The barren mountain is just a very common stone mountain on the grassland. It is less than ten miles in radius, but it is one of the important coordinates on the grassland.

According to Ximen Hao, after arriving at the barren mountain, they had to turn eastward, which was only more than a hundred miles away before they entered the Zhenyu Grassland. When Qin Xiao and his party arrived at the barren mountain, it was already dusk, and the weather was getting colder and colder.

.

The caravan was divided into two at the company headquarters. Sun Kun led the rest of the caravan and followed the wolf cavalry. Qin Xiao's ten people drove two carriages to the True Feather Division.

It is called Barren Mountain, but it is not desolate at the foot of the mountain. On the contrary, there are more than a dozen tents and herders living there.

"There is a grassland at the foot of the barren mountain. After the spring, this grassland is very lush." ​​Ximen Hao explained: "If I remember correctly, although this is not part of the Zhenyu Grassland, the shepherds who grazed here before were members of the Zhenyu tribe.

The Silerians of Sanctuary.”

Qin Xiao asked curiously: "Since it is a pasture, why don't we see any horses? There don't even seem to be many cattle and sheep."

"This is the grass guardian." Ximen Hao smiled and said: "Their cattle, sheep and horses have been moved to suitable places, but if everyone leaves, the grassland may be occupied by other tribes. As long as people stay here, other tribes will

The tribe will know that this is an owner's land and will not live here. When winter passes, their tribesmen will drive their livestock back." He looked up at the sky and said, "We will stay here tonight and rest for a while.

In the evening, we’ll set off again early tomorrow morning.”

On the other side of the herdsman's tent, I noticed an outsider coming. Immediately, a dozen shepherds came out of the tent and looked at this place with unusual vigilance.

Ximen Hao knew the rules and took a large bag of salt from the car. Qin Xiao took the package obediently. Ximen Hao was startled, then nodded with a smile. The two walked over, but before they got close, two herders with swords came forward.

They all pressed the hilt of the knife and said in a deep voice: "Who are you?"

"Excuse me." Ximen Hao crossed his arms across his chest and bowed slightly: "We are businessmen from the Tang Dynasty. We came to the grassland to do business. We passed by here and it was getting late. We wanted to stay here for one night and leave early tomorrow morning." Xiang Qin

Xiao winked, and Qin Xiao understood, holding the package and handed it over. Ximen Hao already said with a smile: "This is a little salt, please accept it!"

The two shepherds looked at each other and both frowned.

The salt on the grassland is very valuable. This package of salt on the grassland can be exchanged for several sheep.

"This is our sincerity, please accept it." Ximen Hao said again.

A shepherd finally took the package and said, "Don't get too close. Do you have any tents? We can give you two tents and help you set them up."

"No, we're ready." Ximen Hao saluted again without saying a word, signaling Qin Xiao to turn around and leave.

The two herdsmen returned. Qin Xiao looked back and whispered: "There is something wrong with their camp."

"Something's wrong?" Ximen Hao was startled.

"It smells of blood." Qin Xiao said: "The smell of blood is very strong, it should mean that someone shed a lot of blood."

His five senses are extremely sensitive. Before his cultivation reached the Zhongtian realm, his sense of smell was extremely sensitive. After breaking through to the fourth level, his sense of smell was far beyond the comparison of ordinary people.

Ximen Hao also looked back and found that several herdsmen in Wuzi were paying careful attention here. He turned around and whispered: "Looking at the situation in their camp, it doesn't look like there was a fight." After a pause, he said: "

General, let’s not interfere in their own affairs. If you feel it’s inappropriate, we can continue on our way and find another place to stay.”

"Since there are herdsmen living here, it is naturally suitable for settling down." Qin Xiao said: "It's better if we don't cause trouble."

With the permission of the shepherd, a few people distanced themselves a little and set up tents on the spot. Ten people set up three tents. As soon as the tents were set up, two shepherds came over, each carrying a slaughtered lamb and threw it away.

On the ground, he made a gesture, but Ximen Hao understood that he had just given them salt, and they were reciprocating the gift by sending two lambs as a return gift.

Ximen Hao thanked him repeatedly. The two men looked at each other. One of them hesitated for a moment, looked at the truck over there, and finally asked: "Do you... have any medicinal materials?"

"What medicinal materials?"

"Medicine for wounds." The shepherd said, "Medicinal materials that can treat wounds and relieve pain."

Qin Xiao's heart trembled at the side, but his expression did not change, but he understood that the smell of blood he just smelled was indeed correct. There must be injured people in this camp who were bleeding profusely.

Ximen Hao hesitated for a moment, said nothing, and went to the truck. He came over after a while, holding a small package in his hand, and handed it over and said: "I have prepared the medicinal ingredients. You can take this package and mash it with a hoe.

After cleaning the wound, apply it on the wound and then wrap it up. Although it won't work immediately, it can stop the bleeding quickly and make the wound heal faster." He then took a very small porcelain bottle and handed it over and said, "The pills inside can relieve the pain.

, but you can only take up to two pills at a time, so don’t overdose.”

The two shepherds both looked happy, took the package and the small porcelain bottle, bowed to express their thanks, and then left quickly.

"It seems that some of them are really seriously injured." Ximen Hao watched the two herdsmen leave, and then whispered to Qin Xiao: "It's just that there are no signs of fighting around here, how could anyone be seriously injured?"

Lu Xiaolou appeared silently behind Ximen Hao. Before Qin Xiao could speak, he said calmly: "If top performs the assassination at this moment, there will be no traces of fighting or fighting."

Qin Xiao felt funny in his heart, but he knew that he did have a say in the assassination, and said: "These are just ordinary grass keepers. Who would be bored and send top assassins to assassinate them?"

Lu Xiaolou didn't say much and turned around to go back to the tent.

Qin Xiao knew that there was indeed something fishy about the grass guard, but he didn't want to meddle in other people's business. Everyone ate the dry food they brought and arranged for people to be on duty at night. Others also went to their tents early to rest. They would have to work hard all day in this cold winter.

The road was indeed very tiring.

He fell asleep for a while, but was suddenly awakened by a miserable cry. He sat up and listened. It was the cry coming from the direction of the grass guardian camp, but the cry disappeared almost instantly. He

He was surprised. The cry was clearly from grief. Logically speaking, under extreme pain, it is difficult to suppress the cry, but the sound stopped suddenly, which was really weird, and Qin Xiao could understand clearly that he was crying.

The sound was clearly made by a woman.

He went over and opened the tent door. The cold wind outside was biting. He raised his head and looked towards the grass guardian. Everything was as calm as ever, but Lu Xiaolou's voice came from the side: "Did you hear it?"

Lu Xiaolou was on duty at night. To him, the safety of other people was not important, as long as he protected the general, so he stayed outside Qin Xiao's tent wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket.

"Did you hear it too?" Qin Xiao asked.

Lu Xiaolou looked over there and said: "It's very weird there. Someone was injured before, and someone was crying just now. It seems like someone died." He glanced at Qin Xiao and whispered: "Do you want me?

Touch it later to see what happens?"

Qin Xiao was actually very curious, but he didn't want to stir up trouble. He shook his head and said, "It has nothing to do with us, so there's no need to get into trouble."

He closed the tent door and went back to lie down in the tent, but he couldn't fall asleep for a while. After a while, he suddenly heard a voice from outside: "There's something wrong!" It was Lu Xiaolou's voice, and Qin Xiao immediately touched his hand.

Wearing a sword, he rushed out of the tent, but saw that everyone else had also come out of the tent, even Ximen Hao also held a knife in his hand.

"Look over there!" When Lu Xiaolou saw Qin Xiao coming out, he raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the barren mountain. This camp was less than ten miles away from the barren mountain. Qin Xiao's eyesight was so good that he looked in the direction of Lu Xiaolou's finger and felt something in his heart.

Although it was close, I could already vaguely see a group of people emerging from the north in the night. I couldn't tell how many people there were at the moment, but there were at least twenty or thirty people. They were all cavalry, like ghosts.

"What's going on?" Ximen Hao also came closer.

Qin Xiao's expression became serious and he said: "There are cavalry appearing, and they seem to be heading towards these grass guards."

"Their livestock have been moved, what is the use of attacking their camp at this time?" Ximen Hao said in surprise: "And these grass keepers are protected by the True Feathers. If anyone is cruel to them, the True Feathers will not

It doesn’t make sense to give up and give up!”

"If I guess correctly, there are things or people that these cavalry want in the camp of the grass guards." Qin Xiao said slowly: "There are injured people in the camp. If nothing else, they were injured in the hands of these cavalry.

"

Lu Xiaolou frowned and said, "You mean these cavalry are following?"

"It's very possible." Qin Xiao said: "There are people hiding in the camp of the grass guards. They are probably unable to continue escaping because they want to treat the injured. I observed it before and it seems that there are people in their camp who are treating the horses.

Healing.”

While he was speaking, he kept looking at the group of cavalry in the dark night. He saw the leader waving his arms, and then he saw a group of cavalry behind the man moving silently to the flank. Qin Xiao looked towards the grass-guard camp.

, the grass guardian did not seem to realize that the danger was coming, and his heart trembled, knowing that if nothing unexpected happened, the cavalry team would soon attack the grass guardian, so he did not take action immediately, and it was clear that he wanted to send a team.

The men and horses circled to the other side of the camp, and then attacked from both sides at the same time.

If this were the case, the consequences would be disastrous if the grass defenders were attacked without realizing the enemy's situation.

"They are going to be in trouble." Lu Xiaolou obviously saw the intention of the cavalry team and whispered: "What should we do?"

Qin Xiao looked solemn. He didn't know who this cavalry team was, let alone who they were chasing. However, a bloody battle was inevitable. There were only a dozen tents guarding the grass.

There wouldn't be many people there. He had observed the horses in the grass-keeper camp before, and the total number of horses in the grass-keeper camp was only thirty or forty. If nothing else happened, the entire grass-keeper camp would only have about forty people at most.

Facing the cavalry that appeared like ghosts, they did not have much advantage in numbers. Once attacked, there was almost a possibility of the entire army being annihilated.

"After they attack the grass guardians, there is no guarantee that they will not attack us." Qin Xiao frowned and said: "Mr. Ximen said before that there are also horse bandits on this grassland. If these people are horse bandits, they will definitely not attack us when they see us carrying goods.

No mercy."

Ximen Haowei was a little surprised, but not panicked. He nodded and said: "If it is really a horse bandit, we have no time to leave now. The best choice is to join hands with the grass guards to repel the horse bandits."
Chapter completed!