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Although Deng Ai and Wei Jin have been speculating on Zuo Dan's true intention, the biggest possibility is to keep Deng Ai and the others as guards, it is impossible to think about it carefully. The Qiang king will not let the Han people be his guards, and the Qiang king will not allow it.

It was not until evening that Zuo Dan returned from outside the city that they roughly knew a little.

At night, Deng Ai and Wei Jin were led into the inner house by two maids. More than a dozen camp tents were laid on the grass beside a small river. The light was everywhere and dazzling. A group of soldiers patrolled around the tent. In the camp tent, dozens of beautiful and charming young women lived, and laughter like silver bells kept coming from the tent.

They were led into the largest tent. The tent was bright and magnificent. The ground was covered with thick golden silk carpets. Various gold utensils inlaid with gems looked particularly dazzling under the light. A wide table was placed in the middle of the tent, with fruits and golden cups of all sizes and large and small. Wang Zuodan sat behind the table, with a beautiful and charming woman snuggling on each side.

He was slowly cutting a plate of browned and fragrant roasted lamb legs while drinking milk wine. It was not until this time that Deng Ai saw Zuo Dan's appearance clearly. He was about twenty-four or five years old, with medium figure, fair skin, two very neatly trimmed beards on his lips, his hands were smooth and tender, and his fingers were thin and long. It was hard to imagine that this would be the king of the Qiang people.

Deng Ai and Wei Jin stepped forward and bowed to salute, "See the King"

Zuo Dan glanced at them and asked slowly, "According to the Han rituals, you should worship me, how can you stand without worshiping me?"

Deng Ai and Wei Jin looked at each other and smiled bitterly. The king was so etiquette. Helpless, the two had to kneel down and bow to him, "Worship to His Highness the King"

Zuo Dan then smiled and waved his hand, "Please sit down."

The two sat down, Zuo Dan ordered people to serve them barbecue, and asked with a smile: "I haven't asked the two names for their names."

"In Xia Wei Jin, he is the manager of the Jiang family's business. This brother is named Zhang Ai. He grew up in the Jiang family since he was a child and is currently the deputy commander of the Jiang family's guards."

"oh"

Zuo Dan was particularly interested in Deng Ai, so he bowed and smiled, "I wonder if Commander Zhang can show his skills to let me see."

Wei Jin quickly winked Deng Ai and ordered him to agree. Deng Ai lowered his head and pondered silently. Suddenly, he waved his hand and flew backwards. The speed of the knife was neither fast nor slow, and even a little stagnant. This was a typical phoenix-falling technique. His control over power was perfect. He pricked the tent curtain leather rope, and the curtain fell halfway, and the knife fell down as well.

Zuo Dan was moved. He was a person who knew the goods. It was not uncommon to stab the leather rope. He could do it with several guards, but the right way to stab the leather rope and not penetrate the tent. He had never seen this kind of control of the sword speed and power. Zuo Dan couldn't help but applaud, "Good martial arts."

Zuo Dan thought about it. Isn’t this flying sword martial arts exactly what he wants, he immediately said sincerely to Deng Ai: “Can you ask Commander Zhang to live in my mansion for a while and teach my guards.”

Deng Ai pointed at Wei Jin, "He is in charge, he will decide."

Zuo Dan smiled at Wei Jin again and said, "Can Manager Wei agree?"

Wei Jin looked a little embarrassed and said for a while: "I'm afraid I can't explain it to my master."

"There is no problem with this. I will write a letter to your master. It is best to stay with the other eight entourages. At most, I will let them go back."

Since Zuo Dan said this, Wei Jin guessed that Zuo Dan wanted to use them to do something big. He pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "If it was only half a month, it would be no big problem. I just happened to buy some goods in Lingzhou. It would take almost half a month, so I can set off together."

A sarcastic smile flashed in Zuo Dan's eyes, but he said happily: "That's what I decided, I will buy your goods at a high price."

...........

Deng Ai and eight followers stayed in Zuodan Mansion. Wei Jin brought the famous Qiang people to the city hostel. He wanted to buy goods and explore business opportunities. Of course, it was inconvenient to live in Zuodan Mansion. Zuo Dan was not interested in him and did not try to keep him. He ordered people to exchange the goods into gold for him, and arranged them to the best hostel in the city.

For several days, Wei Jin was asking about prices. He seemed to be busy purchasing goods, but in fact, he gradually understood the major events that happened in Lingzhou. The root cause was that the Han army went north, captured Xiaoguan, and defeated Wuhuan, which made the Qiang people in Lingzhou panic. The Qiang King ordered all races to start preparing for war training and prepare for a decisive battle with the Han army.

As the war is approaching, in order to ensure the continuation of the Qiang King, several tribe chiefs asked Qiang King Ah Suang to clarify his heirs, which made the throne dispute that had been in an undercurrent begin to become superficial and fierce. At present, the strength of the king Wu Sheng has an advantage, which makes Wu Sheng a thorn in the eyes of several brothers, especially Wang Zuodan, who is deeply favored by his father. He always believes that the position of Qiang King is the only one. In any case, he must seize the position of Qiang King.

Several kings recruited dead soldiers with high martial arts skills and were preparing to launch an offensive at the last moment. It was in this context that Wang Zuodan took a fancy to Deng Ai and eight entourages from the Jiang clan of Tianshui.

That evening, Wei Jin had just returned to the hostel, and the shopkeeper came up and said, "Manager Wei, someone is looking for you."

Wei Jin immediately realized that this should be Deng Ai sent someone. He walked back to the room quickly. It turned out that one of the followers, named Chen Ji, served as the military marquis in the Eagle Strike Army, and was also the leader of the eight followers. He stood up and fisted and said, "Mr. Deng has important information and I want me to tell you."

Wei Jin looked back at the outside of the house, pointed to the inside, "Go inside and say"

The two walked into the inner room and sat down. Wei Jinxian asked with a smile: "How have you lived in the royal palace these ten days?"

Chen Ji nodded, "These days are rich and well-behaved, and I sleep well every night. Zuo Dan has invested enough money, but we will go out tomorrow."

"Where are you going?" Wei Jin asked.

"We don't know where to go, but Zuo Dan talked with Mr. Deng for a long time last night. He asked us to assassinate the king Wu Sheng for him, and promised to reward us with two thousand taels of gold after the matter was completed, and escort us to leave safely."

Zuo Dan's real purpose was Wei Jin's expectation. Now that the four kings are at the most intense time, only by killing others can the rest of the people take office. Zuo Dan can easily get rid of suspicion with them, such as the foreigners, and after the assassination is successful, Zuo Dan will definitely kill them to silence them.

However, they can use Zuo Dan to complete their own tasks, which is why Wei Jin asked Deng Ai to agree to cooperate with Zuo Dan. But the key now is to know where they will go tomorrow

At this time, Chen Ji said again: "Yesterday we also received a news that the Xiongnu Shanyu Huchuquan sent an envoy to Lingzhou. To welcome him, Ah Yan wanted to hold a grand hunting trip. The time was probably the day after tomorrow. Deng Gong inferred that Zuo Dan wanted to assassinate the king Wu Sheng during the hunting. As long as the gentleman found where he was hunting the day after tomorrow, he should be able to find us."

Wei Jin was overjoyed. With this line, he could find Deng Ai and his group.

That night, Wei Jin found out from the shopkeeper of the tavern that the hunting place was located in the Black Bear Land, fifty miles north of Lingzhou City, a vast grassland and forest area.

.........

In a way, Qiang King Ah Yan was a rare talented and stubborn person in the Qiang people for decades. It took him twenty years to help the Qiang people in Heshuo not only get rid of the control of the Qiang King of Hexi.

Moreover, the Qiang people in Heshuo area, which were scattered sand, gradually united under his leadership, attached importance to farming, development of trade, mining and iron smelting, and building military armor. In just a few years, the Qiang people in Heshuo became one of the major forces in the pass area, and even the Huns dared not underestimate them.

Ah Huan's biggest wish was to establish a Qiang dynasty in Lingzhou, unite the Qiang and Di in Hexi, Longxi and Hehuang areas, and eventually become a Qiang Empire that dominated the northwest, taking advantage of the opportunity of the princes of the Central Plains to compete for hegemony and have no time to look west and accumulate power.

Ah Suan is less than fifty years old this year and is strong. A few years ago he was determined to realize his first dream and establish the Qiang Dynasty. In another ten years, when he was sixty, he finally established the Qiang Empire.

Now it is getting closer to his first dream, but before any dynasty is established, it will face internal pain, that is, disputes over the distribution of interests. Especially for tribal society like the Qiang people, the distribution of interests seems to be at risk. The four children's struggle for the throne actually represents the struggle for interests of the four tribes, which is also the root of disaster planted by Ah Suan many years ago.

He ordered the four sons to marry daughters of the four major tribes, which played a role in uniting the Qiang tribe at that time, but its side effects were also obvious. His four sons gradually became the spokespersons of the interests of the four major tribes.

This made Ah Suan very helpless. He could no longer expect his son to inherit his career and establish the Qiang Empire. He could only rely on himself to fulfill his ambitions in his lifetime.

Although Ah Huan had a grand goal, God no longer gave him time. With Liu Jing's establishment of the Han Kingdom, the northern expedition of Longxi was successful, and the continuous attack on the Qiang Di forces in Longxi caused the Qiang Di people to suffer a catastrophe. Especially the death of Nangong, the Qiang King of Hexi, made Ah Huan feel even more chilling. He felt that the dream of establishing the Qiang Empire gradually became farther away.

But at the same time, it also inspired his determination to establish the Qiang Dynasty as soon as possible. Just as he began to prepare for the establishment of the Qiang Dynasty, the most worried thing finally happened. The Han army began to attack the Hu people in Guannei, captured Xiaoguan, and soon defeated the Wuhuan army and severely defeated the Xiongnu, forcing the Xiongnu to give up the Sheyanhai and go north.

Ah Suan had realized that the next target of the Han army must be himself. Just when he was in a panic, the Xiongnu Chanyu actually sent an envoy to find him, willing to form an alliance with him and jointly deal with the Han army to the north, which surprised and happy.

If the Right King Liu Qubei sent someone to serve as an envoy, he might be a little worried that Liu Qubei would go back on his word, but the meaning of sending people to Huchuquan in the Xiongnu Shanyu was very different. With the strength and arrogance of the Xiongnu, he still wanted to serve as a mission to the Qiang people. This shows Huchuquan's emphasis on the Han army's northward journey and his unwillingness to lose the pass.

More importantly, Ah Yan discovered an opportunity. He could use the conditions for the Xiongnu to support the Qiang people in the founding of the country and promised the two countries to alliance. In order to reach an alliance between the two sides, Ah Yan decided to hold a grand hunt to entertain the distinguished guests of the Xiongnu from afar.

But Ah Yan never dreamed that his sons had reached the death to fight for the throne.
Chapter completed!