September 14, the first year of Yonghui, the Tang Dynasty.

Although autumn has just begun, the temperature on the eastern foot of the Pamir Mountains has dropped sharply. At night, the cold wind blows sand, the cold moon shines slanted, and barks are rising everywhere.

The Anxi Protector of the Tang Dynasty, Chai Zhewei, Duke of Qiao, stood on a high sand dune outside the city, looking at Hujiangu City, the capital of Xiye Kingdom, which was surrounded by 10,000 soldiers under the sand dune.

Below the sand dunes, there were bonfires around the camp tents that had been set up. Unlike the tense atmosphere before the war, the soldiers were drinking and singing there. No wonder, because the Xiye Kingdom, which will be captured tomorrow, is just a small country in Dalisha. The women, children, old and young nation are only 3,000. As for the soldiers who can fight, there are only a handful of soldiers.

This is a completely asymmetric war.

But Chai Zhewei looked at the figure of the giant standing in the city, and still felt a sense of indescribable fear in his heart.

Yes, that giant is not a living person, it is actually just a statue. However, just as the soldiers are approaching, the people of Xiye seem to be not concerned about their own safety - they are still moving out in a stunning city and are constantly busy on the statue.

The statue has been built to the shoulders, and the head is still empty, so I can't imagine how it will look after it is shaped.

But Chai Zhewei had never seen such a tall statue in his life. He only remembered that he had heard Master Xuanzang say in his early years when he was traveling west at Dacien Temple that there was a Fanyanna country that crossed the Pamir Mountains, where there were stone-carved Buddhas that were 140 or 50 feet high.

But after all, Fanyan's Buddha was a Buddha statue carved on the mountain. This statue was piled up in the vast desert by Xiye Kingdom exhausting the manpower and material resources of a country. Although the statue has not been built yet, it is estimated that it is about ten feet tall.

What's more important is that people in the Western Regions cannot figure out which statue of god and demon this is.

Is it a Buddha statue?

No. According to Yuchi Yikang, the Yutian caravan who escaped from Hujiangu, Xiye Kingdom has begun to destroy Buddhism. All the Buddhist temples in the city have been demolished to flat ground, bricks and wood have been moved away, and Buddha statues have been destroyed.

"We have abandoned the Buddha and converted to other gods." Yuchi Yikang reposted the original words of the people of Xiye.

"Then what god did you convert to believe in?" Yuchi Yikang tried to inquire at that time.

The Xiye national sat on the donkey cart pulling wood and looked at Yuchi Yikang meaningfully.

"When this statue is erected, the people of the entire Western Regions will bow to his feet," said the man.

Since it is not a Buddha statue, is it the God of Light of the Zoroastrianism?

Or is the Manichaeism's sun and moon god?

Or is it the main god of Nestorianism or Tianfang Buddhism?

None of them. Chai Zhewei had already asked the soldiers in the army who believed in these religions. After watching the statue during the day, they shook their heads hard, and denied that they were not our god.

Moreover, the shape of this statue is also very strange. From a distance, its legs are covered with white stripes like maggots, and a strange beast head is decorated in front of its belly. Its left hand is dragging something in a crown, and its right hand curled up with four fingers to hook a hanging rope. What is shocking is that the noose is densely covered with white skulls. From a distance, more than a dozen craftsmen from Xiye Kingdom are still tying their dry skulls to the rope.

The guard next to him stood by and added a sentence as if he had understood Chai Zhewei's thoughts.

"The duke, the dead bones on the rope are the heads of merchants killed by the people of Xiye."

Chai Zhewei didn't say anything. As a young man from a military family, he has also experienced many battle formations over the years. Soldiers often cut off the heads of the enemy they killed and tied them to their waists as capital to seek merit after the war. This situation is called "dedication". Therefore, Chai Zhewen saw that there were many people who were cut down.

What he really cares about is not the statue's left hand carrying a skeleton string, but the right hand extending forward with his arm, and the index finger of the right hand pointed exactly in the direction of the sand dune.

That posture is like saying-the next person is you.

The statue was very tall. Chai Zhewei stood on the dune, looking at the fingertips pointing to him, and couldn't help but feel a sense of terror. He wrapped his cloak tightly and walked down the dune. General Ashinasheer happened to come towards him and saluted him.

"General Ashina, this statue looks very strange. Don't take it lightly when siege the city tomorrow." Chai Zhewei said with lingering fear.

"Don't worry, it's just a demon from clay sculpture. I've ordered the soldiers to surround the city, and I guess they will be able to break the city by noon tomorrow. The magic weapon is here, no matter whether he is a demon or a ghost, he will be destroyed tomorrow."

"But I just looked out on the sand dunes. The people of Xiye seemed to be still shaping the golem. There was no sign of preparation for war in the city. Wouldn't they be afraid that the soldiers would enter the city and be crushed to pieces?"

Asuna Shell sneered.

"The people of Xiye Kingdom are confused by evil deeds, killing people like numb, and death is not worthy of mercy."

Chai Zhewei nodded. He looked at the soldiers besieged in the city. The Tang army was strong, with drums and gambles, bonfires, flags and flags fluttering, and morale was booming.

But for some reason, he still felt a vague worry in his heart.

Chai Zhewei received an urgent report from Xiyeguo cannibalism in summer.

Xiye Kingdom was originally a branch of the Shule people, a small country on the southern edge of Daliusha. Because it penetrated deep into the hinterland of Quicksand, it was far away from its neighbors and had very little contact. Often, when the passing camel caravan encountered wind and sand, they would turn to Xiye to avoid temporarily.

At that time, people from all countries in the Western Regions believed in Buddhism devoutly, and occasionally there were people who believed in Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, but in general, there were not many. It is said that Xiye Kingdom also kept worshiping Buddha and doing good deeds until a caravan from Khotan discovered the vision of Xiye Kingdom.

The leader of the caravan was named Yuchi Yikang, who was a prince of the Kingdom of Khotan. The caravan set out from Khotan and marched westward, preparing to sell the items transported from Chang'an to places such as Shuye further apart.

They originally planned to rest in Shache, but unexpectedly encountered strong winds and quicksand on the road, so they had to travel north halfway, hoping to avoid Hujiangu City, the capital of Xiye Kingdom.

Yuchi Yikang has not arrived at Xiye Kingdom in the hinterland of quicksand for seven or eight years. This time he turned his head to the north with the caravan and walked about halfway through the journey, and was surprised to see a huge statue building in Hujian Valley City.

The statue had just covered the waist and could not tell which god and Buddha it was, but it was obviously three or four feet tall. Under the legs of the statue's magic and beast, the originally small capital of Xiye seemed like a chessboard placed under the feet of a giant.

Everyone in the caravan entered Hujiangu City while looking up at the statue. Unexpectedly, there were no soldiers guarding the city at the gate of the city, and they were even more surprised when they walked into Hujiangu City.

The entire street at the gate of the city was empty and silent, and even a figure could not be seen.

Could it be that the celebration in the center of the city is not here?

With this idea, Yuchi Yikang simply took the brothers from the caravan to the inn. When they walked to the inn, they found that there were only wine flags waving. There was no waiter coming out to greet him, nor did they see anyone drinking and eating.

"Shopkeeper, where is the waiter?" Yuchi Yikang asked in the inn.

There was still no answer in the store, and even the shopkeeper who stayed in the store to greet customers forever did not come out to answer.

The guide in the camel caravan was named Xianyucang, an old fried dough stick. Seeing that no one was calling him, he walked straight to the winery. He opened the wooden door and saw jars of fine wine, piles of Hu cakes hanging inside, and more importantly, a pot of fragrant stew was cooked in several stoves.

The Western Regions are a place with few aquatic plants and few people are willing to slaughter livestock, so meat is extremely rare.

"Brothers, come and see! There is meat here!"

When the group of people in the camel caravan heard about flesh, they immediately surrounded him like an ant.

"It's so delicious! I haven't eaten meat for more than half a year!"

"Since no one is asking, we still care if the fucking store is doing or not. My legs are almost broken. Brothers, let's eat it first!"

Yuchi Yikang was a man who had read the books of sages. He thought this was inappropriate, but he looked at the brothers who were tired and hungry, who were swarming like flies like flies, and it was too late to stop him.

Forget it, let’s settle the bill with the shopkeeper in the future. Yuchi Yikang thought so.

But Yi Kang himself did not intend to join Taotie's team. After all, he had the status of a prince and was influenced by the ethics of the Tang Dynasty. He looked at the group of people who were scrambling meat and wine, and couldn't help but shake his head. He took out a Hu cake from his luggage, took out a trolley bag, poured a glass of water, and wandered around the inn while drinking.

There is a tavern outside the inn. Walking further inside, the backyard is the guest room for accommodation. B-Kang walked into the backyard with water, and the backyard was empty. Not only did there be no owner, but there was no guest. But if there were no guests, why would you stew so much meat?

Could it be that the city had encountered bandits or was looted by a small group of Turkic cavalry?

It's different. Because there is no trace of fighting or fighting at all.

It turned out that he thought there might be a celebration in the center of the city, but now he doesn't think it's like a celebration. If it's a celebration, you can definitely hear the sound of drums here.

Yi Kang became even more confused. At this time, he saw a door in the yard from afar with a small opening. He had lived in this inn before, and remembered that it was the inn's kitchen.

Is the chef still busy inside? B Kang thought about it, then walked over there, shouting "Is anyone here?"

There was still no response in the kitchen. B Kang walked to the door of the kitchen and saw a dark smell of blood coming through the crack in the door.

Yuchi Yikang's heartbeat was so fierce that he was a little scared and hesitated for a moment, but his curiosity finally pulled the door open.

He shouted.

The tables in the room were densely packed with black things, which was nothing but piles of heads. The heads were all gouged out of their eyes, and they widened their two black holes, staring at the uninvited Yuchi Yikang.

Yi Kang was so scared that he fell backwards and fell to the door. He was in a daze and ran to the tavern screaming loudly.

"It's dead! It's dead!"

He stumbled and pushed open the back door of the tavern, but then he was so scared that his chin almost fell to the ground. Because he saw the caravans stumble on the ground with all their tilted noses. What was even more terrifying was that two eagle-deep guys who came from somewhere were holding scimitars and slashing the heads of the unconscious brothers. The cut-headed stutters were still falling to the ground, and blood flowed out of the broken neck.

Yi Kang wanted to escape, but his legs were so weak that he was out of control. He just turned around and tripped by a stool. Yi Kang was startled, but the two sword holders seemed to be deaf about the movements here. They were like the harvesters who were slaughtered, and they just slashed the heads of those people silently. Yi Kang let out a long sigh and tiptoed out of the back door. At this time, he saw two officials from Xiye Kingdom walking into the inn from the main gate, one of them stretched out his finger and counted one by one.

"Twenty-seven," he said.

Another man took a bald brush and wrote a few strokes on the book. Perhaps because the ink had dried, he squatted down with the pen, inserted the pen into his broken neck and dipped it in his blood, then picked it up and licked the pen tip, and continued to remember something on the book.

"The national master said that if you save up a thousand skeletons, the statue of the god can be built."

"Will the gods come down to the world and come here?"

"Yes." The person holding the pen pointed at the two people who were beheading their heads, "Tell them that after collecting their heads, they would shave out the bones and throw the meat into the pot and stew it."

The counting person nodded hard. He patted the chopping person and gestured at them.

Only then did Yi Kang realize that the two people were deaf people, and the meat in the wine bowl was not the meat of livestock, but human flesh.

He was glad that he didn't eat it - but even so, he still felt a burst of nausea in his stomach.

The two Xiye officials turned around and prepared to leave. But the person holding the pen seemed to remember something. He turned around and said to the counting people: "After doing the work, let them clean up. The meat is cleaned, and the craftsmen in the statue are still waiting to eat at night."

Yuchi Yikang waited until it was dark before sneaking out of Hujiangu. He didn't dare to rest and ran seven or eight miles in the quicksand. On the road full of yellow sand, he ran into a wooden donkey cart in Xiye Kingdom and found that the person driving the car was the inn shop he knew.

He wanted to hide because the store owner was also from Xiye Kingdom after all. But he had no food or drink all night and had no strength, so he had to look at the inn shopkeeper who picked up a hatchet and walked towards him.

To Yuchi Yikang's surprise, the store leaned over and looked at it. Not only did he not kill him, he also handed him a sac. Yikang was stunned for a moment. He suspected that there was also the kind of drug in the pub in the water. But his thirst made him not hesitate much. He took the sac and drank the water.

The shopkeeper sat on the sand beside him without saying a word. Both of them looked in the direction of Hujiangu from afar, and could still see the unfinished half-colossus through the wind and sand in the sky.

"What is that?" Yuchi Yikang saw that he was not dizzy and the store owner had no intention of harming him, so he plucked up the courage to ask.

"We are the gods of Xiye people." said the shopkeeper.

"What god? Buddha?"

The shopkeeper glanced at Yi Kang, then touched the hatchet in his hand, and slowly said: "The Xiye people have abandoned the Buddha and have a new god. The people in Hujiangu are now the people of God, and they are sculpting statues of the gods and let him rule the world."
To be continued...