Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 523 Mountain Road
Whether it is Tubo or Tang, it is difficult to invest too many troops in this area, and it is difficult to achieve a decisive victory in a short period of time. Then the outcome depends on who can bring the countless tribes in this vast mountain area into their own command. Absorb their human and material resources to strengthen their own strength—mountains are not synonymous with barrenness, there are fertile arable land in the valleys between mountains, and compared with plains, mountains have richer mineral deposits, and mountain residents can also provide quite rich Through this mountain road, you can also obtain precious spices from distant Southeast Asia and South Asia.

More importantly, ancient mountainous areas were usually overpopulated areas. Unlike plain residents, mountain residents did not need to support huge superstructures. Their chiefs, priests, and nobles were far inferior to plain squires, bureaucrats, and emperors and princes. A large number of people live a good life. In other words, although the mountain residents are generally poorer than the plain residents, the lower layer in the mountain area is likely to live better than the lower layer in the plain. Naturally, they have more resources to have more offspring. .The rapid population growth soon exceeded the support capacity of the mountain land, so the redundant young people went out of the mountains to the plains to find opportunities to make a living-and mercenaries were one of their oldest choices: the Akkadians This is true for the Chinese, Scandinavians, and Swiss, and these Qianghu tribes are no exception.

"Songmao Road, are you familiar with this road?" Wang Wenzuo asked suddenly.

"Songmao Road?" Several businessmen exchanged glances, and the oldest and most dignified one said to the man on the left: "You have walked this road three or four times this year, and it is the most familiar one." , go and clarify with Lang Jun!",

The man responded, and bowed to Wang Wenzuo: "I tell you, sir, this road is not easy!"

"That's natural!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile, "Why is it so difficult to leave?"

"Never mind the high mountains and dangerous roads!" The merchant sighed: "The most important thing is that the weather is unpredictable. You have to wear leather clothes when you go out in the morning. When the sun comes out at noon, it's so hot that you want to wear only unlined clothes. In the afternoon, you may have to wear a leather jacket." When there was a strong wind, hailstones the size of eggs fell, and the head was beaten to death. There were also bandits along the way!"

"Bandits?" Wang Wenzuo raised his head from his notebook: "Are there many bandits on this road?"

Whoa, whoa, whoa!
The old man's cough interrupted the man's answer, he looked at the old man's face hesitantly, and said carefully: "Not many, in fact, there are bandits everywhere! It's nothing strange, hehe, hehe!"

Wang Wenzuo glanced at the old man, knowing that there was no point in continuing to ask, so he winked, and the guards next to him each gave a famous badge: "It is also a fate to meet you today. If Wang can come to the door with this name, if he can do what he can, he will definitely not shirk!"

-------------------

Twelve days later, the Songmao Ancient Road.

"Do you think there are bandits here?" Wang Pu asked in a low voice.

"I don't know! If there are any, they must be staring at us!" Acton looked around vigilantly. Pale reflections below.

"I don't think so. They must be warming up by the fire, or hiding in a hole in the wind. Hell, it's too cold here!" Wang Pu complained, while moving his hands and feet under the cloak and fur, trying to keep warm, this experience It reminded him of the chills he had spent at home as a child, when he and his brothers slept in the same bed, warming each other with their body heat.Now I am surrounded by his brothers, but the shared straw bed has become a dirt field.

"It's possible to hide in a cave, but it's impossible to warm up!" Acton said in a low voice, "It's too conspicuous to warm up at night. Standing on a high place, you can see everything from a dozen miles away!" "There are always a lot of idiots in this world." !" Wang Pu sneered and said, "They will feel that even if they are discovered, no one is willing to risk the cold wind and fall into a deep valley at night to trouble them!"

"If there is such a fool, it can only be said that life is unlucky!" Acton said in a low voice: "As the scouts of the governor, if we find anything suspicious, we must figure it out no matter what!" , He coughed lowly: "I am on duty in the second half of the night, and you are in the first half of the night. Call me when the time comes!" After that, he lay down and started snoring almost at the same time.

"Akton, you are a pig! A pig!" Wang Pu cursed angrily. He walked to the entrance of the cave, wrapped his bearskin cloak tightly, and looked out.The razor-like wind screamed at night, as if a mother who had lost her child was mourning. With the help of the moonlight, he could see that most of the hillsides were bare, with only a few trees, short and skinny, huddled on the rocks. The crevices and fissures of the caves look like stunted deformities; often above the valley-floor paths there are rock outcroppings with icicles hanging from the edges like the tusks of a ferocious beast.

Of course, Wang Pu would rather be a scout with Acton than continue to be angry with Wang Ence.And he saw wonders too: they walked over the edge of the sheer rock face, and saw the beauty of the sun shining on the ice-covered waterfall; The bushes, which even Acton admitted had never tasted so luscious, and the meadows were full of autumn wildflowers, beautiful flowers, blue as the sky, russet and golden as ears of corn, scarlet bright as fire; deep and black Wang Pu doubted that there was a direct connection to the Asura Hell that the monk said; the two also crossed the natural stone bridge that had been eroded by Feng Shui, and there was nothing on both sides except air.

The eagle builds its nest on the cliff, hovers over the canyon, spreads its vigorous blue-gray wings, hovers and flies, and almost blends into the sky. Once he even witnessed a gray-white "big cat" hunting and killing a male on the cliff. The goat, it is like flowing smoke from the mountainside, silent, imperceptible, patient, and finally saves one blow to kill.

I hope that if it's my turn, I can do as well as that "big cat" did!He subconsciously reached out to touch the horn bow on his back, as well as the saber and dagger at his waist.Only then did he remember that he hadn't maintained his weapons for several days. Shi Fan once said: Weapons are the life of a warrior. If you don't cherish your weapons, you don't cherish your own life!Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed, and hastily pulled out his saber, carefully applying grease.

"There is fire!"

At first, Wang Pu thought it was his eyes that were dazzled. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was not mistaken. They were not stars in the sky—stars can blink, but fire can't.

"Akton, wake up! Wake up!"

"What's the matter?" Acton woke up quickly, and he quickly figured out what happened from the excited words of his companions, and walked to the entrance of the cave to look: "It's not far from us, at most one mile away! "

"The distance in a straight line is one mile, but walking is not necessarily the case. This is a mountain road!"

"It's such a high mountain, climbing it at night is even more fatal!" Acton sighed: "But this is what we should do!"

The two quickly packed up, walked out of the cave, and walked towards the mountain road, leaving curved marks, their breath frosted in the darkness.Wang Pu, who was wrapped in a bearskin cloak, felt as if he was naked, but luckily neither of them wore armor, so they could move more flexibly.They walked very slowly, because if they hurried, they risked breaking their knees and even their heads.But Acton seemed to instinctively know where to take the next step, but on this broken and uneven road, Wang Pu could only walk step by step, stepping on Acton's footsteps.

This mountain road is completely in a long and winding valley, sometimes surrounded by rolling hills, and sometimes becomes a hidden canyon that cannot see the sun.The two walked along the path for a long time, the bonfire in front appeared and disappeared, but it could be seen that the distance was constantly shortening.The road chosen by Acton became narrower and narrower, and in some places, he even had to turn his body sideways, with his back pressed against the cold stone, and he dragged his feet step by step like a crab.The only thing Wang Pu could do was to grit his teeth and persist, follow behind, careful not to twist his ankle.

The road stopped abruptly at a protruding thick mountain rock, and Acton poked his head out, seeing the dim orange fire and the black figure projected on the rock wall.

"One, two, three!" Wang Pu counted silently in his heart, and his eyes turned to Acton: "There is one more person than us!" He didn't speak, but he believed that Acton could understand what he meant.

Acton drew out the dagger at his waist and smeared it with mud to prevent the reflection from arousing the enemy's alertness. He showed his determination with actions.The bandits built the bonfire in a shallow depression at the narrowest part of the valley mouth, with a raised rock wall behind it to shelter from the cold wind.Acton and Wang Pu walked slowly along the mountain wall until they looked down on their opponents.

A person beside the fire had fallen asleep, curled up, with a pile of raised fur, Wang Pu could only see the black braids exposed under the fur.The second person was leaning against the fire, adding branches to it, and complaining about something.The remaining man looked toward the entrance of the valley, with a horn on his right.

"One person has already fallen asleep!" Wang Pu was delighted in his heart. He exchanged glances with Acton, and saw the same joy in the eyes of the other party. Wang Pu was responsible for the guy who added firewood, while Acton dealt with the watcher. At this distance, even Wang Pu was sure to shoot through the enemy's throat.

Wang Pu drew his bow fully until the arrow feathers were close to his ears. He aimed at the part of the enemy's throat closer to the chest, where it is easier to cut off the arteries. Even the most stubborn people, after being cut off by the arteries, It also loses power quickly.He glanced at Acton, nodded, then turned his head, let go of the bowstring, the feathered arrow pierced the air, and the wedge-shaped fine iron arrow cut off the throat, blocking the scream in his throat; almost at the same time, Ah Ke Dun also let go of the bowstring, and the leaf-shaped arrow the size of a child's palm almost cut half of the target's throat, blood spurted out and sprinkled on the rock wall.

The movement and convulsions of the deceased awakened the sleeping man. Wang Pu rushed forward, drew his dagger and tried to capture him alive. Now there were two of them, enough to get one alive to collect information.But the man flicked the fur on his body and covered Wang Pu's head and face. Just as Wang Pu was stabbing instinctively, he was kicked to the ground by the opponent's hearty kick, but Acton had already rushed up from the side, with both hands He had already clasped the opponent's shoulder, hooked his foot, and threw the person to the ground, grabbed the hair, and stretched the blade down to the chin.

"This bastard!" Wang Pu got up from the ground clutching his stomach, the blow to his lower abdomen just now was really serious: "I'm going to kill you!"

"Take it easy, Wang Pu!" Acton laughed and said, "It's just a kick. The living are more useful than the dead!"

"Then I'll give him a few blows too!" Wang Pu felt resentful. He lifted up his sleeves and was about to give him a few blows. When he walked up to the prisoner, his face changed slightly: "Female!"

"What?" Acton asked.

"It's a woman, we have a female captive!"

Acton pushed the prisoner to the ground. The eyes of the woman on the ground, or rather the girl, were frightened. There was a wound on the white neck, and the blood was flowing down along the blade of Acton.

"How to deal with her?" Acton asked in a low voice. Although his archery and martial arts are better than Wang Pu's, in the relationship between the two, Wang Pu is generally in the dominant position.

"Don't worry, let's find out her identity before we talk!"

"She shouldn't be an ordinary woman! Otherwise, the situation just now wouldn't have knocked you down so easily!"

"Yeah!" Wang Pu knew that what Acton said was right. Ordinary women would only be frightened when they were awakened in their sleep. How could they knock themselves down so easily?He walked to the fur bed where the girl was sleeping just now, and kicked a long dagger out of the girl's reach: "Your name!"

"Tu Yanmang knot wave!" The girl touched her throat, looking at the blood on it in surprise.

"What are you doing here at night?" Wang Pu asked.

"Watch the road!"

"Guard the road? Why?" Wang Pu asked.
"Why?" The girl showed a disdainful expression: "You are from the bottom of the mountain, right? No wonder you say that!"

The girl's expression angered Wang Pu, he pulled out a short knife and approached the girl's throat: "Don't forget that you are my prisoner, I can kill you anytime!"

"I'm a prisoner, but it's not yours, but his!" The girl pointed at Acton with her chin: "I was knocked down by him, not you!"

"If you are my prisoner, answer his question!" Acton said, "Otherwise you will suffer!"

The girl smiled: "Well, those of you down the mountain won't understand. Everyone on the mountain must be careful of their neighbors, especially when winter is coming!"

"Be careful of your neighbors?" Wang Pu sneered, "I think it's to see if there are any business travelers passing by on the road, and you want to rob them?"

"You're right to say that, but since those merchants pass through our land, shouldn't it be right to offer gifts to the landlords?" The girl retorted, "We just keep an eye on the road, lest those cheapskates escape!"

　From yesterday to today, the new home is still in a mess, so I quickly finished this chapter, I can only ask for your forgiveness!Moving is really debilitating!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)