Book 39 - Chapter 2 – Following the Trail for a Thousand Li (1/2)
Book 39
The alloped at full speed; all the riders had their hair tied in a bun and fastened with a piece of green cloth They arrior outfits with the collar slanting diagonally to the left, their arms were exposed under the rolled-up sleeves, an armor belt looped around their waist, with sabers, swords, and so on hanging fro jujube-red deerskin boots, each one had a dagger slipped into their belt, and oversized robes draped over their shoulders While driving their horses speeding along, the wide robe flew backward like a cluht with the belt, one , the other still, it displayed particularly clear lines of beauty, sophistication and elegance
The leader wore silver crown on his head, shaped like lotus flower Instead of wearing oversized robe, he wore a vest with iron are was around thirty, his build was like intrepid white horse, the divine light in his pair of eyes flashi+ng, there was sory, but powerful lofty quality
Ba Fenghan blehistle, the three horses iathered behind the threethe astonishi+ngover the prairie like a rolling tide; he thought that merely the other side’s bow and arroould be very difficult to block, to say nothing of all warriors in the prairie had a set of charging-and-breaking-through-eneroup of about a hundred nored
“What do they want?” he han was theat their attire, they must be the Qidan Grand [Tribal] Chief Abaojia’s most elite Sparrok Army The silver crown indicates that the leader is a first-class Sparrok General The golden crown is the Co officers and soldiers’ greeting and hand gestures Hefroive him a satisfactory answer, otherwise it will be quite possible that the situation -it-all, you-die-I-live battle, without any roo, the leader of the Sparrok Army already had his hand in front of his chest
Ba Fenghan spoke indifferently, “This is a greeting, just like you guys cupping your fist to greet They could be considered being polite and tactful”
The Sparrok Arether and pulled the reins More than a hundred warhorses stopped i
The silver-crowned Sparrok General waited until the horse’s front legs touched the ground before continuing toward theht formation Theirwryly, Kou Zhong said, “If they knew our true identity, a greeting [orig ‘wen hao’, lit asking for well-beings]for trouble [‘wen nan’]”
Shaking his head, Ba Fenghan said, “Not necessarily! Within Qidan people, there are more than a hundred tribal chiefs, Abaojia is just one tribal chief Hu Yanjin is a horse thief Based on your relationshi+p with Tuli, Abaojia will not want to tie an en”
By this time the silver-crowned Sparrok General was already about thirty paces away from them, where he reined his horse and stopped The horse kept kicking the ground where it stood, so that the silver-crowned Sparrok General on the horseback appeared even ht directions
He uttered a string of unintelligible words toward Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling Seeing Ba Fenghan did not show the least bit of reaction to give thely wo the newly-acquired superficial Tujue language to shout back, “The towering Qidan brothers, do you speak Tujue language?”
The silver-crowned general responded in Tujue language, “Turns out Han manzi [barbarian, contemptuous term used by northern Chinese people for people fro in our place?”
Great co to himself that at least he understood these feords, and thus did not let down Ren Jun and Ba Fenghan putting their heart and soul into teaching theroup of valiant Qidan Sparrok Ar for theht to be whether they were Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling
His spirit greatly aroused, he let out an ear-splitting long laughter in an initial show of strength [orig display ofwith his pair of eyes flashi+ng refined light, “I called you Qidan brothers, unexpectedly you calledto answer your question”
Hearing that, Ba Fenghan nodded inwardly, praising Kou Zhong as a child who could take instruction Because outside the Great Wall, various tribes’ , they valued courage and strength the uts; reputation and face were of para meekly and politely took the insult, the other side would have looked down on you instead
The vicious light in the silver-crowned general’s pair of eyes flared out, he sized the three up with his burning gaze, but did not respond to Kou Zhong’s rehan, he shouted sternly, “You are a Tujue?”
Ba Fenghan’s eyes turned as sharp as an arrow Meeting the silver-crowned general’s gaze, he spoke coldly in Tujue, “I only speak with friends”
Suddenly the silver-crowned general’s countenance changed slightly Staring fixedly at Ba Fenghan’sbehind the three, he asked, “Isn’t that Taklareat honor and glory Obviously, beyond the Great Wall, Ba Fenghan had resounding reputation Unexpectedly a Qidan high-ranking han frohan said, “Just consider you have a bit of eyesight I ahan, and these two brothers ofWhether friends or foe, it can be decided in one word, no need to waste lips and tongue”
Froeneral was severely shaken; suddenly he turned his horse around and left, his voice cauard General serving under Abaojia; gentle the Sparrok Arhed aloud and said, “It looks like our three na, it was enough to scare a hundred Qidan han said with a sneer, “The good show is still cozhikun has an irowing out of a knot, hence he illing to retreat On this kind of flat open plain, once fight breaks, if ant to put them in order, I am afraid ill have to pay a bitter price”
The three sat down coed the the beautiful and spectacular nightfall in the prairie
Xu Ziling said, “How did Huangzhikun recognize you as a Tujue? Right now you are wearing Han attire, there is no obvious difference frohan explained, “Soe, such as how to deal with disheveled hair; therefore, in just a glance he could see through that I anize, because they have their hair draped over their shoulders Gaoli people love to hite clothes, Huitong people love tattoo; each ethnic group have their own social custo Fu Junchuo’s white clothes, a burst of e’s heart
“When you interrogated Xu Kaishan the other day on the technique of training horses, what is your conclusion?” Kou Zhong asked
“It’s really hard to say,” Ba Fenghan replied, “I aolia?] shi+wei olians Aeous Every year they hold a wrestling and horse racing festivals, attracting a lot of people to participate Some say that in the future, the one most likely to unify the prairie will be the asked, “Why not your Tujue people?”
Ba Fenghan sighed and said, “What the facts are, ill only know in the future I just wanted to wu shi+wei is the tribe with biggest potential Martial artthese are Belegunatai and Bugunatai, two brothers, who are known as the Mighty Candidates of Argun River My understanding is that there has never been anybody able to walk ten steps under their hands”
Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Old Ba, you should not let thehan smiled and said, “They are the men that Xiaodi ad said, “Returning to our uess, is there any connection between the wolf-bandits and Xu Kaishan and Du Xing?”
Shaking his head, Ba Fenghan replied, “I really am not sure I hope that by the time we reach Yan Yuan Ji by the Buir Lake, Ma Ji could provide us with an answer”
Yan Yuan Ji could not be called a county town or even a hamlet; it was just a marketplace on the eastern bank of Buir Lake where noathered There was a vast open space in the ularly scattered tents, in all shapes, sizes and colors, creating an iht
When the three arrived, the open space was packed with a crowd, bustling with noise and excite at their apparel, they were mostly Qidan, Mo, Tujue, and Huizu There were men and women, all well-dressed, so that it was quite like a holiday ated their horses to the top of a shan said, “We are a bit lucky; it happens to be their market day This situation may continue for more than ten days There will be endless strea, but there is also an endless strea To the people on the prairie, this is an ioods for the stuff they lack, they can also exchange woroup of ox-carts entering the Yan Yuan Ji’s surrounding, behind thee flock of several hundred bellwether sheep, bleating incessantly Hearing Ba Fenghan, he was startled, “What?” he blurted, “How could such a barbarous thing happen?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Ba Fenghan said, “For you, Han people, the area beyond the Great Wall is a savage land anyway Not only there are tribes who make their nest up on the trees, there are also people who live in caves, or perhaps in buildings made of clay mixed with the blood of cattle and sheep Soine, you will be ood and co one wife, or perhaps treating a guest with your wife Xiaodi has s that are more acceptable to you, but some are so absurd that you will not believe it”
The two listened with eyes opened wide, han continued, “Under normal circumstances, women’s trade is limited to their own tribe But in the case of fe them here to be traded with horses, cows, sheep, sables, and so on, whatever is ht to understand why Xiaodia thousand li to come to the Central Plains, which is because of reat prosperity of the Great Sui, all the princes and tribal chiefs of the kingdoe”
Kou Zhong was dying to ask hiht by Ba Dai’er [see Book 15 Chapter 5], but in the end he refrained frooods in here is indeed absolutely safe [orig ten thousand things, not one fails]”
Ba Fenghan said, “Ma Ji has a short rule: anybody ant to talk business with him must come here As for his real base of operations, nobody knew My guess is that he has distribution points everywhere He has a large nu under hioods Even if it was sold back inside the Pass and was purchased back by the original owner, they oods”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, “No wonder his stolen goods business can be that big”
Ba Fenghan said, “He must do it this way, because horse thieves are the public eneoes everybody ive me a little bit of face is precisely because I ahed and said, “You really kno to choose people to kill Not only to get rid of the inauspicious, but also to train your sword One han cheerfully said, “It ought to be one o to a certain place, I would offer my service to the tribe of the area to wipe out the horse thieves, and they would offer the most valuable special local product as a reward, which would support Xiaodi’s livelihood More ih and detailed intelligence about the horse thieves In general, horse thieves commit crimes across multiple tribes, hence it is very difficult for the tribe suffering dae to pursue and make reprisals On the contrary, as a lone rider I don’t have the slightest bit of s Therefore, not only I can obtain reputation, but also find soet the monetary reward and all kinds of unexpected infor spoke heavily, “Should we get rid of Ma Ji, to cut off a channel hich the horse thieves can unload one or two stolen goods?”