Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 277 Surviving the Disaster
When we arrived at the camp, we saw that everyone here was Zhu Shenzui's men, because his new army was stationed here.

Outside one of the ordinary yurts, a team of new soldiers was guarding outside. Zhu Shenzhui and Wang Hai strode over, and the team leader Li You hurried forward to salute.

"Is there anyone inside?"

"Sixth Master, it's inside."

Nodding and motioning Li You to continue, Zhu Shenzhui walked forward, lifted the curtain and entered the yurt, and Wang Hai followed him in. But after entering the yurt, Wang Hai stopped, sat down on the spot and guarded the door, blocking the exit tightly.

The light in the yurt was a little dim, and the view from the outside was a little unclear for a while. After waiting for a while, the view inside gradually became clear.

This is a very ordinary yurt, no different from the yurts of herdsmen. A man with a big beard, messy hair and beard, and ragged clothes is sitting cross-legged. When he heard the noise and looked up, he grinned when he saw Zhu Shenzhui and shouted "Brother" in a hoarse voice.

Is this Burigude? If Wang Hai hadn't brought him here, and Zhu Shenzhu knew who the person in the yurt was before he came, Zhu Shenzhu would have almost failed to recognize him.

In Zhu Shenzhui's impression, Burigude has always been that strong, heroic and straightforward Mongolian man, but now Burigude has become too thin and no longer looks as strong as before. His clothes are torn and there are wounds all over his body. Some of the wounds are scabbed, and some are oozing blood. There is an unpleasant smell all over his body.

Burigude looked not much better than a beggar. No wonder Wang Hai said earlier that the people patrolling the periphery almost didn't recognize him when they met him.

"Brother?" Zhu Shenzhu asked tentatively. Burigude forced a smile and continued in a hoarse voice: "It's me, my brother. I'm back..."

"Your voice?" After careful identification, Zhu Shenzhui finally confirmed that the person in front of him was indeed Burigude.

"If you don't have a sip of water in the desert for several days, your throat will become the same as mine..." Burigude said with a wry smile, then glanced at Wang Hai who was guarding the door and asked, "Is there anything to eat? Can you give me some food? It would be even better if there is wine."

Zhu Shenzhu frowned. He was surprised by Burigude's embarrassment, but what surprised him even more was Burigude's state. He thought about it and turned back to tell Wang Hai to hurry up and get some food. Don't bring wine or meat for the time being, just some broth and wheat cakes, and also bring some sore medicine and clean clothes.

Wang Hai nodded and went out. After Wang Hai left, Burigude glanced at his back and said with a smile: "This boy is a good servant. You didn't misjudge him back then."

"Wang Hai is indeed good, but he is no longer a slave. Although he still calls me master, he has been a free man since the day I took him away."

Burigude nodded, as if to acknowledge what Zhu Shenzhu said, and at the same time, his eyes showed envy. It was Burigude who helped Wang Hai to follow Zhu Shenzhu. Otherwise, Burigude would have sent Wang Hai, who was still a slave at the time, to serve Zhu Shenzhu, and the subsequent events would not have happened. But Burigude never expected that an inconspicuous young slave would have changed so much over the years. Wang Hai is no longer the same as when he was a slave. With the increase of age and the knowledge he learned from following Zhu Shenzhu, Wang Hai not only completely got rid of his slave status, but also became a centurion of the tribe, a nobleman that many herdsmen envied.

In addition, there is Wang Hai's loyalty to Zhu Shenzhui. Burigude could see that Wang Hai was on guard against him, and he believed that as long as Zhu Shenzhui gave Wang Hai a look, Wang Hai would do something without hesitation.

After a while, Wang Hai brought the things over.

According to Zhu Shenzui's instructions, Wang Hai took meat soup and wheat cakes, as well as a set of ordinary herdsmen's clothes including sore medicine and clean cloth strips for bandaging.

After the food arrived, Zhu Shenzhui told Burigude that it was not that he would not be allowed to eat meat and wine, but that Burigude was too weak now and meat and wine were not suitable for him. He should drink some meat soup and eat some wheat cakes first to nourish his stomach, and then eat other things after he recovered, otherwise his body would not be able to bear it.

Listening to Zhu Shenzhui's explanation, Burigude smiled and nodded, and then he didn't hesitate to eat and drink on the ground. He broke the wheat cake and put it in the broth, soaked it and ate it one bite at a time. Burigude looked very hungry. Although he tried his best to restrain himself and eat as slowly as possible, he was still very fast. In a blink of an eye, he ate a large bowl of broth and three wheat cakes.

After wiping his mouth, Burigude hesitated, as if he wanted more, but he didn't say it in the end. Then he cleaned the wound with the help of Zhu Shenzhui and reapplied medicine. While cleaning the wound, Zhu Shenzhui found that Burigude had a lot of wounds, more than 30 in total, large and small. Some of them looked very scary. Fortunately, they didn't go deeper, otherwise he would definitely not survive. After cleaning and rebandaging, and changing into clean clothes, Burigude looked much better than before. He used his hands to tidy up his messy long hair and tied it up with a cloth strip. Although he didn't have time to take care of his beard for the time being, this finally made him look a bit like before.

"Why are you injured so much? What exactly happened?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Burigude sighed and shook his head, saying, "I crawled out of a pile of dead bodies. If I hadn't been lucky, I wouldn't have been able to come back..."

As Burigude told his story, Zhu Shenzhu finally understood what he had experienced. Burigude followed Hadan Bater and Lin Danhan to the northern desert. Zhu Shenzhu had already known about the battles that took place before and after. It was nothing more than Lin Danhan's intention to defeat the various tribes in the northern desert. However, because the various tribes in the northern desert had been dealing with Lin Danhan relying on the terrain, Lin Danhan could not find an opportunity for a decisive battle.

As time went by, winter began to come. Lindan Khan, who was hoping for a lucky break, did not withdraw his troops decisively. Instead, he delayed in the northern desert for some time. By the time he had to withdraw, the best time had passed. At this time, Lindan Khan had felt the threat of the northern desert tribes intending to counterattack when he withdrew. In order to ensure the strength of his own troops, Lindan Khan decided to let Hadan Bater lead the troops to cover the retreat, thus putting Hadan Bater and Burigude in danger.

In order to cover the retreat of Ligdan Khan's main force, Hadan Bater led 2,000 elite cavalrymen to fight against the various tribes in Mobei. After several battles, the losses were huge. When Ligdan Khan's main force withdrew from Mobei, Hadan Bater's rearguard troops had lost the possibility of breaking out. At this time, the various tribes in Mobei had surrounded them. Faced with such a situation, Hadan Bater considered it and decided to break out instead of surrendering.

The last battle was extremely brutal. Hadanbaatar's troops were eventually wiped out despite outnumbering the enemy by several times their number. Hadanbaatar died in the battle, and Burigude was not much better off. He was seriously injured on the battlefield and fainted. When he woke up, the war was over.

Perhaps because he was unconscious, the Mongols in Mobei mistook him for a dead man, so they just slashed him twice and ignored him when they saw he was motionless.

When Burigude woke up, he was surrounded by the corpses of his compatriots who had died in the battle. He stood up shakily and looked around. He was the only living person in the vast desert.

Burigude, who escaped death, simply bandaged himself, searched for some useful things among the bodies of his compatriots, cut off a leg of a dead war horse and took it as dry food, and headed south alone.

In the following months, Burigude suffered a lot. He had no warhorse and no supplies. In addition, he was injured. How could he walk out of the desert alone? But even so, Burigude finally walked out of the desert and returned to the south of the desert after escaping death.

After arriving in the south of the desert, in order to avoid trouble, Burigude traveled towards the tribe by hiding during the day and traveling at night. After many hardships, he finally returned to the tribe. When he saw the familiar tribe, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking back to the hardships he had endured along the way, Burigude was filled with emotion.

"This is Hadanbaatar's relic. I can't bring back his body, so I can only bring this..." Burigude raised his hand to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes, took out something and placed it in front of Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhu Shenzhui looked at it and reached out to pick it up. It was a necklace with a wolf tooth as the pendant. He recognized it as the one Hadanbaatar was wearing. The Mongols claimed to be the descendants of the gray wolf, and wolf teeth also represented warriors. As the heir of the tribe, Hadanbaatar was a warrior of the tribe, and this necklace was his most precious thing. He didn't expect to see it again today.

Touching the necklace, Zhu Shenzui sighed and the smile of Hadanbaatar emerged in his mind. He felt very uncomfortable that his old friend was gone.

"Now that I can return to the tribe and bring it back, I don't have to worry about it anymore." Burigude seemed a little relieved. He smiled and said, "On the way back, I passed by several small tribes and heard some rumors from them. I didn't expect so many things to happen on the grassland during the days I was away from the tribe."

Zhu Shenzhui did not say anything, but listened quietly to Burigude continue speaking.

Burigude said: "We didn't see through the poisonous snake that was Galiba before, and we didn't expect that the idiot Xurigan would believe his words so easily. Xurigan's death was not unjust. If he didn't die, I would risk my life to make him go to hell!"

"Thank you, brother. If you hadn't helped, the tribe would have been gone long ago. Tengger is the right person to succeed Taiji, and it's only natural for Tana to be his mother and Alia. With your help, the tribe will continue to exist. I think Hadanbaatar would be relieved if he knew this in heaven."

As he spoke, Burigude smiled happily. There was no falseness in his smile and it was obvious that it came from the heart.

(End of this chapter)