If it wasn't for the pain in his leg, Shan Tushi would have thought that he was dreaming. Before he met the Tang people, he thought that he was the leader of a tribe and should be a knowledgeable person. Anything that the people in the tribe found should be sent to him first.
But after he met Sun Miao, he realized that he was the toad in the well that Sun Miao was talking about. He was very pitiful. If it wasn't for the danger today, he believed that Sun Miao would never light up that life-saving thing. He also wouldn't know that there were many things that he had never heard of before.
"Sun Miao, how do you fly up?" Shan Tushi touched Sun Miao and asked in a low voice.
"Jump down from the mast or the lookout tower. Two people use gliders. One person is in charge of adjusting the direction while the other is in charge of attacking. You need to have … have experience."
Sun Miao explained. He was about to say that it required wind, but he was afraid that he would reveal the secret, so he quickly changed his words. He knew that gliders were very important on the sea. The wind was strong on the sea. When attacking in the air, the enemy's ships were like decorations. Not to mention the ability to fight back, they couldn't even find the ability to defend.
Shan Tushi didn't understand, so he just listened to Sun Miao. He had seen mast and lookout towers before. They were the places where the sails of ships were raised and the place where one could observe from a high place. He looked at the trees on the mountain and asked with longing, "Can I learn?"
"I don't care. I'm only in charge of doing business. I don't dare to interfere in fighting." Sun Miao knew that Shan Tushi thought too highly of him. In fact, his status was very low. He was only a Juren.
At this time, the reinforcements from the air had already begun to hover in the sky with their gliders. There were not many of them. A total of eighty gliders were sent out from the four ships that were docked at sea. The person in charge of attacking was equipped with a rifle that could fire continuously and a few grenades.
After circling in the sky twice to determine which side needed protection and which side needed to be attacked, they immediately launched the attack. 20 gliders landed and cooperated with the four people from the Hurricane Battalion to snipe on the ground. The rest of the gliders looked for their own targets.
The sounds of gunshots rang out in the forest. The people from the three tribes were unwilling to give up. They no longer planned to continue hunting Shan Tushi and the others. Looking at the people flying in the sky, some threw away their weapons and knelt on the ground, while others ran away.
The battle started quickly and ended quickly as well. The aerial troops were not in the mood to chase after the escapees. Firstly, they were not agile in changing directions, and secondly, they were blocked by trees, making it difficult to aim. They had to control the angle of the wind. If they flew too slowly, they would fall easily, but if they flew too quickly, they would not be able to find their target.
Under the fear of the gods, the people who surrendered were quickly gathered and guarded. Sun Miao tried his best to suppress the urge to kill them personally. He said to Shan Tushi, "Tushi, should we kill them or not?"
"No, leave it to me. Many of my subordinates have died, and I was worried that no one would work for me." Shan Tushi's eyes lit up. He estimated that there were more than two hundred people who had surrendered. They could do all the dirty work for him.
Sun Miao also planned to do the same. He asked the question for the Hurricane Camp, lest they would waste bullets and Shan Tushi's force would not be able to grow.
The people of the Hurricane Camp were indeed waiting for Sun Miao's response. They had a rule that when the merchants contacted the locals overseas, they were only responsible for providing military support and not making decisions. They had to listen to the merchants, protect the merchants, and help the merchants achieve their goals.
This was because merchants were more treacherous, and they could gain the most benefits with the support of military force.
The squad leader nodded and said, "Sun Dongjia, we'll do as you say. Should we continue to attack?"
"Attack! Attack! Attack with all your might! The three tribes are going to be wiped out. Capture the people and exchange them for resources with Brother Tushi. I've made up my mind. When I return to Lu Zhou, I'll pay 10% more taxes in the future."
Sun Miao gritted his teeth and said. He was almost killed, and when he thought about it, he felt a lingering fear. He could not let go of the three tribes. Otherwise, more tribes would come to provoke them in the future.
The squad leader did not comment. He did not care about the taxes. Instead, he made a hand gesture. The aerial troops that had not landed yet flew toward the three tribes, looking for their hideouts and providing coordinates for the ground troops.
*****
Compared to the glider wings that flew fast with the help of the sea breeze, the speed of Zhang Xiaobao and the others could not be faster.
Even if he was given 160 days to fly around the earth, let alone 80 days to circle the earth. The wind direction was too much of an obstacle. When they flew from Jian 'an to Feng Province in winter, they were facing the northwest wind. Fortunately, the pod was sealed well, and they had brought enough food and fuel. Otherwise, they would have to fly with the wind to go back.
After flying up and down for more than a month, flying over mountains and rivers, they finally saw a grassland. It was a vast expanse of white. They didn't see Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, who were in the desert due to soil erosion, nor did they see any greenery.
88 hot air balloons slowly descended. Xiaobei and the other children, who were tired of flying, cheered and ran out. They kicked the snow with their feet, trying to see the covered grass below.
Some people arranged to set up camp, and some people formed teams to patrol the surroundings. Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan shivered from the cold wind that blew in their faces. They ran to the back of the pod to hide, and at the same time, they discussed how to incorporate the Turks into their forces.
"It seems that the Turks won't have an easy time this winter. It's really cold. When night comes, the people outside will probably be frozen into popsicles."
Zhang Xiaobao sighed into his hands, looked up at the gloomy sky, and said.
"You don't need to say that. They insist on running north. This year, it might not be negative 40 degrees, maybe even 50 degrees. I want to know where they are now. When the time comes, I want to control their leader, tell them how good the Great Tang is, and bring them back to live a happy life."
Wang Juan had already thought of a way to deal with this. She couldn't rely on the addition of 50 children to form an army of 400 people to directly defeat hundreds of thousands of Turks.
Zhang Xiaobao took out a small wine flask, took a sip, and handed it to Wang Juan. As he walked away, he said, "Let's go and look around. Let's see if we can find some frozen snakes to cook porridge. Don't they say that there are many wolves on the steppe? If we can find a group, we can even eat some fresh meat."
Wang Juan also drank a mouthful of wine, and her stomach felt better. She asked Zhang Xiaobao, "When the wolves see so many of us, they've already run away in fear. Why would they wait for you to eat? Tell me, if you were the leader of the Turks, what would you do?"
"Me?" Zhang Xiaobao pointed at his nose and said, "If it were me, I would lead the Turks to the west. I wouldn't run north. That would be fatal. With so many people under my command, I can probably fight all the way to the Mediterranean. I would make weapons along the way."
"I'm not asking you that. I'm asking you where you've run to now that you've already gone north. You can't always stay in a place where people freeze to death, right?"
"Oh, you're talking about now? I don't want to be the leader of the Turks right now. I just want to know where we are. Where do you think we are? Have we reached Hohhot? How do we find the vast desert? I'm a bit regretful. I've decided to run to Hainan in the future. I won't be punished like this. "
Zhang Xiaobao rubbed his face. In just a short while, the wind had made it seem like his face was about to split open. There was clearly a layer of frost on his eyelashes. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't cold.
Wang Juan was also worried. Without a map of this place, she had thought that she would be able to meet people and ask them. In the end, after flying for two days, she hadn't even seen a single living thing. The snow where they had landed was not thick, just reaching their ankles. If they were to go somewhere else, there would be snow more than a meter deep. If they were to throw Xiaobei in, his head wouldn't even be able to stick out.
Pinching her forehead, Wang Juan helplessly said, "Let's just continue flying. We should have enough fuel after another half a month. If it really doesn't work, we'll just treat it as bringing Xiaobei out for a vacation."
"That's the only thing we can do. Secret Service Officer Que is really unreasonable. He was respectful to the Great Tang before, but when he saw that the Great Tang had advanced weapons, he didn't immediately take the initiative to join them. Instead, he took them and ran away, hindering the integration of the people."
Zhang Xiaobao also couldn't think of a good idea. If it were summer, it would have been fine to ride a horse. Now, he could only complain about Secret Service Officer Que.
Wang Juan looked at Xiaobei and the others who were still working hard to dig for grass and said, "In the past, Secret Service Officer Que was honest because the internal situation was not stable. Then, there was trade, and he obtained many benefits. He was prepared to become stronger one day. It was written in the book that he didn't get that opportunity.
Our current plan is to directly swallow up the hundreds of thousands of people in the Turkic Khaganate and divide them through immigration. As Prince Xian of the Left, who doesn't have soldiers under his command, how could he be willing? For ambitious people, the right to speak is the most important. We'll stay for the night and fly tomorrow morning. I don't believe that we won't be able to find traces of hundreds of thousands of people. "
Night came quickly. The tents were set up in a circle, and fuel was used to make a bonfire. The people sent out today were lucky enough to hunt a wolf in a pack. They skinned and deboned it with snow water and boiled it into soup for the more than four hundred people. Although it was called a pack of wolves, there were actually only twelve wolves. They were all skin and bones from hunger. It was very pitiful.
When the whistling cold wind blew, light snow floated down from the ink-black sky. The mercury thermometer couldn't measure the specific temperature, but the cold feeling in the tents was very clear. It was as if they were standing outside Jili Province in winter.
"It's really cold. In the future, don't move here." Xiaobei, who was covered in a blanket, tried to move closer to the brazier. He held the bowl of soup in his hands and muttered. The other eight little guys also squeezed together. It was much warmer in the pod than here.
Zhang Xiaobao stood up and touched the canvas of the tent. He said with schadenfreude, "I hope that the Turkic people also have light snow. I don't believe that they are as well-prepared as we are."
"They are not fools. The felt made of fur can withstand the wind better than our tent. Okay, hurry up and drink the soup. It's time to tell the story."
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