fact, has long been in a mess, if the royal court cavalry can hold on for two more days, wait until the black cavalry war horse’s medication gradually back to the reverse, I’m afraid that Fan Xian will be in blood bad luck.

The reason why Fan Xian has not let the black cavalry run wild is to put on a look of success, to combat the confidence of the royal court cavalry, now it seems that this plan seems to have worked, and Fan Xian is clear, like the Xihu Shan Yu this ambitious person, will not be overwhelmed by anger, and only focus on chasing themselves, without regard to the chaos at the royal court, the Zuo Xianwang may be triggered by the prairie riots.

A few miles behind, the cavalry of the royal court gradually formed up and withdrew to the rear, and Shan Yu Speed Bida fell at the very back, and the setting sun shone on the light armor on his body, reflecting a faint light, and he still looked as cold as ever.

Fan Xian pooh-poohed and spat out the last bit of sand in his mouth, saying, “I think this time I have left an extremely deep impression on him, and in the future when the grasslands are fought again, he will definitely not dare to fight in the wild at will.”

“Scared off is certainly good.” Jing Ge glanced at him and said, “It’s just that the Shizi Master has been setting up ambushes at Red Mountain Pass for more than ten days, but he can’t wait for Shan Yu’s arrival, so I’m afraid that he’ll be a bit disappointed.”

“Please, this one is the master of the grasslands.” Fan Xian squinted his eyes at Shan Yu’s figure standing alone on his horse in the distant meadow and said with a grin, “Where it’s so easy for me to shade him to death.”