Usurping the Mongols: My Father-in-Law is Genghis Khan

"How did they escape?" Zhao Shuo asked, his brow furrowed deeply after listening to his subordinate's report.

"The Merkits were prepared. They set up rope ladders on the back mountain and arranged horses to meet them. We just arrived too quickly, so we captured most of them."

"Has the rope ladder been cut?"

"Of course."

"Then there's nothing we can do." Zhao Shuo sighed and said, "The Great Khan has issued a death order to kill Tokhto'a's entire family. Let's pursue!"

Mongol military orders were like mountains. Once a death order was issued, it had to be carried out without fail.

Immediately, Zhao Shuo left Ge Rile's thousand-man team to count the Merkit tribe's belongings, then escorted the Merkit tribe slowly towards Temujin's main camp.

He himself led three thousand men, quickly descended the mountain, and pursued Tokhto'a's three sons, Khudu, Chilagun, and Mazha'er.

Pursuit on the grasslands was definitely hard work.

The grasslands were vast, and finding a specific few hundred people was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Historically, Temujin sent a large army to pursue Tokhto'a and his sons for a full thirteen years before finally finishing the job.

It would be by no means easy for Zhao Shuo to complete this task.

Ten days later, Su He's thousand-man team, bringing the Merkit's number one beauty, Khulan, met Temujin.

After Temujin lifted Khulan's veil, he was immediately stunned by her beauty.

Khulan's beauty could definitely rank in the top three on the entire grassland, especially those blue eyes with a hint of light emerald, which were as intoxicating as Lake Hulun.

After recovering from Khulan's beauty, the first feeling that arose in Temujin's heart was joy.

It wasn't joy at obtaining a beauty.

But joy at Zhao Shuo's loyalty.

In fact, after Zhao Shuo broke through the Merkit's camp, this Merkit's number one beauty, Khulan, could be considered Zhao Shuo's spoils of war.

However, because Khulan's father, Dayir-Usun, said he wanted to give Khulan to him, Zhao Shuo unhesitatingly sent Su He, his most trusted chiliarch, to escort Khulan to him as a tribute.

What did this mean?

This meant that his good son-in-law, Zhao Shuo, would not betray him, the Great Khan, because of beauty, now or in the future.

Even though he already had absolute trust in Zhao Shuo, at this moment, looking at the stunning Khulan before him, Temujin's trust in Zhao Shuo deepened even further.

For men, the greatest temptations were power and beauty.

Zhao Shuo could remain unmoved in the face of such beauty, how could Temujin not be delighted in his heart?

"Su He, go back and report to A Shuo, and tell him that I deeply hate Tokhto'a and his sons and must eradicate them completely. I'll keep Khulan for him. If he successfully completes the task, I will bestow Khulan upon him!"

Temujin lowered Khulan's veil, immediately turned his head, and said to Su He.

"Yes, Great Khan!"

Su He nodded, without a word of unnecessary nonsense, immediately took his attendants, and hurried back to report to Zhao Shuo.

Don't underestimate this push and pull between Zhao Shuo and Temujin.

If Dayir-Usun had said he wanted to offer Khulan to Temujin, and Zhao Shuo ignored it, forcibly taking Khulan, then once this matter reached Temujin's ears in the future, Temujin would inevitably harbor resentment in his heart.

But now, Khulan would still become Zhao Shuo's spoils of war, but Temujin trusted Zhao Shuo even more because of this.

In the future, no matter who slandered Zhao Shuo in front of Temujin, Temujin would remember today's events and would not waver in his trust in Zhao Shuo.

… …

Su He spent another half a month before finally catching up with Zhao Shuo.

After reporting Temujin's words, Zhao Shuo revealed a smile.

However, he didn't say anything. After letting Su He return to his team, he immediately began pursuing Tokhto'a's three sons again.

In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.

During this half year, the biggest difficulty Zhao encountered was not finding the whereabouts of Tokhto'a's three sons. After all, Tokhto'a's three sons were fleeing with four or five hundred people, which was not a small number, and they needed supplies, so there would always be some news coming. It was just that they had no intention of fighting Zhao Shuo, only wanting to escape, so it was difficult for Zhao Shuo to catch them.

Zhao Shuo's biggest difficulty was supplying his own three thousand troops. He had also obtained supplies from some tribes, carefully conserving food.

There were also times when supplies were completely cut off, and he had to kill horses and drink blood to survive. In order to obtain supplies, he even held several small-scale hunts to collect some prey.

"If I had known this would happen, I should have invented some convenient food, such as meat floss, milk powder, or cheongsam cakes."

It was already winter, and Zhao Shuo was riding his horse leisurely on a desolate grassland, looking at the leisurely white clouds in the sky, frowning and thinking to himself.

Just then, suddenly an excited voice came: "Son-in-law, come and take a look, we found a good treasure!"

"What good treasure?"

Zhao Shuo turned his head to look, and saw his second chiliarch, Altana, riding his horse towards him, saying: "You come with me, and you'll understand when you see it! It really is a good treasure!"

"Lead the way!"

At this time, Zhao Shuo's three thousand troops were conducting a hunt.

Hunting was the most common military and entertainment activity on the grasslands.

First, a hunting circle was delineated, small ones were dozens of miles, and large ones could reach nearly a thousand miles. Then, the beasts on the edge were slowly and carefully driven towards the center, so that no beast could escape.

Finally, after a long period of driving, the hunting circle was shrunk until the beasts could no longer run, and then they could be harvested. Pregnant and young animals were allowed to leave. The remaining beasts became the spoils of the grassland people.

Zhao Shuo didn't have many people, and he was also trying to obtain supplies, so this time he only conducted a hunt in an area of less than forty miles.

Unexpectedly, this time they actually caught a good thing.

At this time, the entire encirclement was still about five miles away, and the prey was not yet very dense.

A golden wild horse attracted the attention of everyone present.

This horse was not only tall and strong, but also about a head taller than ordinary horses.

Moreover, its entire body was golden without a trace of variegation.

It shone brightly under the sunlight, as if a celestial horse had descended to earth.

Most importantly, it moved swiftly and was very fast.

A young man in his twenties, a good hand, galloped on horseback, constantly trying to lasso its head, but each time it easily dodged it.

Hee hee ~ ~

Suddenly, the golden wild horse let out a long neigh. It turned from an incredible angle and quickly rammed towards the young man.

"Not good!"

With an exclamation, the young man's horse was knocked to the ground, and the young man was also knocked three zhang away.

"It really is a good treasure." Zhao Shuo said: "Altana, you are good at running and also a good horse trainer, why don't you go up and try?"

Altana said somewhat unwillingly: "I've already tried. I originally wanted to capture this treasure and dedicate it to the son-in-law. But this beast is simply intelligent, not only is it very strong, but it is also as cunning as a fox. I've been tossing around for half an hour, but I haven't done anything to it."

"Oh, is that so? Then I'll try."

Zhao Shuo slightly raised the corners of his mouth, got off his horse, and walked into the crowd watching the excitement.