Tibet.

Chapter 1354: Shiwei Conflict
This is a very small tribe with only about a hundred households.

"General, their tents are very strange!" a lieutenant whispered.

From a distance I thought it was a tent, but when I got closer I realized it was not, but a hut built with birch bark and covered with animal skins.

"These should be the Shiwei people, Yang Jian, can you speak their language?" Zhang Dian asked, turning his head.

Yang Jian was one of his scouts, a Han Chinese from Liaodong. He had followed his father to purchase medicinal materials in Liaodong since he was a child and could speak the languages ​​of many tribes.

Yang Jian nodded. "The Shiwei people speak the same language as the Khitan people, and are also called Northern Khitan."

As soon as the words were spoken, dozens of strong men dressed in animal skins suddenly rushed out, holding hunting forks and wooden bows, and looked nervously at the 500 Tang cavalrymen who had come from afar.

Yang Jian stepped forward and said in Khitan: "We are the army of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. We are ordered to pursue the Khitan escaped general. Please cooperate with us, hand over the escaped general, and don't cause trouble for yourself!"

The group of people discussed for a while, and an old man came out and said, "I am the elder of this tribe. There was indeed a group of Khitan cavalry before, about a hundred people. They thought our tribe was too small, so they took a batch of our prey and went to the big tribe."

Yang Jian turned back to report to Zhang Dian. Zhang Dian carefully looked at the hundreds of birch bark tents. Even if the Khitans hid in the tents, the horses could not hide. However, the horses might hide somewhere else.

"Tell them that we must search the big tent, and if there is really nothing there, we can leave!"

Yang Jian translated it, and the crowd was furious, and wanted to fight the Tang army to the death. The old man stopped them, "The other side has more people, they are all soldiers. If you want to die, what about your wives and children?"

The Tang army had 500 people, more than ten times their number, so the hunters had no choice but to lower their heads.

The old man said to Zhang Dian in his not-so-fluent Chinese: "You can search, but please don't harm our people and don't steal our property!"

Zhang Dian nodded and said to a captain, "Take fifty men to search. Look carefully and don't touch their people or their belongings!"

The captain led fifty cavalrymen to search the area. After a while, the captain came back and said to Zhang Dian, "Nothing unusual was found!"

Zhang Dian pondered for a moment, then said to Yang Jian: "Go and tell the elders that we need a guide and we can hire him for money!"

Yang Jian went over to negotiate, and soon, he brought a hunter in his thirties, "General, this is the elder's son, he can speak some Chinese, and he is willing to take us to the main area."

Zhang Dian immediately asked the soldiers to pack up and, under the guidance of a hunter, ran towards the northeast.

The hunter's name was Weng Jiang. He used to go to Liucheng County frequently to sell furs. He could speak some Chinese, but when it came to serious business, he still needed a translator.

"General, this hunter brother said that his father is actually very grateful to us. If we hadn't been chasing him so quickly, the Khitans would have killed all the men in his tribe and taken possession of their women."

Zhang Dian smiled and said, "Ask him again, how far is the big tribe? Will they hand over the people?"

Yang Jian exchanged a few words and said worriedly: "The hunter said that it would take two days to reach the big tribe, but he believes that the big chief will not hand over the Khitan leader because they are sworn brothers!"

Zhang Dian's heart sank, and he said to Yang Jian: "You should learn more about the situation of the big tribe!"

Soon, Yang Jian brought the details.

The big tribe is Nanshiwei among the five tribes of Shiwei, which is composed of more than twenty tribes of different sizes. The small tribe they passed before also belonged to Nanshiwei. The place they are going to now is the main tribe of Nanshiwei, which has several thousand households. The leader is called Yimohe, and there are 2,000 standing troops. If all the tribes are mobilized, there will be more than 20,000 troops.

But the characteristic of the Shiwei tribe was that it was very loose. The small tribes they had encountered before had no blood relationship with the Southern Shiwei. They just lived within the sphere of influence of the Southern Shiwei, so they had to submit and pay tribute of prey and pigs every year, which accounted for 30% of their annual harvest, and the burden was very heavy.

Zhang Dian smiled and said, "Tell him that if they are willing to become subjects of the Tang Emperor, they can move to the original Khitan territory and live there. The Tang Dynasty will not collect taxes from them. They only need to pay tribute to the Tang Emperor with the best prey every year."

Yang Jian translated it, and Weng Jiang was very excited. He bowed and said, "We are willing to become the subjects of the Tang emperor and no longer be oppressed by the Shiwei nobles!" Two days later, five hundred Tang cavalrymen arrived at the Nanshiwei camp, which was much more magnificent than the small tribe they had encountered before.

Zhang Dian gave Yang Jian twenty taels of silver and asked them to move to Songmo area. Yang Jian thanked him again and again and left.

Zhang Dian looked at the camp of the Nanshiwei tribe again. It actually felt a bit like a military camp. It was surrounded by a river about two or three feet wide, and there was a ten-foot-high camp fence on the shore. At this time, the suspension bridge was pulled up, and hundreds of soldiers were holding bows and arrows, staring at the Tang cavalry outside, waiting seriously.

At this time, dozens of people appeared above the camp fence, among them was a middle-aged man with medium build but unusually strong, wearing a fur hat.

Behind him stood a tall Khitan general, who was also in his forties. He wore a golden helmet and looked at the Tang army outside with a half-smile.

Yang Jian recognized him immediately and stepped forward to whisper to Zhang Dian, "The Khitan general wearing a golden helmet behind is Yelu Salad."

Zhang Dian had expected this, so he rushed forward and shouted, "Who is the chieftain of Shiwei here?"

He spoke in Chinese, but the middle-aged man and Yelu Salad could understand him. The middle-aged man said loudly, "I am Chief Yimohe. What can I do for you, General?"

Zhang Dian said coldly: "The Khitan general behind you is a criminal wanted by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty himself. We are chasing him all the way. Please hand him over to us immediately!"

Yimohe laughed dryly twice, "Yelü Salad is my brother and a distinguished guest of Nanshiwei. No matter who it is, don't think of taking him away from me."

Zhang Dian's face was as gloomy as water, and he said slowly: "I warn you, the Tang Dynasty has already destroyed the Khitan. If the Shiwei are stubborn and want to fight against the Tang Dynasty, they will definitely die."

"I won't hand him over, so stop dreaming!"

Yimohe turned and walked away. Yelu Salad sneered at Zhang Dian twice, which made a soldier next to him so angry that he raised his crossbow and started to shoot. Zhang Dian held down the crossbow and said coldly, "Don't worry now. We'll deal with them tonight!"

Zhang Dian immediately sent out several scouts to hide at several key nodes near the camp to prevent Yelu Salad from escaping on a raft.

As night fell, inside a large tent, Imohe and Yelu Salad sat on sheepskins and drank wine, while two maids grilled meat over the fire in the middle.

"Brother, think more leniently! I guess the Khitan nobles were taken away, but the Khitan people are still there. You can definitely establish yourself as Khan, rebuild Khitan, and have a few more sons. You won't be afraid of not having an heir in the future."

Yelu Salad nodded. "The Tang army is really ruthless and determined to kill us all. They chased me for thousands of miles and chased me all the way to Nanshiwei."

"It shows that you are important! If you were not important, would they be so persistent?"

Yelu Salad sighed and said, "I am just worried about causing trouble to my brother!"

Yi Mohe laughed, "Don't worry, my place is far away, the main force of the Tang army can't come here, there is only a small team of spies outside, if they dare to mess around, I will destroy them directly!"

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside and countless people were shouting. Yi Mohe was stunned, wondering what was going on.

A blazing rocket hit the big tent and got stuck in it, setting it on fire immediately. The two maids were so scared that they ran out, and the rocket fell right into the fire pit. There was a "bang!" explosion, sparks flew everywhere, and Imohe stood up in shock and ran out of the tent quickly. Yelu Salad also ran out quickly.

Rockets were seen flying all over the sky, landing one after another in the tribal camp. Hundreds of tents in the south were burning, and new tents were constantly being ignited. The people were panicked and ran towards the south in groups.

"Tear down all the tents!"

As soon as Yimohe finished speaking, he heard two deafening noises: "Boom! Boom!" The ground was shaking, and many people couldn't stand and fell to the ground.

Yimohe squatted down quickly, stunned. At this time, a soldier came crying and reported, "Great Chief, the Tang army attracted thunder and killed more than a hundred of our soldiers!"

(End of this chapter)