Chapter 2 one

A cold shot It was an early morning in October of the sixth year of Emperor Gaozu Wude of Tang Dynasty.An early heavy snowfall had just stopped for three consecutive days, and the sun slowly emerged from the mist, lazily shining thin sunlight on the forest behind the snow. The forest was extremely quiet, and several chipmunks were jumping between the branches, shaking the snow hanging on the branches to the ground continuously.Suddenly, a huge tiger came out from behind an old tree full of twigs, poking out hungry eyes to patrol its territory.Its colorful fur was covered with messy snowflakes, and its four huge tiger claws fell slowly and rhythmically to the soft snow, leaving two rows of fresh claw marks behind it, but it hardly made a sound.

As he walked, the tiger's eyes seemed to be attracted by something - under the bushes not far away, there was a strange shape covered in snow.The tiger stopped, looked ahead intently, and then twitched its nose a few times, as if trying to discern something from the smell in the forest.After hesitating for a while, it finally made a decision and walked over gently.Arriving in front of the foreign object, the tiger stretched out its head tentatively, but the object suddenly moved, and then turned over, and it turned out to be a man covered in snowflakes lying on the snow. The man looked at the tiger just a few feet away, and his already frozen body suddenly regained consciousness due to the great fear. He got up and stared at the tiger with round eyes.Almost at the same time, the hungry and dizzy worm had already pounced on it, its sharp front claws fell towards the man's neck with the sound of the wind.The man tried his best to take a step back, avoiding the tiger's fatal blow to his throat, but the tiger's claws savagely swept his right shoulder, revealing white cotton wool in his filthy winter coat. It was stained red by the oozing blood.

A faint smell of blood floated in the cool air in the forest, and the smell of blood obviously had an extraordinary meaning to the hungry tiger and the man who met each other on a narrow road.The hungry tiger hadn't smelled this incomparably fragrant smell for a long time, and the man who had just woken up clearly knew from the blood that he was facing the warning signal of death.The light emitted from the eyes of the man and the beast penetrated the icy air and collided powerfully together!Suddenly, the tiger soared into the air, let out a soul-stirring roar, and struck the big man with its claws and teeth.A mist-like thing rose in the sky, it was the snow dust rolled up from the ground by the tiger's claws and the steel-whip-like tiger tail when the tiger pounced forward.

The chill spread all over the big man's body. The distance was not far away. He didn't have much room to dodge and move. He could only squat down and sit on the ground, keeping his head away from the wide-open tiger's mouth, but his shoulders were There was no way to hide, and he was hit hard by the tiger's claws.Almost at the same time, the bodies of the tiger and the human collided firmly, making a muffled "bang", and then rolled to one place. At this time, a bark of dogs came from a small hill not far away accompanied by the sound of horseshoes, and they quickly moved to this place. More than a dozen strong hounds followed dozens of horses and horses and came to the front at a fast speed. They were well-dressed men with hunting equipment, and they could be seen as nobles hunting in the snow.

The leader was a handsome young man in his early twenties, riding a tall streaky horse, wearing a blue brocade arrow robe with a sable cloak outside, and a golden and jade-embellished cloak around his waist. The bow pot and quiver, and the arrogance flowing between his brows, showed that he was not an ordinary person.The handsome boy's horse hooves rushed to the back of the tiger's tail before it stopped. The horse saw such a majestic tiger lying in front of it, and it raised its neck in shock and let out a long neigh.The handsome young man reined in desperately, and after shaking his body on the horse's back for a few times, he managed to sit firmly without being thrown off.He scolded: "Look how scared you are, you are useless!" This streaky horse is a good horse from the Western Regions. It sensed the displeasure of its master, and seemed a little ashamed, snorting. After making two sudden noises, he lowered his head, calmed down, and landed his four hooves on the snow that was an arrow away from the tiger.At this time, more than a dozen hounds also ran around the tiger, barking wildly, but did not move forward, obviously fearful of the tiger.

This tiger is indeed huge, and everyone who rushed up to it all exclaimed in unison: "What a long tiger!" The handsome young man looked at the tiger and the man on the ground, as if he said to himself: "Hey, I was on the hill just now. I clearly saw the tiger jumping up into the air and pounced on this man, it is not surprising that the man died, but why is this tiger still not moving?" A lean man in brocade clothes and a noble attitude in the middle of the line nodded and said: "Well, It really makes people feel strange! Sun Da, go over and have a look, what's going on?" A tall and strong man behind the thin man replied: "Yes, Your Highness!" Then he jumped off the horse and brushed He pulled out his saber from his waist without hesitation, walked up to the tiger lying down with the man, and carefully poked the tiger's back with the knife, but the tiger didn't move at all. Go out and grab the tiger's neck, and with all your strength, turn it over.Everyone was amazed again, it turned out that a dagger had been inserted into the tiger's chest.The blade went straight into the tiger's skin, leaving only half of the rough wooden handle exposed, and the hot tiger blood was flowing into the snow along the handle.

The thin man had a look of surprise on his face: "This man must have stabbed the tiger with a knife before he died." The handsome young man praised: "This man is really unusual. Walking alone in this wilderness, he dared to fight a tiger. You can stab it to death!" Standing beside the tiger, Sun Da stretched out his hand to explore the dagger stuck in the tiger's body: "No way! Half of the handle is pierced in, what a lot of strength!" The handsome young man turned his face to the thin man behind him and said, "It's a pity, if there are a few more warriors like this in your Changlin army, brother, you will be able to sleep soundly every night!" The thin man looked down. The man on the ground, that man was covered in blood, his already tattered clothes were torn open by the tiger's claws from shoulder to chest, exposing blurred flesh and blood.However, it can still be recognized that this person has strong bones and strong muscles, and he is a big athlete at a glance.The thin man nodded and said: "You're right, it's a pity indeed, if you fight with others, I'm afraid dozens of people can't help him—"

Before the words fell, there was a sound of swift horseshoes in the wilderness.The handsome boy raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound of the horse's hooves.In the morning light, a few people wearing Tang army uniforms were galloping forward along the snow-covered post road, their horses' bellies were covered with slush.The handsome young man was thoughtful: "Who is running so desperately in such a snowy day?" The thin man's eyes caught up with the messenger's back: "Well, it's likely that he came to Beijing from Hebei to rescue soldiers. Look at how thick the mud is on the stomachs of their horses, I’m afraid they’ve been walking all night!” The handsome young man turned his head to look at the thin man: “It seems that the war in the east is urgent!” The lean man glanced at the handsome boy, and a haze flashed across his face.

This person is the current crown prince Li Jiancheng, and that handsome young man is his brother Li Yuanji.The two brothers originally planned to take advantage of the weather to have a good hunt, because anyone who likes hunting knows that after snow, it is easier to find wild animals from the traces on the ground, and it is easier to hunt big wild animals.Not wanting to go far from the city, I met a messenger who was going to Chang'an for emergency.This affected Li Jiancheng's hunting mood very much, because he knew that since Liu Heita set up a counter-insurgency in Hebei in May, the imperial court's counter-insurgency operations have not been smooth. Chang'an sent a large army to save the defeat.