As evening approached, the various teams that had been dispatched sent men back to King Tadar's camp.
When counting the messengers who returned to camp from each unit, one of the Tash men discovered that one unit was missing.
He immediately rushed to King Tadar's camp to report.
When Tash entered King Tadar's tent, he saw him with his chest exposed, his right arm around Li Ji's fair waist, drinking the wine that Li Ji held in her slender hand.
As the wine went down his throat, Tadar let out a thoroughly enjoyable sigh, and then stole a sweet kiss from Li Ji on the cheek.
"Your Highness," Li Ji said shyly, dodging away, which made Tadar laugh heartily.
Tash stood aside as usual, waiting for Tadar's instructions.
Not long after, Tadar pinched Li Ji's waist hard, and then Li Ji wisely withdrew from the tent.
After Li Ji left, Tadar's smile faded, and he asked with a stern face, "What is it?"
Upon hearing the question, Tash immediately replied, "Your Highness, there is still one troop that has not returned."
The dispatched teams would return to camp at a set time every day to exchange information, and this rule could not be broken regardless of wind or rain.
Even if an entire group is wiped out, the horses will return to camp.
Upon hearing this, Tadar's expression grew even more solemn.
The last time he heard such news was when his younger brother, Kedar, was tortured to death by the dead woman of the Great Jin Dynasty.
A bad feeling suddenly welled up in my heart.
After a moment of silence, Tadar's face hardened, and he said, "Order a team to patrol the areas not yet returned to their assigned areas."
"Yes!" Tash accepted the order and left the tent.
At this moment, only Tadar remained in the tent. Looking at the lamb spine on the low table in front of him, he had lost all interest.
......
On the other side, Song Yanqing led his Shadow Guards to counterattack and kill a Tatar squad, rushing back to the military camp without stopping for a moment.
During their journey, they encountered a group of people. Fortunately, the Shadow Guards were not to be trifled with. The Shadow Guards who went out to scout ahead discovered the Tatars' interception and immediately returned to report, thus avoiding the situation.
The sky grew dark, and countless stars twinkled on the horizon.
Even if the people could handle it, the horses, having run all day, were exhausted.
Therefore, Song Yanqing looked at the map, found a place to rest for a while, let the horse eat some fodder, and rest for two hours before continuing his journey under the cover of darkness.
We've finished all the dried meat these past two days, so all that's left are flatbreads.
Three of the eleven people stayed behind to keep watch, while the rest ate their pancakes, sat back to back, and closed their eyes to rest.
A cold wind whistled across the grassland, and the Shadow Guards sitting on the grass instinctively wrapped their clothes tighter around themselves.
Even when Song Yanqing closes his eyes to rest, he retains a sliver of awareness, keeping himself in a state of alertness—a habit he has cultivated over the years.
"Awoo~"
A wolf's howl instantly woke everyone up.
Song Yanqing's eyes suddenly opened in the darkness, and his right hand instantly rested on the hilt of his knife.
One of the vigilant Shadow Guards followed the wolf howl to investigate the situation.
He had only taken a few steps when Song Yanqing stopped him with a whistle.
As the Shadow Guard turned to look at him, he heard him change his plans at the last minute, "This place is not safe to stay any longer, let's mount our horses and head back to camp."
Upon receiving the order, the Shadow Guards mounted their horses and followed Song Yanqing on their journey.
As the Shadow Guards crossed the hill, they saw dozens of pairs of green eyes staring intently at them.
The scene before them terrified everyone, and without regard for anything else, they whipped their horses and flung a pack of wolves behind them.
As the prey fled, the wolves, with a howl from the alpha wolf, gave chase in packs.
On the plains, wolves can't outrun horses, but the uneven terrain and slopes of varying sizes provide them with an advantage.
Seeing that the wild wolf was about to catch up, the Shadow Guard running ahead shouted loudly in the howling wind, "Your Highness, the wild wolf is relentlessly pursuing us. I will lead some men to lure it away and then come to meet you."
Song Yanqing glanced back at the group of beasts behind him, then saw the plains not far ahead.
He immediately rejected the Shadow Guard's plan, saying, "Split up and run. Once we reach the plains, even wild wolves can't outrun wild horses."
"yes!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Shadow Guards split into three teams. The wolves behind them saw the change in their prey and focused intently on hunting down the prey in the middle.
Song Yanqing happened to be in the middle of the road. Seeing that the wolf was about to bite the horse's leg, he decisively drew his sword, released the saddle, and leaped away. A spray of hot blood splattered, and the wolf's head rolled away like a ball behind him.
The wolves, smelling the blood, instantly awakened their wild instincts and chased after the blood at an ever-increasing speed.
The icy blade was still dripping blood as Song Yanqing sat back on the saddle.
As they approached the plains, the wolves moved faster and faster. Song Yanqing made a decisive move and shouted, "Speed up and shake off the wolves!"
The whip struck the horse's rump, and the horse, in pain, seemed to go mad, galloping across the grass with all its might.
Leaping onto the plain, the spirited horse beneath him seemed to have found its home ground. After eating its fill of grass and drinking spiritual spring water, its speed far surpassed that of a wild wolf.
The wolf's attempt to slow down the wild horse through endurance and thus hunt its prey is doomed to fail.
All that effort for nothing.
The sound of horses' hooves echoed across the plain, and the distance between them and the wolves behind them grew ever greater.
The eleven men reunited and then rushed towards the border.
......
The sky was bright.
Last night, Tash led a group of men out of the camp to search for the missing troops, and finally found dozens of corpses on a hill.
These corpses were not intact; it was clear that they had been torn apart by wild animals or even pecked by birds after death.
The buzzing of flies assaulted the ears of the men on horseback, and their faces turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
Tash gritted his teeth, looked down from his horse for a moment, then gripped the reins and gave the order, "Back to camp!"
Back in King Tadar's tent, Tash reported what he had seen that day. At that moment, a beautiful silver bowl fell to the ground with a loud crash, spilling its contents.
"Damn enemy prince! Immediately send two thousand elite soldiers to intercept him!"
"I'm going to chop them up and feed them to the eagles!"
With that, Tadar abruptly stood up, dumped Li Ji on the ground, ignoring the beauty's cries of pain and showing no mercy.
He strode out of the tent, looked up at the sky, raised his right hand, and put his thumb and little finger in his mouth.
With a long whistle, a moment later, a majestic eagle with its wings spread wide was soaring in the azure sky.
As the whistle blew again, the cries of eagles followed, as if in response to the whistle.
Tadar looked up at the eagle circling in the sky and revealed a sinister smile.
He immediately ordered, "Take two thousand men and follow me, the overlord of the grasslands, to capture those two-legged sheep and feed them to the eagles!"
Tash looked up at the eagle spreading its wings, then looked away and replied, "Yes, Your Highness!"
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