(The captain will take a few days off during the Chinese New Year to spend time with his family. I will resume two updates around the 7th. Please forgive me.)
Zhou Yu's five slender fingers were just a tiny bit away from touching the majestic dragon.
Her breathing was extremely rapid, and a pair of plump jade rabbits inherited from her mother were also rising and falling violently.
Yan Liang could even feel the pressure that was pressing tightly against his body and expanding.
"The enemy is attacking at night, the enemy is attacking at night!" A high-pitched warning sound suddenly came from outside the imperial tent.
Yan Liang had not yet reacted, but Zhou Yu, like a frightened little rabbit, retracted his hands into the blanket, quickly closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
When Yan Liang opened his eyes, Zhou Yu's face was half buried in the blanket, looking like he was sleeping soundly.
However, the blush on her face did not fade away so quickly. The wisps of blush betrayed her seemingly sleeping but actually extremely shy heart.
It seems that Shanshan Kingdom launched a night attack.
This group of daring barbarians dared to take the initiative to hit the muzzle of a gun, and even dared to interrupt their own good deeds. They were really looking for death.
Yan Liang's bloodline was gradually extinguishing, and he felt a little unhappy. He wanted to get up and go to work, but he felt that just leaving like this was really not a smooth idea.
Looking at Zhou Yu who was pretending to sleep, a hint of evil flashed through Yan Liang's eyes.
An evil smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he stretched out his arm and slowly inserted it into the blanket covered by Zhou Yu.
Zhou Yu, who was pretending to be asleep, seemed not to have expected that Yan Liang would have the leisure to do such an unexpected "frivolous" move instead of rushing to deal with the enemy's night attack.
This time, Zhou Yu's mind was agitated, and he was embarrassed and at a loss.
Her heartbeat was accelerating rapidly. Her breathing became constricted again, and the redness that had faded suddenly returned to her face in the blink of an eye.
Even so, she could only endure her embarrassment and continue to pretend to sleep.
Seeing that Zhou Yu didn't respond, Yan Liang's hand continued to explore downwards. After a moment, his tiger claws unceremoniously grabbed a piece of warm-smelling nephrite.
At that moment, Zhou Yu's figure trembled violently, as if having a cold war.
The evil smile on Yan Liang's face became even thicker, and he began to caress it gently with his tiger paws.
Zhou Yu, who pretended to be asleep, was already filled with excitement and extremely embarrassed. His breathing was so rapid that he was almost suffocating, and the fragrant sweat on his body was dripping out.
But she didn't dare to open her eyes, so she could only grit her teeth secretly and continue to pretend to sleep.
Yan Liang played with it for a while and felt better. Then he took out his hand with satisfaction and strode out of the tent.
Although the broad and powerful hand was withdrawn, Zhou Yu was still immersed in the surging excitement of his heart, and it took him a while to come back to his senses.
When she opened her blurred eyes and her vision gradually became clearer, she realized that the inner tent was empty and she was the only one left.
"Shh~~" Zhou Yu let out a long breath, and his delicate body seemed to have collapsed.
After breathing for a long time, Zhou Yu's turbulent emotions gradually calmed down.
In her mind, the image of the dragon rising up suddenly appeared again, which made her heart pound and jump with excitement.
Her hand unconsciously grasped her Jade Rabbit, recalling Yan Liang's tender feeling just now.
Unknowingly, Zhou Yu's soul was trapped in infinite reverie, unable to extricate himself.
…
Outside the tent, Yan Liang had put on his armor and walked out of the imperial tent. Surrounding the tent, more than a thousand dragon cavalry and imperial guards were standing guard, as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
In each camp, warning sounds were sounded, and amid the roar of the wind, one could vaguely hear the hooves of horses running wildly, and the loud sounds of killing.
In this case, someone is indeed attacking at night.
"There is no need for the army to panic. The Shanshan Kingdom only has ten thousand soldiers and horses. They dare not attack in large numbers. The camps will remain stationary and the enemy thieves will naturally retreat." Yan Liang was as calm as a mountain and ordered loudly.
The order quickly spread throughout the camps, and all 60,000 soldiers stayed at their respective posts, standing firm and motionless without any panic.
The discipline and will of the iron-blooded army of Chu that swept across the world were so firm that they could not be disturbed by just a night attack.
The generals each command their own troops and horses and guard the camp strictly. However, if they are attacked by the enemy, they do not need to attack. They can only shoot them with random arrows.
Soon, the camps quickly calmed down. Along the lines of the camp fence, random arrows roared out like locusts, rushing towards the Shanshan people who were hiding in the darkness.
In the dark night, there were faint screams. It was obvious that the enemies hiding in the night were covered by the arrows of the Chu army.
The shouts of death gradually faded away, and after more than an hour, they completely disappeared.
After some harassment, Shanshan's army retreated.
Yan Liang knew that nothing happened, so he asked the generals to continue to be on guard, but he went back to his tent and rested as usual.
When he returned to the inner tent, Zhou Yu had already left on his own, leaving only traces of lingering fragrance.
Yan Liang touched the remaining warmth on the bed. In his mind, he recalled the pleasure of playing with the warm jade rabbit just now. It was really an endless aftertaste.
"The taste of this little girl is not inferior to her mother. I didn't want to take her by force at first, but now it seems that she has moved on, and it's time to take her in."
Yan Liang recalled the wonderful excitement, and gradually gained some stability in his heart.
…
The next day, it was dawn.
Yan Liang led his troops out of the camp and personally inspected the surrounding situation. As expected, he found many corpses, as well as the footprints of a large number of camels and horses, numbering thousands.
Based on these traces, it can be judged that the Shanshan army really wanted to take advantage of the Chu army's unpreparedness and launch a night attack.
"Damn Shanshan people, how dare you come to die yourself and disturb my good deeds!" Yan Liang was annoyed and immediately ordered the entire army to break camp and accelerate towards Loulan.
The 60,000-strong army then set up camp, left Devil City, and marched along the river towards Loulan City.
The army marched for several days, and every night when night came, the Shanshan army would send troops to harass the night attack, but they could not stop the Chu army's advance.
The army stopped advancing. According to the mark on the map, they should have reached the edge of the oasis where Loulan was located. However, what they saw in front of them still seemed to be an endless stretch of Gobi.
Yan Liang became suspicious and rode straight to the front of the army, only to find that the road ahead was blocked by a cliff.
Standing on the bank, Yan Liang raised his eyes and looked into the distance. Like everyone else, he couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.
Directly in front of the field of vision, a huge basin appeared, filled with smoke.
It is a huge oasis sunken in the Gobi.
The scene in front of me was so spectacular that I could not express it in words. Not only the ordinary soldiers, but also Yan Liang were surprised by it.
Even Ma Su, who had traveled throughout the Western Regions and visited Loulan twice, could not suppress his surprise when he saw this oasis again.
The basin in front of us is very large, and its overall shape is like a huge crater. Looking down from the cliff, we can only see the smoke below, which is almost entirely dense tree crowns. It is difficult to see the specific situation clearly.
Looking from a distance, through the smoke that was occasionally blown away by the wind, I could vaguely see a towering city in the depths of the forest, looming. I think it was Loulan City.
Looking further away, there are lines of green light like scales, where should be Puchang Sea.
"I didn't expect that there is an oasis hidden in the desert of the Western Regions that is even better than the one in the south of the Yangtze River. It is really amazing and amazing." Yan Liang looked down at the oasis and sighed.
Ma Di held the oasis and said: "This Puchanghai oasis is the largest oasis in the Western Region. Most of the oasis forests are located in the northwest. The farther you go into the hinterland, the fewer the trees are. Those original oasis forests have been cut down by the Shanshan people and turned into cultivated land.
.Loulan City and Puchanghai are located to the southeast of the oasis."
Yan Liang admired this natural wonder without much nostalgia. Under Ma Su's guidance, he led his army from the gentle slope in the northwest of the basin and followed the river into the oasis.
"Although this oasis is large, it is still nothing compared to the forests in the Central Plains. If no one had ever lived here, this wonder would probably still exist thousands of years later, but it would be a pity that it would be over-cultivated.
It ended up being a desert."
In later generations, this area was a symbol of barren land. Who would have thought that at this time thousands of years ago, it was a paradise of forests and blue lakes.
The vicissitudes of the sea may be a wonder to people of this era, but Yan Liang, a time traveler, has seen it and cannot help but sigh.
Several avenues have long been opened in the forest, and Loulan people use these roads to communicate with the outside world.
As Ma Di said, the further you go, the forests become sparser and sparse, replaced by patches of fertile fields and villages.
Along the way, all the Shanshan people in the villages were deserted, apparently fleeing to avoid the war.
The army marched for half a day, and a barrier suddenly blocked the way of the Chu army.
The pass in front of us occupied the gap between the forest road and several water systems, and the situation was quite dangerous.
"This pass is called Panshe Pass, and it is the barrier of Loulan City. As long as this place is captured, we can smoothly enter the plains and reach the foot of Loulan City." Ma Di pointed to the Guancheng Road.
Yan Liang raised his head and glanced at Guancheng, with a disdainful sneer on his heroic face.
The people of the Western Regions have really never seen much of the world. The height and thickness of the so-called Xiongguan Pass are at best the level of a county in the Central Plains, let alone compared with the real Xiongguan Pass in the world such as Yangping Pass and Tongguan.
"The army will set up camp, cut down the woods on the spot, and make siege equipment. Within three days, I will capture the Snake Pass and go straight to Loulan City." Yan Liang ordered boldly with a whip.
As a result, the armies set up camp in front of the city, cutting down trees and making massive siege equipment such as ladders and chariots.
The dense forest in the Puchanghai oasis provided enough wooden villages for the Chu army. With such sufficient raw materials, it was not a big deal to build a thunderbolt chariot and a ladder in one go, even a mere Coiled Snake Pass.
Before I knew it, it was getting dark.
The Chu army has finished setting up camp, and the camp is brightly lit.
The trees here are abundant, the water is abundant, and the environment is quite comfortable. Yan Liang even felt a little like returning to the south of the Yangtze River.
The only bad thing is that the environment in the oasis is somewhat similar to that in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are naturally many mosquitoes, which makes the knights, who mostly come from the north, feel quite uncomfortable.
Fortunately, Yan Liang brought many medical officers with him. Yan Liang, who had lived in the south of the Yangtze River for a long time, knew how to avoid mosquitoes, so he asked the medical officers to use herbs to fumigate mosquitoes and remove insects nearby.
The coiled snake was closed, and Princess Yuesha's slender figure stood there, watching the entire process of the Chu army setting up camp.
Late at night, looking at the brightly lit Chu camp, Yuesha's red lips moved slightly, and the corners of her lips curled up into a cold and sly smile.
"The Chu army didn't know what was going on, but they still came to kill us. Very good, it's time to use our deadly weapons."