The weather in early spring was very cold. As soon as the heavy frost pressed down, it formed into fine ice foam and scattered over the vast wilderness.
Looking from a distance, a jet-black cavalry team is winding along the ancient silk road. Every time the rider takes a step, he must take time to rub his palms and exhale hot breath to ensure that the fingers holding the reins will not freeze.
.It is a pity that the hot breath they exhaled did not warm their almost numb fingers, but the unkind God sucked away the warmth and formed a thin layer of frost. At this time, the riders would rub off the thin frost with all their strength,
Stretch your sore and swollen back so that you can muster the strength to continue moving forward.
Both sides of the road are lined with dead poplar trees, standing proudly and unyieldingly, silently watching the passers-by.
Throughout the ages, the total number of caravans that have walked on this ancient road is countless, and the piles of yellow sand that have rolled through this desert are countless.
The pursuit of fame and fortune has existed in ancient times and exists today. It exists in the West and in the East.
The journey on the ancient road has changed one after another, but the only things that remain unchanged are the desert, the rising sun, and the long river.
Li Kuo, the military envoy from Shule, rode on the "Qingfeng" and walked at the forefront of the team.
The weather is very cold, but what is colder than the weather is the human heart. No matter how cold the weather is, there will be times when it gets warmer. But if the human heart is really cold, can it still return to the moment when the blood burst out?
"Brother Qi, Brother Qi... you should go faster. Don't take the official road or pass the city gate when marching. It's best, it's best to take a detour through the desert!"
"No, don't hesitate. Don't stop when you leave Chang'an. Remember, don't enter the city gate if you can't. After leaving Yangguan, go all the way west and don't look back!"
In the past few days, these two sentences from Pei Hui would appear in his mind every time he set up camp to rest. Pei Hui's panicked and frightened expression did not seem to be fake, but if asked carefully, he would not say what happened.
....
"Brother Kuo'er, do we really want to follow the route set by Big Pie Face? If we don't follow the great official road, we have already suffered losses along the way. Now that we leave Ganzhou, we have to live sucking yellow sand every day.
?”
Zhang Yanji urged his horse to catch up and complained. He didn't blame him. Before leaving Liangzhou, there was still a good official road to take, but Brother Kuoer listened to the big pie face and took a long detour. This is good.
As soon as you leave Liangzhou, the entire territory of Ganzhou is covered with Gobi sand. There is no need to choose. There is only one path between heaven and earth!
Now that we have arrived at the border of Suzhou, we can obviously take the southern route, but we have to go north to eat the sand...
This big face is definitely Ni Xin.
I don’t know if Ni Xin has great powers or has sent someone to keep an eye on Li Kuo. In short, the night before the young man led the team to set off, she took the initiative to find him and shamelessly acted as their guide. Since they had cooperated before, Li Kuo naturally
It’s hard to say no.
The young man felt knotty in his heart because of Pei Hui's words, and after discussing with Ni Xin, he decided to take a detour and take the northern route. The northern route of the Silk Road was more desolate and more dangerous, but this danger came from sand bandits rather than the imperial court.
That day, from the look in Pei Hui's eyes, Li Kuo was at least certain that his threat came from Yang Zhao.
Whether he was seeking skin from a tiger, or whether he was trapping himself in a cocoon. In short, the boy and Yang Zhao completely broke up, and even the last fig leaf was left behind!
Since Pei Hui took the initiative to find him to warn him, it proved that Yang Zhao was indeed cruel. Li Kuo had no doubt that Yang Zhao would kill him because of his own selfish interests. For a person with a gangster background, it was very easy to make this decision. That's it.
Generally speaking, Yang Zhao is more suitable for internal fighting than Li Linfu.
Therefore, the young man would rather take the northern route and risk encountering sand bandits than pass through various military fortresses along the way.
"Taking the northern route has its advantages. Don't you think the sky is very blue today?"
Li Kuo reached out and touched the sky, and smiled slightly.
"That's right, people have to change their mood sometimes, and they can't do everything the same way!" Dou Qing only followed Li Kuo's lead in everything, and he unconditionally supported his general in this matter.
"Well, it's really blue, but my ears are almost frozen off. When I think about the hot water in the fortress along the way, I feel a stiffness in my stomach." Zhang Yanji, however, showed no appreciation and pouted.
muttered.
"Speed up and get to Yumen Pass. There will be hot water to drink. Come on!" Li Kuo whipped his horse whip and rushed out with a big smile.
...
...
Throwing the headless corpse back, Ni Xin frowned.
According to her judgment, this group of people should be a group of merchants. More than 20 of them have lost their heads, so the other party must be cruel and ruthless! Such behavior can only be done by sand pirates. It seems that this journey will not go down well.
Not easy.
However, there are nearly 3,000 of them. Even the largest group of wild wolves in the desert cannot eat such a large camel in one bite. However, if the wolves are hungry, they will also attack prey that is several times larger than themselves.
attack.
With one bite after another, no matter how big the camel is, its flaws will be revealed and it will be eaten.
This fat camel obviously has enough capital to attract wolves to attack. And this capital is everyone's horses, armor and weapons.
"They died not long ago." Master Ni said these words coldly, as if it was normal for more than twenty lives to disappear in the desert.
"The same body and head are missing, I think it's a sand thief." Ni Xin leaned against the wooden box and warmed her cold fingers by the bonfire. It was her idea to choose this earthen enclosure in the lee of the wind. In the desert
When walking, it is most unfavorable to camp in the open air. The yellow sand in the sky is most likely to eat people. One moment, there may be hundreds of animals standing there, and the next moment, they will be swallowed up by the yellow sand without leaving any bones or residue.
Li Kuo moved towards Guard Ni and said, "In your opinion, how likely is it that we will encounter sand bandits?" He was not really worried about encountering sand bandits. If there were sand bandits, he would see more than two thousand armed to the teeth.
The cavalry team rushed forward without their lives, and everyone did not mind using the swords in their hands to teach them how to behave. However, at the end of the night, it seemed that this was the most appropriate way to start the chat with Master Ni.
"Fifty or five points, I can't tell clearly." Ni Xin pointed to the direction to the north and said: "Two hundred miles away is Yumen Pass, and to the south is Yang Pass. Beyond Yumen Pass is the boundary of Anxi. Before that, it was Hexi.
.Sand bandits most like to operate in border areas, so that neither side will waste time to conquer them."
"This is a good strategy. The sand pirates will definitely make a lot of money by doing this." Li Kuo smiled and joined in the conversation.
"You are wrong, they do this just to live a better life!"