Chapter 1

The Yan people on this side were celebrating the Wanfu Festival, while in the wild men's army's royal tent on the other side, a gaunt man sat on a snow wolf skin couch, gently stroking the scar on his face with his left hand, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

He was the king of the wild men. It was hard to tell his age from his appearance, because he looked the same as he had a decade or so ago.

Even Angda, who had ventured out and traveled the world with him, had graying temples, but for him, time seemed to have stopped.

The Yan people had come, so Quemu and Angda must have been killed in battle.

The king reached out, picked up the teacup in front of him, and took a sip of cold tea.

The tea was of poor quality, favored by the military leaders of Beifeng County. It was astringent, even a little rough on the throat, like the feeling of the wind and sand in the north.

The king had learned to drink tea back then and had kept the habit until now. Even though many of his generals and chieftains now drank expensive teas, he still maintained his habit of drinking this poor-quality tea.

Not to reminisce about the past, but because once a habit was formed, you just didn't bother to change it.

The curtain of the royal tent was lifted, and an old man with a string of skulls hanging around his neck walked in. He respectfully bent down, put his hands in front of him, and said sincerely:

"King."

The king nodded and pointed to the space beside him.

"Sit."

The old man sat down.

The wild men called themselves the Holy Race and worshiped the stars. They believed that in the depths of the stars' brilliance was the world of the gods, and every devout wild man would be led there after death.

And the messengers of the stars in the human world were called Guides.

Every tribe had a Guide, similar to the shamans of the barbarians. At the same time, in addition to their daily role as mystics, the Guides of each tribe usually also worked as doctors, teachers, psychologists, forecasters, climatologists, and so on.

It was like how primary school textbooks always added a long list after introducing historical figures: politician, thinker, so-and-so-ologist.

However, although Sanghu was wearing the clothes of a Guide, he was not a Guide. On the contrary, he had once killed all the Guides in his tribe in a fit of anger because his family had been bullied by the tribe's Guide, and then wandered in the snowfields for more than twenty years, becoming a bandit. Other wild men were easy to deal with; as long as they obediently handed over some of their cattle and sheep, they would be spared, but if they encountered a Guide, they would definitely be tortured to death.

For this reason, he had become the public enemy of many tribes in the snowfields, because he was openly challenging the ruling order of the entire snowfield.

Did the families of the real great tribal leaders believe in the legends of the Guides?

They knew that whether they believed it or not didn't matter, as long as the tribesmen below believed it.

After the king rose to power, his brilliance shone on the snowfields. Sanghu led more than a thousand old brothers who had been through thick and thin with him for more than ten years to join the king's command.

Sanghu said that he was guilty.

The king said, you are guilty.

Then, the king made him put on the clothes of a Guide and become the representative of the Guides under the king's command.

After that, the king once asked him, do you still hate them?

Sanghu said, I don't hate them anymore; it's just a joke.

Having spent half his life killing Guides and doing such outrageous things, he was now almost the big boss of all the Guides in the snowfields. What else was it if not a joke?

After Sanghu sat down, the king said:

"What is the reaction of the Jin people at Xuehai Pass?"

Sanghu replied:

"No reaction at all."

The king's hand continued to stroke the scar on his face, and he said:

"They were making a lot of noise before, but now they have no reaction at all."

"Does the king think that the Jin people already know the news of the Yan people entering the snowfields?"

"Do you think that all the tribes under us are of one mind with us? There will always be someone who will inform them."

"They should be killed."

"It doesn't matter; it's not a big deal. The Jin people have been operating in the snowfields for hundreds of years. If they can't even send news, then it's not that the Jin people are incompetent, but that we are too stupid to have been suppressed by these incompetent Jin people for hundreds of years without being able to raise our heads.

Besides, even if they don't inform them, since the Yan people have sent troops, how could they not notify the Jin people?"

"So, the Jin people already know that the Yan people have come."

"Yes."

"This subordinate really can't understand why the Yan people would travel thousands of miles to enter the snowfields. Haven't the Jin people and the Yan people just fought a war?"

The king smiled,

and said:

"The tribes in the snowfields usually attack and annex each other, but whenever the Jin people launch a large-scale invasion, they will quickly form an alliance to resist the Jin people."

"This subordinate understands half of it."

"What about the other half?"

"That is, we wild men unite because there is a catastrophe, but the Yan people and the Jin people don't."

"Hmm."

"King?"

"So, although we call ourselves the Holy Race, outsiders call us wild men, because we have not yet been civilized, and we are indeed not civilized."

Sanghu lowered his head in silence.

This was racial discrimination, and no one would feel comfortable facing racial discrimination directed at their own race;

Moreover, this time, it actually came from their king.

"Wild beasts, when hungry, go to hunt; when thirsty, go to drink; when the season comes, they go to reproduce, chasing after pasture and water sources, and when they are full and have had their fill, they just bask in the sun.

We, the Holy Race, are not really that different from wild beasts; we only think of forming a temporary alliance when disaster is imminent.

The Yan people, without a disaster looming, know how to take the initiative to plan."

"This subordinate understands."

"Don't rush; you have to eat one bite at a time, and you have to walk one step at a time. Our race has been trapped in the snowfields for too long, so long that the vision of the race has become too narrow."

"Then the Yan people..."

"The Yan people are not easy to deal with. This time, it's the Jingnan Army of the Yan people, and it's the Yan people's Nanhou (Southern Marquis) himself commanding the army.

The Yan people have two major cavalry forces, one is the Zhenbei Army (North Suppression Army), and the other is the Jingnan Army (South Pacification Army).

The Yan people have two great marquises, one is the Zhenbei Marquis (North Suppression Marquis), and the other is the Jingnan Marquis (South Pacification Marquis).

But to be honest, the Zhenbei Marquis is powerful because the Zhenbei Army is powerful; and the Jingnan Army is strong because the Jingnan Marquis is powerful.

Beifeng County is adjacent to the desert. The young men there put on armor and mount their horses early, and can directly fight with the barbarians. A knife, sharpened for a hundred years, is naturally extremely sharp;

The Jingnan Army has never experienced a major war. After being taken over and forged by the Jingnan Marquis for more than ten years, it was no less than the Zhenbei Army in the war to enter Jin, alas.

So, this king has always believed that on the surface, the Zhenbei Marquis is the leading figure in the Yan military, but in reality, that Jingnan Marquis is the true military god of Yan."

"What is the Yan people's purpose in helping the Jin people this time?"

"The Yan people want to be another lord after the Great Xia. At the very beginning, this king sent a letter to the old man of the Situ family, willing to join hands with him to resist the Yan people.

That old thing agreed.

But I didn't expect Situ Lei to directly call for the Jin State Sword Saint, bring him into the palace, kill his own father, and seize the position.

After ascending the throne, he ignored the Yan people and personally led the army to the snowfields.

Whether Situ Lei knew that he couldn't defeat the Yan people and was taking a desperate gamble, or whether he wanted to deliberately show the Yan people a posture of brothers defending against foreign enemies together, this king doesn't know. Maybe no one knows except Situ Lei himself.

But Situ Lei's attitude is already very clear. He doesn't want to start a war with the Yan people, and he is even willing to be half a head lower than His Majesty the Yan Emperor in Yanjing. To put it nicely, it's called guarding the northeast snowfields for the Great Xia remnants."

"Then why did he still ascend the throne?"

"To make it easier to bargain later. That's how business is done. I used to follow the merchant caravans and that's how it was done."

"So, the Jin people at Xuehai Pass will come out to support the Yan people?"

"They will definitely come out. He, the Jin people, are not qualified to watch from the sidelines. According to the reports from those tribes who fled all the way back from the west, the Yan people are burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of evil in our western snowfields, and many large tribes have been defeated by the Yan people.

The Jin people understand that if this Nanhou of the Yan people is killed in the snowfields, on the one hand, they will have to face the anger from the Yan Emperor, and on the other hand, after the Yan people have eliminated those disobedient large tribes in the western snowfields for this king, this king's power will completely control that area, and the pressure they, the Jin people, will face will be even greater.

Most importantly, the so-called Dacheng State was just established less than a year ago, and the emperor personally led the expedition and actually suffered defeats in succession. In fact, even if the Yan people didn't come, the Jin people would be eager to continue to send troops out to attack. In their eyes, face is more important than the lives of cattle, sheep, and warriors."

"King, this subordinate will lead your most loyal warriors to help you block the Xuehai Pass line, so that you can free your hands to deal with this Nanhou of the Yan people."

"How many troops have we gathered here now?"

"Nearly forty thousand have already gathered, and another twenty thousand can be gathered tomorrow. They are all the most battle-hardened warriors under your command."

"Good, starting tomorrow night, withdraw in batches. Just leave ten thousand warriors here for this king. You and them all go to Xuehai Pass, and when the Jin people come out, eat them all."

"King, leaving only ten thousand warriors here, how can you possibly defeat the Yan people, this..."

The king yawned,

and said:

"This king's royal tent is here, and with the addition of ten thousand warriors, it can be considered a major dish for that Yan Nanhou. It's enough to be a decent way to entertain the Yan people who have come from afar.

That Yan Nanhou wants to come and kill people, so this king will send them up to be killed, and we only need to eat the Jin army that dares to attack this time, and Xuehai Pass can be broken in the process.

No matter how good the Yan people are at fighting, they can't destroy my Holy Race. Only by breaking Xuehai Pass can the sky of my Holy Race become wide again."

"King, this is too much for you to..."

"Don't worry, I'm not those two idiots, Quemu and Angda. At the critical moment, I will let these ten thousand warriors cover my retreat."

"But..."

"Go down."

"This subordinate understands. King, please take care. This subordinate will definitely break through Xuehai Pass and wait for your return!"

Sanghu left.

In the royal tent,

only the king was left again.

The king reached under his couch and took out a delicate small box,

opened it,

and inside the box was a little girl's embroidered shoe.

The king carefully held the shoe in his hand,

brought it to his nose,

took a deep breath,

and a look of intoxication immediately appeared on his face.

"So fragrant..."

Then,

the king subconsciously reached out and touched the scar on his face that was more than ten years old,

and muttered to himself:

"I heard that you are getting married soon."

There was no trace of loneliness on the king's face,

Instead, he laughed "hehehe",

and said to himself again

"Wait for me, I will come and snatch you away."