Peng Yisheng said: "Compared with the whole of China, it is not much inferior, and some people even say that the Western Regions are much bigger than China!"

Liu Yundao: "I knew that the Western Regions were very large, but I didn't expect it to be so big. ”

Peng Yisheng said: "But do you know how many people there are in the Western Regions?"

Liu Yun could only shake his head.

Peng Yisheng said: "It's less than half of China's, do you know what this concept is? That is to say, if you can see people here for five miles, it will take ten miles to see them when you reach the Western Regions." ”

Liu Yundao: "We can walk 200 miles a day, which means that even if there is less than half of the population, we can see at least ten groups of people a day." ”

Peng Yisheng smiled: "Have you ever seen paddy fields and houses these days?"

Liu Yundao: "I've seen tents. ”

Peng Yisheng said: "The reason why people in the Western Regions are reluctant to build houses but are willing to live in tents is not that tents are comfortable to live in, but that they are often moving, and it can also be said that they have no fixed place to live. So you can meet people here today, maybe tomorrow they'll move out. This is still a place with abundant water and grass, and if the land is barren, there is no one to live in. Half of the place is a desert where there is not even a single grass, and no matter how skilled a person is, there is no water or food waiting for him but death! Therefore, if we want to go to Ulabe, we must find a caravan to accompany us, so that they can have the experience of walking in the desert, so that the danger can be minimized. ”

Liu Yundao: "How long do we have to wait?"

Peng Yisheng said: "I have long been aware that there is only one caravan going to the Western Regions these days, and they will set off the day after tomorrow." ”

Liu Yun asked, "Then what do we need to prepare?"

Peng Yisheng said: "I have already agreed with the people of the caravan to let them prepare food and water for two more people, so what you have to do now is to take a rest, and you can set off with the caravan the day after tomorrow." ”

……

Finally waiting for the day of departure, Liu Yun came to the departure assembly place early, he thought that he could leave early in the morning, but who would have thought that the caravan would have to travel once, it was more troublesome than he thought.

No matter where the people do things, they have to be auspicious, and the caravan is no exception, and even surpasses it. It took half a day to complete the ritual of sacrificing and praying for blessings, and by the time we set off, it was almost noon.

After Peng Yisheng's introduction, Liu Yun felt that he already knew, but after he experienced it himself, he realized that what Peng Yisheng said was ten times more difficult than his own experience! After coming out, Liu Yun swore that he would never go to the Western Regions again.

The itinerary of the caravan is very different from the itinerary of ordinary people, and their daily itinerary is fixed. Wherever they go every day, they have to rest, and if they walk more than 50 miles a day, and when they walk less, they don't have 40 miles, because there must be a water source where they stop every day, and the water source is the most important thing to walk in the Western Regions. The captains of these caravans all have many years of experience in walking the Western Regions, and they know where there will be water, which I don't know how many people have exchanged their lives for experience.

Although Liu Yun was very anxious in his heart, he had no choice but to follow the caravan and move forward slowly.

It took seven days to come to the edge of the desert, where the caravan was going to stop early today, and they had to prepare half a month's worth of food and water, because for the next half month, they would spend the next half month in the desert, and there was no place to supply food and water.

The desert sun is shining brightly during the day, and people step on the sand as if they are stepping on a red-hot iron plate, and they can't stand at all. Walking like this for a day is only thirty miles, Liu Yun has never understood why not walk faster in this harsh environment, Peng Yisheng told him: "If you can get out of the desert in just one day, it is nothing to rush as fast as possible, but this is a desert, and it is much slower to recover the physical strength consumed in a day than in other places." If you rush desperately for more than ten days, you will be tired to death halfway. ”

The desert at night and during the day are two different extremes, the desert is desperately hot during the day, and at night, it is bitterly cold, even if you wear a thick leather jacket, it is shivering, and the caravan camels form a circle to block the bitter evening wind. Liu Yun roamed the rivers and lakes all year round, and he could adapt to any environment, but he never fell asleep tonight, the wind blew in his ears all night, as if there were thousands of beasts roaring, how could he sleep.

Peng Yisheng walked over and patted him on the shoulder, and said, "I didn't sleep all night last night, right?"

Liu Yundao: "How do you know?"

Peng Yisheng said: "No one can sleep the first time they come to the desert, and I didn't fall asleep when I first came. ”

Liu Yun sighed: "I didn't expect this to be much more difficult than you said. ”

Peng Yisheng said: "You haven't encountered the real difficulties yet." ”

Liu Yun said: "It seems that I am still not prepared enough for difficulties." ”

Five days later, Liu Yun was able to fall asleep at night, not because he was used to this kind of life, but because he was tired and exhausted, he could sleep even if he couldn't sleep.

The cold wind at night in the desert will never get tired, and it will never stop, and Liu Yun can't take care of it anymore.

Suddenly, the camel became restless, waking up Liu Yun, who was sleeping. There has never been a case of a camel being frightened for so many days, and the camel will only be frightened in the middle of the night if it encounters a living person. There is only one kind of people left in the desert besides the caravan, the sand pirates!

Liu Yun listened carefully, and there was a rustling sound, which was the sound of people stepping on the sand, and sure enough, there were sand thieves.

Sand thieves, robbers in the desert are sand thieves, what they do is much more cruel than robbers, robbers generally do not hurt people's lives when they rob things, unless someone desperately does not want the goods to be snatched away. Not only will the sand thieves steal everything from the caravan, but they will not let anyone go, and there is only one way to survive, and they will also become sand thieves. The sand pirates did so that all the caravans would resist desperately whenever they encountered them.

Although the people in the caravan have also practiced martial arts for a few days, they are only third-rate skills at most, and no one wants to come if they want to find someone with better skills.

The sound of this group of sand thieves walking was almost inaudible, Peng Yisheng's breathing was still so smooth, and he was sleeping soundly, Liu Yun touched him gently.

Peng Yisheng said: "Are you awake too?"

Liu Yun said: "It turns out that you have been awake. ”

Peng Yisheng said: "There are at least twenty or thirty people listening to the voice, but it doesn't look like the footsteps of sand thieves, although their footsteps are calm, they don't look like people who have practiced martial arts." ”

Liu Yun said: "It's understandable that there are one or two sand thieves who don't have martial arts, but they don't know martial arts, what do you think is going on?"

Peng Yisheng said: "No matter what's going on with him, we ......"

A shouting interrupted their conversation.

"No one is allowed to move!"

The people of the caravan all woke up at once, and looked at the group of people around them, everyone's faces turned white with fright, and they hurriedly went to get their weapons.

Immediately two men came up and knocked out the weapons in their hands, and looked like they were well-trained, not like sand thieves at all, but like officers and soldiers.

In the hazy moonlight, I saw that there were more than thirty people in this group, and each of them was dressed differently from the sand thieves, and all of them covered their faces with cloths. Sand thieves never cover their faces, not because they are not afraid of being recognized, but because no one knows them at all, and everyone who has seen them is dead.

Peng Yisheng said: "You are not sand thieves, why are you here to rob the caravan's goods?"

"Who says we're not sand pirates?

In fact, when he said this, he was telling others that they were not sand thieves, and that sand thieves would kill people as soon as they came up, where would they talk so much nonsense with people.

The people of the caravan had already seen it, so they didn't resist desperately.

Peng Yisheng said: "Regardless of whether you are sand thieves or not, you don't want to take away a thing today." ”

"Uncle Peng, is that you?" the leading sand thief heard that Peng Yisheng's voice was very familiar, and hurriedly asked.

"I'm Peng Yisheng, who are you?" Peng Yisheng asked.

"I'm Mu Chai, Uncle Peng. ”

Mu Chai, the personal guard of the begging back, is also a friend of the begging back who grew up together, since the first accident, every time the beggar comes back to Xijing Muchai is with him, not an inch.

Peng Yisheng said: "Mu Chai, why are you here?"

Peng Yisheng saved the life of the beggar, and also helped him buy the goods and bring them back, which can be said to have saved the lives of his entire tribe, so he had to marry Peng Yisheng as a brother anyway, Peng Yisheng was two years older than the beggar back, so Peng Yisheng became the eldest brother. Mu Chai is also very grateful to Peng Yisheng and has always called him Uncle Peng.

Mu guessed: "Uncle Peng, we are fleeing for our lives and fleeing here." ”

Peng Yisheng said: "Escape, tell me what's going on?"

Mu Chai suddenly knelt down in front of Peng Yisheng and cried: "Uncle Peng, you have to save the life of the young patriarch!"