It was a long, long time ago, and when I opened the oldest book, yes, a book and not a book, the kind of book that was made of bamboo boards and counted the days in detail, it was about two thousand, nay, three thousand years old.

The walls of Luoyang City are wide and heavy, made of rice milk, and can withstand any heavy sword cut. From early in the morning, there was a long queue into the city, and peasant women carried bamboo baskets with eggs in them. The nobles sat in the carriage, and the jujube red horse pulling the cart made a long nose, and it had a round fat belly.

The city keeper pushed open the gate and sounded a brass gong and drum:

"Let's start in town!"

The city of Luoyang is full of peonies. "Clouds want clothes, flowers want to look, and the spring breeze blows Revlon. If it weren't for the jade mountain, it would meet Yaotai under the moon. ”

Graceful and luxurious, the country is fragrant. The grand event of peony attracted tens of millions of people to watch. The Emperor and Empress also decreed:

"The one with the most bright red, the most gorgeous, and the most outstanding demeanor, let's make her Mrs. Wei."

According to folklore, Mrs. Wei can be transformed into a human form, and she gave birth to two equally beautiful daughters, the older one is called Ge Jin, and the younger one is called Jade Plate.

Everyone can see the beauty of peonies, how beautiful they are in human form, it can also be imagined, because in Luoyang City, in addition to peony flowers, the most is the beauty of the ring of fat swallows, those beauties can grow three layers of chins, the emaciated waist and limbs are not full of hand, the face is not full of Fu powder but rouge is rippling, and the clothes are flying in action.

In the large and small taverns in Luoyang City, there are also rangers who come and go, they carry swords on their backs, and the legend is that they can rob the rich and help the poor, and they roar when they see injustice. Legend has it that you can be furious. Blood spattered five steps without frowning, but the rangers' favorite thing to do is actually to pour bowls of wine to satisfy their hunger.

Luoyang is so good, Luoyang is so good, peony, beauty, ranger.

The businessmen slept in the open air, traveled thousands of miles to Luoyang, and bowed down sincerely. Give all they have. Grapes, walnuts, carrots, peppers, beans, cabbage, pomegranates, ......

What they prayed for was the silk of Luoyang!

The affluent Luoyang happily met the needs of the merchants, and the merchants were in a row. Carrying a carriage full of silk, he set off from Luoyang.

The caravan crossed the lush Liupan Mountains and walked along the Zuli River to the Yellow River in northern Shaanxi. They would take a boat for a while, and the waves crashed on both sides. Merchant ships are fully loaded and eat deep water.

Leaving the boiling Yellow River, from Zhangye to Dunhuang via Jiuquan and Guazhou.

The sand of Dunhuang is the best, fine and well-grained. Colorful, sliding up on it, there will be a rumbling sound of rustling.

When I arrived in Dunhuang, I began to walk into the desert. The best means of transportation in the desert is the camel.

Some people call camels the ships of the desert because they are like boats on the Yellow River. This creature is the master of the desert, and with clear eyes blinking, it will be your most loyal companion.

The young camel has enough body to carry nearly a thousand pounds of cargo. Older camels are more useful, they can know the road, let the sky be full of rolls, the four fields are exactly the same yellow sand, as long as they walk once, they will remember the road.

The camels walked in long formations and could go without water for a month. In such a lonely and long journey, there is also the crisp camel bell, jingle bell, jingle bell, melodious and long camel bell.

"The desert is lonely." When a bonfire is lit, a wisp of green smoke will rush straight into the sky, because there is no wind.

"The sun sets over the long river." This is too coarse and white, where the sunset is not round? But when you close your eyes, the sunset is like imprinting on your heart, and there is no other word to describe this picture.

Walking in the desert for too long, the merchants silently endured their thirst, they exchanged a few words in the simplest language, their dry lips could not withstand even such a small movement, the skin on the lips cracked, and red blood beads spread, moistening the lips for a short time.

There is snow on the top of the Tianshan Mountains and Kunlun all year round, the sun shines brightly, the snow turns into water, and the water flows, half of it evaporates into steam under the mountain, and the other half penetrates deeply into the ground, forming an underground river.

Mountains and rivers rise and fall, and under certain physical laws, the underground river water is exposed to the water, forming an oasis.

The oasis is the place that pedestrians in the desert most desire, and the largest oasis is called Loulan, which is large enough to build a country.

When the caravan arrived here, they all stopped to rest, and Loulan entertained them with water and singing and dancing. Some people who miss their hometown can leave their goods behind and turn them back from now on, because this oasis is the largest commodity distribution center between the East and the West, where merchants from the West to the East and merchants from the East to the West exchange what they have.

In the imagination of the poets of Middle-earth, Loulan is the end of the world.

"Qinghai Changyun Dark Snow Mountain, the lonely city looks at Yumen Pass. The yellow sand wears gold armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will not be returned if it is not broken. ”

Of course, this is not the end, and further west, there are also the Dawan Kingdom, the Kangju Kingdom, the Indian Kingdom, the Rest Country, the Arab State, the Western Turkic State, and the Body Poison Country. Then came Europe, the sword and the rose of France. Castles and knights of England.

In these places, silk from the East was more expensive than gold, and for hundreds of years, one pound of silk could be exchanged for one or two pounds of gold.

The aristocratic maidens were able to wear silk from the East, which could vaguely reveal their delicate curves, accompanied by dancing movements, and the figure of the girl was deeply intoxicated.

Egypt's most famous queen loved silk from the East, and wore it to induce Julius Caesar, who was followed by Antony, and the two kings of the Roman Empire bowed down to her silk dress and could willingly obey her.

At that time, the kings of Babylon and the Persian empire also loved silk from the East, and he said that there were two things that could not be separated from every day, fresh fish from the Aegean Sea and clothes from the East.

Man lives between heaven and earth, and every day when he opens his eyes, he has to think about food and clothing. In this respect, the emperor and the beggar are no different.

For more than 3,000 years, in the impression of all people, China is a country rich in silk. All people, from beggars to kings, from young children to old people.

But then, in Europe, when a woman named Jenny overturned her loom, this old understanding actually changed. The Industrial Revolution began, thousands of years of habits were overturned, and foreign yarn and cloth flocked to the Chinese market.

It turns out that this silk empire is vulnerable!

……

I'll see you tomorrow in the next chapter. (To be continued.) )