After the military meeting of the First Route Army of the Western Expedition, more than a dozen stagecoaches hurriedly set off to convey the instructions for the transfer of troops to the garrisons in various parts of Hexi. A few days later, Geng Gong's troops received an order from the commander of the First Route Army, General Dou Gu, the commander of the Che Commander, to send troops, and Dou Marshal ordered all the troops under Geng Gong's jurisdiction to go out of Yumen Pass, cross the vast Gobi Desert, and cooperate with the main force starting from Zhangye. Directly smashed the lair of the king of Huyan, Iwulu (i.e., Hami in later generations).

On the twenty-third day of February in the sixteenth year of Yongping, Geng Gong's troops went out of Yumen Pass, and the troops under his jurisdiction totaled 360 cavalry and 1,500 infantry, a total of less than 2,000 people. To Yumen Pass to walk through the Hexi Corridor, Liangzhou is the east end of the corridor, Yumen Pass is the west end of the corridor, it is located in the west of the Yellow River, and between the Qilian Mountain and the Horsehair Mountain, about a thousand miles long, so it is called the Hexi Corridor.

Before the Han Dynasty, this place belonged to the Xiongnu. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to drive the Huns away, and the loss of this place made the Huns very sad, and there was a folk song that sang the sorrow in their hearts. In the marching procession, Li Tong rode on a horse and couldn't help but think of this folk song: Losing my Qilian Mountain makes my six animals restless. The loss of my self and the mountains have made my wife colorless.

Yumen Pass is the throat to the Western Regions. As early as before the Han Dynasty, during the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods, the jade of Kunlun Mountain was transported to the mainland through here. Therefore, it has long been named Yumen Pass. Of course, it was not only jade that passed through Yumen Pass, but later, everything was available, such as wheat, carrots, walnuts, huqin, pipa, and many things to eat and play, all of which were transmitted to the mainland through Yumen Pass.

Just a few years ago, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty sent people from here to Tianzhu Kingdom, brought back two monks and many Buddhist books from there, and built China's first Buddhist monastery in Luoyang, called the White Horse Temple. Li Tong has been to the White Horse Temple in his previous life, and for some reason, he doesn't like this temple very much, perhaps because the commercial atmosphere is too strong and the tickets are too expensive. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile.

The Yumen Pass is too important, since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took the Western Regions, the next emperors can be lost elsewhere, and this Yumen Pass will never dare to lose it. Even when the weakest Wang Mang was emperor, he was still heavily guarded. The Great Wall built from Qin Shi Huang to deal with the Xiongnu has been being repaired, and by the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, it had been repaired to the Yumen Pass. It is with this Great Wall that the defenders have a barrier to rely on, connecting the mountain-like pass castle, so that the Xiongnu want to return to the Hexi Corridor, which can only be a pipe dream. Unless it's a civil strife in the Han Dynasty, don't even think about it.

Out of the Yumen Pass, and then go forward, everything seems to have changed a lot. The road cannot be said to be none, but it is neither flat nor wide. Some sections of the road are still covered by sand and grass, but you will not find the road, and the traces left by hundreds of years have been engraved on the land and will not disappear easily. There are no more villages, not even herders. This has nothing to do with the war, the main reason is that there are no rivers, and it rarely rains, and under the torture of prolonged drought, even the growth of wild grasses has become difficult. In order for people to live in one place, like plants and animals, some conditions are indispensable. In fact, there are many places that are not suitable for human habitation. Just like the big Gobi Desert in front of them, people will be afraid to go forward when they see it from afar. It is precisely with such a place in the middle that there is a large no-man's land between the Western Regions and the interior.

Li Tong rode on his war horse, looked at the wilderness in front of him, and secretly thought in his heart, if there was a lot of water and grass here, I am afraid that the mainland and the Western Regions would have been connected as a whole long ago. At the same time, Li Tong was also in a reverie, the first person to go from the Western Regions to the mainland, or from the mainland to the Western Regions, is really amazing. Who is this man? There is no record in the history books. In fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were contacts between the Western Regions and the Central Plains, and the so-called "Jade out of Kungang" is about Hetian jade from the Western Regions. Now it seems that there must have been another person who first opened up this mountain road, and in an earlier time, perhaps thousands of years ago, tens of thousands of years ago, he walked on this road, and the years are like songs, but we will never know his name.

There are two military forces of the Northern Xiongnu in the Western Regions, one is the king of South Huyan, and the other is the king of Zuoluli. The stronghold of the king of Nanhuyan was in the city of Iwulu (Hami). King Huyan has been paying attention to the movements of the Han Dynasty, since last year, the Han army has been gathering, although King Huyan knows that the Han army is not good this time, but King Huyan does not plan to flee from the wind. To tell the truth, there has been no war between the Han and the Huns for decades, and what the Northern Xiongnu left behind is only the memory of several major defeats of the new dynasty army in Wang Mang's era. thought that without Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the country would not have the power of the great empire, and the Han army was a long-distance attack, which would inevitably lead to a lack of people and horses, which would put the Hun army in a position of strength.

People's imagination is often rich, and people on horses seem to be more likely to have reverie. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that there was no reason not to have a decisive battle with the Han army, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was an opportunity given to him by history. has been fighting with the king of Zuolu Li for the throne of the Northern Xiongnu Shan Yu, if the Han army can be blocked from the east gate into the Western Regions, then this Shan Yu does not want to be, and he has to give it to him.

But he didn't know that his opponent also had a group of enthusiastic Han family children, and they also regarded this expedition as an opportunity to serve the country and change their lives. In this era, the throne is ancestral, but heroes don't ask where they come from. If a civilian wants to make a name for himself, it seems that there is no other way than war.

At this point, Geng Gong, who was the first to go out of the fortress, and the king of Nanhuyan had some aspects of agreement, and both of them wanted to become famous in a fight, so the war was no longer a legend. The vanguard army has entered the Western Regions and set up a decisive battle formation. Geng Gong and Huyan Wang's subordinates both adopted a frontal and hard strategy, actively preparing for war and taking the initiative to attack, and the war between the two sides broke out first between the scouts.

Both the Han and Hungarian sides have fought old wars, and both sides understand the truth of "knowing oneself and knowing the other, and only then can one not be defeated in a hundred battles". So in the vast Gobi, the scouts of the two sides launched a fierce confrontation. Fan Qiang was the captain of the scouts and Geng Gong's confidant general, who personally led the 21 scouts in the army to reconnoiter the enemy situation and explore the way for the army. Li Tong was fortunate to be one of the first Han soldiers to fight against the Xiongnu.

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Since the army entered Puchanghai (i.e., Lop Nur), Li Tong's scout team and the scouts under the command of the king of Nanhuyan have broken out countless fierce battles, and the closer they get to Yiwulu, the more frequent the encounters between the two sides, and into April, there is almost no battle. No matter how the form of warfare has changed throughout the ages, the first to lose are the scouts, and as of April 13, more than half of the twenty-one under Fan Qiang's command have been lost, including him, and now there are only nine scouts left. The huge loss made Fan Qiang's heart ache, they are all old brothers who have been together for many years!

To Fan Qiang's surprise, the recruit Li Tong's performance was really eye-catching, and he grew up too fast. This kid is not only strong in martial arts, but also very lucky. In a battle ten days ago, one of the Huns' condor archers had already aimed at him, and this kid actually used his bow arm to block a deadly arrow of the Hun condor archer, and took the opportunity to catch up and kill the other party, capturing a rare good bow.

On this day, the scouts set out ahead of schedule, as usual, and went twenty miles ahead before dawn to explore the way for the army. Just after the hour, the sky was blue, cloudless and windless. The sun burned the air on the western horizon like water. Following Fan Qiang, Li Tong, who was already the head of the scout, was walking on the desert with the allotted military horse, his body could feel the temperature in the air getting higher and higher, and the air exhaled felt scorching.

Wiping his sweat, Li Tong sighed helplessly, his heart full of melancholy. Crossing Lop Nur is gambling with death. As far as he knew, the temperature difference between day and night in the later Lop Nur, which is now Puchanghai, was particularly large. The climate is unusually dry and hot, with an average annual temperature of 11.6 °C, a maximum temperature of > 40 °C in summer, a minimum temperature of -20 °C in winter, and an annual precipitation of 20 mm.

It's only April, and the daytime temperature is over 30 degrees. The large temperature difference between day and night is not terrible, but the most terrible thing is the strong winds here, especially the sandstorms, which are deadly threats. The headache is that March ~ May is the windy season here.

The previous few gale blows of force 8 had already caused the army behind them to lose quite a few sergeants, and the number of missing people had reached fifteen. I was really afraid of something, and when it was close to noon, the wind rose.

The wind swept the sand and covered the earth, and the whole world became gray, and it was impossible to see the way forward. As dusk approached, the wind grew stronger, and a few tumbleweeds flew by. The wind roared all around, and there was chaos between heaven and earth. There was no way, Fan Qiang took the scout team to find a leeward dry river beach, and nothing could be done in such weather, so he could only wait for the storm to pass.

The wind was howling, Li Tong stretched out his hand to test the wind, it was a very strong northeast wind, blowing all over his mouth and nose. He took out a piece of burlap sewn from his rucksack with three rows of ties sewn on it, tied the ties tightly behind his head and tied a dead knot, and wrapped three layers of burlap around his face, revealing only his eyes, and he reluctantly stood up, and tied three layers of burlap to his horse's face as well, for he knew the importance of doing so. A gust of wind mixed with sand struck, knocking Li Tong to the ground who was trying to stand up, and the quiver hanging on his waist was blown straight back, and the iron feather arrow had flown into the wind and sand.

In the chaos of the sand, everyone and the horses knelt on the ground against the wind, and everyone clung to the saddle so that they would not be swept away by the wind. The astonishing wind wrapped in dense sand and gravel made it harder and harder for Li Tong to breathe. He tried his best to carry the water bladder, and despite being scratched by the camel's thorns, his hands groped on the ground for a while, and finally touched the Han sword stuck in the sand. As night fell, the wind became more and more powerful, almost carrying people off the ground, and the sand that shot straight through it was already able to break the skin, and a rare sandstorm began.

Under the small slope, the people who were close at hand could not see each other at all, and now everyone could only fight alone. Li Tong clasped the saddle with his hands, pressed the hilt of the sword against his chest, struggled to prop up his upper body, and pressed the Han sword deeper into the sand with his weight, and the scabbard was inserted into the criss-crossing root system of the camel's thorns, giving him the only fulcrum he could borrow from in the wind. He fell to his knees in the wind, breathing hard, the sand too big to open his eyes, and the dense sandstorm would have suffocated him without the sackcloth that covered his mouth and nose. The sand hit the wound on his hand that had been cut by the camel's thorns, and he knew that such a sandstorm could wipe out the exposed flesh little by little until the bones were exposed, so he took the knife as the center of the circle, turned a little bit, and finally knelt with his back to the wind on the hilt of the sword on his chest.

The sand crackled against the thick sheepskin bladder on his back, and his bloody hands were protected by his body. The wind roared, and the surroundings slowly turned into pitch black, Li Tong, who was getting more and more difficult to breathe, was scared, his face was full of tears, at this moment, he remembered the name Pengjiamu, trembling all over, and a hot current in the crotch of his pants slid down his thighs, gathered to his knees, and seeped into the sand. To be honest, today's sandstorm was even more terrifying than the bow and arrows he faced the Condor Archer that day, and perhaps he was the first time-traveler in history to be scared to pee. Scared, he laughed to himself.

In the cold moonlight, a striking northeasterly wind began to push some of the distant dunes southwest. In the sandstorm that couldn't open his eyes, Li Tong's hand holding the scabbard slowly clenched. He had to hold on, he came to this world inexplicably, he just wanted to live well and live a few days of peace. It's a great loss to die like this! Perhaps he is the saddest traverser in history, for more than half a year, he has either been imprisoned, or marching in the wasteland, eating pig food and doing cow and horse work. It's not as good as the African refugees in the previous life. If he hangs up like this, he won't even have a face!

The largest sandstorm in the Puchanghai area in several years lasted for nearly four hours, and it was almost midnight when the sandstorm stopped, and there was still more than an hour before dawn. Under the yellowing moonlight, there was a small pile of sand protruding from the sand, and there was a cough in the sand pile, and then the pile moved, and Li Tong's head came out of it. He untied the linen cloth on his face, gasping for breath with difficulty, the sand and dust on his face slid down, and his original complexion was gone, and a pair of tired bloodshot red eyes slowly opened on his gray-yellow face.

Li Tong coughed violently, and crawled out of the yellow sand where he had buried half of himself while spitting out the sand. His body twitched unconsciously, his hands had been clenched for a long time and the scabbard could no longer be unfolded, and the wounds on his hands that had been cut by camel thorns were covered with yellow sand. He took a breath, gritted his teeth, straightened his stiff arm curled up in front of his chest, and pulled out his Han sword from the small sand. He looked around and was horrified to find that his other comrades were gone.

The square circle was vast, and Li Tongren looked around with a three-foot long sword, and his hoarse voice made a wolf-like sound. At this moment, he has no Beidou navigation, no compass, no map, he doesn't know the road! Could it be that he was going to die here like Pengamu, he burst into tears, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and he sobbed silently. At this moment, a large sand pile next to it let out a hiss, God forbid! His war horse is still there, and he is not alone. Li Tong rushed over and grabbed the reins of the horse, and began to cry.

After crying, no matter how sad it is, it is useless, no matter how difficult it is, you still have to face the reality. Li Tong wiped away his tears, took off the sheepskin water bladder, first fed the war horse some water and beans, drank a sip of water himself, ate a few pieces of hard military rations, and after recovering his strength, he looked in a direction and led the war horse to continue to move forward......

A pair of military boots hurriedly walked in the darkness before dawn, Li Tong, an ant on the desert, decided to continue westward, he had already made a heart, the matter had come to this, no matter how bad the world was, even a wrong decision at this moment was better than not making a decision. I walked alone for half an hour, the clouds covered the moon, the night was still deep, and suddenly a long horse roar came from behind a sand dune in front of me.

Li Tong froze on the spot, first happy in his heart, and then a rin again. He suddenly remembered that there were not only his comrades-in-arms in the desert, but also the sentinels of the Huns. By the light of the moon, he carefully observed the scene ahead. Not long after, a dark shadow rode out from behind the sand dunes on a tall war horse.

Li recognized the other party as a Hun at a glance, he took off his bow and arrows, reached out and touched the quiver, but found that the bag was empty, so he quickly pulled out the saber at his waist. Almost at the same time, the other party also spotted him, and the man drove the warhorse, raised the scimitar in his hand, and immediately charged at him. Because the distance was too close, Li Tong didn't have time to get on the horse at all, so he could only fight on foot, which was too damn a loss.

The war horse came to Li Tong with its long legs, and he saw that the black shadow on the horse's back was looking down at him against the moonlight, and the scimitar in his hand was swinging towards his neck. Fortunately, the distance was too close, and the speed of the opponent's war horse had not yet rushed up, so Li Tong rolled on the spot to avoid the fatal blow. The Huns slashed the air with a knife, and the war horse that stepped down rushed out dozens of steps, and he was about to pull out the horse and turn around, but he heard a gust of wind behind him, and when he wanted to dodge, it was too late. The Hun cavalry received a heavy blow to the back of the head, and his head fell from his horse in a dizziness.

Li Tong was overjoyed, spread his feet and rushed over. It turned out that after Li Tong avoided the slashing of the Huns, he quickly took off the bronze Diao Dou on his waist and threw it at the back of the other party like a grenade. When Li Tong rushed in front of the enemy, the guy had already crawled up. The two began to fight each other, raising knives to each other, sparks splashed for a while, and the fight was inseparable. Although this Hun man is not tall, he is burly, his sword skills are very fierce, and he seems to be a master in the army. But with one strength breaking ten meetings, Li Tong relied on his height and arm length and infinite strength, and he actually beat the opponent and retreated. To Li Tong's surprise, when the swords of the two sides intersected, this guy was able to withstand Li Tong's huge force against the sky, and the scimitar in his hand did not let go, which in Li Tong's opinion, this Hun was already a very rare warrior. How did he know that the Huns who were fighting against him had words of suffering at this moment, and he was almost about to cry.

Mo Bode was a hundred chiefs under the king of Southern Huyan, and a rare warrior of the Northern Xiongnu. This young Han army on the other side is simply a devil! This guy's strength is too great, and after a few slashes, Mobod's right hand holding the knife has cracked and is drenched in blood. He dodged left and right, and the scimitar in his hand avoided intersecting with the opponent's weapon. But the other party is also a strong martial arts guy, and his swordsmanship is also very sharp, and he can't dodge after a few dodges, only to hear the sound of "dang", Li Tong knocked the scimitar in Mo Bode's hand like an iron, and Li Tong kicked it over, and stepped up to chase and slash. Mobold rolled around, spotted the gap, slipped under the horse's belly, and stood up across the horse.

So, an interesting scene happened on the battlefield, the two of them circled across the horses.

Mobod ran around the horse empty-handed.

Li Tong held the Han sword and chased around the horse.

The war horses of the Huns were extremely thirsty, and when they heard the sound of water coming from the water bladder that Li Tong was carrying, they turned around in a circle on the spot anxiously. They both stopped at the same time, looked at each other, and at the same time ran around the horse in the opposite direction.

"Don't kill me! Please! ”

Mobode begged for mercy while running, he really couldn't run, at the moment of life and death, this guy gritted his teeth and insisted, but his face was tearful, and he had long lost the majesty he had when he charged on the horse just now. I only heard him cry out of breath: "Master Han Jun, please let me go!" I don't want to die yet, my mother is also Han. ”

After another turn, Mobod ran to the horse's head, and Li Tong ran behind the horse's buttocks.

When Li Tong heard his fluent Chinese, his mind moved, so he stopped, pointed his sword at Mobode and said, "Good! If you surrender, I can spare your life. But you must swear to your Kunlun God that you will be loyal to me from now on and will never betray! Otherwise......" Before the words were finished, things changed. The big eyes of the Huns' war horses looked at the frightened master Mo Bode, and suddenly he jumped up, and the bowl-sized hooves were kicking Li Tong's chest.

Li Tong's Han sword was out of his hand, and the person flew out with his back face, and fell straight to the ground, and the huge impact made him almost lose his breath. He fell to the ground on his back and his intestines were blue at the moment, he really did his own sin, and he couldn't live! At the moment of life and death, I still want to learn from others to accept my younger brother, and the poison of my own novel is too deep, which will cost Qingqing's life.

Mo Bode was overjoyed, bypassed the war horse, picked up the Han sword on the ground, rushed to Li Tong, and slashed with his sword. Li Tong had just recovered his strength at this time, and he dodged sideways, and Mo Bode swung his sword and slashed again. The opponent was aggressive and unforgiving, and Li Tong's eyes were split. He endured the pain in his chest, did not retreat, but advanced, and rolled with the trend. A diagonal leg kick is on the single hedral of this guy's calf.

Caught off guard, Mo Bode fell a dog and ate, Han Jian got out of his hand, and he rolled over knowing that something was wrong, avoiding a series of blows from Li Tongruying's entourage, and one rolled over and climbed up. Li and the harrier turned over and stood opposite him, and the two of them were not verbose, they raised their fists and struck, and the two sides began a ferocious hand-to-hand fight, and after only two or three rounds of fighting, Mobod regretted it. He was blinded by Li Tong's ferocious Muay Thai, and he lasted for four or five rounds before he was hit in the jaw by a ferocious knee from Li Tong's high jump, and his brain buzzed, and he fainted instantly.

Li Tong tied this guy up strongly, then sat on the ground and gasped for breath, took off the leather armor on his body, unbuttoned his shirt and checked the injury on his chest. Fortunately, fortunately, the sternum was not broken, Li Tong took out the silver needle from his arms and released some bruises on the injured part, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, the cold wind was blowing, and after only a moment, goosebumps were already forming on his open chest, and his teeth were creaking with cold. Li Tong put on his clothes again, put on his armor, took off the water bladder, drank a few sips of water, and when he regained his strength and stood up, he gathered his weapons and horses, and threw this guy on horseback. After doing all this, Li Tong endured the severe pain in his chest, tightened the strap of the water bladder, and he took the reins of the two horses, and struggled to climb the small sand dune, looking around in fear.

The wind is wild, blowing this desert to the death. The night is boundless, and the silence is so quiet that people's hearts are exhausted. But seeing the moon falling on the sand ridge, the clouds in the north are condensed, there is no road in the sun, and the dust is empty.

(To be continued)