The Golden Wolf Army retreated in haste. The orderly reinforcement troops formation ran fast from the northeast direction, heading toward the troops formation at the southern slope of the Helian Fort. Black Wolf banner was fluttering with the rising of the red sun, showing that the other hegemon of the Eastern Tujue, barely second only to Xieli, Tuli’s good-self has personally come.

The new arrivals were the vanguard regiment of the Black Wolf Army, consisted of two thousand riders. The high-ranking military officer leading the regiment, both in terms of build and appearance, bore striking resemblance to Tuli, but he was younger than Tuli. He saluted toward the men on the Helian Fort from a distance, but did not raise his voice to greet them. His mind was focused entirely on keeping a constant distance with the Golden Wolf Army, both to guard against their launching sudden counterattack, but more importantly to watch the other side closely to see whether there was any opportunity that he could exploit.

Coming back from the death’s door, everybody secretly cried, ‘Lucky!’

Pusa said, “This general must be Tuli’s younger brother Jieshelu. My understanding is that this man is brave and good at fighting; he is Tuli’s right arm.”

The sound of hoof beats arose again. Tuli’s army’s main force appeared on the northeast horizon, galloping over at full speed. The army appeared to be at its peak. Although the military strength was at fifteen thousand men, which was only half of Xieli’s troops, it carried a stake-it-all momentum.

Ba Fenghan sighed and said, “This time Xieli’s in danger.”

Surprised, Kou Zhong said, “Xieli’s military strength is more than double Tuli’s; why do you, LaoGe say such thing?”

Xu Ziling also said, “Although because he is failing to besiege us Xieli’s acute spirit has been reduced, but his strength is not damaged. None of the Golden Wolf Army is not a veteran of a hundred battles. In frontal confrontation, to whom the deer falls is still hard to foresee.”

Yet Pusa did not stop nodding his head and smiled, showing that he understood why Ba Fenghan made such judgment.

Ba Fenghan kept his eyes on the gradually approaching big army; he spoke heavily, “On the prairie, the decline of one tribe represents the rise of another tribe. Since the rise of the Tujue Great Khan Shidianmi, who led ten big tribal chiefs, commanding a hundred-thousand-strong army, defeating Rouran, and establishing nomadic khanate which prestige was more powerful than the Xiongnu’s domain of the ancient times, founding the tent capital [of nomadic people] at Yudu of Mount Jin, various tribes of the prairie, none was not scared into submission. Although later on it split up into two khanates, East and West, but in the prairie it is still without any rival.”

Pusa added, “Since Xieli employed Zhao Deyan as the Guoshi, he acted on his own initiative to be involved in the national politics. Government decree became severely complicated, the people’s heart disintegrate, all the original ministers who belong to various tribes of the Eastern Tujue are having the intention to revolt. Now Xieli and Tuli become estranged, to the various tribes who are at odds with him, it is indeed huge good news. Therefore, as long as Tuli can score a few beautiful victories, to show that he has the strength to contend against Xieli, he will win over the support of all big powers of this region. Wouldn’t you agree that Xieli is in danger?”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling suddenly realized that in the past, whenever the Tujue invaded, they were always in collusion with other nomadic tribes. If they were able to break this kind of unity among the various ethnic groups outside the Great Wall, the Central Plains would have the opportunity to take a breather.

A group of riders rushed out of the main forces, the leader was, surprisingly, Tuli himself, they headed straight toward the Helian Fort.

Ba Fenghan moved back a little, but as if they agreed by chance, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were closing in on him, and grabbed him tightly from left and right. Kou Zhong said, “LaoGe, for mine and Ziling’s sake, is it possible to write off your former hatred and old enmity with Tuli at one stroke?”

Smiling bitterly, Ba Fenghan said, “Right now Xiaodi’s legs go soft, even if I want to walk away, I have the mind but not the strength, why do you need to detain me like arresting a prisoner?”

This exchange was in Han language, hence Pusa only looked on without understanding what was going on. “What happened?” he asked in astonishment.

Xu Ziling let go of Ba Fenghan, and spoke to Tuli, who was rushing up the south slope, “We’ll have to trouble Khan to come up here; we are having problem even to walk.”

Tuli roared in laughter and said, “Did you learn your Tujue language from Fenghan Xiong? It’s almost better than Xiaodi’s Han language.”

Hearing Tuli addressed Ba Fenghan as ‘brother’, Kou Zhong was relieved; greatly delighted, he said, “Looking at your appearance, it seems like you already knew that we are in here?”

Raising his voice, Pusa said, “Pusa pays his respect to Khan!” Together with his men, they all saluted.

Tuli leaped down from the horse’s back. With a somersault, he landed in the middle of the crowd. Rushing forward, he grabbed Ba Fenghan’s shoulders and said with a long laughter, “You are Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s brother, hence you are my, Tuli’s brother. Other things need not be mentioned.”

Inwardly Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were very grateful. Tuli was worthy to be the good brother with whom they went through life and death together.

Ba Fenghan laughed aloud. He grabbed Tuli’s hands in return and spoke resolutely, “Looks like even if I don’t want to be brothers with you, I simply can’t.”

Tuli let go of Ba Fenghan and came over to Pusa; stretching out his arms, he said, “You should know how grateful I am to you. If you did not disregard life and death to help these three brothers of mine, I would have lost them forever. Even if I could chop Xieli’s body into ten thousand pieces, it would still be difficult to dissolve the regret in my heart.”

He pulled Pusa into his embrace.

Pusa’s pair of tiger-eyes turned red. Evidently he was extremely touched that Tuli considered him important.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling mused inwardly that no wonder Tuli was so popular in his native place, because he had this skill to win people’s heart.

Tuli spoke solemnly to Pusa, “I don’t care how fierce that old fellow Shijian opposing me, we, brothers will definitely help you back to Huihe, to retrieve what is rightfully yours.”

All the men following Pusa went down on their knees, some were so touched that they wept in bitter tears; finally their totally impossible dream had a chance to be realized. The fact was that Pusa has already reached the mountain-and-river-exhausted stage [idiom: nowhere to go]; sooner or later he would sink down to become horse thief. Yet Tuli’s promise immediately changed everything.

Letting Pusa go, Tuli rushed over to embrace Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, two boys, and said with a sigh, “You finally came! Fortunately I have set up intelligence network in Tong Wan, hence I knew that you guys were trapped in Helian Fort. I thought I would not see you again, luckily you created a miracle again. This battle will cause sensation in the prairie, your names will linger forever in the prairie.”

Ba Fenghan pointed to the rising dust caused by the Golden Wolf Army, which could still be clearly seen at the edge of the prairie, he coldly said, “This battle is only the beginning; Xieli is waiting for us over there.”

Tuli and Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, and Pusa came to Ba Fenghan’s side; casting their gaze toward that direction, five pairs of eyes lit up at the same time.

Tuli spoke heavily, “Xieli underestimates me too much. We will show the iron-clad proof for him to see, so that he knows how extremely wrong he is.”

If this was not a special circumstance, relying on his superior military strength, naturally Xieli could easily defeat Tuli’s Black Wolf Army. But currently the Golden Wolf Army has been in bloody battle the whole night, the men weary, the horses tired, since not only they were unable to capture the trifling Helian Fort