The people in Tahu Town flew out like a flock of frightened birds. As soon as they left the town, they scattered in all directions and ran in the dark wilderness.
Brother and sister Shijialuluo and Shijialing, along with their entourage and uncle Lai, drove their camels and hid in a mountain col.
Uncle Lai travels on this road all year round, either to Gaochang or Yinzhou, and is very familiar with the terrain here.
It's dark now, and no one knows what dangers are hidden in the wilderness outside. Will the cavalry that rushed just now hang around outside the town, like a pack of wolves, waiting for opportunities to devour?
Therefore, the safest way is to find a hidden place to hide, wait until dawn, find out the situation clearly, and then act accordingly.
A fire suddenly broke out in Tahu Town, followed by extremely panicked shouts and screams, floating in the sky over the wilderness, as if a hundred ghosts were walking in the night, making people frightened.
Brother and sister Shijialuluo and Shijialing were lying on the hill, nervously looking into the distance.
In the flickering light of the fire, the two seemed to see silhouettes of people in the wilderness. Countless people were running. They didn't know whether they were cavalry chasing after them or business travelers fleeing for their lives.
Suddenly, a group of people ran over here. By the light of the fire and the looming moonlight in the dark clouds, Shi Jialing saw five horses, carrying people and running forward desperately.
It is very dangerous to gallop like this in the dark. If the horse stumbles if you are not careful, not only the mount will be injured, but the person riding the horse will also be disabled or injured.
Unless there is a very critical moment, you will not take such a risk.
Shi Jialing saw a vague group of people behind them, riding horses and holding each other tightly.
When passing by this hill, Shi Jialing clearly heard the pace of two of the horses slowing down. Soon, the two figures landed lightly on the ground like flying birds. Then someone raised a whip and whipped the horse without its rider.
He grabbed the horse's hooves, sped up, followed the other three and three horses, and ran wildly into the distance.
A few dozen breaths later, a group of cavalry followed, about twenty or so, chasing the tail and biting it.
After waiting for a while, Shi Jialing saw two black figures running towards this side. One of them seemed to be injured and had difficulty walking, while the other was supporting him. Together, the two of them ran cautiously towards the hill.
"Brother," Shi Jialing called softly.
Shijialuluo understood the idea and quietly stepped forward to meet the two of them.
They urgently need to know what is going on outside, and these two people may know something just now. Moreover, there are only two of them, and one of them is injured. Even if they are not good people, they cannot make trouble.
Soon, Shijialuluo led the two of them back.
The two of them were wearing Uighur clothes and covering their veils. One of them twisted his leg while vaulting, and the other was her servant and attendant. As soon as the two opened their mouths, Shi Jialing could tell that they were both women. From the sound of their voices,
Probably all in their thirties.
After they applied medicine to the injured ankle, Shi Jialing asked, "What happened?"
"Being chased by enemies." The injured woman smiled and replied, "The world is in chaos. The enemies in the past were just serious caravans one moment, but in the blink of an eye they became horse thieves who wanted to kill people and steal goods."
"The world is in chaos?"
"The Song Dynasty people are coming to kill them." The woman with a sprained ankle replied. Her voice was not as smooth and soft as the others, but had a texture like the rocks on the Tianshan Mountains.
"Has the Song Dynasty's Western Expedition begun?" Shi Jialing murmured.
The injured woman raised her head and looked at Shi Jialing with sharp eyes, but her voice softened, "You guessed it too. Maybe you didn't expect that Song people would move so fast."
"Yes, I thought it would be next summer at the earliest. But I didn't expect that it would start this autumn." Shi Jialing replied absentmindedly.
"I didn't expect it either. But after thinking about it carefully, I think it makes sense. The people of Song Dynasty prepared for the Western Expedition for ten years."
Shi Jialing stared at the injured woman and asked rudely: "What do you know?"
"I am a businessman who travels between Balashagon and Liangzhou. I have traveled along the Hexi trade route many times. I know that people from the Song Dynasty traveled from Lanzhou to Liangzhou, and then between Guazhou and Shazhou.
No expense was spared in the construction. Almost all the wells dug in the Han and Tang Dynasties were restored, and hundreds of new wells were dug. Thousands of water reservoirs were built, hidden in adobe and stone houses."
"Fourteen county towns and 121 fortresses were built along the way...I heard that the Song Dynasty people spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build the main road from Xi'an through Xianyang, Qizhou, Longzhou to Qinzhou.
It extends to Lanzhou and Liangzhou. Then it is connected to the Kundun National Highway in Tongguan, Luoyang, and Kaifeng, and the Haiwei Highway becomes the Hailiang Highway."
"At that time, like everyone else, I thought that the people of the Song Dynasty who focused on commerce only wanted to make it easier for business and travel. Now I think about it, it makes business and travel easier on weekdays, and it makes it easier to mobilize troops during wartime."
"I also heard that starting from the thirteenth year of the Apocalypse, the Song people gradually rotated their armies, and tens of thousands of elite troops were stationed in Hexi... Now that I think about it, everything is for today's thunderous strike..."
The woman's voice was like the sound of horse hooves on bluestone, crisp and powerful. Shi Jialing and Shi Jialuluo looked at each other, and both saw panic in each other's eyes.
"The night before yesterday, we left Yinzhou City and saw a fire there." Shi Jialing continued.
"The Qinglong Banner cavalry of the Song Dynasty entered Yinzhou City. The defenders were in chaos and either surrendered or fled. The defender of Yinzhou City, Bilege's cousin, had some guts and led hundreds of people to resist desperately. In desperation, he set fire behind closed doors."
The injured woman was silent for a while and replied.
"Just burned the city guard's mansion?" Shi Jialing felt a little more relaxed. "I thought the entire city of Yinzhou was burned."
"If the whole city of Yinzhou was burned, it would not only be a small fire, but also much more tragic. The people of the Song Dynasty did not have a deep hatred for Gaochang State, and they would not burn the city like they did in Liangzhou and Xingqing City."
Shi Jialing felt that this woman was very mysterious. She seemed to know the people of the Song Dynasty very well, and her feelings for the people of the Song Dynasty were also very complicated, with both love and hate.
After a moment of silence, the injured woman perhaps didn't like the silence, so she took the initiative to ask.
"You also ran away from Yinzhou City?"
"No, we ran away from the Great Buddha Temple."
"The Great Buddha Temple? The Great Buddha Temple in Nazhi City, fifteen miles west of Yinzhou City?"
"Yes."
The injured woman looked at the brother and sister Shijialuluo and Shijialing with strange eyes.
"You shouldn't have run out. It's much safer in the Great Buddha Temple than here."
Shi Jialing was stunned for a moment and asked involuntarily: "Why?"
"In this Western Expedition, in addition to revenge against the Western Kara Khanate, another important purpose of the Song people was to restore the grandeur of the Buddhist kingdom in the Western Regions. So they would never harass the temple, but would just change the name to Chayuan. Everything
As usual, we will still protect it.”
Shijialuluo said dissatisfiedly: "The Buddha Dharma in Gaochang is prosperous, and it is already a Buddhist kingdom on earth."
The injured woman's veil was still there, and Shi Jialing couldn't see her face clearly, but he could see a smile in her beautiful eyes.
"The Gaochang Kingdom is now only an earthly Buddhist state for the Uighurs, not an earthly Buddhist state for the Song people."
Shijialuluo was stunned for a moment, and it took him a while to realize the meaning of the injured woman's words. He couldn't help but angrily said: "Song people are too domineering!"
"If other countries in the world were as powerful and prosperous as the Song Dynasty, they might be even more domineering."
82 Chinese website This chapter has been completed!
