Introduction

"Noble guest in the carriage, I, Su Chuo Xier, swear before the heavens of eternal life that I will not touch any of your belongings. Please come down, let us be friends!" Xier Da Aijin, unwilling to relent, invited again in the language of the Khitan people.

"Elder brother, shall we not go up to help?" Ultimately, it was the youthful disposition; Affili quickly developed a sense of sympathy for the weak and approached Sir Da Ejin to offer a suggestion

In just two rounds of fierce combat, all the bandits were completely defeated. The herdsmen of the Su Chuo tribe cheered as they dismounted from their mounts, stripping the dead of their clothing while smearing the blood flowing from their fallen foes onto their own faces. The blood of the vanquished is a gift of honor bestowed upon them by the Eternal Sky; applying it to their faces ensures that they will remain strong forever

The guards of the carriage are all dead, and the hunters are all dead. The solitary carriage lies among a group of bloodthirsty men, resembling a lost lamb.

The warriors of the Su Chuo tribe, holding the banner of the white swan, halted their advance, while the impostors posing as Khitan grew increasingly bold. The language they shouted was not the Khitan tongue that the Su Chuo warriors could understand, but rather another rhythmic language. Relying on their numerical superiority, they approached the surrounded carts several times, yet were repeatedly repelled by the opponents struggling for survival beside the carts.

"They are not Khitan people!" repeated the young man, who was about the same age, tightly gripping the reins of the warhorse under his hips.

"Gabler, how do you know they are not Khitan dog thieves!" The leader of the Su Chuo tribe could no longer incite his companions to attack together, his anger causing the veins on his forehead to bulge. He was only sixteen this year, the age when one's blood and energy are at their peak. He did not dare to challenge the authority of Da E Jin, yet he would not regard the warriors of other tribes with any respect.

Brothers, follow me! The youth known as Affiliation turned his horse's head and charged to the front of the line. However, the warhorse beneath him was soon restrained by another rider who had caught up, forcing the rest to halt their mounts. The great chieftain Aijin Xier strode forward, raising a battle flag adorned with several white swans high into the sky

One, two, three, the guards beside the carriage fell one after another. The fake Khitan slowly approached their target. The Khitan were the second largest force on the grasslands, just after the Turks. The invaders were unaware that their disguise had been seen through, naively believing that the group of brown-clad herders waving the swan banner would not dare to stir up trouble. Just as they had felled the last guard and were about to charge at the carriage, a series of sharp whistles suddenly echoed through the air.

A rustling sound emerged from the carriage, yet the door did not open on its own. Su Chuo Xier, as expected of a leader, quickly and fluently recited the greetings exchanged between the Xiren and the Shiwiren, but the other party ignored him completely, as if deaf.

"Go, let’s fight them to the end!" The tribe's warriors, their eyes bloodshot with hunger, raised their weapons and shouted to the sky. The old and weak in the tribe were eagerly waiting for food; they could not show weakness to the invaders. Even if killing these people would bring disaster to the entire tribe, they had to draw their knives to defend their right to survive

Xier, Xier Da E Jin, the Khitan people, the Khitan have entered! The scouts ahead, racing back, shouted at the top of their lungs.

Let us wait a little longer! The person inside the carriage is very important; saving him could potentially bring us a lot of cheese and jerky. But we cannot go now; they still have a chance to break through. We must act at the most critical moment to gain more gratitude!" Xier shook his head, his light blue pupils instantly constricting, as if a flash of lightning surged within them

It was the sound of arrows! The counterfeit Khitan bandit leader immediately reacted, quickly bending down to evade. However, his subordinates did not have time to respond, as the herdsmen of the Su Chuo tribe were well-prepared, and the first round of volleys brought down more than half of the bandits from their horses. Before the bandit leader could recover from his shock, hundreds of Su Chuo herdsmen had already charged forward with curved knives, like the wind.

"Brothers, do not be anxious; they are not Khitan!" After stopping the impulsive clansmen, Xier Da'e raised the white swan banner with one arm and solemnly reminded them.

"Get lost, what nonsense are you talking about? The Khitan are suffering even more than we are. How could they have the strength to come to our doorstep?" From the crowd, a burly man, adorned with a gold-trimmed fur coat, stepped forward and questioned the panting scout. He was the chief of the tribe, referred to in the frontier language as 'Ejin,' meaning the head of the family. However, this role was far from easy; in recent years, the tribe's population had been declining year after year, and their grazing territory was becoming increasingly limited. If, at this critical moment of disaster relief, the Khitan were to take advantage of the situation and raid them, the Suche tribe could vanish from the steppe forever.

In the winter of the year 588 AD, the Sui Empire mobilized an army of 510,000 troops, commencing a grand campaign for unification. In the following year, during the first month, nine armies crossed the Yangtze River. At that moment, the entire southern region was in turmoil, with the landscape painted in red.

"Stop talking nonsense, they may not be Khitan!" The tribal leader, Xier Da'e Jin, interrupted the young man's complaints with a scolding voice. The uninvited guests arrived swiftly, and he also noticed the battle flag towering above the visitors' heads. With a red background, it bore a large dark blue wolf's head. This was indeed the emblem of the Khitan people, located five hundred miles away from his tribe. In terms of strength, any Khitan tribe was far more powerful than Xier's own tribe. The sudden appearance of the Khitan after the great disaster, even if there were only about fifty of them, signified that Xier's tribe was on the brink of utter destruction.

What a beautiful woman she was, and Xier found himself unable to find a suitable word to describe her, despite knowing the languages of several tribes. The shepherds believed they had seen the most beautiful wildflowers on the grasslands, yet they could not compare any flower to her. This was not a beauty that belonged to the grasslands; the gaze she bore, filled with both a hint of fear and a hint of hope, was etched into everyone's pupils, never to be erased.

They are not Khitan! The warriors of the Gabule tribe were not the least bit angry and repeated once more, "Brother Affili, look at their hair. Have you ever seen a Khitan with a full head of hair?"

Xier Da'e Jin did not join in the revelry of the victors; his heart was occupied by curiosity. The carriage before him was exquisite, far surpassing anything he had ever seen in his life. Who could be the owner of such a carriage? Was it a chieftain from a great tribe or a member of a wealthy khan's family? If he could establish a connection with them, would the Su Chuo tribe have the opportunity to secure a powerful ally and thus survive this famine?

They are not Khitan people; the men of the Khitan tribe would not cherish their hair so much. This group of invaders, flying the banner of the Khitan Blue Wolf, is pursuing a horse-drawn carriage, and the guards beside the carriage have clearly noticed that their path is blocked by the warriors of the Su Chuo tribe, forcing them to halt their escape and engage in a desperate battle

He was somewhat annoyed. The Su Chuo tribe is warm and hospitable, but that does not mean they can be casually disrespected. He reached out and forcefully pulled open the car door, but in an instant, he froze like a withered tree.

That is the battle flag of their tribe, the Su Chuo clan of the Xi ethnic group. The white swans flying in formation symbolize dignity and order. Everyone must obey the commands of the flag bearer, for he is the chosen leader of the swans by the Eternal Sky, possessing the authority to determine the flight direction of all swans

The other person's eyes were black, unlike the brown of the Turks, nor the blue of his own. It was a profound black, akin to the spring water in Crescent Lake under the night sky. Xier felt as if he were enveloped in the lake's water, not wanting to escape, nor to swim, but only wishing to immerse himself in it, intoxicated and unaware.

In the year , the Sui dynasty extinguished the Southern Chen and unified the Central Plains

His voice was not loud, yet it could be heard by everyone. The crowd focused their attention again and indeed noticed that the attire of the Khitan people ahead was somewhat peculiar. It is well known across the grasslands that all Khitan people prefer to shave the hair on the top of their heads, leaving only a small braid on each side of their ears and at the back of their heads. However, many of the invaders had their helmets knocked off, revealing instead a head full of thick, black long hair

After a winter of hunger, the wild deer are thin, and their meat is tough and hard. However, having meat to eat is certainly better than starving to death. Therefore, from the tribal leaders to the young boys who have just learned to ride and shoot, all the men of the tribe take up their weapons and hustle back and forth in the chilly wilderness of spring. Some tribes are fortunate enough to intercept an entire herd of migrating wild deer. Others, however, are less fortunate, having consumed all the cheese they carried with them, yet finding not even a single deer hair. On this day, over three hundred hunters clad in brown leather are desperately searching by the crescent lake when suddenly, someone spots a strange sight in the distant horizon.

Right there, directly south of Crescent Moon Lake. Look, look at their green wolf battle flag!" The boy, known as Affiliation, cursed angrily while panting. "I said, why can't we catch any deer? Those damned Khitans have barged in and taken all the game!

Meanwhile, the regions beyond the Great Wall, which had been embroiled in continuous warfare for years, suddenly fell silent. A heavy snowfall just before the onset of spring resulted in the death of more than half of the livestock left by various tribes to winter. In order to ensure the continuation of their bloodlines, the various ethnic groups in the borderlands had no choice but to temporarily set aside their mutual animosities and focus all their efforts on a large-scale spring hunt

Ah—! A sound akin to heavenly music instantly reached the ears of everyone present. The shepherds turned their heads in response, each one struck as if by lightning.

"Noble guests in the carriage, the robbers have all been eliminated by us! By the grace of the Eternal Sky, the Su Chuo tribe will ensure the safety of all noble guests who enter her territory!" He dismounted from his steed and approached slowly, inquiring respectfully in the most commonly used Turkic language on the grasslands in recent years. However, he received no response.