Three years later.

The spring of 1747.

A group of men and horses are racing wildly on the desert grassland.

I saw that these people and horses were dressed in similar clothes. They all wore tall hats, thick linen coats, and carried sabers. They all had haggard and anxious faces, and their clothes were shabby, and they were all whipping the horses desperately.

The horses were also very thin, and most of them had foam at the corners of their mouths. Such use of horses was unheard of in the North Caucasus.

Obviously, they are running for their lives, and there are soldiers chasing them.

Not long after, these people suddenly stopped.

The leader is a young man in his twenties, with a typical Caucasian appearance. Unlike adult men here who generally like to grow beards, he only retains a short beard on his upper lip.

"Truchin!"

When he said this word, the rest of the people also looked at the place in front of them and said this word one after another.

Including young people, their eyes are full of hope and fear.

There is a hint of sadness in the young man's eyes.

The so-called Truqin was originally a name given to the exiles by the Turghut people. However, with the arrival of a group of exiled Mongols three years ago, it became this place located south of the Manech lowland.

The name of the land north of the La River and west of the Caspian Sea, crisscrossed by desert steppes and swamps.

In the past three years, the stories about Truqin that have been circulating in the North Caucasus are chilling.

Some people say that this is a forbidden area, and the people inside are not tolerated by the world. They are pagans, bandits, criminals, and evil people. Together they become Satan in the Bible and Ibrahim in Islam.

Paxun in Buddhism and Ravana in Hinduism.

Some people say that it is easy to get in but difficult to get out. Anyone who has been to Truqin has almost never come out.

Others say that the owners here are the Turghuts, who dominate everything. Others reluctantly entered and became their slaves. They were only given a small amount of food every day, but they had to work until they died.

If you are a slave and your whole family is a slave, you will be able to stand up in the next life.

But there are also very few people who have been to Truqin who say that this place is a paradise. The Turgut people work hard to maintain order, allowing everyone to perform their duties, settle in their places, fulfill their responsibilities, and find their place.

Others will naturally say that these people are fools, liars, and accomplices who have been blinded by the devil, so they are all killed without exception.

However, in the North Caucasus in the 18th century, due to the repeated struggles between the three major forces of Tsarist Russia, Ottoman, and Persia, frequent wars resulted in a significant reduction in the population, although on the surface it was only divided into four groups: Kubans, Chechens, Cossacks, and Mongols.

There are large tribes, but there are also many small tribes with their own unique languages.

Differences in beliefs, tribes, languages, and traditions have always caused gaps between them. Coupled with the instigation and differentiation of the three major forces, the hostility and disputes between the various tribes have never stopped. Once one tribe gains the upper hand, it will be another tribe.

When rushing into the mountains or taking refuge in swamps.

This situation did not come to an end until Tsarist Russia completely took over this place.

Therefore, they are also facing death all the time.

Compared with the devil, death that is close at hand is naturally more terrifying, and this cannot be reversed by any faith.

If the faith were firm, there would not be a certain tribe that continues to exist today.

This is Diraya's current mood.

Not far ahead is the Kula River. It is early in the morning, and a large thick fog is lingering above the river, making the place north of the river even more mysterious.

But after crossing the Kura River, there is Truchen!

"Rumble..."

While hesitating, there was a loud sound of horse hooves coming from behind!

Seeing this, Diraya sighed, patted the skinny horse that was on the verge of exhaustion, then whipped it hard and ran towards the Kura River.

After a while, they arrived at the Kula River. After arriving here, the thick fog that had just shrouded the river seemed to have become thinner, and the scenery on the other side was vaguely visible.

The river is about one mile wide. Although it was known early on that the water in the middle and lower reaches of the Kura River is not deep, since it is the two originator of the swamp (the other is the Manech Lowland), long-term silt is inevitable.

But the rumble of horse hooves behind became increasingly clear. If we hesitated any longer, the last tribe of Nestorian believers in the entire Caucasus would be completely extinct.

Diraya rode his horse and ran along the river bank. When he saw a gentle slope, he rushed down without hesitation.

He understood that as long as there is a gentle slope, it must be a place where humans, cattle and horses usually come and go. What's more, he just found a sandbar and aquatic plants above the water in the middle of the river, which shows that the river here is definitely not deep.

However, the reality is cruel. Just like the terrible stories spread by Truchin, everything cannot be viewed with common sense.

The sandbar was right in the middle of the river. When they rode their horses into the river, they were secretly happy at first because the river was still at least a foot away from the horses' bellies. However, as soon as they got close to the sandbar, both the man and the horse fell into it!

Shazhou is both a striking reference and a terrifying bait!

When they looked again, they saw that the long roots of the aquatic plants were all connected to the sandbank. They did not notice this because of the distance just now, but thought that because the river was too shallow, the aquatic plants grew in the cracks in the rocks above the water.

.

At this time, they were at least fifty meters away from the sandbank, and everyone was trapped in the mud and couldn't move!

"Hahaha..."

There was a burst of laughter from behind, and then there was a burst of musketry!

"It is indeed a truqin"

Diraya is desperate.

If he can still survive, after this incident, this Mongolian word Truchen will soon enter the Circassian language and become a new word for the Circassians to express the devil.

Fortunately, they were about 200 meters away from the shore at this time. All the Chechens had in their hands was the most common matchlock gun, or the matchlock gun they made for hunting. This kind of musket wants to hit a target two hundred meters away.

The goal is not easy.

However, they are all stuck here now. If they don't find a way as soon as possible, they will eventually die.

The Chechens are not stupid either. They saw with their own eyes that the Circassians suddenly stopped when they reached the sandbank. These people obviously did not change their minds, but fell into the mud!

So, they only had to ride their horses into the river, and they could easily kill the Circassians with muskets when they were about a hundred meters away.

They have controlled all the families of these people, and there are more than a thousand people in total. The children among them are the favorites of the Ottomans. They like to use pagans as soldiers, because the children's beliefs are not firm, and training for a period of time

It would be a perfect time to use it as a Jenichery.

Young women can also be sold for a good price.

As for the old, weak, sick and disabled, it would be too time-consuming and laborious to transport them to Istanbul, and the consequences can be imagined.

After killing these young Circassian Nestorians and then using your own horses to pull their horses out, it would be a fortune.

The leader of the Chechens is called Jabbar, which means "servant of force" in Arabic. He is the chief of the Chechen tribe closest to the Kura River. In order to pursue Dilaya and others, he mobilized the entire tribe's young men.

The total is close to 300 rides.

If you want to pull the horses out of the mud, each horse needs at least two horses to pull. Therefore, after careful consideration, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar still let everyone go into the river.

Looking at the approaching Chechens, Diraya sighed and gave the order.

"Everyone abandon their horses and swim to the other side!"

It was still early spring, and the ice on the Kura River had just melted, and the water was still cold. If you swim there at this time, the large area of ​​wind and cold will take away a considerable number of lives, but if you continue to stay on the horses, your entire army will be annihilated.

The fate of.

All the Circassians looked solemn.

At this time, there is no need to temporarily surrender to the Chechens. For the Chechens, all pagans whose strength is inferior to them are dead except as slaves!

Although they are rebellious, they still fear and respect the strong, but for the weak, no matter how servile you are, you can't do it.

Therefore, they are generally docile to the Ottomans, Persians, and Russians. As for other people, they are not in their eyes, even the Turguts with 20,000 fine cavalry are not in their eyes.
p>

Diraya took the lead and took off the thick robe on her body, then threw it into the water. Otherwise, once the robe was soaked in the river, it would be impossible to swim to the other side smoothly.

Not only did he take off his robe, but he also threw away all the items on his body except the saber. In his arms, there was a hundred silver coins that he had finally saved, and he threw them away after a little hesitation.

Seeing this, the others followed suit and took off their robes one after another, throwing away all the things that were in the way, leaving only Duan Gua and trousers on their bodies.

The Circassians are still white. Although their robes are gray-brown, the short clothes underneath are all gray-white. From a distance, they look white.

But the Chechens behind were still black. Their heads were wrapped in thick black turbans, and their robes were also gray-black. After seeing the appearance of the Circassians, Jabbar felt bad and quickly ordered to speed up the pace.

.

"Rumble..."

At this moment, another group of cavalry flew in from the upper reaches of the Kuban River, on the side where Jabbar had just arrived.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar quickly stopped.

At this time, they were still about fifty meters away from the Dirayas.

"Could it be that the Adige people or the chief didn't trust me and brought people here personally? No, the chief never does this kind of thing. Could it be that he is interested in a mere hundred horses?"
p>

As the rider gradually approached and the rider on the horse began to appear, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became more suspicious.

"If they came from upstream, they are most likely Adi, but their clothes don't look like..."
To be continued...