Chapter 1: The Sun Rises for the First Time Section 28

  October 184 AD.

  Murong Feng's army withdrew back to the Hujiabao tribe's original pasture, Hu Yunyuan. Six years ago, the Xianbei Great King had awarded it and all of the Hujiabao tribes to Ke Zui. Now, it had returned to its rightful owner and was once again in Murong Feng's hands.

  Murong Feng killed Qu Wu. He gave all the pastures and properties of the Hu and Chang'an tribes, as well as the men, women, old and young of the tribe, to the tribes that followed him in battle and supported him. All of Xi's Xianbei Qirui tribe was also given to Murong Feng by Jianye. The pasture of Qirui tribe is adjacent to the pasture of Tuoba tribe. Tuoba Feng wanted it very much. He sent his son Tuoba Kui and the tribal chief Tuoba Gai to Huoyunyuan, asking Murong Feng to buy all of Qirui tribe's pastures and properties, with generous conditions. Murong Feng nodded immediately without saying a word. But then they made a more tempting additional request: to exchange fifty war horses for Ke Zui and Qu Wu's family members.

  Murong Feng immediately remembered that all this was caused by Ke Zui and Quan Ju, but now it has implicated his own family. A few years ago, Ke Zui led the troops to quell the rebellion of the Rainbow Tribe. After the great victory, Ke Zui ordered Quan Ju to slaughter the entire Jindun tribe of the Rainbow Tribe. Jindun's sister was the mother of Tuoba Feng. At that time, Tuoba Feng was just a leader of a larger tribe in the west, with no official position or power comparable to Ke Zui's. The Rainbow Tribe had rebelled, so he could only swallow his anger and remain silent. Now, however, the world has turned upside down. Ke Zui and Quan Ju have become rebels, while Tuoba Feng has become the leader of the Western Xianbei, so naturally this old account must be settled.

  Tuoba Kui said: "This is what my grandmother meant. Please fulfill her wish for the elderly."

  Murong Feng naturally agreed. The Xianbei people were uncultured and uneducated, fathers and sons, brothers did not get along, drawing knives against each other was normal. But they were extremely respectful to their mothers, no one dared to disobey their mother's meaning. If they were not good to their mothers, they would be despised by the entire Xianbei tribe.

  Murong Feng did not take any action against Ke Zui and Que's family. They continued to live quietly in Hu Du. Tie E, the iron armor of the Black Eagle tribe, had once thought of taking Ke Zui's family to Eagle Cliff as slaves, but was stopped by Murong Feng. He only asked Tie E one question, and Tie E shook his head and left.

  Murong Feng asked Tie Ao: "Do you hate Ke Zui or his family?"

  Li Hong admired Murong Feng. He kept an eye on every move and word of Murong Feng, remembering them in his heart. He thought that the reason why Murong Feng could gain the respect of the whole Xianbei tribe was inseparable from his own personality charm. He was dedicated to the Xianbei state and its people with all his heart. As long as it was beneficial to the Xianbei state, he would spare no effort to do it well. He was also a kind and richly emotional person. For friends, he could also sacrifice principles.

  Since the Battle of Juntu, Li Hong had one more thing to do every night. He followed Murong Feng's orders and visited soldiers, lower-level officers, and main generals in various military camps who participated in the Battle of Juntu, listening to them recount every detail that happened on the battlefield. He recorded all this with a strange script. He didn't even know why he was writing or how he knew this script; his lost memories were really hard to recall. During the day, apart from recovering from his injuries, he chatted idly with the officers and men who were more familiar with various tribes. This situation continued until the various tribes bid farewell to Murong Feng and withdrew their troops from the Weixi large camp.

  Li Hong returned to Huoyunyuan with Murong Feng and began to sort out the entire Juntu Battle. One day, Li Hong suddenly discovered that this battle basically included everything about cavalry warfare. From strategy to tactics, from offense to defense, from formation to array, from counterattack to surprise attack, from general to soldier... It turned out to be a classic cavalry battle. Li Hong's understanding of cavalry warfare immediately rose to a whole new level. With Murong Feng's guidance, practice, and this summary and understanding of the Juntu Battle, Li Hong began to have his own ideas about fighting battles.

  Murong Feng spent two nights carefully listening to Li Hong's lectures, then combined his own twenty years of combat experience to make a large number of revisions to Li Hong's summary of the campaign. He spoke fluently and at length, while Li Hong took furious notes. Then he read them back to Murong Feng, without a single error. Murong Feng reached out and took the few pieces of cowhide that Li Hong had written on, his eyes wide with amazement. What kind of thing were these, line after line of strange symbols?

  "Is this Da Hanzi?" Murong Feng asked in surprise, "Da Hanzi isn't like this."

  Li Hong also couldn't fathom Master Zhang's words, "Is that so?"

  "These first few characters look a bit like it, but not entirely. The Han Dynasty's characters are very beautiful, with flat and dignified font styles, slightly wider writing effect, long horizontal strokes and short vertical strokes, paying attention to the silkworm head and goose tail, with one wave and three turns. What you wrote looks a bit like the cursive script of the Han people. Cursive script is a more casual way of writing that your Han people use to improve writing efficiency. The latter part is not even in Han characters."

  "You speak quickly, I couldn't keep up with writing. In a state of urgency, it was written out involuntarily. But I realize, what's going on here?"

  Murong Feng shook his head, "You don't have memories, but the things you used to do, under special circumstances, can be done naturally. Having one more skill is good too. Thinking about it a lot doesn't help, just go with the flow."

  Li Hong thought so too, let him go, didn't care.

  "What words should be used to write it after organizing?"

  "The Xianbei have no script, so we'll just use Chinese characters." Murong Feng said with a smile.

  "But I write characters you say are incomplete like Chinese characters. I've copied them out, what if you don't recognize many of the characters?"

  Murong Feng slightly furrowed his brow and slowly said, "I really want to leave something for future generations, so I thought of organizing the whole story of the Juntu Great War. You must work hard on it. This way, I don't have time to teach you myself either. Tomorrow, I'll call a Xianbei who knows how to write Chinese characters to help you for a few days."

  The next day, a very old Xianbei elder walked into Li Hong's camp. This elder was named Murong You, and he had been captured by the Great Han State after following the Xianbei army to fight against them in his early years. He spent over a decade in the Great Han State, learning their script and language. After Tan Shi Huai defeated the people of the Great Han State, both sides exchanged prisoners, allowing Murong You to return to his hometown. Murong Feng kept him by his side. He had only recently returned from Mount Da Yan with the garrison troops. Murong You was very talkative, and while helping Li Hong correct his mistakes in writing in the script of the Great Han State (during the Eastern Han period, clerical script was extremely popular. Clerical script originated in the Qin dynasty, basically evolving from the small seal script created by Qin Li Si, reaching its peak during the Eastern Han period, with the phrase "Han Li Tang Kai" being coined in the calligraphy world), he also told Li Hong about the customs and practices of the people of the Great Han State. Li Hong listened intently, and suddenly felt a strong desire to return home.

  With the help of this kind and enthusiastic old man, Li Hong's speed in sorting and copying became even slower. Murong Yu thought that Li Hong's oral articles were simply nonsense. Li Hong was not convinced, saying "Then you write it for me to see." Murong Yu was also straightforward, picking up his pen and starting to write. After finishing, he proudly asked Li Hong to take a look. As soon as Li Hong saw the familiar characters, he felt that they were very familiar, but he just couldn't quite understand their meaning. When Murong Yu heard this, he burst out laughing, saying "How could General Li entrust this matter to you? It's simply like playing a discordant zither." Then he began to explain it word by word, making Li Hong's head spin. However, he still felt that what Murong Yu had written was extremely familiar to him. But why couldn't he just understand the meaning behind it?

  That morning, he was practicing sparring with several of Murong Feng's attendants outside the camp. The two sides were fighting extremely fiercely. Suddenly, a sudden horseshoe sound startled them. Li Hong and several attendants stopped fighting and turned to look far away.

  A group of seven or eight Xianbei warriors surrounded a man riding a white horse, wearing a high crown and white clothes as white as snow, rushing towards the main camp like the wind.

  "He is from the Niutou tribe." A servant immediately identified them by their clothes. Although Li Hong had been in Xianbei for more than seven months, he couldn't tell apart people from different tribes of Xianbei. In his eyes, all Xianbei people looked similar with shaved heads, big beards and wore colorful leather or embroidered robes.

  Everyone's eyes were fixed on the man in white. In Li Hong's memory, he was the first person to see a high-crowned hat in Xianbei.

  "What kind of person is that?" Li Hong asked casually.

  "The Buyeo people." The Buyeo state was located southeast of Xianbei state and was not a very large country.

  A group of people soon arrived at the gate of the large camp, and went straight to the middle tent of Murong Feng, a Xianbei elder. The white-clad person was already clearly visible. The white horse under him was extremely tall and majestic, with a broad body and round shoulders, its mane as white as snow, soft and silky. This precious horse was truly rare to see. Li Hong's gaze was immediately fixed on it. The rider wore a white silk robe, with a white cloak fluttering in the wind, looking elegant and free-spirited. On his head was a high crown made of bamboo, covered with two feet of white gauze, making his face seem mysterious and elusive.

  They watched them enter Murong Feng's large tent before withdrawing their gaze.

  "What a fine horse." Li Hong exclaimed sincerely, "It's really a precious horse."

  "The leopard has vision. That is the Western Regions' sweat-blooded precious horse. It has endless endurance and stamina, and is also suitable for long-distance galloping, even its jumping ability surpasses that of our Tianma Plains' wild horses." A guard immediately chimed in.

  "Our Xianbei heavenly horse from Tianma Yuan is also the best in this world."

  Several people immediately got into an argument.

  Today, Murong Feng is rare to be free, and he has made an appointment with Li Hong to come to the big account in the afternoon. He will make a modification of the battle of Ju Tun that he has recently organized and written. Li Hong brought his own writing and Murong You's together, preparing to let Murong Feng choose himself.

  Li Hong walked towards Murong Feng's large tent and saw the few Xianbei people who had rushed over in the morning still standing outside chatting. The man in white was not there, presumably still inside the tent. When the several Xianbei men saw him, their faces immediately showed a look of surprise, and then no one spoke again.

  Li Hong walked into the big tent and saw a person kneeling in the center of the tent, who was the white-clothed man he had seen from afar that morning. The high crown was placed on one side. Murong Feng sat on a beast skin cushion on one side of the big tent, leaning over to look at something on a huge map. It was a map made of cowhide, which Li Hong thought was very simple. However, Murong Feng treated it like a treasure.

  Murong Feng saw Li Hong walk in and hastily beckoned him to sit beside him. Li Hong quickly walked past the man, his nose suddenly catching a faint scent of fragrance. He secretly glanced sideways at the person kneeling on the ground, only to find that the person was also looking up at him. Their eyes met.

  Li Hong's heart suddenly started racing violently, and in an instant, he felt a strong sense of suffocation. He involuntarily took two quick breaths. A beautiful face with a lovely complexion was etched into his mind. As if afraid that others would notice his nervousness, he hastily walked to the back of Murong Feng's seat and sat down. Taking the opportunity to put down a stack of cowhide, he made an effort to calm himself down. Although his mind was still thinking about that lovely face with a gentle smile, he no longer felt as tense as before.

  "Xue Er, this is the leopard I was just telling you about." Murong Feng said with a gentle smile to the girl kneeling on the ground.

  "Leopard." Murong Feng shouted. Li Hong hurriedly lifted his head. Murong Feng pointed at the wind and snow, saying to him: "This is the younger daughter of Feng Lie, named Wind Snow." Li Hong followed Murong Feng's hand and looked towards Wind Snow. Just now, secretly glancing had already made Li Hong's soul fly out, now he could openly and boldly look over, immediately giving Li Hong a feeling of being dazzled. The Wind Snow opposite him was very polite, kneeling on the ground to give Li Hong a salute.

  Li Hong is now somewhat famous among the Xianbei. First, he rescued Murong Feng from the Tiger's Lair. Then, he helped Murong Feng evade pursuit and killing all along the way. At Ma Zui Slope, he even challenged and killed Ke Ye, a renowned warrior of the Xianbei. What people admire most is that he and Tie Lang, the two of them, rescued Duan Yun from over a hundred warriors of the Tiger Tribe who were pursuing him. Now that Tie Lang is dead, Murong Feng treats Li Hong like his own son, protecting him closely, and this has spread throughout the central Xianbei region.

  Li Hong hastily returned the courtesy, his face already red with embarrassment.

  "I have something to discuss with Leopard, are you going home first?"

  "No. Uncle won't agree, and I won't get up." Feng Xue said firmly.

  Murong Feng seemed to be deeply in love with her, but shook his head helplessly and said: "You know, I've already promised Empress Tuoba's request, how can I go back on my word?"

  "I don't care, I must save them all."

  Li Hong beside him immediately understood. This must be that Tuoba Kui went to Tudun to take people, and the Niutou tribe found out. Feng Lie and Quan Ju are in a wife's brother relationship. When Feng Lie's family knew about it, they naturally couldn't just stand by and do nothing.