Chapter 137 Comeback
Bohai Sea.

Mohe tribe, Tieli Prefecture, Haizhou.

In late October, the Far East of the Central Plains was already covered with snow, and the desolate land was covered in white. Looking around, it seemed that there was no smoke from cooking for a hundred miles, let alone human figures. When boots stepped on the shallow snow, they would clearly leave a footprint.

On a gentle slope, a big man with snowflakes all over his head squinted his eyes and stroked his messy beard with his left hand. His cheeks with prominent cheekbones were full of grooves left by frost, making his face look dark and rough.

He had a skinny horse, but it had been slaughtered for meat and replaced with a slightly sturdier mount. He was riding on the horse, holding the reins in his right hand, looking to the north on the slightly raised slope.

If you look closely, you can see that three fingers on his right hand are broken, the index finger is broken at the root, and the middle finger and ring finger still have different halves left, but half of the palm has been wrapped in a slightly stained cloth, so it is not very visible. But now he still uses his left hand more often to do actions such as stroking his beard that need to be shown to others.

An attendant wearing a dirty old cloth jacket climbed up the gentle slope and shouted, "Your Majesty, the visitors from the north may not come so early. Let's eat some meat first."

"Is there any more wine?" Yelu Abaoji turned his mount and headed down the gentle slope.

The attendant shook his head, then nodded and said, "We have already finished the ones we brought with us, but these bastards have two pots of wine hanging on their bodies, but they are too hard to drink."

The "bastards" he was talking about were the Mobei people who had blocked their way earlier. There were five of them in total, obviously a small team. Three of them were dead, with their bodies lying crookedly not far away. The remaining two were tied up, huddled in fear beside the fire, together with a pile of debris.

The attendant cursed and threatened the two men, while picking up a dirty water bag from the sundries, and said, "This thing tastes like horse urine when you drink it, it might prick your throat, my king."

Yelu Abaoji shook his head and said, "Let it cook to warm you up."

There was a follower roasting horse legs next to the fire, and another follower was dealing with the horse's body next to the carcass.

After hearing his order, the attendant holding the water bag said nothing more and went to make liquor.

Yelu Abaoji stroked the mane of his new mount and looked at the dismembered horse in silence for a long time, then shook his head.

The new mount belonged to the five Mobei people. The five of them only had three horses, none of which were very strong, so the strongest one was chosen for him to ride. However, they had a lot of horse feed and dry food on them, which saved a lot of trouble.

Those three people did not need to die. This group of people from the northern desert had previously stopped Abaoji and his four companions in the small town of Haizhou. They should have been fine if they had paid money. Abaoji's face was so thin that it was unrecognizable and his beard was messy, so there should have been no conflict.

Unfortunately, the captain of this tribe took a fancy to his excellent hunting bow, and several of them followed him all the way, but they failed to seize the bow and instead lost their lives.

"Which one are you guys from?"

Yelu Abaoji took the horse meat handed to him by an attendant, sat on the ground with a calm look, and still watched the snowflakes fluttering on the meat, but he just ate it with big mouthfuls.

"We are tribesmen under the jurisdiction of Yu Yue. We used to graze near the king's tent..." said a captive tremblingly.

"You bastards, are you worthy of grazing near the king's tent? Being able to sit near the king's tent and graze is a gift from the king!" An attendant, his mouth full of grease, cursed, "You bastards, you chased the king all the way to Bohai, is this your way of repaying the king's kindness?"

The two captives looked at each other, and then one of them whispered: "We really didn't know that it was the king in person, how could the king call him 'Liu Yi'..."

The attendant sneered, too lazy to speak to teach them a lesson, and turned to look at Yelu Abaoji: "Your Majesty, it seems that the rumors are true. That old bastard Yelu Xiadi really lost to that bastard Lage. Otherwise, they would not have been exiled to Bohai."

His tone was rough and he was extremely angry.

Yelu Abaoji chewed the horse meat carefully and didn't say anything for a long time. He didn't care that the attendant kept calling him "bastard" and "dog". Abaoji was also from the Yelu family, so this scolding almost took him in with him. However, the attendant was also angry, so it was understandable.

He was silent for a moment, then asked the two captives, "Did my uncle really lose?"

When the two captives saw that he was really the king, they felt relieved and then rushed to speak.

"That's true. According to what the higher-ups said, they wanted to make Xiadi Yu Yue the King of Mobei. But then, for some reason, the day before Yu Yue became the king, Lagetin suddenly took action, and several tribes responded. Yu Yue was defeated, and more than a thousand of his guards were killed. He was captured in the royal court..."

The two of them talked more and more relaxed, saying: "Everyone said that it was the Jin people from the Central Plains who helped Lagertiyin, so he could become the king. As for Yu Yue, some said he was dead, some said he was imprisoned, and some said his wife and children were awarded to that Jin person... Yu Yue lost power, so our tribe naturally couldn't stay in the king's tent, and was driven by Tiyin to Bohai to graze nearby, right next to Buyeo Prefecture. Not only us, but many small tribes were also driven here...

"But not long after we arrived here, the royal court sent us a royal decree, saying that each of our tribes must conscript men to go to Bohai to look for you, the king..."

The two talked for a long time, and they were tied up, so their mouths were dry. At the end, they added: "I heard that it was you, the king, who killed 20,000 good men in the south. You didn't dare to return to the grassland, so you fled to Bohai. The royal court sent out a large army to look for you, but we didn't see it."

The three followers looked at each other and just looked at Abaoji cautiously.

Yelu Abaoji's face turned pale and he said nothing.

The two captives then realized that they had said too much and looked a little uneasy.

After a long while, Yelu Abaoji asked coldly, "How did the royal court know that I was in Bohai?"

"We don't know either. Anyway, that's what the royal court ordered..."

A Baoji narrowed his eyes and thought for a while, then asked, "Bohai and Mobei have never been on good terms. How can you enter Bohai to look for me?"

"Don't you know, Your Majesty..." A prisoner asked subconsciously, but was immediately touched by another person, so he stopped with a pale face and dared not speak again.

One of the followers was furious and pulled out the long sword hanging on the horse's back, "Damn it, why don't you tell me!"

The two captives trembled for a moment before whispering, "There is a rumor that Lagetin wants to send the two princes to Bohai as hostages... and also that he wants to marry Aogu to the King of Bohai as his concubine..."

The three followers all changed their expressions and looked at Yelu Abaoji in panic.

A Baoji's face was grim. "Is this true or false?"

"We don't know either, but everyone says so..."

"Yelü Lage is a bastard, a beast among beasts." Several followers cursed loudly, while observing Abaoji's expression, fearing that their king would pass out in anger.

But Abaoji was obviously still able to cheer up. He threw away the horse meat and said coldly: "Where is the queen? With the queen here, how can she let Yelu Lage fulfill his wish? Aogu is the great shaman, in charge of the priests of the entire Mobei, who dares to touch her?"

The two captives looked at each other again: "Didn't the queen go south with the king?"

"Is this really true?!" Abaoji was stunned and stood up suddenly.

"And Aogu also went south. Everyone said that they were trapped in the Central Plains just like the king..."

"..."

The followers also had a headache and were completely confused.

What is going on? In order to avoid the pursuers, I went into the deep mountains and forests. Why does it feel like a lifetime ago? Yelu Abaoji's face turned pale and blue. This was not what he thought. According to his plan, Shuliduo should be in charge of Mobei. Even if his brothers and uncles joined forces to gain power temporarily, the queen was still there. At least there was a team on the grassland. After returning, there would be room for negotiation.

At worst, he could move his tribe far away, lie dormant for a while, and wait for the right time. After all, as long as he returned to the grassland, Yelu Lage would not be able to kill him in front of the tribe.

Now it seems that things are even worse than he imagined!
Yelu Abaoji was speechless for a moment, pacing back and forth, feeling a little confused.

Only then did he understand why Yelu Lage had the confidence to mobilize troops to enter Bohai to hunt him down. In the previous two months, there were also pursuers from Hebei and searchers from the grasslands coming south, and he suffered a lot.

He originally thought that as long as he could return to the grassland and get back into the sight of his ministers, there would be a chance for a turnaround. Now it seems that this was just wishful thinking.

"It's impossible that there is no news about the queen." Yelu Abaoji paused, stared at the two captives with his tiger eyes, and asked in a deep voice: "How is she?"

"We really don't know..." the two prisoners replied.

The attendant holding the knife was furious: "Speak or not!"

Yelu Abaoji waved his hand and said, "It's not easy for the two tribesmen to know this. I'm afraid that the previous information was just hearsay. There's no need to embarrass them anymore."

The two captives were so grateful that if they hadn't been tied up, they would probably have knelt down to express their gratitude.

queen……

Abaoji pulled his beard with his left hand, his face becoming more and more ugly. He knew very well that Shuliduo must have come south to help him. At that time, he was defeated in Yuyang and his news was completely cut off. The pursuers from Hebei were still following him, and he was seriously injured at that time. How could he have time to collect this information?

He walked to the fire, picked up the water bag hanging beside him, and took a big gulp. It didn't taste bad at all, and then he said in a deep voice, "Where is Xiao Dilu?"

An attendant hurriedly took out a rough map from the pile of miscellaneous items and pointed to the direction on it. "According to the previous plan, General Xiao is leading 400 troops and should be close to the territory of Goryeo..."

"Where is Yelu Helu?"

"General Helu is leading 300 men and should still be in Buyeo Prefecture... Although many of the royal court's pursuers have been led to Goryeo, most of them are still heading towards him. I cannot guarantee that."

Yelu Abaoji paced back and forth. There were only a few hundred remnants of his troops. In fact, there were thousands of them at that time. The Hebei army chased them too closely, and many of them got separated. Later, they fought with the Hebei army in Liaodong and suffered a lot of losses.

After that, they entered Bohai. Although they escaped the pursuit of the Hebei army, the troops of Yelu Lage seemed to have discussed it and followed them immediately. They also had to avoid the people of Bohai. They fled all the way with no baggage or reinforcements. I don't know how many people were separated due to casualties.

As for Xiao Dilu and Yelu Helu, the former was his cousin and Shuliduo's younger brother, a master of the first rank and a brave general who entered Goryeo to attract the attention of the pursuers. The latter was his cousin, a talented commander, and was now ambushing in Bohai.

Without these two people, he would not have been able to escape from the siege.

"Forget it, we can only let them continue to persist." Yelu Abaoji sighed and drank the wine in one gulp as if to vent his anger.

Over there, the two captives asked cautiously: "My king, can you let us go? In our hearts, we only recognize you, my king. We hate Lagetin for becoming the King of Mobei..."

Abaoji did not respond, but just narrowed his eyes.

If his uncle Yelu Xiadi had succeeded, these two tribesmen would not have come here but continued to stay near the royal tent. They would probably have hoped for his death. However, the winner is the king and the loser is the bandit, so they would naturally hate Yelu Lage.

An attendant approached and whispered, "Your Majesty, don't dare to let him go..."

It was no wonder that the attendant reminded him, because Abaoji had always been very tolerant towards the Mobei people, especially after being advised by some Han advisers, and he could even be said to be soft-hearted. This was also the reason why the two captives were relieved after confirming Abaoji's identity.

As the King of Mobei, he was very famous on the grassland. Among the ordinary people, he was also known for his benevolence, which was not possessed by any previous Khan, and he was still very popular among the people.

It's just that the nobles of various tribes have conflicts with him.

"killed."

Before the attendant could finish speaking, Abaoji said coldly: "Keep it, we don't have that much food."

The attendant was stunned.

But he didn't say anything more, and immediately drew his sword. Two unbelievable screams immediately rang out in the wilderness.

Yelu Abaoji stroked his severed finger with a cold expression.

After killing five Mobei people, the followers did not react at all. They just dragged the bodies far away. Then, seeing that the wind and snow were getting stronger, they began to look for wood, dig holes and set up stakes, and then built a simple shelter on the flat ground.

Abaoji didn't say anything, and his three followers also remained silent, idly wiping their swords, adjusting the captured bows and arrows, and waiting quietly.

Until the sky and the earth were completely white, and it was impossible to tell which side was the sky and which side was the earth, and even more impossible to tell how much time had passed, then a follower suddenly rushed down the gentle slope.

"coming!"

Yelu Abaoji's eyes flashed, and he urged his horse up the gentle slope.

In the sight, there were several shadows coming from the north in the wind and snow.

It was too far away to tell how many people there were, but there weren't many, probably about the same number as them, maybe four or five riders.

When I got closer, I could see their appearance clearly.

Five strong men, short and stocky, with bow legs, wearing very old cotton jackets that didn't fit them well, without armor, looking very poor. They all wore felt hats with snow on the tops, looking a bit dusty.

These people had dark and yellow skin, and looked dull, but they also gave off the illusion of being strong and brave. They were also good riders. Before their mounts stopped, the first person had already jumped off and shouted in a Mobei language, "Sir, are you the Great Khan of Mobei?"

His accent was strange, like he was from far away.

Yelu Abaoji stroked his beard to make himself look more majestic.

"This king is."

After hearing this, the man took off his felt hat. Under the hat, his shaved scalp was exposed. Looking down, one could see his entire head, except for two or three coin-sized patches of hair at the back of his head. The long hair behind the hair was braided into a small braid and hung down.

It looks like wisps of rat tail.

"The Jurchen Wanyan tribe respectfully welcomes the Great Khan."

(End of this chapter)