Chapter 584 The wind blows to Xizhou

Author: Beicheng 2,000

Chapter 584 The wind blows to Xizhou

In March, perhaps God wanted to hinder the Ming Dynasty's feat of regaining the Western Regions, and a sudden sandstorm swept across the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.

Zhu Fuju was awakened by the whistling wind.

When he opened his eyes, he saw only a faint light in the tent.

He subconsciously glanced at the pocket watch he placed aside, and with the help of the faint light, he saw the time clearly.

"It's three o'clock in Chen Shi...this smell..."

Zhu Fuju was a little surprised at first, then stood up, squinted his eyes, frowned and tried to open the curtain of the tent.

I don’t know when the curtain was pressed with a stone. After some effort, Zhu Fuju opened the curtain.

In an instant, the howling wind whistled his face with a slightly cool air. If you could feel it carefully, you could feel some sand in the wind.

The slight slight earthy smell that came into his nostrils made Zhu Fuju feel much more energetic. When he opened his eyes, he saw a piece of yellow like a retro filter that came into his eyes.

The dim sandstorm attacked the Western Regions. Zhu Fuju walked out, only hearing howling in his ears and his cheeks were shaved by sand.

He looked hard in the distance and saw a black wind rolling in front of him, as if a wall was approaching.

"General! Go back to the tent quickly! This is a huge sandstorm that has been encountered in more than ten years!"

Amid the howling wind, Zhu Fuju seemed to hear someone shouting to him.

He tried to look over, but was soon hugged by a figure wearing a mandarin duck war jacket and pushed into the tent.

When he came to his senses, the figure had already crushed the curtain to death with a stone, and at the same time he had several wooden nails on it.

Seeing this, Zhu Fuju lit up the kerosene lamp in the tent.

The wisp of dimness brought by the kerosene lamp makes people feel much more peaceful.

At this time, Zhu Fuju finally saw who was coming.

"Ma Shunguo, is this a big sandstorm?"

The figure who squatted in front of Zhu Fuju and knocked on the wooden nails to make the tent stronger turned his head when Zhu Fuju's words rang.

It was a face that looked like a forty or fifty-year-old, with wrinkles on the face like a cracked riverbed, which made people aged for no reason.

"General, this is a big sandstorm, we have experienced it before."

Ma Shunguo is not as old as he looks. In fact, he is only thirty-six years old. The reason why he understands so much about the Western Regions is also due to his own identity.

He was a Mongolian from the Heshuo Special tribe. Because he learned Mandarin in Hexi and understood the situation in the Western Regions, he was chosen by Zhu Fuju as his guide.

I have to say that Ma Shunguo's experience has indeed helped the Ming army a lot.

"We are in Xingxing Gorge, and the big sandstorm cannot blow in too much. As long as we have a day off, we should be able to set off tomorrow."

Ma Shunguo explained the impact of this huge sandstorm, and Zhu Fuju also patted the sand on his body when he heard this.

"I grew up in Shaanxi since I was a child, but this is the first time I have seen such a big sandstorm."

"In the Western Regions, it is normal to have sandstorms at this time." Ma Shunguo explained:

"They all blow from the southwest, and the windy seasons will blow over. The wind and sand in Hetao are not as good as here."

"It's really not comparable..." Zhu Fuju nodded and admitted, and said:

"A day off, can we arrive at Hami within three days?"

"It should be possible." Ma Shunguo answered without hesitation, and Zhu Fuju was relieved when he heard this:

"That's good……"

He was so nervous because when they arrived at Xingxing Gorge yesterday, they had already seen a thousand soldiers stationed here in the Turpan Khanate.

After learning that Zhu Fuju was going to Turpan instead of Man Gui, they immediately withdrew to Hami, preparing to report the news to Taiji of the tribe, and then asked Taiji to tell Abu Lun the news.

In this way, Abulun will also come from Turpan, and Zhu Fuju will be able to meet in Hami after two days of rest.

Therefore, Zhu Fuju must hurry up and not be late.

"After the wind and sand come, we need to dig out the stream again, replenish the water before going."

"There are only Gobi and deserts on the way from Xingxing Gorge to Hami."

"The water supply is not enough. We may have died of thirst on the road before we reach Hami."

Ma Shunguo talked about the hardship and dangers of traveling to the Western Regions in this era, but after he said:

"As long as you arrive at Hami and walk back, you will basically be oasis connected to oasis, and the road behind will not delay the army's march."

"Well..." Zhu Fuju nodded, and Ma Shunguo heard that the wind outside the tent was lowered, and he also judged that Zhu Fuju would be able to stop after about two hours.

Zhu Fuju was originally a little unbelievable, but when they chatted for two hours and the wind gradually became smaller, Zhu Fuju was also curious.

Two hours later, the wind recovered to the moment they arrived at Xingxing Gorge yesterday, Ma Shunguo also took out the wooden nails, opened the stones, and opened the curtains.

This time, what caught my eye was no longer a black wall, but a slightly dim sky.

"It's time to hurry up, I'll inform them."

Seeing that the sky was gradually clearing, Ma Shunguo also went to other tents and notified the Ming soldiers who were hiding from the wind and sand to leave the tent.

During this period, Zhu Fuju looked at the direction of the tent facing the air outlet and saw that the sand in this direction had been piled up three feet high.

It is hard to imagine what kind of hardship Zhu Fuju and his team would face if such a sandstorm lasted for a few days.

When he was setting up the camp, Zhu Fuju recorded these things in his military newspaper, preparing to submit the military newspaper after the war to avoid the Ming army that would take this route in the future.

While recording, he asked Ma Shunguo what to pay attention to, how to detect sandstorms, how to predict how long it will arrive, and other matters.

He recorded all these things in the military newspaper.

Just as he finished writing, the soldiers and horses successfully closed the tent.

The Ming army in the canyon dug up several springs buried by wind and sand, and then filled up enough tamsui, and their group continued to set out on the journey to Hami.

After leaving Xingxing Gorge, just like what Ma Shunguo said, what greeted Zhu Fuju and the others was the endless Gobi Desert.

The Gobi Desert is endless, making people feel that they are small.

Within a radius of more than a hundred miles, it is difficult for even animals to see. Apart from the vastness of the Western Regions, there is only the wind around you that is covered with sand and dust, whistling around you.

Zhu Fuju rode a slow horse and sat on the horse's back. At the end of his vision was a dividing line between heaven and earth.

When you are in this situation, everyone will feel that their tiny self is lost in space and time and has no direction.

Most of the Gobi Deserts in the Western Regions are plains. Once they appear, they spread endlessly towards the horizon.

The Gobi is a combination of gravel and soil. For millions of years, it is washed, collided, cut and broken by floods and stones falling from the mountains.

Some Gobi stones have been eroded by wind and sand for a long time and have formed various shapes, which is very interesting.

However, although the road looked very flat, not long after the march, the knife-like gravel cut off many tires of the carriage.

Fortunately, Mingjun did not have the technology of hollow tires and pneumatic tires, so they all used solid tires, and the cut marks did not affect the driving of the carriage.

Zhu Fuju and his friends hid their heads and walked for a short time, and then a connected snow-capped mountain appeared on the skyline.

As the wind and sand have passed, the sky above my head has become blue.

The low white clouds floated in the blue sky, leaving a flickering shadow on the Gobi Desert, and the white snow-capped mountains were clearly visible in the distance. This scene almost made Zhu Fuju think that he had returned to Hexi.

However, if you carefully distinguish it, the snow-capped mountains in the Western Regions will appear even more distant.

"These snow-capped mountains look very close, but they are actually very far away. They can't even reach the horses that can't be killed."

Ma Shunguo explained the situation in the Western Regions. They could not explain such a phenomenon, but they knew that the beautiful snow scene was full of danger.

With Zhu Fuju and the others, Ma Shunguo tried his best to choose some easier paths.

But even so, many carriages were still damaged by wheels at the end of the day, and a lot of time was delayed on the road.

When the night came, they did not rush to the road because they suffered from wind and sand in the morning, and today they only walked less than seventy miles.

For these cavalrymen with one man and three horses, this speed is comparable to a snail climbing.

Before nightfall, they set up tents in time to rest. As time passed by bit by bit, when the day was gray, they packed up again.

It is still the familiar Gobi Desert or the familiar snow scene in the distance.

They walked for three hours until they crossed a dry red willow ditch, and they finally began to see sporadic green spots.

It was already seen that the Gobi Desert, which was a little tired, began to gradually become green. The snow on the Tianshan Mountain melted and flowed down the mountain and formed a green river. Finally, it became more and more, and the green velvet gradually appeared in the field of vision.

While on the grassland, the cavalry of the Turpan Khanate began to appear on the grasslands in the distance.

"Is it the envoy of the Ming Dynasty?"

The visitor asked in Mongolian with a slight accent, and Ma Shunguo also answered "Yes" when he heard this.

Hearing this, the Mongolian man rode in and greeted Zhu Fuju with his chest in his arms:

"Baihu Temuer, under the order of the Khan, asked the envoys of the Ming Dynasty to set up camp outside Hami City!"
To be continued...