Between the Hexi Corridor and the desert, a section of the Great Wall from the Han Dynasty that has experienced many vicissitudes of life still stands between the wind and sand.
Its front and rear have been broken, and the walls are full of cracks caused by wind erosion, making it look very lonely in the wilderness.
It’s hard to believe that this pile of rammed earth can stand for thousands of years...
Li Xia walked onto the platform.
He looked at the desert in the distance, observed the distance between beacons, and marked it on the drawing in his hand.
Duo Siman, who was accompanying him, couldn't help but be curious and asked: "Why do we come here?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Chang'an is so wonderful." Duo Siman mentioned Chang'an with admiration in his tone, and said: "Guanzhong is such a good place. It would be great to move all the people there. There is nothing in this desert, why come here to rob it?"
Desert territory?”
If she is stupid, there are many smart people in the world who have the same idea as her.
Li Xia didn't bother to explain to her, and said: "According to what you said, Lin'an is better. If you go to Lin'an, you will be more unwilling to make progress than the Zhao family."
"hey-hey."
Duo Siman giggled twice, not feeling ashamed but proud, feeling that if she could be compared with Zhao, she should be more like a Han Chinese.
She used to hear her tribesmen ridicule the cowardice of the Han people. After living in Chang'an for a year, she realized that the Han people lived a good life, and she became more and more envious of elegance and prosperity.
"If you don't want to make progress, I learned another idiom, and I know what it means as soon as I hear it."
Seeing her proud look, Li Xia shook his head and said, "Idioms are nothing special. Your cousin is also proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics."
Duo Siman has so many cousins that few in the world can surpass her. At this time, she did not ask which cousin it was, and said: "The Four Books and Five Classics? That one is very, very difficult."
"yes."
Li Xia knew that the Four Books and Five Classics were difficult, and even he himself could not master them.
From this point of view, Zhen Jin is more like a Confucian scholar than him.
Is it true that Jin is more Chinese, or is Duosiman more Chinese?
Li Xia couldn't think of it, so he thought he would know it when he saw real gold.
"You haven't said what we are doing here yet. Are we going to the Western Regions to rescue Eji?" Duo Siman asked again. She said she didn't care about Uluru Khunai, but she still cared.
"There is no need to go to the Western Regions, it is enough to come here."
Li Xia answered casually, because he was facing Duo Siman, who was a bit stupid, and he didn't mind telling her this. This was also a process of clarifying his thoughts.
"The current situation is that Kublai Khan wants the Western Regions, and I want Tubo. Here you can see how I defended the Western Regions, and how he lost Tubo."
"Can you see it from here?"
Duo Siman quickly stood up on tiptoes and looked further into the distance, only to see endless yellow sand as far as the eye could see.
So she pouted slightly and complained: "I obviously can't see anything."
"Not urgent."
The blue sky is thousands of miles long, the yellow sand is all over the sky, the sky and the earth are so open.
After waiting like this for a long time, finally, a wolf smoke rose into the sky in the distance.
"See?"
Duo Siman's eyes widened in surprise, and he saw wolf smoke rising up one after another from far to near.
She worshiped Li Xia as a god, and she was filled with admiration. She couldn't help hugging him again, and then ran away obediently, picking up her shield and bow so as not to cause trouble to Li Xia.
She has not lost her skills as a Mongolian woman.
Li Xia took two steps forward, raised his telescope and looked north.
The junction between heaven and earth is very far away, at least five miles away. When a black line appeared, his eyes lit up, looking expectant.
After finally being able to fight a battle, he was already full of fighting spirit.
"Put up my banner..."
~~
The camel stepped on the yellow sand and stopped. It seemed that it felt that the atmosphere around it was different, and it shook its long neck and snorted.
The guide leading the camel also stood still and said in panic: "Commander, this..."
Dong Wenbing had already seen the dragon flag in the distance.
This is the second time I have met Li Xia in more than a month.
He just wanted to go to Hehuang, but he was chased on the main road, and even when he tried to cross the desert, he was intercepted.
Dong Wenbing knew that the time was not right now. He came far away with exhausted troops, but the Tang army was waiting for work. It was not suitable for a decisive battle, so it was best to retreat to Heishui City.
However, considering that King Yan was still trapped in Hehuang, how much room for choice did he have?
He could see that the Tang army did not have many troops.
In fact, Li Xia, an emperor, only led a few thousand men to conquer the country, so an encounter in this wilderness might not be an opportunity.
It's worth a try.
"Warriors!" Dong Wenbing shouted, his lips were chapped, but his voice was still as loud as thunder, "The great achievements are before you. You have marched thousands of miles and crossed the desert. Changsheng has favored you!"
"
In the wind and sand, motivational sentences were passed down layer by layer. Gradually, more than ten thousand Yuan troops began to shout in unison.
At this moment, Dong Wenbing felt that he was Huo Qubing. He went deep into the desert and met King Zuoxian of the Xiongnu.
The difference is that this time he is the one with more soldiers.
The Yuan army consisted of one man and three horses. When they marched, they were like a black sea, with an aura that swallowed everything.
The Tang army was scattered along the entire defense line, and its strength was still very scattered. After discovering the Yuan army, it gradually began to gather. At this time, there were only more than a thousand people guarding Li Xia.
What the Yuan army had to do was to defeat these more than a thousand people before the Tang army gathered together, behead them and seize the flag.
But this distance looked close, but it was actually very far away. Every time the Yuan army got closer, more people rushed to Li Xia's side.
In this case, the Yuan army did not carry out too many arrow attacks, but went straight to the Tang army's formation.
A Tang army was running in front of the formation with a bucket, splashing some pungent black water. Seeing the Yuan army coming to kill them, they hurriedly retreated.
"Fire the oil tank!"
There was a "boom" sound, like strong wind pouring into the cracks of the stone.
When the Yuan army rushed forward, a wall of fire suddenly rose.
The flames during the day were not dazzling, and could even be difficult to see. But soon there was black smoke billowing, and screams were heard. The damage caused by the flames was not diminished because it was inconspicuous.
"Ah! Ah!"
Some knights fell off their horses, rolled on the ground desperately and even dug into the yellow sand.
The yellow sand has already been burned by the scorching sun, but it is far less than the flames.
The fire that engulfed him not only did not go out, it grew stronger and stronger.
He stretched his entire arm into the sand, and in the next moment, everything stopped suddenly, and he was silent. Only the fat on his body was still burning.
This tragic death did not deter the Yuan army behind.
Behind them is a desert that stretches thousands of miles, and in front of them is a huge achievement. No one wants to look back, and the soldiers in the rear cannot see what is happening in front of them, and they are still outflanking them on both sides.
Some Yuan troops dismounted and shoveled up the yellow sand to extinguish the fire. There were also Yuan troops who jumped over the flames on the ground and rushed into the Tang army's formation.
The scimitar struck down, and it could also hit hard into the armor of the Tang army.
They came a long way and exhausted a lot of their physical strength. Fortunately, they had achievements as an incentive and could stimulate their strength.
However, the war has just begun, and it will continue for a long, long time...
~~
"Kill!"
A Yuan soldier held a knife in both hands, thrust forward and stabbed the tip of the knife into the chest of the Tibetan soldier in front of him.
Blood spurted everywhere. The dead Tubo soldier had actually struck the Yuan army several times with his broken sword, but he himself had no armor and was killed with just one blow.
Soon, the Yuan army broke through the first line of defense of the Tubo people and advanced deep into the camp.
"Where are the people?!"
Cui Bin looked around anxiously, looking for Zhenjin.
On the surface, he agreed to Zhao Age Ben's request and sent all the money and goods he had robbed. He took the opportunity to send a team of elite soldiers into Zhao Age Ben's station, and then cooperated inside and outside to suddenly launch an attack.
The Tibetans, who were rejoicing over the money and goods, were killed and passed through the defense line before they could react.
…
In the center of this camp, Zhao Ageben had not heard the killing cries outside.
He was receiving two messengers from the Tang army, and Yan Yunyun was acting as an interpreter.
"Is this your military ration?" Brother Zhao opened one of the jars, sniffed, and said, "It still smells delicious."
"Chief, you can try it."
Yan Yunyun stepped forward, took a piece of dry rice cake, soaked it with tea, and then scooped out side dishes from the jar in front of Brother Zhao.
Brother Zhao was worried that it was poisonous and didn't want to eat it at first. But seeing that she made him another bowl and ate it calmly, he couldn't hold back after smelling the aroma and ate it.
After one sip, his eyes lit up.
“This is too delicious!”
"Jinhua ham was made more than a hundred years ago by the famous Song Dynasty general Zongze who fought against the Jin Dynasty. People in his hometown rushed to send pork legs. Because of the long distance, they salted them." Yan Yunyun said: "As for the dry rice, it is made of big rice.
production……"
Brother Zhao had never seen rice in his life. If he hadn't tasted it himself, he wouldn't have believed that this rice was more delicious than barbecued meat sprinkled with salt. He nodded repeatedly.
To be honest, as the head of a department, he also had the official position of the general manager of ten thousand households in Mongolia. Zhao Ageben was not a person who had never seen the world. The business travelers traveling from east to west by Qinghai Lake had brought fine wine, jade, gold and gold.
Silver treasure.
There are also spices. Sprinkling roasted meat with spices can also make people salivate. He ate more.
But such fresh delicacy is indeed rare.
A big man with a rough appearance can only lose a lot of his evil spirits when he eats delicious food.
Yan Yunyun said: "The Song Dynasty also suffered from this rice. During the Northern Expedition, the Song army went deep into the enemy's country and searched for food and grass on the spot. After finding millet, they found it difficult to swallow. Some people even died of illness because they were not used to eating millet.
.”
"If I were from the Song Dynasty, I wouldn't want to go to the Northern Expedition." Brother Zhao ran: "What can be grown on this bare land?!"
"The leader also understands the prosperity of the Song Dynasty?"
"Can I not understand? My ancestors had one, and they followed the Song Dynasty to Sichuan and Shu when the Song Dynasty was driven away by the Jin Dynasty."
Yan Yunyun smiled and thought that Brother Zhao Ben was quite enlightened and it was not difficult to convince him. He continued: "Now our Tang Dynasty has introduced the Jinghu rice in Guanzhong, Sichuan. In addition, the trade roads are smooth, even in the north.
You can eat a mouthful of rice like this. Of course, if the leader is used to eating noodles, he can also try the difference of our fried noodles."
"Okay, okay." Brother Zhao was very interested, "I'll call everyone to eat together."
At this moment, killing cries could be heard outside.
"Chief, it's not good..."
Brother Zhao took a big step forward and shouted: "What's wrong?!"
When he finished speaking, he turned around and saw what had happened without answering.
"kill!"
The Yuan army shouted loudly and rushed straight towards him.
At the same time, General Yuan shouted in Mongolian: "Don't shoot arrows, be careful not to hurt King Yan!"
Although no arrows were fired, the armored soldiers armed with scimitars charged into the unarmored peasants, and soon the blood flowed...