Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 394: Jianhe Tribe (Special thanks to book friend Brother Fuyuan/Youhai Fengwu for the monthly ticket!)

Zhang Yong mobilized his inner strength and let out a long roar that shook the wilderness. He led the way on horseback towards the Black-haired and Red-haired tribes of the Khitan people.

The mounts of the more than 3,000 Dragon Guards were all Ferghana horses, and they ran at an astonishing speed. In just a few dozen breaths, they had arrived at the place where the Black-haired and Red-haired tribes were fighting, which was seven or eight miles away.

Zhang Yong opened the magic arm bow, aimed at the leader of the Red Hair Tribe who was three or four hundred meters away and shot. The bowstring sounded, and the arrow flew past the leader's face two inches away like lightning.

The leader of the Red Hair Tribe was shocked and immediately reined in his horse, turning his head and glaring at Zhang Yong and others from the direction of the arrows. When his men saw Zhang Yong and others intervene, they also followed the leader and reined in their horses.

Zhang Yong shouted in the Turkic language commonly used by the Khitans:
"He who bullies the minority with his numbers is not a hero! What deep hatred do you two clans have that you are hunting us down so hard?

I advise you to let him go and leave!"

When the black-haired leader heard Zhang Yong's words, he raised his right hand, and people from all the tribes stopped, as if they were planning to join forces with Zhang Yong and others to fight against the red-haired tribe.

The red-haired leader glared at Zhang Yong and shouted:
"Who are you? Are you merchants from the Great Zhou? How dare you interfere in the affairs of our two clans?
Don’t think that just because you have the divine arm bow, my people will be afraid of you!
You guys should think carefully, this is my Khitan territory, don't get involved and lose your lives!"

Zhang Yong smiled and said:

"Chief, you have not yet explained why your two tribes are at war?
If there is a reasonable reason, I and my brothers can leave this matter alone and walk away."

The black-haired leader shouted:
"My dear, there is no old hatred between our two tribes. It's just that the leader of the Chiwu tribe wanted to force my two sixteen-year-old daughters to be concubines. I didn't agree, so he led the whole tribe to attack my Jianhe tribe. Now he has been chasing us for more than ten days, trying to kill us all!"

The leader of the Chiwu tribe said angrily:

"My tribe is large and powerful, and is the largest tribe in the Jianhe River Basin. It is a great honor for your Jianhe tribe that my chief has taken a fancy to your second daughter!
Why did you drive my chief's messenger out of the tribe? You have made my chief lose face in the thousands of miles around. Who else should I attack if not you? !"

Zhang Yongli explained the whole story and said with a smile:
"Chiwu leader, you are too overbearing, aren't you? She just refused the marriage proposal, what crime has she committed?
But you led the entire tribe's warriors to attack us, causing heavy casualties, and now you want to kill them all?
I advise you to leave your tribe quickly, otherwise don't blame us for the blindness of the divine arm bow in our hands!"

The leader of the Chiwu tribe had heard of the powerful military force of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the great reputation of the Divine Arm Bow. He had just witnessed Zhang Yong's superb archery skills from 3 to 4 meters away.

The arrow passed right in front of him, just two inches away. It was naturally a warning to him. It would be a piece of cake for Zhang Yong to shoot him.

The leader of the Chiwu clan pondered for a while, thinking that facing Zhang Yong and other 3,000 people, each holding a divine arm bow, although his side had 5,000 warriors skilled in riding and shooting, they all used powerful bows with a range of less than 200 meters, and were no match for the divine arm bow. If the two sides went to war, he was afraid that his side would suffer a great loss.

The Chiwu leader looked at Zhang Yong with cold eyes and said with a bow:
"Since this brother has intervened, my Chiwu tribe will give you a favor!
See you later! "

The Chiwu leader waved his hand, turned his horse's head, and led nearly 5 soldiers under his command to gallop northward. In a moment, his figure disappeared.

Zhang Yong sighed, knowing that the Chiwu leader was furious when he saw that his plan to annihilate the Jianhe tribe was thwarted by his side, and he was afraid that he would soon seek revenge on him again.

I'm afraid there won't be just a few thousand people coming by then.

The leader of the Jianhe tribe was a big man in his thirties. When he saw that the Chiwu tribe had fled, he immediately rode his horse towards Zhang Yong.

The leader of Jianhe immediately bowed to Zhang Yong and said:

"Thank you all for saving my entire Jianhe tribe!
Dear heroes, my Jianhe tribe has been annihilated! May I ask if you are merchants from the southern Great Zhou Empire?"

Zhang Yong nodded, and after returning the greeting, he said in Chinese:
"Seeing injustice on the road, drawing a sword to help is nothing to be proud of!"

The leader of Jianhe was overjoyed and replied in Chinese:
"You heroes are indeed from the Great Zhou Empire! No wonder everyone is equipped with a divine arm bow.

If I am not mistaken, the mounts of all the heroes are rare "blood horses"! "

After a while of chatting, the relationship gradually became better.

The main ethnic group of the Khitans was originally a single Dingling people, who were ruled by the Xiongnu during the Qin and Han dynasties.

In 99 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent General Li Guangli with cavalrymen to fight against the Xiongnu. The two armies met at Tianshan Mountain and immediately set up the battlefield.

In order to reduce the pressure on the front battlefield, Cavalry Commander Li Ling volunteered to lead 5,000 infantrymen from the north of the Juyan Sea into the enemy territory, open up a second battlefield, and contain the Xiongnu army.

After marching for a month, Li Ling's troops fought a fierce battle with 80,000 cavalry led by the Xiongnu Chanyu at Junji Mountain. In ten days, they killed more than 50,000 Xiongnu cavalry. In the end, Li Ling was outnumbered and ran out of arrows and food, so he was captured and surrendered.

The Xiongnu Chanyu thought highly of Li Ling and not only married his daughter to him, but also made him the Right School King. Li Ling lived in the Xiongnu for more than 20 years, married a wife and concubines, and left descendants.

Later, from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were also Han people who were captured or fled to Dingling. The descendants of these people constituted about 30% of the black-haired and yellow-skinned Han people in the Xiajiasi today. "Those with black pupils must be descendants of Ling Miao."

The Dingling people of the Khitan tribe were "all tall, with red hair, dark complexion, and green eyes. Black hair was considered ominous."

The descendants of Han people suffered discrimination in the Khitans because of their small numbers.

The leader of Jianhe River is named Li Qingshan. He was born into a family of hereditary tribal leaders in the middle and lower reaches of Jianhe River. He has been the leader for nearly ten years and is 37 years old this year.

The Jianhe tribe originally had a population of more than 30,000 people, including 7,000 warriors. More than two months ago, the leader of the Chiwu tribe sent an envoy to ask for Li Qingshan's second daughter as a concubine, but he refused many times.

Twelve days ago, the leader of the Chiwu tribe, Juli, became furious and led 20,000 tribal warriors to raid the Jianhe tribe in the middle of the night and conquered it in one fell swoop.

Li Qingshan led 4,000 soldiers to protect more than 2,000 tribesmen and broke out of the siege. During the pursuit and escape along the way, more than 3,000 people were killed in the battle. Now there are only more than 1,600 soldiers and less than 2,000 women, children, the elderly and the weak left.

Seeing that Li Qingshan and other people from the Jianhe tribe could speak Chinese, Zhang Yong felt a sense of familiarity in this foreign country of Xiajiasi. He immediately told Li Qingshan that they were members of the Longxiang Guard of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Zhang Yongdao:
"Chief Li, where are you planning to lead your people now?"

Li Qingshan sighed:

“Commander Zhang, my clan has lived in the Jian River Basin for generations. Now our clan has suffered heavy losses. I have no choice but to lead the remaining members to the Afu River and join the Afu tribe, the largest black-haired tribe in the Khitan.

When I was young, I had an old acquaintance with Yan Lie, the leader of the Afu tribe. Now that we are in the same poverty, I hope he can accept my tribe."

(End of this chapter)