Looking back

The two and three horses walked on the vast grassland for more than a month, and the vast grassland was very similar to Yang Kang. Along the way, he could only judge the approximate north, south, east, west, and north from the rising and falling of the sun.Before leaving the customs, they bought three horses to carry luggage and food, tents made of roe deer skin, iron piles, iron racks and pots for cooking, not to mention flint and tinder, salt blocks, and big bags of spirits.Yang Kang wanted to buy a compass to bring with him, but Huazheng said it was unnecessary, she knew the way and direction, and she could name all the rivers and lakes that seemed familiar to Yang Kang.Sometimes when he saw white spots scattered on the hillside, Yang Kang asked deliberately, "Look! Are those white spots a flock of sheep?"

Hua Zheng didn't know if he was really amused, so he just smiled and said, "I've been misled. Sheep are only bathed in spring when they are sheared. In this season, sheep are all gray." The best place is a yurt, and the flocks of sheep are all gray and bald.Whenever he met a Mongol, Huazheng would gesticulate and sometimes laugh heartily. Yang Kang suspected that she was just wandering aimlessly and had no intention of looking for Genghis Khan's camp, but seeing that she was much clearer, Not as sickly as before, but also happy in her heart, everything is up to her.

They walked northward day by day, and the weather turned colder. One day, the colder the day, the next day they reached a river named Wuer Shiwen River and set up tents. When they fetched water in the morning, they found that the river had floated Made thin ice.He picked up the crushed ice and showed it to Huazheng. She took it in her hand and spun it towards the sun. The ice flakes refracted colorful light, and turned into water droplets in a blink of an eye. "Don't worry, it's still far away from being frozen."

"Where are we going?"

"The south of this river is connected to Yuyuer Haizi, and the north is connected to Kuolian Haizi. I guess one of these two is Hulun Lake and the other is Beier Lake. This area is the Hulun Buir Grassland, the cradle of the Mongolian people. We lived here when we were young. Migrating in the area, from the Onan River in the north to the fishing Haizi here, my brothers sometimes take me to the lake to hunt waterfowl..." Her voice became weaker and her eyes looked into the distance, Yang Kang began to say She was caught in childhood memories, but seeing her frowning, she followed her gaze and saw a faint black mist emerging from the northern horizon.

"To change the sky?"

"It's time to come, let's go on." Hua Zheng looked away, and Yang Kang put away the tent, put the luggage on the pack horse, and carried Hua Zheng onto the horse. She fell into a drowsy sleep after a while.

I think it’s because we’re close to the lake. The road is full of swamps, and the wind gets stronger. The reeds sway violently and rustle, and sometimes the reeds snap and snap in the wind.

Birds were noisy everywhere, it sounded very noisy, he looked down at Huazheng, saw that she was still sleeping peacefully, maybe passed out again.At this moment, a group of wild geese flew towards us, rarely in an orderly formation, but they flew very low, almost touching the ground, just at the same level as his line of sight, and when they got closer, they flew high again, barely passing over his head. , resumed its original formation, and flew away close to the ground.

About noon, the two arrived at Yuyuer Haizi, which is called Bell Lake by later generations.The leaden gray lake stretches as far as the eye can see, the waves are choppy and the water birds are flying. Compared with the Taihu Lake water town with green mountains and green waters interlaced with boats, it has a desolate northern style.The two had just walked out of the dense reeds, and suddenly saw this vast soup, and couldn't help feeling refreshed. After standing for a while, Huazheng was a little weak, so he sat down on a black stone, pointing with his toes. The lake water that hits the shore, "changing clouds, jumping fire, and flowing water, these three things will never get tired of watching."

Yang Kang left her to sit quietly on the bank, rode along the lake, and shot a few waterfowl, two wild ducks, and a wild goose. It's time for a change." Huazheng wrapped her cloak, looked up, and didn't move lazily, "You didn't get the most delicious one."

"That's right, you don't want to eat it when it's cooked!" Yang Kang laughed, and after disemboweling the wild duck and washing it in the flowing water of the estuary, Huazheng suddenly raised his voice slightly, "Look, the bird is no longer flying! "

The waterfowl flying around suddenly disappeared, and I didn’t know which cluster of reeds to hide in. The black fog on the northern horizon suddenly rose, and came overwhelmingly. The broken and thick gray clouds were like a torn quilt, with dirty cotton wadding Fly around.The lake was tumbling, and there were light yellow foams on the waves. The clear river branch that washed the wild ducks just now had overflowed its banks.

"The water is still rising, let's go quickly." The two of them walked along the road for several tens of feet, and came across a big river branch. Yang Kang felt that the surroundings were very strange, and was wondering if he was lost, so he heard Hua Zheng say , "This is the small river we just crossed. The horse bumped and woke me up."

"The river is not so wide."

"The water is rising, go over there."

They rode along the river for a while, and then the river turned and flowed elsewhere. They continued in the direction of the lake with their backs on their backs, waded through two bends in the river, walked for a mile, and finally escaped from the swamp and found a piece of dry grass.Yang Kang breathed a sigh of relief seeing that there were no overflowing puddles on the ground, and the surrounding plants had changed from reeds to tall grasses that only grow on dry land.

The roar of the lake can be heard from a distance, but the wind stopped suddenly, as if the fine snowflakes that had explored the way first drifted quietly, and after walking a few steps, the whirlwind suddenly rose, carrying large snowflakes on the head and covering the face. Come on, it's not even dusk yet, but the sky and the earth are as dark as night.

"Snow? How many months has it been?"

"I can only spend the night here." Huazheng said, jumping off the horse to check the terrain. At this time, the horse also panicked, snorting and stomping on the ground non-stop. shouted, "Can you make it through?"

"I don't know either." Huazheng replied, almost unable to stand in the strong wind.

Yang Kang suddenly felt that she was going to be blown away by the wind and never come back again, so he reached out and grabbed Huazheng, pulling her into his arms.He could survive this snowy day, but Hua Zheng might not be able to. He took the wine bag from the saddle, unplugged it, and handed it to Hua Zheng.

She swallowed two sips of strong wine with a tired and numb expression, and she seemed to be a little bit more energetic, and she also cheered up, pointing to a piece of tall grass in the lee of this highland, "Go and mow the grass, there is still enough to cut a tent." Where the horses lie down, the surrounding grass is left, and only a hole is left on the south side!"

Yang Kang knew that she grew up outside the Great Wall, and what she said must be the best way, so he found a machete and started cutting grass like crazy.The sky was dim and the snow was shining, and the cut grass was quickly piled up, and was covered by thin snow in a blink of an eye.Yang Kang was so anxious that he didn't dare to rest. He rolled the steel knife and changed it again. The cold snow water melted on his neck and trickled down his back. After half an hour, Fang cut open a small open space.At this moment, Hua Zheng led the horse and walked over. Her face was blue from the cold, and strands of snow-wet hair were hanging down her temples. She motioned Yang Kang to spread a thick layer of hay on the ground. The horse became obedient in her hands, and curled up obediently on the grass. The two piled their luggage beside the horse, and worked together to cover the horse with a sheet of tarpaulin, just like a usual tent, with thin iron stakes nailed at the four corners. in the ground.

"Fortunately, there are surrounding grass blocking it." Yang Kang's voice was blown to pieces by the wind, but Hua Zheng's expression was still anxious, "Quickly put up another tent!" Yang Kang hastily put up another tent , Cover the hay on top of the grass that has just been cut, and then pile the grass into a haystack, leaving only a small opening for the tent on the leeward side, and the same for the temporary small tent for the horse, leaving a ventilation opening.

"No, the wind will only get stronger and stronger, and it will blow us away together." Huazheng was so cold that his teeth were chattering, but he refused to enter the tent. Instead, he took out the rope and stuffed it for him, then crawled to the edge of the surrounding grass, Trying to tie the grass into a knot and twist it into a rope, Yang Kang was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood her intention, went to the opposite side to tie the grass knot and connected it to the rope, and after tying it tightly, threw the other end of the rope to Hua Zheng through the tent in the middle. After catching it, she also tied the rope to the grass knot on her side, repeated the same trick several times, and finally formed a net that tightly embraced the grass shack, and could not be blown away by any strong wind.Huazheng brushed off the snow from her body, and took the lead to get into the tent. Yang Kang also took off his boots, and followed her in to lie beside her.

The tent was crowded and pitch black, and the whistling wind seemed close at hand, as if in another world. He said to Huazheng, "I'm fine now. Is it cold?"

Huazheng didn't answer, he panicked all of a sudden, listened carefully to her breathing, although it was weak, but even and regular, presumably it was due to fatigue and anxiety for too long, after entering the tent to relax, he fell asleep all of a sudden.He put all his cloak and coat on Hua Zheng, and performed the Nine Suns Magic Kungfu, the tent slowly warmed up, and Hua Zheng's hands also changed from cold to warm, so he felt relieved and let himself fall asleep.

I don't know how long it took, Yang Kang woke up suddenly, his stomach was growling with hunger, the surroundings were pitch black, and the people around him were missing, he exclaimed, "Hua Zheng!"

Her laughter came from not far away, and there were a few barking dogs, which sounded muffled through the curtains and haystacks.

Yang Kang climbed out, the snow outside reflected the world brightly, he couldn't help covering his eyes with his hands.

The air is cold and clear, and the sky and the earth are clear and clean. It seems that yesterday's dark clouds are just an illusion, and the birds flying around have disappeared, leaving only the white and desolate land.Their horses were pacing leisurely, gnawing the grass roots under the snow with their heads down, stretching their muscles and bones after lying all night. Huazheng sat on a saddle beside the fire, throwing snow cubes into the pot to boil, Drying her boots on the fire, her pale face was dyed a faint blush by the flames, two big dogs, one black and one yellow, were vying to grab the frozen bird that had fallen to her feet, wagging their tails, they were very happy .

Yang Kang laughed, "Where did the summoned beast come from?"

"My second sister and I raised this together. The second sister took it with her when she got married, and she still recognizes me now." Huazheng's calm voice showed a little joy and pride, stroking the big dog's head, Pointing to the two or three wisps of cooking smoke rising from the hillside in the distance:

"Their Horde is ahead!"

The author has something to say: *Because Utopia doesn’t know what a blizzard looks like on the grassland, so I checked some information, and finally the way to deal with the blizzard on the grassland is to refer to the section on fighting against the blizzard in "Interesting Anecdotes of Mo Zhigen" , Mozhigen means a good hunter, and it is a collection of stories about the folk customs and legends of hunting in the grasslands.