"Guo Wei, where do you think you're going?"
Zamuhai and Hamu led over eighty men in relentless pursuit.
Guo Wei's mount, Red Boy, was a fine steed capable of covering a thousand li, but unfortunately, it was getting on in years. Having not made many long journeys recently, it simply couldn't outrun the warhorses of the Turkic Kingdom.
But Guo Wei wasn't panicked.
On the Thousand-Mile Plain, he saw a small tribe ahead and rode Red Boy to charge swiftly toward it.
"Does he intend to hide in there?"
Zamuhai frowned.
"He might be planning to take hostages to make us let him go."
As Hamu spoke, he asked one of his men, "Banu, what tribe is that up ahead?"
"Reporting to Commander Hamu, that's a splinter group of the Aika Tribe—just the old, weak, sick, and disabled who couldn't make it in the main tribe and were driven over here."
A man named Banu replied.
"Since they're all just burdens, there's no use in keeping them around. Ignore them. We must capture Guo Wei alive!"
