After leaving the Manuto Sea, the group meandered eastward.

Rasim brought thirty people, twenty guards, and ten servants to look after the camels. Although he only carried ten camels, he brought five more camels to prevent accidents. Usually these three camels were loaded with simple camels.

Tent, water, etc.

This time, Rasim was accompanied by his inseparable butler, an old man with white hair and beard who was almost sixty years old.

The leader of Rasim's bodyguard is a horse thief named Arslan. He was rescued from other horse thieves when Rasim went north to do business last year. He was a horse thief from the Hongjila tribe. Before that,

I don’t believe in Islam.

After being rescued by Rasim, Arslan not only converted to Islam, but also became Rasim's valued servant. Because he was familiar with the hundreds of miles of desert path between Kazakh Xiaoyuzi and the Khiva Khanate, he also

Brave and good at fighting, he naturally became the other person that Rashim could not live without except the old butler.

Along with Arslan, there were four people who took refuge with Rahim and converted to Islam. They are all currently in the escort team. The remaining fifteen people are naturally acquaintances of Rahim from Bukhara.

Kitard brought Su Wenyu with him this time, plus Techina and others, a total of twelve people, who were nominally following Rahim to the Khiva Khanate to explore trade routes.

Twelve people, brought fifteen horses, and five camels. The camels carried tents, food, water and other supplies. Naturally, Arslan did not know Kitard's true identity and thought he was a man who liked to travel around.

Mongolian Taiji doesn’t take it seriously.

However, based on hundreds of years of experience, Kitard immediately noticed what made Arslan different from others.

Although he has joined the Islamic religion, his appearance and behavior do not look like a strict Islamic believer.

He is about thirty years old and has a strong build. However, he does not have a big beard, but a neatly trimmed short beard. He has thick black eyebrows and deep and sharp eyes. He seems to be able to see through the person opposite him at a glance.

.

The appearance is somewhere between Mongolians and Turks, and seems to be more like Mongolians, but very similar to the Kyrgyz people at that time.

Of course he didn't see through Kitard, although Kitard looked at him.

He was just very interested in the four wooden boxes in Kitard's team.

Those boxes seemed to be very heavy, with a camel hanging one on each side - the carrying capacity of camels is much greater than that of horses. For horses, it is very difficult once the camel carries more than two hundred kilograms, but for camels

You can walk for a long time even if you carry 300 kilograms of stuff.

Two camels and four wooden boxes about one meter long made the camels accustomed to carrying heavy loads trekking in the desert for a long time move at the same pace as the Rasim camel carrying the ruby ​​camel.

Although gems are valuable, they are stones after all, and their weight is naturally heavy. But what is in those two boxes?

"Silver coins? It's possible. The leading young man looks fair and clean. It seems that he has never seen the world. He just wants to visit the Khiva Khanate."

Arslan thought so.

As if feeling his strange gaze, Kitard deliberately opened one end of a wooden box, then took out a wooden cylinder, removed the cork, and started drinking.

"It turned out to be filled with water. Mongolians usually use sheepskin bags to store water, but he used wooden tubes to store water, which is very rare."

Kitard and others all carried muskets, but they did not install bayonets. After successfully leaving the Kazakh Xiaoyuzi pasture, they all also put on the summer clothes often worn by Turks, although there were also many in Kungel who had obvious

Hongji stabs people with Mongolian characteristics, but it’s not a bad thing to be careful.

Arslan's guards also all carried muskets, but they were obviously matchlocks, the most primitive kind. However, they each had a saber. Kitard saw one of the guards pull it out and play with it, and he knew it at a glance.

Uzi steel knife.

Going deep into a foreign land thousands of miles away, although they were in the name of a caravan, the number of people was too small after all. Therefore, in addition to a saber from Truqin hanging on their sides, Kitard and the others also hung on their right waists.

A wooden box, they never showed anyone what that box was.

Ever since the wooden box came up, Arslan did not dare to ask to see what was in the wooden box. It must also be the personal belongings of this Mongolian Taiji.

When we arrived in this desert area, more than ten days had passed. Through these more than ten days of observation, Arslan had already determined one thing.

"This young man who looks to be only eighteen or nineteen years old is not a simple man. Including him, these people all walk upright and have murderous expressions on their faces. They are obviously from an army that has fought in the war.

"Selected from"

"At this time, Elash was the largest in the Torgut Khanate. However, there were at least five or six big leaders. According to Lash's reputation, he did not need to dress up like this. Most of them were the sons of several other big leaders.

and his escort"

Thinking of this, Arslan's expression seemed to become serious.

However, as the owner of the camel team, Rahim seemed not to care about all of this.

Also, as long as he walks in the tribe, there is no problem with his safety. And in this desert, with the presence of Arslan, an old acquaintance, he can perfectly decide when to rush, what path to take, and when to stop to rest.

If you avoid the habit of horse thieves, you won’t risk your life.

What's more, if the horse thieves want to rob him, they should do it when he goes north with a large amount of silver coins and made rubies. Now he only has rough gems in his camel team. It is of no use to rob him. In the end, he can only sell them to merchants at a low price.

.

Seeing Rasim's confident look, Kitard did not relax his vigilance. Along the way, he made no careless reconnaissance, which made Arslan have some opinions.

"Don't you still believe that I have chosen the path?"

This desert actually started not long after going south from Kulisare, the base camp of the Kazakh Xiaoyuzzhedeur Alliance.

There are still shepherds grazing here. Although it is a desert, because it is summer, the land that is full of yellow-brown mixed with white (saline-alkali land) is still dotted with shrubs and pastures. There are more shrubs and pastures near the pool.

.

At this time, Rasim finally took the initiative to talk to Chitard.

"From here on, it is the pastures of the outermost tribes of the Khiva Khanate. In the Khanate, the best pastures are all occupied by the four major tribes of Kipchak, Manjit, Naiman, and Hongjila. Only the last ones are occupied.

On the periphery, the worst pastures are reserved for the Turkmens, which means that this is already the pastures of the Turkmens."

"Although they are rejected by the four major tribes, it is not easy for the Turkmens to survive in these places. Their pastures are all over the Aral Sea and the desert around Khorezm. Although the horse thieves are cruel, they do not dare to provoke the Turkmens. They can survive in these places.

It’s impossible to live in a place like this on your own.”

"The Turkmen people are very united. Once a family is attacked by horse thieves, the entire Turkmen people will come out to help. Horse thieves are familiar with this place. Turkmen people have lived here for generations and are more familiar with it than horse thieves."

"Further inside, there are the pastures of the Hongjila people, where the conditions are slightly better. The innermost part is the pastures of the Manjit people. Most of their pastures are in the north, while those of the Naiman people are in the south."

"Of course, the nobles of the Hongjila people all live in Kungele City and have been married to the Manjit people for generations. They have been a family for a long time."

Since Kitard has been dormant in Truqin for three years, he obviously has a clear understanding of the major forces in the surrounding area. The information he got from the Persians was different.

"The marriage between the four major tribes is only temporary. Within the Khanate, Manjit and Naiman are the largest, and both sides are hostile to each other. Whoever comes to power and becomes the chief minister of the Khanate, Yilak, will inevitably join hands with Hongjit and Kipchak tribes.

If one of them gets married, the other two will naturally quickly get married and form an alliance."

"However, whoever becomes the Yirak means that he can control most of the Khorezm farmers in the oasis, which cannot be competed by other tribes. The alliance between the remaining two tribes is just for self-protection."

Thinking of this, Kitard asked: "What about Kipchak? Where are their pastures located?"

"They are everywhere. Generally speaking, they are closer to the Naiman people in the south. By the way, the Kipchaks occupy Yulong Jiechi, the old capital of the Khanate"

Kitard asked again: "Since the Turkmens are all in the periphery, they must go to the city to buy daily necessities."

Rasim nodded, "It's natural. They all went to Kungel to buy, but they definitely didn't go there in a swarm, but entrusted the chiefs of small tribes to go and buy together. This is also the Turkmen chief and Manjit who live in the city.

Rules negotiated by the Ministry”

"The big chief also controls the pricing power and the quantity of materials purchased by the small chiefs when they go to the city. In this way, the big chief controls the small chiefs, and the small chiefs control the herders. The same is true for the Hongji tribe."

The two talked for a while, and seeing that it was getting late, Rashim said: "Right now, we happen to be near an intermittent river. We will camp here tonight and leave early tomorrow morning."

Watching Rasim's plump figure slowly disappearing into his tent, Kitard thought to himself: "Who are the horse thieves? They are all exiles from various tribes. They don't care about life and death for a long time. How can they care about those rules?"

, Generally speaking, it’s just a shot and a change of place.”

"No matter how familiar the herders are with the place, due to the vast land and sparse population, it is impossible to find them all at once. And the reason why Rashim is so confident is obviously not relying on these unreliable traditions, but because he is Buha.

One of the biggest businessmen who sells stolen goods to thieves."

"This is the only reason why he is peaceful"

When Rahim left the Kitard tent, it was Arslan who escorted him away. Before leaving, Arslan gave him a meaningful look.

"Where did this person come from? Could it be that the horse thieves were an informant in Rashim's caravan so that their stolen goods could be disposed of as quickly as possible in the Khanate?"

"But this is obviously not possible. Since Arslan cannot tolerate the gang of horse thieves, he is not an ordinary gangster, but a leader. There must be many people like him who have seen him. If he walks carelessly in pastoral areas or cities,
Chapter completed!