Chapter 397 Abandoned City
The snow on the grassland gradually melted.
More and more green shoots burst out from the soil.
But wherever the Tiele Khan passed, the land became more and more desolate.
The Tiele Khans led by Helian Wuqin fled all the way back.
Running northeast from the Alta grassland where the Hu people and the Great Qi were confronting each other, one had to pass through a desert before reaching another grassland of Tiele Khan.
The snow on the distant mountains melted and flowed all the way to form a river.
There is only one river in this desert. If you want to cross the desert, you must follow the river.
The wind blowing from the wilderness was dry and dusty.
There was a guarded carriage among the troops.
The entire team had only this one carriage, and no one would use it on weekdays. In their Tiele Khanate, horse-drawn carriages and ox-drawn carts were used to transport goods, and people only rode horses.
But Helian Wuqin was sitting inside now. His eyes had not recovered yet and he could not stand the scorching sun and wind and sand outside.
The carriage was running very fast and the inside was very bumpy. Helian Wuqin was not sitting comfortably in the carriage and his butt was almost broken into three pieces.
No one dared to slow down.
They all knew that there would be pursuers behind them, at least one of them would be Hunxie or Da Qi.
They knew they were on the run, but they didn't dare say it out loud because Helian Wuqin never thought so.
Helian Wuqin insisted that they taught Hunxie a severe lesson, letting Hunxie know that they, Tiele Khan, were not so easily tricked.
They failed to defeat Da Qi this time because the Hunxie people secretly colluded with the enemy.
Helian Wuqin felt that he was just unlucky, otherwise, he would have been able to conquer more territory.
He will have another chance in the future. When he inherits the position of Khan, he can send troops again.
He is not like Helian Shuchi, whose hands and feet are disabled and he will never be able to go to the battlefield again in his life.
Thinking of this, Helian Wuqin felt much better.
All he wanted now was to cross this sparsely populated desert as quickly as possible.
"Tiebada, where are you?"
Helian Wuqin's voice came from the carriage.
Tiebada looked out into the distance, seeing an oasis and dilapidated earthen walls, and said:
"General, the abandoned city is just ahead."
Where there are rivers in the desert, there are often oases, and where there are oases, it is likely to be found towns.
There are some grass and trees at the bend of the river ahead, which can be used to feed horses.
Behind the oasis there is an ancient city built of raw earth, but it was abandoned and dilapidated hundreds of years ago.
No one lives there, it's almost in ruins.
Many people passing by here don’t know what this place used to be. Because it is abandoned, they call it the "abandoned city".
Gradually, the abandoned city became the place name.
"Abandoned City," Helian Wuqin frowned, lifted the carriage curtain to take a look at the sky outside, and after hesitating for a moment, he said, "We will rest in the abandoned city tonight and leave early tomorrow."
"Yes, General." Tiebada passed the order down.
Helian Wuqin had heard a little about the city before it was abandoned.
It is said that this abandoned city was prosperous a long time ago and was the capital of an ancient country with military, officials, businessmen and civilians.
But later, because the ancient country was attacked several times, it was eventually destroyed, and the capital was left in the devastated state it is today.
Helian Wuqin didn't like this kind of place and thought it was very unlucky.
He felt that decline after peak prosperity was the most terrible tragedy in the world.
These abandoned places are like tombs in the Central Plains, burying the glory of the past and gradually disappearing.
He wouldn't spend the night here if there was a better option.
But it was getting late, the night was cold and windy, and the soldiers, tired after a day's work, were almost reaching their limit.
He could only order to spend the night in the abandoned city.
It rarely rains in this desert and there is not a cloud in the sky.
After the sunset, the whole sky is immersed in a tranquil deep blue.
Helian Wuqin led his troops into the abandoned city.
You don't need to set up tents when living in an abandoned city, as you can still find many uncollapsed rooms in the city to spend the night.
"General, we found a spacious house ahead." Tiebada found a complete room for Helian Wuqin.
The room is not on the ground, but underground.
Helian Wuqin had passed by the abandoned city when he went to Hunxie before, but he had never come in to take a look.
When I came here today, I found that this city is very different from other cities.
Tiele Khan and Hunxie did not build houses and lived in tents; the Da Qi in the south liked to build houses with wood, bricks and tiles.
In the end, they all built habitable places on earth.
But looking at this abandoned city, it can be seen that it was not built on the ground, but dug out from the ground.
The hollowed-out space underground is the room.
Some even dug two floors underground to create upstairs and downstairs.
Helian Wuqin couldn't imagine living underground. When he lay in the dilapidated house at night, he felt a sudden panic in his heart.
The night wind blew sand and stones across the ruins, the sound so low it sounded like weeping.
Feeling sleepy, Helian Wuqin gradually fell into a dream.
Tiebada knelt beside Helian Wuqin and watched with his head lowered.
He held a dagger in his hand and fiddled with the oil lamp. The air currents from outside blew the lamp back and forth, and his shadow also wavered like a demon...
While sleeping, Helian Wuqin felt that the scene in front of his eyes was getting brighter and brighter.
When he opened his eyes, he saw flames all over the sky, brighter than daylight.
After the fire, there were shouts of fighting outside that shook the sky.
Helian Wuqin looked outside in panic, but found that the people outside were not soldiers of Tiele Khan or Da Qi, but a group of unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar clothes.
Those people were shouting in a language he couldn't understand, moving between the unbroken earthen walls.
Blood splattered on the wall, the firelight reflected a distorted figure, and the oil lamp above his head fell down and shattered at his feet...
"General! General!"
The shouting pulled Helian Wuqin out of his dream.
Helian Wuqin opened his heavy eyelids, his body covered in cold sweat.
"General, they are coming to kill us!" The soldier on duty rushed in to report.
When Helian Wuqin thought of the scene in his dream, his sleepiness immediately faded away. He hurriedly walked to a high place above the ground to look.
Under the dark night sky, many points of light are moving.
It was the cavalry approaching with torches.
Helian Wuqin could already hear the sound of horse hooves blown from afar by the wind, like dense drumbeats hitting his eardrums.
"How could it be so fast..."
Helian Wuqin's face turned pale and he immediately ordered everyone to evacuate.
Everyone hurriedly got up and jumped onto their horses one by one.
Helian Wuqin didn't care about sitting in the carriage at this moment. He just jumped on the horse and fled. Tiebada followed closely behind on horseback.
But the pursuers behind them were coming with more force and faster than they expected.
When Helian Wuqin led his army out of the abandoned city, the pursuers caught up and fought with Tiele Khan's army at the end of the team.
Helian Wuqin looked back and saw the Hunxie people and the Daqi people.
He sneered. The Hunxie people finally stopped pretending and directly allied with Da Qi.
Helian Wuqin didn't look back and rushed eastward.
He fled in the front, and the soldiers behind him had to hold off the pursuers for a while, which was enough time for him to escape.
The sky is full of stars and the moon is high in the sky.
Fewer and fewer people were running behind him.
Helian Wuqin touched his sleeve and suddenly found that the arrow in his sleeve was missing.
"Is this what you're looking for, General?"
Tiebada's voice sounded from the side and behind.
Helian Wuqin turned his head and saw Tiebada riding on a horse with his sleeve arrow in his hand.
"Who told you to use the sleeve arrow!" Helian Wuqin swung his hand and was about to whip him with a horsewhip.
He had previously told the people who served him that they could keep other things for him, but they could not touch his hidden weapon.
These slaves are just stupid, and they need to be whipped a few times before they learn their lesson.
The whip made a sound of air flowing in the air and hit Tiebada's cheek directly.
Tiebada was one of the most obedient servants and never dodged when whipped.
But this time, Tiebada dodged it.
Not only did he dodge, he also shot the hidden arrow in his hand before dodging.
The moment the sleeve arrow attacked.
All the sounds in Helian Wuqin's ears disappeared, leaving only the arrows flying towards him in an instant.
"You——" Helian Wuqin's pupils suddenly dilated.
He didn't finish his words.
The sharp tip of the arrow had already pierced his forehead.
The blood at night is not red, it is the same black as the night sky.
A black blood flower bloomed between Helian Wuqin's eyebrows, and his body fell backwards and fell off the horse.
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