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The long river is far above the white clouds, a lonely city and ten thousand mountains. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Why should Qiang Di complain about the willows, the spring breeze does not cross the Yumen Pass.

……

A poem "Liangzhou Ci" vividly illustrates what kind of place Liangzhou is.

Plateau environment, the terrain is very high, sparsely populated, the mountains surround both sides of the lonely city, travelers do not have to play the Qiang flute to complain that the willows are not green, because this place is desolate, lonely and lonely, and the spring breeze cannot blow into the Yumen Pass at all.

Liangzhou, an important border state of the Great Zhou Kingdom, most of the area is the Gobi Desert, lack of rainfall, the agricultural structure is semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral, the economic development is backward, multi-ethnic mixed and mixed, and the western border, facing two nomadic kingdoms: one is the "Turkic State" on the northwest grassland, and the other is the "Tufan State" on the southwest plateau.

These two countries are the two most important border troubles of the Great Zhou State at present, and they have been committing border violations all the year round, especially thirty years ago, the Great Zhou State opened up the Ganquan Corridor, controlled the Western Regions, and reopened the Silk Road.

However, among the three countries, the Turkic and Tufan kingdoms, which were the most powerful in the Great Zhou Dynasty, had been defeated many times and had been suppressed for a long time, and had to unite and form an alliance to attack from both sides in the Western Regions, the Ganquan Corridor and other narrow strips, creating huge military pressure on the Great Zhou.

Therefore, in order to maintain the smooth flow of the Silk Road and the hegemony of the Western Regions, the Great Zhou Dynasty deployed a huge army with a total number of 300,000 people in the area from the Western Regions to Liangzhou. The generals and soldiers of this huge army have been stationed at the border for a long time, for a short period of three or five years, and as long as twenty or thirty years.

And because of the endless war at the border pass, most of the soldiers have taken root here since the day they left their hometown and have never returned to their hometown.

……

Zhou Ming and his entourage, after entering the pale yellow and desert Liangzhou territory, occasionally heard the melodious Qiang flute sound from afar, and the scenery and desert style made Zhou Ming change his poetry style and style all the way, and his thoughts flowed, and sometimes he could write more than a dozen poems a day, and the output of poems was quite amazing.

Yinzhou, an important node on the Silk Road, Zhou Ming and others, in this state, followed a caravan with thousands of camels and mainly sold silk, along an ancient road, all the way to the west, trekking more than 2,000 miles, to the border pass: Yumen Pass.

In the process of following the caravan, Zhou Ming, who wanted to know some about the situation, and those merchants who sold silk, after getting acquainted with each other, after several conversations, Zhou Ming's mind had a more intuitive and clear understanding of the Silk Road.

Why did these merchants go to other lands to sell silk at the risk of desert water shortages, horse bandits, enemy raids, and so on, traveling thousands of miles with their heads pinned to their waists?

Profit, a thousand percent profit.

In the Far Western countries, which are more west than the Western Regions, a piece of silk is more expensive than gold of the same quality, and silk merchants, as long as they successfully sell it, they can return with a full load of gold and silver.

Therefore, attracted by huge profits, even if less than five out of every ten silk merchants can come back, they still can't stop countless merchants from pouring out their wealth and giving it a go.

Moreover, these silk traders will also be protected by the Great Zhou court, and some large caravans, local garrisons, and even escort them, will also clean up the horse bandits around the trade route from time to time to maintain the overall smoothness of the Silk Road...... It shows that the imperial court attaches great importance to it.

Why was the Silk Road so important to the Great Zhou Kingdom?

Zhou Ming believes that it is still due to the lack of gold and silver in the Great Zhou Kingdom, and even the lack of copper coins...... The shortage of various types of circulating currency seriously restricted the benign development of the national economy, so it had to open up the Silk Road and exchange silk for a large amount of gold and silver from abroad.

Therefore, Zhou Ming had great respect for these brave and fearless silk traders who benefited the country and the people, and wrote a few poems praising these merchants...... Zhou Ming's excuse is not good.

Zhou Ming, who enjoyed all kinds of preferential treatment and soon became the most high-profile person in the caravan, regretted it a little in his heart, he knew that this was the case, he should not have revealed his real name before, celebrities also have the troubles of celebrities, if fans all over the world are fanatical about chasing stars to this extent, then he can almost choose to remain incognito, otherwise, his normal life will be seriously affected.

More than 2,000 miles away, Zhou Ming and this caravan, walked for more than a month, in the second half of the journey, but also encountered a group of 1,000 people of the vicious horse bandits, this group of horse bandits is very cunning, in the early morning launched an attack, want to swallow the caravan whole, however, faintly heard the sound of horses' hooves, woke up earlier Zhou Ming, immediately woke up everyone, because he reminded in time, the caravan formed a thick circle, with a very slight loss, successfully repelled the horse bandits.

In the process of fighting the thieves, Zhou Ming, who borrowed a three-stone hard bow, opened his bow and set up arrows, and the arrows were not missing, and shot fifteen horse bandit leaders in a row, which shocked their morale and cheered again and again, and the caravan not only repelled the horse bandits, but also chased and killed several miles, and captured hundreds of horses.

……

"Here, is the Jade Gate closed?"

A whole body is made of loess, the city is about ten meters high, and the circumference is nearly ten miles, which is presented in front of Zhou Ming's eyes.

The periphery of the city is very desolate, and only some drought-tolerant plants such as camel thorns, sand holly, and sand canopy dates grow sporadically in the surrounding soil, and the rest of the place is yellow sand and gravel.

Yumen Pass.

The three simple white characters on the city gate clearly told Zhou Ming that the destination he was about to arrive at had finally arrived.

Yumen Pass, this border fortress pass, has a long history of existence, as early as a thousand years ago, there was a strong dynasty called "Wei", after opening up the Western Regions, 200,000 troops were transferred, which lasted ten years, and built this pass.

And because of this, the pass is close to the Dayin Mountain and the Tianzhu Mountains, the top of the snow mountain, a large amount of snow melts every year, and flows into the underground dark river, after this dark river was discovered by the Kanyu Division, the Yumen Pass, which is located on this dark river, provides a large amount of fresh water, which is enough to meet the drinking water needs of hundreds of thousands of people.

Therefore, Yumen Pass is an important stop on the Silk Road, where all caravans will replenish fresh water.

In Yumen Pass, there is not only a garrison of 50,000 people, but also hundreds of inns, warehouses, restaurants, and restaurants. Supporting money village casinos, bathhouse brothels, and also available.

Even, here, Zhou Ming unexpectedly saw a "Zihua Book House" that has been open for half a year and has a thriving business...... He couldn't help but look at the manager of this Zihua Bookstore, because this place is not within the scope of the ten states in the world, the manager of this Zihua Bookstore can find business opportunities here and successfully open a store, which is enough to prove that he is a talent, who is full of courage and dares to think and dare to do, so after some encouragement, Zhou Ming appointed him as the "general agent of the Western Regions", and the Zihua Bookstore opened in the Western Regions in the future will be taken care of by him.

The store manager was moved and almost wanted to kneel.

And with those silk vendors building momentum, plus this "Zihua Book House" as the foundation, so, in less than half a day, a team of well-equipped soldiers rushed to the inn where Zhou Ming and others stayed, and said: General Su Lie, the general manager of the Ganzhou march, invited Mr. Zihua to go to the governor's mansion as a guest, and the banquet has been prepared......

The soldiers at the head were very respectful.

Zhou Ming nodded, cleaned up a little, and followed this group of soldiers, passed through the triple city gate, walked past one group after another of armor-wearing soldiers, walked for more than ten minutes, and finally saw the owner who was waiting here for tea time in the living room of the governor's mansion - an old man wearing a green robe, white hair and beard, and sharp eyes.

"Are you Tian Zihua?" After seeing Zhou Ming, the old man was stunned at first and blurted out.

"Exactly!" Zhou Ming bowed his hand slightly, raised his head and chest, and said neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"Young, really young! When the old man was your age, he was just a general who commanded a thousand people, but you have already moved the world and become more famous than the old man, and the future is terrifying, and the future is terrifying!" The old man sighed and sighed with emotion: "This practice of martial arts is really not as good as Xi Wen now......

Hearing the old man's words, Zhou Ming, who had a rather serious expression, suddenly smiled and said:

"Where did the old general say this? The boy grew up listening to your story, you even pacified the Eastern and Western Turks, conquered Gaoji four times, destroyed the Three Kingdoms and captured the three kings, and repeatedly defeated Tufan, shocking the countries of the Western Regions...... If there were no generals here to guard the pass, the world would have been in chaos, and how could there be a stable life for the people? How could there be a chance for a boy to show off his name? He would rather be a centurion than a scholar, and compared with the old general, the boy would be useless, and he would not have laughed!"

"Hahaha!"

The old man was full of red light when he was said, pointed at Zhou Ming and laughed: "Okay, you Mr. Hua! The old man thought that you were a talented and arrogant person, but he didn't expect that you would also shoot other people's ass...... Hahaha, laughing old man!"

The old man's laughter was like thunder, shaking the roof tiles, and he didn't look like an old man in his seventies.

And this old man, really known as the "God of War of the Great Zhou", has been a thief in the army with his father since he was fifteen years old, has been an emperor of three dynasties, participated in dozens of major battles, won countless victories, destroyed several countries, and has never fought any defeats.

However, although the old general has great military achievements, he also has some high achievements, so he has not been able to get the great use of the imperial court, he is like a brick, where he needs to move there, so, where there is a police on the border of the Great Zhou Kingdom, and the situation is developing towards erosion, sending the god of war Su Lie out has become a subconscious choice of the court.

For these arrangements of the imperial court, General Su Lie has no regrets, in the past 50 years, from north to west, from west to south, many states in the world, have left traces of the war god's conquest, and this god of war is not good at money, strict management of the army, love soldiers like a son, not only deeply loved by the soldiers, but also have a very positive and good impression in the hearts of tens of millions of people in the Great Zhou Kingdom.

The surrounding enemy countries respected and feared him, and they reached the level of committing many offenses, and once they heard that General Su Lie was coming, they ordered the withdrawal of troops.

Therefore, in front of this respectable old general, Zhou Ming did not dare to put his "Mr. Zihua" score at all, but served him as an elder and treated him respectfully.

Su Lie was very satisfied with his attitude, and was slapped by him from time to time, and he couldn't close his mouth with a smile, and thought that he was a friend of the year, and after that, the two often discussed the elements of marching and winning the war, and sometimes they would be inextricably contested, such as when he heard a weapon described by Zhou Ming, as long as 10,000 people are equipped, they can defeat 100,000 people head-on, the old general shouted ridiculous, if there is really such a weapon, he is still stationed in this bitter cold place? Tufan two countries, to quickly extinguish......

The topic of poetry and literature is rarely discussed by the two.

Two days later.

The old and young who talked happily with each other called some people, rode horses together, went out of the Yumen Pass, and enjoyed the scenery outside the Saiwai.

Standing on a tall sand dune, the breeze blows, looking at the desert scenery of the yellow sand in front of you, under the sunset, the wild geese fly north, not far from the mountain, a nearly vertical smoke rises, Zhou Ming, who suddenly came to the inspiration, composed a poem, and wrote on the spot "Zheng Peng out of Weisai, return to the wild goose into Hu Tian." The desert is lonely, and the sun sets over the long river. The famous sentence of the ages.

However, after this poem was made, it did not attract a lot of applause, Zhou Ming turned his head to look, but found that the old general and several lieutenant generals, all with serious faces, looked at the column of pitch-black smoke, and after it rose three times in a row, the deputy general on the side arched his hand to the old general and said: "The big manager, the wolf smoke is three pillars, and the enemy army should be more than 100,000 people!"

"Go back to the customs, gather the generals' drums, prepare the grain, grass and ordnance, and prepare to go to the battle!" The old general, whose momentum had completely changed, issued a number of military orders in an instant.

"No!"

All the generals are all in agreement!

……

Half a day later, a horse entered the city and reported urgently: "Report! Tufan Lun Zanqin led 100,000 troops to storm Stone City, Stone City Guard Zhang Yuan, please send troops to rescue, within five days, reinforcements must arrive!"